Pole 26 Goes In — Eric Dollard at the Long Line

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:07]Okay, so right here in uh pole 26, Justin's bringing this can down here.

[00:00:14]It's going to be more at eye level down lower with the terminal block in it so that Eric can tap into it with meters and whatever instruments to be able to see the activity on the uh line. This is goes all the way out to the shack on top of the hill way up there.

[00:00:31]And this is the other end right here.

[00:00:38]Okay, so this is where our pole pair receiving antenna terminates at the other end from the shack.

[00:00:48]So, what we're doing now is we're taking our experimental attachments off and now finalizing this to be a place where you can bring test equipment or what have you.

[00:01:01]And uh this this this is also a receiving end.

[00:01:05]So, there's two bands we're dealing with here. We're dealing with the lower frequencies, which now is being transmitted by the shack, but then we're dealing with the medium frequency band around 500 kilocycles.

[00:01:18]And uh so basically, the repeater cabinets for the 500 kilocycles go here on a frame that will go up like at the mine where you have two cross arms and then you bolt your your terminal cabinets to it. So, basically, the repeater cabinet back there in the uh in the ravine for the shack will be kind of complimentary to your repeater cabinet here for the frequencies that aren't going into the shack. So, this antenna can be used both ways with what are called band separation filters. And then that goes out to the line where there's power and and place to put terminal facility that then all those signals are uh are packaged up and you know monitored with whatever test equipment at that location. Finally, through a telephone line, then it it goes to the building where then it would be possible to not only go through the go beyond being able to connect the receivers to the antenna of the mine, but to actually connect the receiver to the antenna in the building.

[00:02:22]That's a rather costly and difficult proposition, but nevertheless, the problem is is the building is in town and the antenna's out here. So, so at presently it's more economical to build at the mine, so the power company has agreed to putting the power in and they've been paid to do such. So, they don't seem to be in a big hurry.

[00:02:43]It's not important right now, but um but at any rate, that's where receiving station will go for this antenna system.

[00:02:51]And what's coming out of the shack, if if ever the carrier radio frequency carrier lines go from the the mine into the building, then that's where the signal that's presently being listened to now will be reversed and go to the mine and then go on the fiber optics cable that's planning to come through town to pick all this stuff up. So, they basically the final the final layout of this is this whole range here is the antenna range. There's six conductors as you can see.

[00:03:28]Cuz you got the sun in your eyes, you won't be able to see much of anything.

[00:03:33]At any rate, there's six conductors that leave here that goes in the direction that's the antenna.

[00:03:39]And those get configured into various antenna circuitry patterns or what have you configurations that uh are experimental, but the pole pair that's up now is is that's to be the Alexanderson antenna.

[00:03:54]So, the other wires don't have to go up right away. So, there's enough work involved in getting this thing turned from a capacitance antenna to Alexanderson antenna.

[00:04:05]And uh we don't have the money or we have to do that. So, at any rate, that's the whole extent.

[00:04:12]So, every step of the way we have to make sure that whatever we do does not get in the way or waste money that uh on the next step of the event.

[00:04:22]This is what has to all be engineered.

[00:04:24]Everything has to go according to plan, otherwise it'll just turn into a tangled mess. So, presently, it took us 12 years to get where we're at right now here.

[00:04:37]So, it'll probably take about 12 more years before this thing finally is a whole completed system as it's conceived, which I'll get into that in my presentation.

[00:04:48]So, I think that kind of unless you got any questions or what have you.

[00:04:53]I think that covers it pretty good.

[00:04:57]Okay, so just this up there. Now, explain what what he's taking off.

[00:05:01]>> Okay, we're not using these lightning arresters. That was for when we had the field telephone wire, you know, we were doing first test, interference and stuff.

[00:05:08]>> And those are those little gray boxes?

[00:05:10]>> Yeah, that's what you That used to go between the the telephone line that came in your house and your phone. Uh-huh. Of course, now it's some kind of, you know, God knows what. It doesn't really work nearly half as well as these things do.

[00:05:24]These are the old variety. They're the carbon arc type. The new ones got a gas tube in them. The carbon arc type uh they they get noisy and problematic.

