Longwave Radio Dreams
I've always been strangely drawn to the radio, listening on a dark night to those distant voices coming in across the buzzing static as I tune up and down the glowing radio dial. Tuning in AM stations from across the country. Tuning in shortwave stations from around the world. It always sends a tingle up my spine, like being in touch with some mysterious level of alternate reality.
And I've always regretted that we don't have broadcast stations on longwave here in the United States. You know, longwave radio, way down below the bottom of your AM (mediumwave) dial. Imagine an extra band on your radio dial, the longwave band, starting way down at 150, and running up to around 280, 300, 350, or above.
In some parts of the world— I believe it's Europe, north Africa, the former Soviet Union, and Mongolia— there are broadcast stations on longwave, 153 to 279 kilohertz. BBC Radio 4 from Droitwich, UK on 198 kHz. Allouis, France on 162 kHz. Kalundborg, Denmark on 243 kHz. And many more.
Over the years, I've had several strange dreams about longwave broadcast stations in the United States. Herewith I append my longwave radio dreams...
posted by paul @ 8:09 AM
10 Comments:
Here in northern California I've found exactly one longwave broadcast which is morse code identificataion from a tiny airport further north in my state. I haven't picked it up since wintertime.
Yeah, back in the early to mid 90s I was living in north central Illinois, and I used to be able to receive an automated voice weather recording on longwave from a nearby airport. Closest I've ever come to hearing a "broadcast" longwave station— which is to say, not very close but just close enough to be tantalizing. Apart from that, various places I've lived I've also received a few of those Morse code identifications on longwave from airports.
Dang, what I wouldn't give to visit those parts of the world where you can tune in real longwave broadcast stations!
I started longwave radio in '92 and got really serious into it at '94. I have been into longwave radio listening since I have received 153 from Algeria, France on 162 kHz, 171 from Morocco, 183 from Germany and 207 from Morocco. I really like the longwave bands, and I am planning when I move out to build a bigger antenna in the future for LW DX. I would like to invite you to my longwave radio station listening group if you like to hear more on your longwave radio. If you don't know where to start just ask me and others alot of questions.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/longwaveradiostationlistening/ I hope you join us you take care for now. I hope your dreams will come true! I deeply have dreams like that too, but not from Europe from the Pacific areas. Adam E.
I picked up LW Atlantic 252 and BBC Radio 4 Longwave from Halifax one time. Prolly just a fluke with atmospherics and such:-)
I live in minneapolis, and MSP International is always sending out teletext on 455KHz. The local clear channel station 830 WCCO bleeds through on 189KHz also.
Its quite common to receive LW/MW signals from Europe in New England and the Maritime provinces when its dark on both of the Atlantic.
My Grandfather was a pilot and told me that airplanes only need to check back with Air Traffic Control every 45 minutes; so they tuned there communications transceiver to Atlantic 252, all the way to St. John's, Newfoundland. Being at 30,000 feet possibly helped reception though!
Go to for more info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longwave
I've tried off & on for years & have detected only carriers, but am indeed receiving audio from some European broadcasters in N. Texas this winter. 183kHz/Germany is probably consistantly the strongest - in French. I did finally hear an English ID from Droitwich, UK on 198 a few weeks ago by a woman. It was the only thing I could understand through the racket & phase flutter @0230 UTC. Guess I've heard enough "BBC World Svc" IDs on Shortwave thru the years...
If you would like to tune the LW broadcast stations but do not have a radio or are in a difficult area you can go to http://websdr.org . Websdr are free to use online tuneable multi-user Software Defined Radios.
The one for LW is http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/
It is offline for a few more days as they are moving the radio club to a new location. Keep checking websdr.org for it to return and check out the other available radios in the mean time.
Another online tuneable radio service you can use is www.globaltuners.com but you have to sign up to get access. I have been a subscriber for a few months now and have only good experiences to report.
atlantic 252 on long wave has been taken over by RTE radio 1 which broadcasts from Dublin Ireland. I can pick up about 10 stations on long wave at night.
Back in the seventies i had this Philips radio with a longwave band and connected to it was a standard longwire antenna of good height and length. The band tuned the range of 150khz to approx 408khz which was common for a pre 1955 Euro domestic radio. You can imagine that the band at night was alive with tons of ndb's from 200khz onwards. There was no activity from 150 to 200khz but if i waited till around midnight then Vladivostok would be audible where Motala was on the dial. This related to a frequency of 191khz. Sone nights other stations came in on channels 153khz, 164khz and wrestling with Launceston ndb on 245khz. These stations were part of the Soviet National Network Myak that operated in the far East. They identified with those "Midnight In Moscow" chimes. QTH was Melbourne Australia. Longwave was a real buzz.
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