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A Microprocessor-based VLF Receiver for Exploration

Evrim Çabuk1, Günal Baki1 and Charles Young2*
1
Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey
Email: evrimcabuk@gmail.com
2
Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, 49931
Email: ctyoung@mtu.edu
*Corresponding author

ABSTRACT

A modern low cost microcomputer and accessories were used to create a very low
frequency (VLF) receiver for geophysical prospecting. The signals were detected by induction
coils, which were then amplified, digitized by a sound card, and analyzed by a Raspberry Pi
computer. The computer used a Linux operating system and the Python programming language.
The peripheral devices were ‘‘off-the-shelf’’’ commercial items except for the preamplifiers and
the induction coils, which were designed and constructed by the authors. A test profile showed
typical VLF anomalies across a weak conductor.

Introduction part of a senior design project for a university

The VLF method of geophysical exploration is
used to map shallow subsurface conductors (Eross et al.,
2017). The signals are produced by a worldwide network
of government-owned transmitters, providing signals in
the range 20 to 60 KHz (see Loudet, 2013). No local
transmitter is needed and the local survey equipment
consists of only a lightweight receiver with orthogonal
induction coils and signal processing equipment. VLF
receivers are used primarily to detect narrow conductive
zones which may contain minerals, groundwater, or
contaminant plumes. A subsurface conductor is indicated
by the tilt of the combined fields or by the presence of a
vertical field, as shown in Fig. 1. In some geologic
settings, the sign of the out-of-phase component is
flipped, depending on the presence and thickness of the
overburden material.
In contemporary VLF receivers, the antenna
signals are digitized into time series, which are filtered
within a narrow-band and resolved into vertical and
horizontal components. Typically, the vertical compo-
nent of the field is expressed as a percentage of the
strength of the horizontal field for both in-phase and out-
of-phase components. The results are displayed on an
operator console in the field and recorded in digital
memory. We describe here our low-cost VLF receiver
made from commercial modules combined with custom-
made induction coils and preamplifiers. The project was
undergraduate class.
Hardware
The VLF signal is received by induction coils
composed of 2,000 l plastic coated ferrite rods
(Stormwise, Yantis, Texas), which are connected in
parallel with a capacitor to resonate at approximately 26
KHz. The cores have a length and diameter of 6 inches
and 1 inch, respectively. At the time of this writing, these
specific cores were no longer available, but similar
products with a 6 or 9 inch length, 150 l can be found
(see Stormwise part numbers R623-2661102002-6 (for 6
inch length) or R623-2661102002-9 (for 9 inch length)).
The cores are wound with a few hundred turns of ~1.0
mm diameter enamel solid copper wire to create a 35.5
mH inductor.
The coil outputs are amplified by preamplifiers
with gains of 100. The schematic of the preamplifiers is
shown in Fig. 2. The outputs from the preamplifiers are
digitized by a Syber 2.0 USB Stereo Sound Card, which
has 16-bit resolution and 96 KHz sample rate. In
principle, the coils should be held horizontal and vertical
for a given measurement. In practice, it is difficult to
align the coils accurately. Instead, the system measures
the coil inclination with a Level Developments LCP-45
inclinometer and the data are corrected for the tilt. A
Raspberry Pi 2 computer is used because of its modest

JEEG, September 2017, Volume 22, Issue 3, pp. 299–303 DOI: 10.2113/JEEG22.3.299
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Figure 1. (a) Ideal VLF data for an anomaly over a
(b) narrow conductor. Figure modified from Powers
et al. (1999).
price, its capability, and excellent free software includ-
ing the Python programming language. The computer
can also accommodate a large range of suitable
peripheral devices with software. The receiver is
powered by a 10,000 milliamp hour (mAh) lithium
polymer battery, which lasts about three hours. A five-
inch thin film transistor (TFT) resistive touchscreen
monitor provides graphical data display and software-
defined pushbutton controls.
The receiver was assembled into two modules: 1) a
wooden backpack containing the antennas, preamplifi-
ers, analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and inclinometer
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of preamplifiers.
(Fig. 3), and 2) a control console, mounted in a plastic
box (Fig. 4). Components for the modules are shown in
each figure.
Operating System and Utility Software
The Raspberry PI operating system was Wheezy
Linux (www.raspberrypi.org). The programming lan-
guage was Python 3; its scientific, mathematical, and
graphical applications packages made it a logical choice
for this application. Data logging and display software
was prepared using the libraries in Table 1, with Python
to view signal spectra, set signal frequencies, control
data sampling intervals, view narrow band signal ratios,
observe inclinometer values, acquire data at individual
stations, and store and plot profile data.
Graphical User Interface Display Screens
Several graphical user interface (GUI) display
screens were created for the VLF system. The main
operating screen (not shown) provided software buttons
which select sections of the program to view signal
spectra, select the VLF station to receive, set the profile
number and station interval, list calculated or measured
profile data, acquire data, and plot the data profile.
Figures 5 and 6 show the GUI spectrum display and
spectrum setting screens, respectively. Figure 7 shows
the completed packaged system for field use.

