By Tim Lemmon, WK4U
Article 1 in a series of 5
In the morning, after you eat breakfast, how far can you communicate on 40 meters? How far can you HEAR signals on 7 MHz from Atlanta? 500 miles? 1000 miles?? California maybe??? Probably not that far – right? What if I said you CAN hear signals from thousands of miles away on 7 MHz. Would you believe me? Tune your radio to 7575 in the AM mode (8-10am Atlanta time) and you'll hear the Voice Of America (VOA) broadcasting to the Far East in their evening hours from ... Thailand. Yep, even a little bit of power (250,000 watts) can overcome the lack of sun spots. How about China? Tune your radio to 7325 (6-10am Atlanta time) and hear China Radio International directly from China.
Two other interesting signals to hear on 7 MHz: Tune to 7405 (8-10am Atlanta time) and hear Radio Marti. Google it if you don't know about it. Signals are from Greenville, North Carolina, but Cuba works diligently to jam their signals. Due to propagation, sometimes we can hear Marti pretty well here in Atlanta over the jamming, although it's all in Spanish. Amazing that jamming still happens in the 21st century! Often after 10am, Radio Marti goes off the air, but the jammer is still on! Hear it for yourself.
And finally, tune to 7811 (in USB mode) to hear our own AFRTS broadcasts to the U.S. military in the Caribbean area. Signals are broadcast from Key West, Florida.
By the way, can anyone email me and tell me where the Latin music is coming from on 15410 and 17680? Really great stuff. (HINT: what do you get outside in the Winter?)
Oh, and if you like Mediterranean music, tune to 15630 for almost non stop Greek music. This station is on all morning and well into our afternoons.
Remember, HF signals are not always reliable! One day, Thailand may hardly be heard, but the next day it's arm chair copy.
Next month, we'll move into our lunch time hour and find more interesting stations to hear. Till then, best of [sun spotless] DX. Time for me to find some fresh Mediterranean olives to snack on 🙂
Tim, WK4U tim_lemmon@yahoo.com