Excellent article. I began SWL when in 1971 a portable AM/FM (FM totally new to me back then) began to pick up SW stations in between the AM stations...which was rather cool considering that I had just begun MW DXing. I actually wrote to the SW stations with reception reports and it was then that I realized, by the frequencies listed on the QSLs received, that these stations were in the same area 5.9 - 6.+ mHz. For half a year, that was my only window to SWL. On a very dry autum day, my under the kitchen cabinet radio will pick up a station or two - usually VOA or CBC, last time I listened. Perhaps the strangest "dry" radio was when, also back in the 70's, I ran a speaker wire between two floors and for the heck of it I wired it to a recorder as a mic (cold war, James Bond, Man from U.N.C.L.E., you know - spy flicks were in back then) and I noticed the meter jumping, so I recorded it and when I played it back, it was CBC in the same meter band; I remember that because it was reel to reel and I had to listen to about 90 minutes of tape for a freq.
Thanks for the article - this joggled some memories, as listed above. Konnie Connecticut >From: Francois Dion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [HCDX] Is there anything particular about 5.9-6MHz >Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 13:33:57 -0400 > >First, I'm in the southeast US (Piedmont Triad of North Carolina). > >For about 8 months now I've been getting accidental reception of various >stations between 5.935 and a little above 6MHz, culminating in last night I >received simultaneously RTI (i think), radiochina (because of the www >identifier), Radio Sweden Stockholm, wwcr Tennesee (all of them I >identified >between 5.9 and 6.0MHz) and an unidentified station from Cuba (there is >probably one at around that). > >This wouldn't be so interesting if it wasn't for the fact that I've >received >this in wildly different circumstances. First, I've gotten these exact >frequencies many times using various "circuits" and different "antennas" >(or >absence of). > >In particular: >http://www.cimastudios.com/fdion/water.html#wr3 >or for a recap of the past few months: >http://www.cimastudios.com/fdion/water.html > >I also have constructed "dry" receivers with similar results (basically >similar in concept to foxhole radios without a tuning circuit). > >Or thru a Radio-Shack mini amplified speaker. I've modified it for maximum >gain and to use as a VLF receiver, and apparently the signal goes thru the >C3198 transistor which acts as a detector. Different type of antennas >produce different signal strenght, always thru a floating ground. If I get >a >proper ground then I only get VLF. If I use a loop antenna, the same, just >VLF, no SW. > >That's all fine and dandy, but why always these frequencies given there is >no tuner?? Surely there can be no correlation between all these various >accidental receptions. Yet, it is always those same stations that get >picked >up, around 6MHz. > >Thanks, >Francois ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- World Radio TV Handbook 2005 is out. Order yours from http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823077942/hardcoredxcom ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list [email protected] http://arizona.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://dsl.org/copyleft/dsl.txt
