LongWave Broadcasts

[Bill, KD0HG]

I am wondering if any of you Easties has lately received longwave broadcasting from Europe.

Who puts the most smoking signal into North America?

Bill (playing with new receiver)

[ve6pg]

bill...i'm hearing iceland, the bbc, the french station in germany as well as the north africans...time and again, the outlet in italy...

 tim

[Bill, KD0HG]

bill...i'm hearing iceland, the bbc, the french station in germany as well as the north africans...time and again, the outlet in italy...

 tim

Tim, what frequencies?

Bill

[ve6pg]

  bill...try tuning 153 to 252 kc....i know don k4kyv has heard them, the last few winters..what's the receiver?..

 tim

[Bill, KD0HG]

 bill...try tuning 153 to 252 kc....i know don k4kyv has heard them, the last few winters..what's the receiver?..

 tim

Collins R-389

Bill

[W2PFY]

Here's a list of many stations in Europe. Some are running 2500 KW'S

[Steve - K4HX]

Lots of NDBs to tune down there too.

[W0BTU]

Nice pdf list!

Here's the LW stations I listen for: http://www.w0btu.com/AM-longwaveStations.html

[flintstone mop]

I'm surprised DON 'KYV hasn't joined in. He likes to listen to the power houses in Europe.

Fred

[Bill, KD0HG]

I've spent three years, on and off, restoring the receiver. Parts are pure unobtanium, I have a good friend who retired as a machinist from the Denver Mint who has collected older milling machines and lathes. There's nothing he can't fabricate and he's machined me a few missing critical parts.

The range of LF beacons is amazing, 25 watters within 500 miles are usually solid.  Propagation down there doesn't change much day to day. Best DX has been a 1 KW beacon in Ontario, 1,200 miles- During the day, yet.

Great place for a ham band- what it was, once.

But mostly I'm listening to the AM BCB.

WA8LXJ has experimented with RF below 20 KHz, no permit required as that is considered audio. IIRC he has loaded up towers with a 4-1000 rig at 19 KHz. Haven't talked to Bill and his exploding vacuum variables for maybe 5 years.

Bill

[W2VW]

WA8LXJ has experimented with RF below 20 KHz, no permit required as that is considered audio. IIRC he has loaded up towers with a 4-1000 rig at 19 KHz. Haven't talked to Bill and his exploding vacuum variables for maybe 5 years.

Bill

He may have been eaten by irate hounds.

[W0BTU]

That's funny! But exactly how do you make a vacuum variable explode?

[K2PG]

I am wondering if any of you Easties has lately received longwave broadcasting from Europe.

Who puts the most smoking signal into North America?

The one I hear most often in New Jersey is a French-language station on 162 kc. Since I do not understand French, I do not know where this station is located. I have also heard Algeria on 153 kc, a station around 179 kc, and an English-language station around 252 kc. I did not get an ID on the English-language station, but I believe it may be in Ireland.

The receiver used is a Drake R8B with an unterminated Beverage wire.

[W2PFY]

Phil all those stations that you have heard are listed on the PDF I have posted. I never heard any stations clear enough to make out what they are saying from my camp, but a new beverage will go into service in the spring. Maybe then?

[Steve - K4HX]

Dynamite? C4?

That's funny! But exactly how do you make a vacuum variable explode?

[W0BTU]

The one I hear most often in New Jersey is a French-language station on 162 kc. ... I do not know where this station is located.

That's Radio France International in Allouis, France. 2 megawatts.

[k4kyv]

I haven't tried listening this year.  In past years I have picked up Iceland, UK, Morocco, France, and Europe 1, the French-speaking border blaster located just across the line into Germany. All have come in entertainment quality at one time or another. I can hear a few more, like R. Luxembourg, but all the ones above 200 kc/s are buried under the aviation beacons.

It's still an exotic thrill to pull these stations in over the air, out of the noise, but if I just wanted to listen to the programming for its news and entertainment value, most of them are available as streaming audio via the web in much better quality, but I find something missing, kind of like listening to the BBC World Service relayed via the local NPR station. But that's the direction international broadcasting is going these days.  The VOA does the same thing as they relay to the target population via local AM and FM broadcasters, rather than transmit via shortwave. I can literally pick up thousands of stations from all over the world using the little internet "radio" I purchased at Dayton last spring.

One good thing that might come out of this is less pressure by international broadcasting interests to grab amateur spectrum.  Maybe some day we'll even get a REAL ham band in the vicinity of 5 mc/s.

[Steve - K4HX]

I heard the 472.5 kHz AM broadcast last night. The QRN was nasty. If we get some quiet conditions, I'll make a recording.