I read quite a bit on the earthquaketracker.com site. I contacted the Quakefinders team (Tom) and volunteered a site down here in Long Beach - As I am in the computer business, I had extra computers hanging around I could use for the project (most expensive component) - So he worked with me on sending down the other parts kit that was required.

Since all the sites are sponsored by high schools, I went to one of my instructors at Long Beach City College and asked if she would 'advise' me in the matter of the ELF and participate in the project and be a site in Southern California. She agreed - so then we had to find a site within a mile of a fault line - a friend of mine lives near the Newport Inglewood fault (I'm 3 miles away - too far for the antenna).

I started this about May 2001 - then I had some personal problems, like my mom passing away and such and just finally got around to putting the kit together this August and getting it buried.

In the kit were a nice set of tools, soldering irons, wire, blank circuit cards, resistors, capacitors, IC chips and sockets and antenna and some PVC tubing. I used to love doing things like model cars. I then graduated to putting together a Timex PC one day many years ago (anyone remember those?) or I would get those Heath kits to put together various electronic projects. I think its much better than knitting! Anyway, Keith and I put together the boards plugged it all together - Fried a UPS in the process, buried the antenna and backplane in a friend's yard and voila!

There are 3 antenna - N-S, E-W and vertical - these are buried so that the tops are about 6 inches below ground facing the proper direction. They connect to a backplane unit that is in a 5 gallon bucket that is mostly buried (sticks up about 2-3 inches out of the ground) and then a cable goes from this antenna setup to the garage area of the house via PVC pipes to the computer (about 50 feet). We also did an interesting thing with a computer UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) by adding a deep marine battery to it so it will run for about 5 hours if power is lost. So lots of digging for Keith and I and trying to save the grass. A little less work than a sprinkler system but the same idea.

I really think lots of these stations are required if we want to really monitor this stuff. There is an example of that requirement on the quakefinder's web site and the Yountville quake - unless you are close to the fracture area it would be difficult to pick up the signals. So many more of these stations need to be set-up.

At least there is a start in the right direction.

Canie