[00:05:34]That That's why That's why I don't want any of that stuff up there cuz there's too much maintenance and testing. It's got to come down.

[00:05:42]Plus, we don't have that many leads coming down anymore. See, See why we had six leads coming down. Now, we're just going to have two.

[00:05:48]Would you explain how the lightning arresters work?

[00:05:51]There's uh two pieces of carbon that almost touch each other. Uh-huh. And when the voltage gets above it varies from 300 to 500 volts for open wire lines it's 500 volts. When it gets to 500 volts it sparks across the carbon.

[00:06:08]And the carbon is resistant to the heat so it has a certain life span if it's going to have to keep, you know, acting in a in a heavy lightning area.

[00:06:17]In places where there's no lightning then other than corrosion, you know, there's no reason why you'd have any problems with them.

[00:06:24]And there's a bigger kind that's got a set of fuses.

[00:06:28]It used to be when the phone line came into the house back in the day when you know, when I first learned all this stuff back in 1958. You see it pretty good there. It's uh It's a very severe protection between the phone external phone line and the telephone in your house.

[00:06:47]In case of any accidental contact with power lines, all all of that before it end up to the lightning arrester it was all insulated for the 10,000 volt impulse level with little porcelain insulators. Beautiful installations.

[00:07:00]They go into these metal cans, you know, with fuses in case there was a steady power line fault.

[00:07:06]And you know, the carbon spark gaps and then that's then the smaller, you know, familiar four conductor Barbie doll colored uh cable that's what, you know, came to your phone.

[00:07:17]And of course there was a full size ground rod on the lightning arrester. Now that's just all Well, we don't do this. It's cost too much money. We don't care anymore.

[00:07:25]You have a problem insurance takes care of it.

[00:07:33]So once those are removed what's the next step?

[00:07:37]Take all the old conduits off.

[00:07:39]Basically the first step is just getting everything off the pole so we can start fresh. Uh-huh. That that's from the top to the bottom. So that's what we're doing now. So all the scabbies and what have you, dangle orders and uh that all comes off.

[00:07:53]Conduits come off.

[00:07:56]And then uh then we put the new conduit in.

[00:08:03]And start from the top down again.

[00:08:06]And then at the end that uh ground wire uh ground cabling Is it >> to go up, too.

[00:08:12]So there's the the signal conduit and then there's the uh the grounding lead.

[00:08:21]Which once it gets above here doesn't really need to be in conduit all the way so it'll just be mounted on little insulators.

[00:08:28]That's for the lightning protection.

[00:08:33]So there's two grounds here. There's the one for receiving and then there's the one for lightning protection. The receiving one goes in that little gray can there.

[00:08:41]The lightning one goes up and deals with the lightning world.

[00:08:55]So once the terminal strip with the with the can is down around eye level or so, what kind of uh experiments will you and Steven McGreevy be doing?

[00:09:05]>> just going to do a basic uh you know, low low band receiving.

[00:09:10]He's particularly interested in AM broadcast stations and you know, and stuff like that. But also the different types of sounds and and what have you.

[00:09:19]And uh for me it's um I can start experimenting with different terminations here and see what kind of effect it has on the signal that's being launched out of the cable TV shack, you know, the what's on the internet.

[00:09:32]So that's another possibility. Plus you know, I could I could hook the receivers in my car up to this, you know, the AM radio and what have you. So, it's just whatever, you know.

[00:09:43]Various experiments to be able to to use this end of the antenna.

[00:09:50]So, like I said, this end basically the stuff going to the shack is going to be all the the VLF and the ULF, but the stuff going this way is going to be all the LF and MF.

[00:10:02]So, you know, this it'll go all the way up to 3,000 kilocycles, where the other one going up to the shack is only like 20,000 kilocycles. It's two different bands.

[00:10:17]So, I found by listening to the AM radio in my car all night, which is modified to tune down to uh I think it goes down to 512 kilocycles.

[00:10:30]That uh there's all kinds of interesting electrical activity there that uh that's how I heard the precursor for the north uh no, it's the uh Ridgecrest earthquake when I was in Oregon.

[00:10:43]So, now that I'm I'm back out in my car again, listening to the radio all night, I'm hearing things that I've never heard before.

