Topband: Top band conditions

[Donald Chester]

An indication of propagation on the lower frequencies these days, maybe due to the current lull in sunspots, or maybe it's my 900 ft.
terminated beverage receiving antenna aimed towards Europe. Probably
both. I have been aware for decades that there exists a longwave AM
broadcast band worldwide except in the Americas, from approximately 150
to 300 kHz, but I had never before been able to pick up even a faint trace of
heterodyne from the carrier of any of these stations at this QTH, even though some run
megawatts of power.



Recently, it occurred to me to try listening to the longwave
band using my 160m beverage. In the past 2 weeks I have been able to
hear the following countries between 150 and 200 kHz: UK, France,
Germany, Morocco and Iceland.



The best and most consistent signal seems to come from Europe 1 on 183 kHz, the
French-speaking border blaster located just across the frontier onto
German soil. They run 2 megawatts with a directional array pointed to
the southwest, which means the main lobe is aimed right at n. America.
At times their signal comes in here at or near entertainment quality,
usually between 0430 and 0600 GMT.



I listened on a Kenwood R-1000, with a nominal tuning range that goes
down only to 200 kHz. Sensitivity drops off rapidly below 200, but it
will pick up signals as low as 150. Loads of intermodulation garbage
and random noise, but I threw together a resonant tuner by clipleading together a coil
and variable capacitor found in the junkbox. It filters out most of
the rubbish. The R-1000 has NO built-in front end selectivity other
than a very wide bandpass filter.



There are other longwave broadcasters between 200 and 300 kHz, but all are inaudible here due to the aviation beacons above 200 kHz. There may not be a direct correlation, but I suspect that when I hear Germany blasting through on 183 kHz, there is a good possibility that DX conditions are good on 160m.

Don k4kyv



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