Jeff, For the last 5 years or so, I have been using MW AM BCB monitoring to help predict 160m openings. The short answer is YES; it works very well.
To be clear, this is not speculation like "oh it should work" or "maybe it won't because the AM band is much different than 160m" This is based on daily MW monitoring and full band MW recording, and active 160m Dxing. For MW I have 3 Perseus SDR radios that from sunset to sunrise record the entire band from 500 kHz to 1710 kHz. Each radio stores the recordings on a 10 TB HD on a dedicated PC. I use a program called Jaguar that allows me "see the entire MW band" graphically, over time in a way that clearly shows which overseas 9kHz split BCB stations are propagating. I can mouse click any frequency to zoom in and listen live or to a recording of that station. Each Perseus SDR radio has a dedicated RX antenna, usually my broadside phased Beverage pairs to Europe, OC or Asia. Those antenna automatically switch direction through the night from EU to OC-AS. When 160m is open to Europe, I will be getting audio from Moldova Vesti on 1413 kHz, Lithuania Radio Baltic 1386 kHz, UK Talksport 1089 kHz and even Svalbard Longyearbyn on 1485 kHz. Sure there are times when I copy OK1CF or others on CW and these AM guys are reduced to a carrier, but when MW is propagating, 160m is usually good. The same is true with VK-ZL and Japan. There are MANY BCB AM stations every morning from VK and ZL as well as Japan, Korea and China. Some are amazingly strong. If they are reduced to whispers or nothing, then 160m is going to be soft. However, my success with using MW as a "live propagation tool" is made a lot easier with my multiple SDR recordings and Jaguar software. I can literally "watch" the entire MW band opening, and fading in and out. Without that, you will need to target specific AM stations that can be used as a spot check. I know there are many that rely on the FT-8 PSK reporter stream to help them spot band opening. Steve ve6wz ________________________________ From: Topband <[email protected]> on behalf of Radio KH6O via Topband <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, October 12, 2026 9:15 AM To: topband <[email protected]> Subject: Topband: Using AM broadcast stations as propagation "beacons"? Aside from their tens of thousands of watts and incredible antennas, are AM broadcast stations, operating at the top end of their band, a good indicator of nighttime 160M conditions? Seems like there should be some correlation between, say, a station operating near 1700 KHz and what we might expect around 1800+ KHz. (Discounting, as mentioned, power and antenna.) Jeff KH6O _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector _________________ Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