[00:10:52]Things that are a lot more uh the sounds are are more complex.

[00:10:58]So, there's something changing here. So, th- this end of the antenna is designed for that band. In other words, the first step here is to uh is to receive in in what's called the maritime mobile band that goes between like 400 and 500 kilocycles.

[00:11:16]So, this will become a receiving terminal for that band.

[00:11:21]And that's where this is.

[00:11:24]Higher frequency earth signal is mostly ionospheric. It's not coming directly out of the earth or related out of the earth, but they're just strictly exterior to the earth, where this one is kind of in the boundary between the area.

[00:11:40]This one will be strictly interior.

[00:11:49]So, then as time goes on, you know, more sophisticated uh terminal apparatus will go here.

[00:11:55]Then the line back to the mine, once the line goes to the mine, then on the two pairs that are going back to the mine, the ones that are next to Justin's head there, on the insulators, we can fan up the power for all the terminal equipment out here, so we don't need any, you know, solar or any of that fooling around. It'll run right off the uh the station battery at the mine.

[00:12:20]That'll power the repeater cabinets.

[00:12:24]Just like the cable TV shack powers the repeater cabinet at the ravine on the other end of the line.

[00:12:37]That's why there's the the focus on the mine, because that's >> [clears throat] >> that's the the carrier terminal facility.

[00:12:44]To try to bring all this all the way into the town would be absolutely senseless. There's got to be, you know, some kind of interface to whittle it down a bit before it continues its journey into the town.

[00:12:57]But we have an open wire easement all the way into the town, but half the poles are gone.

[00:13:04]To get a contractor to come in, you know, we could make open wire line all the way to the town, but it cost a fortune.

[00:13:11]So, usually when you get into a confined environment, a downtown environment, you instead of open wire, which is not practical, you have what's called a toll entrance cable, which is uh high frequency twisted pair.

[00:13:26]And you can run that on the poles through town without, you know, open wires and insulators.

[00:13:32]Same as that. It just be the wrong neighborhood for it. It'd be too susceptible and also uh it'd get damaged one way or another.

[00:13:47]Right now, all all we're we're trying to do is to get to the bottom.

[00:15:14]Okay, so Justin is done with the uh upper pole work on this uh pole 26.

[00:15:21]He's got that ground wire fastened up there and then the uh leads from those two lines are in this conduit right here which is going to be going to this terminal box.

[00:15:33]So what do we got going on now, Eric?

[00:15:35]Well, this is our Basically, we have our pole pair and then we have our lightning ground.

[00:15:45]For right kind of right now it's a multi-purpose ground. It's not finished yet. So there's a ground terminal has to go up there to connect to various apparatus that might end up out there later. So that's with that heavy gauge cable you see going up there.

[00:16:05]And right now it's connected to the guy wire to pull the lightning flux off the transmission lines that are going on this pole out in that direction which aren't up yet. So it but it there'll be a terminal up there so that whatever transformers or lightning arresters that eventually go up there but right now it's just a pole pair and the lightning ground static ground is what we call it come down here. So that's why it's three wires. It's two phases and a ground.

[00:16:39]And that comes into this can.

[00:16:43]And this is like a little miniature relay rack. So the wires will connect to a plate that has the the spark gap lightning arresters and whatever network that this thing needs to go from it being an antenna to a transmission line that pole out there where the two two radio frequency lines go back to the mine. So this is the first step to going on that. Then there'll be cabinets here later and all that. But this this way now it's possible to to actually start experimenting to some extent with the antenna.

[00:17:23]So the The end that's going to the shack is receiving the the lower frequency stuff and this end will be receiving the higher frequency stuff.

[00:17:31]And I can make modifications to um the power line hum from this area also to either cancel it or identify its characteristics. So So this also works with what's going out over the internet.

[00:17:49]And And So So what is that?

[00:17:52]What's that now?

[00:17:55]So that's a signal ground?

[00:17:56]>> Well, that's a where the This is the static ground, which is basically that's what you see on that pole over there.

[00:18:04]That goes out to a a network of wires buried about 2 and 2 and a 3 ft in the ground. They go down this wash.

