In 1919, Marconi completed five high-frequency power plants around the world — including the one at Bolinas, California, on the San Andreas Fault. Driven by Alexanderson alternators and built on principles Tesla had discovered, those stations weren’t using the Hertzian (electromagnetic-radiation) wireless that became “radio” as we know it today. They used something different — longitudinal dielectric induction, what Tesla called rays of induction propagating through the earth itself.
The Bolinas station is gone. The antennas are down. The buildings are derelict.
Out in the Nevada desert, Eric Dollard has been building the modern successor for the last twelve years.
The EPD Long Line at EPD Laboratories’ Tonopah field site is an above-ground Beverage pole-pair receiving antenna — 4,800 feet of it — picking up earth signals. It is the world’s largest publicly known Tesla-type measurement instrument. Eric calls it “a massive scientific instrument” and “a massive analog computer.” It streams live, 24/7.
Listen now: Live earth-signal stream — epdlabs.org/seismic-streaming/
What’s New at Pole 26
The Long Line has two ends, and they listen to two different bands.
The Shack end handles the lower frequencies — VLF and ULF, up to around 20 kHz — and that’s what’s been streaming live online for some time now.
The other end is at Pole 26. Until this week, it was just a termination point with old experimental hardware hanging off it. In the latest field session, Eric and the crew stripped all of that off, ran new conduit and grounds, and installed a proper terminal cabinet at eye level. Pole 26 is now a working field terminal — Eric can connect meters, instruments, and test equipment directly, without making the trip out and up to the Shack.
Pole 26 is dedicated to LF and MF reception, up to around 3,000 kHz, including the maritime mobile band near 500 kHz. That’s the band where Eric has been hearing earthquake precursors and unusual signals for years — including the precursor to the Ridgecrest earthquake, picked up on a modified AM receiver in his car. Steven McGreevy will be doing his own AM broadcast and low-band reception work from this terminal as well.
Two separate ground systems were installed at Pole 26 — a signal ground (connecting to a network of buried ground rods running down the wash) and an electrostatic / lightning ground (with its own dedicated network). They’re not metallically connected. The site has, in Eric’s words, “ground ten times over what you would ever expect in desert terrain like this” — because of the underground water running below the antenna line. Marconi chose Bolinas for the same reason: an underground spring runs beneath that antenna field, and the station was oriented along the San Andreas Fault. Geography is part of the instrument.
We caught the whole build on video — Eric walks through the antenna, the two-band setup, the grounding system, and what’s coming next.
Watch the video:
Why This Antenna Is Different
A modern radio antenna radiates Hertzian waves — transverse electromagnetic waves spraying out into space, with energy density dropping off as the square of distance. The energy is lost the moment it leaves the antenna.
What Tesla discovered, and what Marconi built at Bolinas, was different. Tesla’s system used longitudinal dielectric induction — standing waves of energy reciprocating between transmitter and receiver through the earth itself, with the earth acting as a propagation medium, not just a ground reference. The energy didn’t dissipate. It bounced back and forth until something demanded it.
The Long Line at Tonopah is a receiving instrument built on those same principles. The Shack end was already online and streaming. What just got added at Pole 26 is the field terminal that makes the other end of this instrument practical to work with — without trekking to the Shack every time. From here, Eric can experiment with terminations, run instrument measurements, and characterize what the Line is picking up in real time.
Want the deeper background? Watch and read Eric’s recent piece on the engineering lineage:
👉 Tesla–Marconi Wireless System (May 3, 2026)
Essential viewing for understanding what Pole 26 actually is, and why it matters.
What Comes Next
Eric is twelve years into this build, and estimates roughly twelve more before the system is finished as conceived. The next steps from Pole 26: build out a terminal facility at the mine site (where utility power has been arranged), run signals there from both ends of the antenna, and eventually carry them on through open wire, toll-entrance cable, and fiber into town. The full plan was laid out in detail in this latest field session.
Eric will also be talking about all of this — the engineering, the history, and where it’s going — at the upcoming conference.
🎤 ESTC 2026 — Eric Dollard’s Presentations
Eric will be giving two presentations at the Energy Science & Technology Conference 2026:
- The Alexanderson Aerial — Ernst Alexanderson’s wireless transmission system and Eric’s research building on it. Don’t miss it.
- Gangrene Energy — Eric’s framing for the dirty electricity loose in our utility infrastructure — millions of volt-amperes of it bleeding into the ground at any given moment. What it does to the electromagnetic environment, what it means for measurement and reception, and why it’s getting worse.
Streaming tickets are available for those who can’t attend in person.
👉 Full details, in-person tickets, and streaming tickets at emediapress.com/conference
Support EPD Laboratories
EPD Laboratories, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization. Every dollar goes directly into field research, infrastructure, and Eric’s ongoing work. Donations are tax-deductible.
Eric Dollard’s Books & Videos
The complete library of Eric’s published work — books, video presentations, and technical material — is here:
👉 Eric Dollard’s books and videos at EMediaPress
EPD Laboratories, Inc. · Tonopah, Nevada · 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization
