Through-the-earth radio

• US 7,149,472 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Issued: 12/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: TRIAD National Security, LLC
• Original Assignee: Los Alamos National Security LLC (Government of the United States of America)
• Inventors: Reagor, David, Vasquez-Dominguez, Jose
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Danh C.
• Application Number:
  US11/364,396
• Publication Number:
  US 20060148514A1
• Time in Patent Office: 287 Days
• Field of Search: 455/40, 455/41.3, 455/131, 375/295, 375/219, 340/854.6
• US Class Current: 455/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 13/02 Transmission systems in which the medium consists of the earth or a large mass of water thereon, e.g. earth telegraphy

Abstract

A through-the-earth communication system that includes a digital signal input device; a transmitter operating at a predetermined frequency sufficiently low to effectively penetrate useful distances through-the earth; a data compression circuit that is connected to an encoding processor; an amplifier that receives encoded output from the encoding processor for amplifying the output and transmitting the data to an antenna; and a receiver with an antenna, a band pass filter, a decoding processor, and a data decompressor.

Claims

1. A through-the-earth communication system comprising:

a digital signal input device;

a transmitter operating at a predetermined frequency sufficiently low to effectively penetrate useful distances through-the earth, receiving said digital signal input and providing said digital input signal to a data compression circuit that is connected to an encoding processor;

an amplifier receiving encoded output from said encoding processor for amplifying said encoded output and outputting said encoded output to an antenna; and

a receiver having an antenna receiving said encoded output followed by a band pass filter being connected to a decoding processor whose output is connected to a data decompressor, said data decompressor providing a decompressed digital signal.

2. The apparatus as described in claim 1, wherein said digital signal input device is a digital video camera.

3. The apparatus as described in claim 1, wherein said antenna is a loop antenna.

4. The apparatus as described in claim 1, wherein said encoding processor operates using quadrature phase shift keying.

5. The apparatus as described in claim 1, wherein said encoding processor operates using a QAM-16 processor.

6. The apparatus as described in claim 1, wherein said predetermined frequency is approximately 4 kHz.

7. The apparatus as described in claim 1, wherein said predetermined frequency is approximately 7 kHz.

8. The apparatus as described in claim 1, wherein said band pass filter is of the wideband 4-pole elliptic design.

9. The apparatus as described in claim 1, wherein said antenna is a SQUID detector connected to a flux locked loop.

10. A method of conducting through-the-earth communication comprising the steps of:

inputting an analog signal;

digitizing said analog signal;

compressing said digitized signal;

encoding said compressed digitized signal to encode a predetermined data stream into said compressed digitized signal; and

outputting said encoded compressed digitized signal through an antenna at a predetermined frequency that is sufficiently low to effectively penetrate useful distances through-the-earth as a transmitted signal;

receiving said transmitted signal with an antenna after said transmitted signal has propagated through-the-earth;

converting said transmitted signal from an analog signal to a digital signal;

decoding said digital signal;

decompressing said digital signal; and

outputting said decoded decompressed digital signal.

11. The method as described in claim 10, where said antenna comprises a SQUID detector followed by a flux locked loop.

12. The method as described in claim 10, wherein said step of outputting said decoded decompressed digital data further comprises outputting to a speaker.

13. The method as described in claim 10, wherein said step of outputting said decoded decompressed digital data includes outputting an audio signal.

14. The method as described in claim 10, wherein said step of inputting an analog signal is accomplished by use of a microphone.