[00:18:14]And then the signal ground You can't see that one cuz it doesn't come up, but it connects to a ground rod.

[00:18:20]And um there's a whole line of ground rods.

[00:18:26]And they're not metallically connected to the electrostatic ground.

[00:18:30]So the ground rods are for receiving out of the earth.

[00:18:34]The static ground is basically to take care of any lightning surges and you know, that kind of stuff. More more protective.

[00:18:43]But if we if we had a um if we had a duplicate to the Tesla coil at on the solar test platform, we wanted to do experiments with it, then the table would be built here for it and and it would connect to the static ground.

[00:18:59]Because despite it not being ground rods, we treat it chemically.

[00:19:04]And um and there appears to be a lot of underground water here just by vegetation behavior. So So at any rate uh we got a ground here 10 times over what you would ever expect in the desert terrain like this. So, this is our master ground for the whole antenna system. It's right here.

[00:19:24]Both for the signal and for the lightning protection.

[00:19:29]So, all the old stuff up there we did for the experiments has been all taken off and the loose wires all cleaned away and all that and um so the pull pair now is terminated at both ends.

[00:19:42]And essentially then that as an antenna is now complete. It has terminations at either end.

[00:19:50]And so that's like one step forward.

[00:19:54]And then of course later it gets uh loading sections and ground terminals and uh but whatever this is this is where it's going to be for a while right now because all the terminal equipment has to be built for it.

[00:20:07]And that's uh presently starting in progress right about now to design the panels and amplifiers and what have you to uh to get a better fidelity, less power line interference and uh and better uh overall bandwidth and distortion characteristics. So, that's uh guess that's about it.

[00:20:32]Go ahead.

[00:20:34]What are you working on? So, what So, what are we doing here now next?

[00:20:37]>> is the signal ground connector point.

[00:20:41]This lower box? Yeah, these these go out to the ground rods in the uh you can go over there see the piles of rocks? Yep.

[00:20:50]The other way?

[00:20:51]Um so, is there a shotgun What's the closest shotgun shell so I can just Somewhere around here.

[00:20:58]It's got wire up.

[00:21:00]So, right here? That's that's the ground for the boxes. Here's a shotgun shell that fell off. These are used as markers for these ground rods that are driven in and they're in multiple areas around here.

[00:21:14]And those are tied here? Yeah.

[00:21:18]So this is coming up to the ground right here.

[00:21:21]And then it's going to this little terminal block right there. Yeah.

[00:21:26]So this is the ground rods on this side and this is the ground rods on that side. Okay.

[00:21:34]And And these This is the wires that are laying in the trench that connects to the ground rods. And that's that big steel cable? It's not steel but it's it's aluminum.

[00:21:43]>> aluminum cable.

[00:21:44]>> wire in the middle stuck so you can string it between your utility poles.

[00:21:48]And so Justin is taking the uh the pair is coming down from the [clears throat] top. It's going to be fed through the hole. Right. These are the down leads from the cross arm that connect to our open wire line.

[00:21:59]And we're running these through the pole just to have it protected so that you know, because we're at ground level now, the general public is going to be able to walk up to this facility and we don't want them messing with it. So we're just going to run it through and up into this can.

[00:22:12]>> Straight up into the hole.

[00:22:13]>> we'll be able to do Eric and whomever will be able to do their demonstrations from these terminals. We'll have both of those over ground wires and the ground will terminate on this terminal block for demonstration purposes and measurements and further development of this system.

[00:22:28]>> So basically the shack is the other end.

[00:22:30]Yeah. That's what's being broadcast on the line.

[00:22:33]>> Well, actually, you know, what if Well, I don't know. It's still got to be out there, but if we disconnected the thing there and shorted it out there, we could measure all the inductance and capacitance from here.

[00:22:45]Sure. Yeah. Yeah. We can I mean, that's the point as far as I'm concerned is that this makes this thing able to be operated from both ends. Yeah.

[00:22:57]Okay, so these lines are are picking up the above ground signals.

