The AM Forum

Check out these pages for a treasure-trove of pictures, verbal descriptions and data charts on the subject of mediumwave and longwave radio transmission in UK.   Follow the links for an enormous collection of photos.  The Rugby link is especially interesting.  There are even links to instructions on how to build your own longwave/WWVB  receiver.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/transmitters/radio_trans/medium_long_wave.shtml    

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/droitwich/droitwich-lf-data.asp    

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/r/rugby_radio/index.shtml

Standard Time Transmitters:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/lf-clocks.html

I spend alot of time going to Europe and Asia and in Asia the real monster low band transmitters come out of places like the far east of Russia.  Yes, after a fun night of parting and running around at night, I often throw a very long wire out of the hotel and screw around on the looooooong wave bands.   It is wild how far you can hear the signals even during daylight.  Cool stuff !!

I don't know how the antenna on a car can be so good for stations such as BBC 4 from G land on 198 khz, but even when I am in north Italy or Switzerland, I can copy that station super clear (slight fade) in a car!  What is the antenna, 1/1000th of a wave length.    About two years ago I was in that area in G land and drove by the antennas.   Looked like a bunch of hi tension power lines.  Beer never tasted the same after that!

I picked up a Model RBL-2 National (Navy Bureau of Ships, Order April 30, 1942) VLF receiver at the Newark (Drumlins), NY hamfest on 4-9-05.  It works great and I have been having fun exploring the spectrum below 500 kHz.

There's plenty of info on the Intranet about the Extremely Low Freq (ELF 0-3 kHz), Very Low Freq (VLF 3-30 kHZ), Low Freq (LF 30-300 kHz), and Medium Freq (300 kHz - 3 MHz) bands.  You may hear Navy transmissions at 76 Hz, Natural Radio (Whistlers, Tweeks, Dawn Chorus, etc) 0 to 40 kHz, WWVB Time Station at 60 kHz, and Loran C at 100 kHz.  The License-Free "Lowfer" band is 160 - 190 kHz and the Foreign AM Broadcast is 150 - 280 kHz.  Navigation Beacons dot the globe and can be heard generally in the 190 - 400 kHz area.  When you copy the CW Id, check out these websites to see where they are:
http://worldaerodata.com/
http://airnav.com/navaids/

During this week, I've been hearing a Broadcast Station from Allouis, France.  They transmit a 2000 KW signal!  Try listening around 9 to 10:30 PM.  It's a lot of fun and a whole new world in the "basement" of the spectrum.

The Broadcast Station from Allouis, France transmits on 162 kHz.  Most of my existing antennas act poorly on these low frequencies.  However, my well grounded Hustler 6 Band Trap Vertical works great!  It's also interesting to experiment with antennas at these frequencies.  I wonder if Tom JJ has the room for a half wave dipole at 160 kHz!

It's interesting to see how many Navigational Beacons you can hear.  It's amazing how far some of these low power stations transmit.

Give it a try!

Hey Don,
   I am active on LF every night with my experimental station WD2XGJ on 137.78 running 250 watts out into a TX loop. My LW station has been copied in the U.K., Netherlands, France, Germany, Portugal, Russia, and Mexico.  I've picked up hams in the UK on 137 kHz.  It's very easy to pick up European and North African LW BC stations, 162 kHz from France booms in almost every night.

A friend of mine in Massachusetts even picked up a transmission from the Alexanderson Alternator transmitter SAQ from Sweeden on 17.2 KHz, and it was 12:00 noon Eastern time.

N.B.  Most ham ricebox transceivers are VERY deaf down there, it helps to have a converter or preamp. A dedicated LW rx loop is a good idea as well.

 I recommend checking out the following websites:
www.wireless.org.uk
www.lwca.org
http://www.computerpro.com/~lyle/
http://www.qsl.net/on7yd/136khz_main.htm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VLF_Group

73 Warren K2ORS/WD2XGJ