Water vitalizers are devices from the esoteric field, which can be purchased in the higher four-digit amount and users use to irradiate the body, drinks and objects. The treatments last 10-15 minutes and sometimes longer. In Germany there are about 2500 devices, in Switzerland about 250 devices in use. They are found in the radio language transmitter (TRX) in the 2m band in the frequency range from 144.010 to 144.040 MHz and have no CE approval. Depending on the device, they radiate on slightly different frequencies (not quite stable) with about 20W and thus interfere with the UHF range. In Germany they are forbidden, in Switzerland not yet, resp. they are idR, if one found them, confiscated by the BAKOM. If these water vitalizers are in about 3-4 km distance, their signal strength can be S9+60 dB. If these water vitalizers are a bit further away, the reception level decreases of course (Power of Arrival, POA).
If one is disturbed as a radio amateur, OFCOM asks in each case for a usage profile. When and for how long is the water vitalizer in operation? For this purpose, the configuration with a SDRPlay and SDRuno with a screenshot program is suitable to create a 24h picture over several days. Corresponding documents with a short instruction can be found in the members area at EMC Level 1 from the February 2021 video conference, tnx to Lorenz HB9BMR.
Self detection and bearing of the water vitalizer signals can be done by hand with CW and a SDR receiver with waterfall as well as a magnetic loop of RG213 with 80cm diameter with the method “manual Angle of Arrival” (AOA). There are of course also professional direction finding systems at higher costs with the method “automatic Angle of Arrival” (AOA), among others Kerberos or Jojack with one Doppler and four antennas. It may be possible to do this later and at a lower cost, i.e., in 2022 and in the likely mid-triple-digit range with KrakenSDR (currently crowdfunding). KrakenSDR could technically with the five antennas and the Correlative Interferometry (CI) method already be one step further and accurate to 1° than the models with four antennas and the Doppler method with about 3° accuracy.
What do such signals from water vitalizers look like? The short video shows manual Angle of Approach (AOA) with a small magnetic loop of RG213 with 80 cm diameter and an ICOM 705. In this example the signals are a bit further away, therefore the S-meter does not “strike out” yet. But if you turn away and aim at the minimum, a minus 20 dB can easily be detected in the waterfall.
Two or three OM’s only have to draw the detected headings with manual AoA into one of the great maps of the topography (they are the best maps in the world and free to download, tnx) and analyze the intersections.
Author: Martin HB9GYF
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)