Çabuk et al.: A Microprocessor-based VLF Receiver for Exploration
Figure 3. VLF receiver antenna module. (A) verti-
cal induction coil antenna. (B) horizontal induction
coil antennas. (C) preamplifiers. (D) Level Develop-
ments LCP-45 inclinometer. (E) Terminal strip and
cable connecting the preamplifiers to the ADC and
the inclinometer to the Raspberry Pi. (F) ADC (Syba
USB 2.0 External Stereo Sound Card Adapter).
Figure 4. VLF Receiver control console mounted in
a plastic box. (A) 10,000 mAh battery. (B) Waveshare
5-inch TFT resistive touch screen display module
with HDMI interface. (C) Antenna lead-in. (D)
Restart/Start button. (E) Raspberry Pi 2 GPIO
terminal strip. (F) USB cable. (G) Raspberry Pi
Ethernet port.
Table 1. Software libraries for the VLF system.
Library name Source
Qt & PyQt Qt https://wiki.python.org/moin/PyQt
matplotlib http://matplotlib.org/
SQLAlchemy http://www.sqlalchemy.org/
pyserial https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyserial
pyalsaaudio https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyalsaaudio
ALSAMIXER https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/
Advanced_Linux_Sound_Architecture
SQLite database https://www.sqlite.org/index.html
VLFRX Receiver http://abelian.org/vlfrx-tools/
Software Toolkit
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Test Profile
To test the accuracy and functionality of the new
VLF receiver, we acquired a test profile along a gravel
road, passing over a drainage canal and a bridge. A
profile plot of smoothed in-phase and out-of-phase data,
as computed in the field, is shown in Fig. 8. The data are
displayed as the percent secondary vertical field (for both
in-phase and out-of-phase) divided by the primary
horizontal field. The original data displayed erratic
values of about 62 percent along the profile, so for this
plot the data are smoothed with a weighted three-point
moving window filter (values for the weights were 0.25,
0.5, 0.25) to make the main anomaly more prominent. A
clear þ5 to 10 percent anomaly in the out-of-phase
values from about 30 to 50 m, and about six percent
positive in-phase values are shown at the same location.
The anomalies coincide with the bridge and are likely
created by the steel reinforcing rods in the bridge deck or
the conductivity of the water and sediment in the
drainage canal. The erratic values in the data away from
the bridge are quite typical for VLF work. Thus, these
anomalies of a few percent over the bridge might be the
minimum that could be reliably detected by the system.
Conclusions
We developed a VLF geophysical receiver as part
of a senior project in the Geophysical Engineering
Department, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey. The
project aimed to use inexpensive and modern off-the-
shelf equipment with custom peripherals and free
software. The success of the project was realized during
Purpose
to create the graphical user interface (GUI) in Python
2D drawing library for Python for plotting
Object-Relational Mapping, to connect to the SQLite database
serial port communication library, to read data from the
inclinometer and UART communication ports.
Python commands to control Linux ALSAMIXER commands
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) Linux command line
controls for the sound card
for storing and manipulating data
provides about 50 routines for acquisition and analysis of
multichannel VLF signals. Routine VTCARD reads a digitized
data stream from a sound card using Linux ALSAMIXER
routines. Routine VTCMP carries out narrow-band filtering and
compares the amplitude and phase of two channels.
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Figure 5. The signal spectrum display. The vertical
lines are frequency markers for signals expected to be
received (listed in the table on the right), running
from 20.30 KHz on the left to 26.70 KHz on the right.
The continuous plots represent the signals from the
vertical and horizontal coils (upper and lower plots
respectively).
Figure 6. The spectrum settings display. The
settings are adjusted by the arrow keys.
Figure 7. Completed VLF receiver ready for field
use.
Figure 8. Field data smoothed with three-point
filter. The solid line is in-phase data and the dashed
line is out-of-phase data.
a test profile, which detected a weak VLF anomaly that
likely represented metal or geologic material. For
improvements to the VLF system, we suggest that the
next generation VLF receiver use an audio card with 24-
bit ADC and 192 KHz sample rate, such as the Cirrus
Logic Audio Card. The greater ADC resolution would
reduce or eliminate the need for a hand-wired pream-
plifier and the higher sampling rate would allow
reception of higher frequency VLF transmissions. This
card can be controlled with ALSA software, thus it
should work with the VLFRX routines.
Acknowledgments
The authors appreciate assistance from: Prof. Gülçin
Özürlan Ağaçgözgü and Yrd. Doç. Dr. Tuğrul Genç, (faculty),
Avni Hilmi Pazarbası (student) at Istanbul Technical University,
Metin Zobu, manufacturer of geophysical equipment, and Paul
Nicholson, VLFRX webmaster. Istanbul Technical University
Faculty of Mines Dept. of Geophysical Engineering provided
funds to construct the receiver. Authors Evrim Çabuk and Günal
Baki are senior students in the Geophysical Engineering
Department, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey. Charles
Young mentored the project over the Internet, and prepared this
SAGEEP abstract from Çabuk and Baki’s senior project report.
Additional Documentation
Project software is available at https://github.com/
ecabuk/. There is no support nor guarantee of perfor-
mance. Detailed schematics and interconnections are not
given in the senior thesis. Author CTY can provide
interested readers a copy of the senior thesis (in
Turkish).
References
Çabuk, E., and Günal, B., 2015, Very low frequency electromag-
netic method (in Turkish): Senior Thesis, Geophysical

Çabuk et al.: A Microprocessor-based VLF Receiver for Exploration
Engineering Department, Istanbul Technical University,
Turkey, 44 pp.
Eröss, R., Tezkan, B., Stoll, J.B., and Bergers, R., 2017,
Interpretation of very low frequency measurements carried
out with an unmanned aerial system by 2D conductivity
models: Journal of Environmental and Engineering Geo-
physics, 22, 83–94.
303
Loudet, L., 2013, VLF stations list: https://sidstation.loudet.org/
stations-list-en.xhtml.
Powers, C.J., Singha, K., and Haeni, F.P., 1999, Integration of
surface geophysical methods for fracture detection in
bedrock at Mirror Lake, New Hampshire: USGS Water
Resources Investigations Report 99-4018C, 757–768.