[00:23:00]>> Right. And can this be used for other, let's say, like Tesla-type experiments on like, you know, Well, there, on the ground connection, Uh-huh. that's where the other scalar coil would go if we were going to do a a point-to-point uh you know, a point-to-point analysis of what happens when you pulse the coil in the building and get out here.

[00:23:24]Uh-huh. What's it sound like out here?

[00:23:26]But, we don't have another coil.

[00:23:29]So, then, can there be like uh transmission speed experiments by putting something here or you know, >> all loaded line. Yeah, that's what this whole thing is. This thing's a massive analog computer. Uh-huh.

[00:23:39]But, if all the pairs were up and all the bore holes were in with you know, capacitor probes into the earth, this thing's a massive scientific instrument.

[00:23:47]>> Yeah.

[00:23:50]Can you elaborate more on the different things like, you know, what are the different experiments or possibilities what what they are?

[00:23:58]>> Well, just different ways of propagating and picking up and, you know, it's to see what comes out of it. Uh-huh.

[00:24:05]I can't say right off.

[00:24:07]You know, you got to start with uh taking measurements and, you know, and doing tests and what have you and finding out which configuration does the, you know, what you want the best.

[00:24:17]Yeah.

[00:24:18]What What was that Veritasium video on, you know, the speed of propagation or something and you had a counter, you know, kind of presentation that explained the >> Yeah, what was that? It was uh Oh, he had this trick where he had, you know, these lines and what was the end end end result of velocity, you know, those How long did it take to get from one end of the network to the other?

[00:24:41]>> Yeah.

[00:24:42]And he didn't fully understand what was going on, but but he knew what the idea was.

[00:24:47]>> Uh-huh.

[00:24:47]>> [snorts] >> And nobody and the the people down in the comments, there was like thousands and thousands of comments and nobody had a clue. Yeah.

[00:24:54]>> And And guy didn't ever explained I don't think he really knew himself.

[00:24:58][snorts] >> Yeah. You know? He just brought the thing up. Oh, isn't this weird? Well, we could do that kind of those kind of experiments here, right? I mean, you're saying short out the other end and we have a known distance and Well, yeah.

[00:25:09]You know, I mean, that would be, you know, a good educational thing. And say, "Okay, well, let's see how long it takes for the wave to get to the end and bounce back."

[00:25:16]>> Right. You know? Right. Yeah. Then we start putting different loading networks in there and then sometimes it, you know, there's no delay at all. That's what we're after. No delay at all. We want to get rid of the delay.

[00:25:28]So, yeah, we should bang out like a list of, you know, every conceivable experiment we can do with this thing.

[00:25:35]Well, it can't just be a bunch of random It has to have a plan. Yeah.

[00:25:40]Yeah, that'd be the point of drafting it out to see what makes sense.

[00:25:43]>> it serves the purpose of a basic, you know, earth signal monitoring, but not out of the earth like we want. Yeah. Because there's so much gangrene energy flowing in the earth here. There's literally millions of volt-amperes of this stuff loose in the ground.

[00:25:56]>> Uh-huh.

[00:25:57]God knows what'll come out of it next, like all those unknown carriers we're picking up. Where are those things coming from?

[00:26:05]So, I'm trying to get that he's going to need help.

[00:26:09]He's not getting around too good anymore. Is for Steve McGreevy to get his earth signal thing back together again.

[00:26:18]What he had is he had a little probe up in the in the In-Yo Ridge.

[00:26:25]This noise-free area. Plus, I said, "That's all Delta. That's all LA Water and Power. That's all Delta there.

[00:26:30]There's hardly any You can literally park right next to the power lines there and still pick up earth signals." I mean, you're going to hear but a buzz, but uh And then what he did is he he got a little toy AM or FM radio transmitter.

[00:26:45]And then he beamed it down to his house and then And was right I was on the opposite ridge. I was on the the Sierra Ridge uh geology. So, I was on the other end of the valley and I picked it up perfectly. I listened to it all night.

[00:27:03]But that's uh the thing was just kind of all half-assed together, so it all fell apart. But now, you know, there's an idea of doing it together doing putting it in better. You know, we'd have to do it. To his house, then you know, then he has the ability to put it on the internet. But apparently, the internet is not really uh happening too well there.

[00:27:22]But that's hard to say why.