[HN Gopher] Show HN: Formally verified FPGA watchdog for AM broa...
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       Show HN: Formally verified FPGA watchdog for AM broadcast in
       unmanned tunnels
        
       Author : anonymoosestdnt
       Score  : 53 points
       Date   : 2026-02-18 15:06 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | jetrink wrote:
       | At first I thought the "unmanned tunnels" description was just a
       | way to avoid broadcast regulator scrutiny, but it does look like
       | it's genuinely designed to be used underground as part of an
       | emergency alert system. That led me to "leaky feeders", a type of
       | broadcast antenna used in mines and tunnels.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaky_feeder
        
         | cbdevidal wrote:
         | Thank you, I too was confused at the purpose of this
        
         | _moof wrote:
         | I've also seen these used to add audio to art installations in
         | commuter tunnels.
        
         | jasonjayr wrote:
         | I'm curious about challenges (what's bad with AM broadcast in
         | an unmanned tunnel?) and why the formally verified killswitch
         | was necessary?
        
         | mech422 wrote:
         | I must be missing something ... Why broadcast speech over AM in
         | an 'unmanned' tunnel ?? who's gonna hear/receive it ?? I wish
         | the repo had some sort of use case summary or something...
         | 
         | Edit: I'm also sorta puzzled by the choice of AM in any sort of
         | 'alert' context...Do people still listen to/use AM radios?
        
           | jacquesm wrote:
           | AM radios are extremely simple and utterly fool proof, they
           | can be made with only a handful of simple parts. Even so,
           | these systems are archaic and these days you can make much
           | more complex radio systems using a SDR which effectively
           | reduces the whole radio to a pre-amp an ADC, an embedded CPU
           | and some software.
        
       | davepage wrote:
       | Could obtain better quality at the higher channel counts by phase
       | shifting the audio for each channel such that the modulation
       | peaks do not exactly align for each (as they do now). Even
       | inverting the audio for half the channels would help.
        
       | westurner wrote:
       | I happened to find a video about how the Osireon in Egypt is
       | similar to structures constructed within Longyou caves. They are
       | historically contemporary and they are separated by a multiple of
       | 72 degrees. Angkor Wat and (TODO a number of other ancient
       | facilities) perhaps coincidentally are also on a geographic
       | pentagon at 72deg degrees.
       | 
       | Unfortunately, due to TODO some sort of procession you would
       | expect such a LF/VLF comm net to be off by about 1deg after 72
       | years though? Perhaps this is part of why they built new temples
       | etc. adjacent to older sites. The Temple of Seti is built
       | adjacent to the Osireon, for example.
       | 
       | Anyways, the scalloped marks on the walls of Longyou caves very
       | likely operate as LF/VLF diffusers for local and far away signals
       | that propagate TTE Through-the-Earth and also through water and
       | hydrogen.
       | 
       | At 21cm, the northern Star Shaft in the Great Pyramid waveguides
       | 1420 MHz. 1420 MHz is the fundamental frequency of Hydrogen.
       | 
       | The star shaft contain 0.25" copper rods that would have been
       | deoxidized by hydrogen. The star shafts were enclosed. People
       | have speculated that they were for ventilation, but the star
       | shafts were found sealed with the oxidized copper rods inside.
       | 
       | That copper could have been from the Great Lakes back then.
       | 
       | Why would you add copper rods to the tallest structure around in
       | the desert, in shafts that would accumulate hydrogen if the
       | structure was filled with water that foams as it drains out?
       | 
       | Are those antennae and/or ionospheric and/or _lightning_ charge
       | collectors to charge the granite and discharge to make plasma in
       | a 6,000 ton pressure vessel?
       | 
       | Is that an above ground cave? An above ground cave that makes:
       | (0) ionized Water sanitized with hydrogen plasma and solar
       | sanitized water, (1) Gold and Neodymium from SPP Surface Plasmon
       | Polaritons in quartzite sand in electrified hydrogen plasma, (2)
       | Doped A-CNT Carbon Nanotubes that glow blue in the presence of
       | hydrogen and Diamond (3), and RF and EMF? Wouldn't it have been a
       | beacon on multiple frequencies?
       | 
       | Anyways,
       | 
       | The pressure vessels found in Egypt - for example with a pyramid
       | built around it at Saqqara - very likely resonate tuned LF
       | resonance.
       | 
       | The pressure vessels may resonate a source signal that would
       | stabilize hydrogen being slowly emitted to cool a quantum locked
       | floating barge that could have made it easier to transport and
       | place 100 ton granite blocks from a quarry miles away.
       | 
       | Also though, there are a number of hypotheses about pyramid
       | construction that do not involve levitation or quantum locking of
       | a depressurizing hydrogen vessel over neodymium - and maybe gold
       | for corrosion - tracks or rails. Stephen Myers, for example,
       | describes placing stones with barge cranes floating in a pool
       | bounded by casing stones first. The Grand gallery (todo) does
       | appear to be shaped like a water lock and there was no ladder or
       | railing. And there are redundant portcullis doors. But the math
       | to move a 100 ton stone without crushing wooden barges.
       | 
       | ...
       | 
       | LoRA will work better than AM in a cave.
       | 
       | There are AM dead zones in caves. Scalloped walls that diffuse
       | like Longyou caves can probably reduce those dead zones.
       | 
       | It looks like modern TTE systems are also built on VLF/LF.
       | 
       | Receiver cost for AM vs LoRa; but range? And then why not LF/VLF?
        
         | hersko wrote:
         | What
        
         | iamtheworstdev wrote:
         | someone's moltbot is lost
        
       | jhallenworld wrote:
       | >NCO: 12 Numerically Controlled Oscillators generate carrier
       | frequencies (505-1605 kHz)
       | 
       | This seems like a crude way to do it.. why not provide all 110
       | carrier frequencies by using a polyphase channelizer? The
       | bandwidth of the entire AM broadcast band is pretty low..
        
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       (page generated 2026-02-18 23:00 UTC)