Topband: WLW

Tue Sep 17 16:35:03 EDT 2013

The Saudi Arabia 1521 recordings were made from the car at local MA beach sites with a Drake R8A receiver and a loop antenna on the car roof.

The "magic bullets" for good reception are:
(a) Select a site with salt water and a clear horizon view towards what you want to hear.  Poor ground (rocks, sand, hills/mountains, tall buildings/vegetation) towards side and rear interference directions can help too.
(b) Stay away from power lines.
(c) Do most listening to the east at sunset before interference from the west builds up.
(d) Look at the weather maps to make sure any lightning is a long way off.

Propagation certainly factors in too.  There are times when the US East Coast path to Europe / Middle East is dead but you get a good run at South America and perhaps deep Africa.  The same phenomenon is also noted on Topband of course.

Nowadays I am using a Perseus SDR receiver on these seaside listening sessions,
<http://microtelecom.it/perseus/>.

The ability to store spectrum for later playback is the obvious killer-app with that.

The latest car roof receiving antenna implementation is shown here:
<http://www.qsl.net/wa1ion/loop/car_roof_loop.htm>

For 160m, I would advise a larger size antenna than the 2m by 2m square one I use on the car.  You're dealing with smaller signals: sub-100 watt up to 1.5 kW stations instead of multi-kilowatt up to megawatt-plus ones you'd find on the AM broadcast band.

The advantages on 160: higher (more "shortwave-like") frequency, less interference (except during contests / pile-ups), and the great signal-to-noise advantage of CW versus AM or even SSB.

Some of my broadcast band recordings may be accessed from <http://www.qsl.net/wa1ion/dx_audio.htm> for anyone who's interested.  A number of DXers of that frequency range are very interested in design and homebrew of antenna and receiver accessories; some have done complete receiver designs-and-builds.

Many of these listener-DXers are also hams and find much in common technically with what's developed for 160m, 600m, and other LF/MF bands.  ON4UN's books and W8JI's website are well known.

As the selection of New England / Atlantic Canada reports below shows, many broadcasters make it across the Atlantic to US and Canadian listeners, at least when good locations (coastal typically), antennas, and receivers are put to use by those who know what they're doing.
<http://www.bamlog.com/peidxped.htm>
<http://www.naswa.net/badx/dxclams2009.htm>
<http://realmonitor.com/Quoddy_Head_DXpedition.pdf>
<http://www.dxing.info/equipment/new_active_mw_antennas.pdf>
<http://www.dxing.info/dxpeditions/newfoundland_09log.dx>

Many more reports can be found via links from <http://www.dxing.info/dxpeditions/> and <http://www.bamlog.com/#Section5>.

The idea here is that, even if you have little interest in broadcast-band DX as a standalone hobby, checking that frequency range does offer propagational clues that can help coordinating 160-m operation, antenna design, location evaluation, and so on.

Mark Connelly, WA1ION
South Yarmouth, Cape Cod, MA, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Garrett <rgarrett5 at comcast.net>
To: Mark Connelly <markwa1ion at aol.com>
Sent: Tue, Sep 17, 2013 3:18 pm
Subject: Re: Topband: WLW

Great stuff Mark. Don't let the naysayers get you down. Recordings were very 
interesting

Robert  B. Garrett, President/C.E.O.  
North Central Sight Services, Inc.
2121 Reach Road
Williamsport, PA 17701
P: 570-323-9401 Ext.126

Sent from my iPhone 

...
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Mark Connelly
> Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 10:15 AM
> To: topband at contesting.com
> Subject: Topband: WLW
> 
> 1.7 megawatts out of WLW was no doubt the highest power run by anyone in the 
> Western Hemisphere on medium wave.
> 
> 
> Duba, Saudi Arabia runs 2 megawatts on 1521 kHz all the time.  No wonder 
> that it often screams in here on the coast of Massachusetts around local 
> sunset, as in this recording:
> <http://www.qsl.net/wa1ion/audio1/dx_saudi_arabia-1521_20060503_2300z.mp3>
> or this one:
> <http://www.qsl.net/wa1ion/audio1/dx_1521_saudi_arabia_20081029_2300z.mp3>
> 
> 
> 1521 has proven to be a useful propagation indicator to the Middle East, as 
> is the UAE station (R. Farda) on 1575 with 800 kW and Kuwait (R. Sawa) 1548 
> (600 kW).
> 
> 
> The signals are at least 15 dB stronger at seashore sites than at locations 
> even just 5 to 10 miles inland, especially if the intervening land is sandy 
> or rocky.  A receiving antenna that is substantially elevated would cut 
> those losses some at the inland site.
> 
> 
> Mark Connelly, WA1ION
> South Yarmouth, MA
> 
> 
> <<
>> He told us it was put in for Crosley who got a bug in his butt to  see what
>> the rig would really do. The meter showed the total current on the  three
>> finals. One night he cranked it up as far as it would go. Keep in mind, 
>> the
>> voltage on the finals was 17,500 volts, as I remember. He got that meter up
>> to 100 amps. Do the math. He burnt up some local fences that  night.
>> 
>> Of course, 13 transmitters (with plug-in coils) each  running 220,000 watts
>> simultaneously on several bands down the road at  VOA was astonishing, but
>> that 1,700,000 watts at WLW was stuck in our minds  all the way home that
>> night.  We were TopBand guys,  afterall!
>> 
>> 73, Best DX, Barry, W9UCW
> _________________
> Topband Reflector 
> 
> 