LW questions

[glenn]

A few questions about Long Wave reception since I am new at this hobby....I have been mainly interested in MW and the Tropical band since picking up this hobby on the first of the year and am now curious about adding the LW band as well...
1) Is it mainly seasonal like the Tropicals ?
2) Are there many broadcasts on LW or is it mainly beacons etc. ?
3) Is the best time to receive LW after dark ?
4) Living in Ohio (USA) are my chances good or bad or indifferent when it comes to receiving LW receptions?
5) I have a Quantum QX loop with both the MW and Tropical loop heads and understand that Gerry also makes a head for LW....any experience with his LW head ?..... I also have a Wellbrook ALA-1530+ on a rotator that will end up in my attic due to housing owners restrictions on outside antennas and I will mainly be using it in my office on my Drake R-8 and the QX is hooked up to a Drake SW-8 in my living room (where I do most of my DXing)
6) Will I need to use the R-8 and 1530+ for LW DXing or do you feel the SW-8 and QX with the LW head will do the job ??
Any assistance in answering these questions for me would be much appreciated...
73's
glenn (buckeyeair)

 

[kilokat7]

Glenn,

Here's a nice page dealing with longwave equipment that includes some good general information that might answer some of your questions regarding what can be heard. No doubt there are other sites, I just happened to have this one bookmarked and remembered it:

http://www.radioblvd.com/LW RCVRS.html

Was also going through old threads in this forum tonight and came across this LW thread that may be of interest:

http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,121580.0.html

 

[Icangelp]

Glenn.

There are a couple main types of longwave DXing, and several other offshoots also. Here in the US, it is mostly beacons from airports and other sites needing to put out a continuous signal for whatever reason. The mostly broadcast in morse code, and often continuously repeat their three letter calls. Locally, I am able to hear many beacons including the Batesville, Indiana airport which broadcasts local weather in voice rather than morse code. On a good night, you should be able to hear beacons on 530KHZ I believe one of the Cincinnati airports uses 530.

The Longwave Club of America is the DX site for longwave listeners.

In Europe and Africa, longwave has traditionally been used for broadcasting. At its peak, there were two and even three megawatt stations on the same frequencies.

The advantage of longwave for commericial/non-commercial broadcasting lies in the fact that the groundwave signals travel much greater distances than medium wave.

The disadvantage is that longwave is subject to greater man-made and natural atmospheric noise. In addition, longwave does not travel by skywave (night) near as well as medium wave. These disadvantages are overcome by broadcasting with high/super power transmitters.

Longwave broadcasting is dying fast. My guess, partly because of the energy costs, and partly because Euro nations have moved to local FM and Satellite.

I have no idea why it never caught on here.

Hope this helps.

 

[Icangelp]

Glenn.

There are a couple main types of longwave DXing, and several other offshoots also. Here in the US, it is mostly beacons from airports and other sites needing to put out a continuous signal for whatever reason. The mostly broadcast in morse code, and often continuously repeat their three letter calls. Locally, I am able to hear many beacons including the Batesville, Indiana airport which broadcasts local weather in voice rather than morse code. On a good night, you should be able to hear beacons on 530KHZ I believe one of the Cincinnati airports uses 530.

The Longwave Club of America is the DX site for longwave listeners.

In Europe and Africa, longwave has traditionally been used for broadcasting. At its peak, there were two and even three megawatt stations on the same frequencies. many nations used longwave as one way of delivering their government owned "public" broadcast service.

The advantage of longwave for commericial/non-commercial broadcasting lies in the fact that the groundwave signals travel much greater distances than medium wave.

The disadvantage is that longwave is subject to greater man-made and natural atmospheric noise. In addition, longwave does not travel by skywave (night) near as well as medium wave. These disadvantages are overcome by broadcasting with high/super power transmitters.

Longwave broadcasting is dying fast. My guess, partly because of the energy costs, and partly because Euro nations have moved to local FM and Satellite.

I have no idea why it never caught on here.

Hope this helps.

 

[glenn]

kilokat7 and Icangelp;
Thanks for the replies and info.
It sounds as though there is very little if any voice transmissions on LW......don't know CW and I'm not really interested in tracking beacons so maybe better stick with MW-SW- and the Tropics for my listening pleasures.
Thanks again;
73's
glenn (buckeyeair)

 

[BRNout]

There are plenty of voice broadcasts on LW in Europe, including BBC4 at 198 kHz. Most European and North African countries have such a service on LW. A couple of Asian countries also have LW broadcasts, including the Asian portion of Russia and Mongolia. I've played around with LW when in the UK and the band was full of interesting broadcasts. From Japan, I picked up one or two Russians. So, they're out there - you just need the right equipment and good luck to snag one from over here.

In this portion of the world, you're generally limited to beacons and services like that. However, it's not impossible to pull a European LW station out of the static over here; as shown by other posters here. So I'd say to give it a try.

 

[glenn]

I have tried the last two evenings to copy any voice transmissions on LW using my R-8 and ALA-1530+ and am only receiving beacons and code...I don't think I will invest another $100. in my Quantum QX for the LW head at this time. If I find later in the season (this winter) that things change then I will re-think that idea !!
Thanks again for the input;
73's
glenn (buckeyeair)

 

[Icangelp]

Glenn,

If you have your Wellbrook installed where you intended, that should really help improve the possibilities.

We are in a time of unusually (unprecidented) low sun-caused electrical interference. As I understand it, this is a very good thing for medium wave and longwave reception, and may be a reason why we midwesterners and inland Canadians are hearing trans-Atlantic signals on both bands.

It has already been listed by stormy01, http://dx.qsl.net/propagation/greyline.html is a great tool for DXing in general, and long distance DX especially. It shows the "grey" line (where it is light and where it is dark) for the world.

Keep trying!

 

[kilokat7]

I have tried the last two evenings to copy any voice transmissions on LW using my R-8 and ALA-1530+ and am only receiving beacons and code...

Yes, LW conditions for me have been poor the last few nights compared to the amazing conditions of last Saturday night. DXing is all about patience and a little luck I suppose. Your equipment sounds up to the task of LW reception so I wouldn't go out and buy more equipment, just give it a little more time if you're really curious in LW. As others have said, sometimes you just need to park on a frequency and wait for the right conditions. Nightly, I've been checking the carrier levels on 171 & 216 for possible audio, which were the strongest last weekend (around 0500 UTC). If the carriers seem stronger than usual, I'll stick around and park on the frequency for a little while. Hearing the Arabic music on 171 (presumed Morocco) last weekend was awesome and reminded me why I love this hobby!

 

[glenn]

Glenn,

If you have your Wellbrook installed where you intended, that should really help improve the possibilities.

Unfortunaly it is still in the office about 10 ft. from me on the floor propped up against a picture window and pointing in a N/S position.......my friend is due here this week to install it on the rotator in the attic.....yes that should help matters greatly...just a shame I can't install it outside away from the Condos but rules are rules and the rule maker lives across the street...(LOL)
73's
glenn (buckeyeair)