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British DXers Lament The Dying Days Of AM "Long Wave" Radio
I hope this never happens here, but I'm probably fooling myself - the end of AM, whenever it comes, will deal a blow to those of us who took up DXing as a kid. The FM tropo opening we've had this week is relatively rare. AM DXing happens almost every night. It's another reason I'll miss it when it goes.
They're a lot closer to the end in Britain and Europe, with digital radio now a reality.
"The death of long wave, when it comes, will be mourned by many radio fans, says John McCullagh, president of the Radio Society of Great Britain.
"It has a particular resonance that people like to listen to," he says, describing the noisy sound of the long wave band, which can be affected by lightning and interference from electrical devices, such as LED lights. That lack of high fidelity is not loved by all but it does give long wave its own character, he explains.
Given enough power, and the right conditions, long wave signals from a lone transmitter can travel for thousands of miles."
Why affection remains for fading long wave radio
- alangee
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Though I have never listened to stations on longwave (which is more popular overseas) it was the discovery of distant AM stations in the medium wave band that provided me with the first inkling of the magic of radio. I was 10 years old in 1963, and I had just gotten my first radio – some old tube job that sat on my night table. It wasn’t long before I discovered 1050 CHUM and the other Toronto stations around the dial. Not long after in the evenings I started discovering stations that weren’t in Toronto. I remember being amazed that I could listen to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game on KMOX, or I could hear Fort Wayne on WOWO and Boston on WBZ. To a ten-year-old kid this was magic, and I was hooked. Every night I would abandon CHUM and scan the band for distant stations I hadn’t heard before and see if I could still heard some of the others I had heard before. I wish I had my old logs from then. Years later I got my ham radio licence, set up a 102-foot-long wire antenna (G5RV for other hams here!) and I was DXing the world. As much as I liked to talk, I was still entranced by the AM stations on medium wave and shortwave. The signals fading in and out, the static, stations overlapping each other was music to my ears. But like many of the old AM stations, the old ham shack is no more. The long wires and ham radio are in storage and I am left listening to mostly local stations in an RF noise polluted environment. I miss those AM dxing days. I don’t know if the younger generation will ever appreciate the propagation of radio waves at night and the ability to listen to far away stations like I did. Back then we didn’t have the internet to make it easy to listen to wherever wanted like today. Is the magic gone? I certainly hope not.
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Re: British DXers Lament The Dying Days Of AM "Long Wave" Radio
alangee wrote:
Though I have never listened to stations on longwave (which is more popular overseas) it was the discovery of distant AM stations in the medium wave band that provided me with the first inkling of the magic of radio. I was 10 years old in 1963, and I had just gotten my first radio – some old tube job that sat on my night table. It wasn’t long before I discovered 1050 CHUM and the other Toronto stations around the dial. Not long after in the evenings I started discovering stations that weren’t in Toronto. I remember being amazed that I could listen to a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game on KMOX, or I could hear Fort Wayne on WOWO and Boston on WBZ. To a ten-year-old kid this was magic, and I was hooked. Every night I would abandon CHUM and scan the band for distant stations I hadn’t heard before and see if I could still heard some of the others I had heard before. I wish I had my old logs from then. Years later I got my ham radio licence, set up a 102-foot-long wire antenna (G5RV for other hams here!) and I was DXing the world. As much as I liked to talk, I was still entranced by the AM stations on medium wave and shortwave. The signals fading in and out, the static, stations overlapping each other was music to my ears. But like many of the old AM stations, the old ham shack is no more. The long wires and ham radio are in storage and I am left listening to mostly local stations in an RF noise polluted environment. I miss those AM dxing days. I don’t know if the younger generation will ever appreciate the propagation of radio waves at night and the ability to listen to far away stations like I did. Back then we didn’t have the internet to make it easy to listen to wherever wanted like today. Is the magic gone? I certainly hope not.
A couple of things about your post:
-WOWO was my first ever catch a long time ago. Who were these guys playing the songs I heard on CHUM? Like you, that discovery spurred me to explore and I still do every now and then, although it's not as good as it was then.
-"The signals fading in and out." Yes, and always, always, always just before they were about to I.D. the station or give a location in some local ad.
-The Internet actually makes DXing easier in a way. You get a station and you think you know what it is, but you're not sure. You go to their website, hit listen live and if they're playing the song you're hearing (with a slight delay), you can confirm the ID without ever officially hearing anyone say it. Wish we'd had that all those years ago!
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Thread Starter- In Phase
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Re: British DXers Lament The Dying Days Of AM "Long Wave" Radio
alangee: I too was introduced to "long wave" radio and its cousin, shortwave, back in the late 1960's. A ham radio licence soon followed and I was connecting with the world. People were so impressed!
Now, communication has been commoditized and everyone has instant, around the world, wireless capability through cell phones, and you don't have to learn morse code!
I do miss the unique sound, as you describe, of those distant AM signals fading in and out.
Sadly, new technology has made "ham radio" virtually extinct, much like some of our broadcast services. Still, I continue to dabble in the hobby. I can talk, tap (morse code), and text (digital modes) around the world with 100 watts of power. It ain't the same, and some of the magic is gone, but it's still here.
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I have hundreds of QSL postcards, letters and envelopes from many, many years ago. Like others here, I went to sleep with an earphone in, carefully spinning the AM and shortwave dials, with a notepad and pen on the bedside table.
Often, on coming home from school, my dad would say, "A letter arrived from Romania (Poland, or some other Soviet bloc country). You keep this up and the RCMP will be here to talk to you." 😄 I kept it up. The RCMP never came.
But, why do I keep them still? 🤔
- alangee
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I have hundreds of QSL postcards, letters and envelopes from many, many years ago. Like others here, I went to sleep with an earphone in, carefully spinning the AM and shortwave dials, with a notepad and pen on the bedside table.
Often, on coming home from school, my dad would say, "A letter arrived from Romania (Poland, or some other Soviet bloc country). You keep this up and the RCMP will be here to talk to you." 😄 I kept it up. The RCMP never came.
But, why do I keep them still? 🤔
Maybe for the same reason many of still have our CHUM charts - souvenirs of past good memories.
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But, why do I keep them still? 🤔
Great mementos of your youth and a good time when life was simpler. Same reason I have all those old TV Guides and charts from stations all over the world. I could never bring myself to throw them away, and I regard them as sort of simple 'history books' of a time long past.
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Thread Starter- alangee
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Re: British DXers Lament The Dying Days Of AM "Long Wave" Radio
-The Internet actually makes DXing easier in a way. You get a station and you think you know what it is, but you're not sure. You go to their website, hit listen live and if they're playing the song you're hearing (with a slight delay), you can confirm the ID without ever officially hearing anyone say it. Wish we'd had that all those years ago!
If I was still DXing these days I might do that. But for a crazy kid back then half the excitement was actually hearing the station ID.
- alangee
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Re: British DXers Lament The Dying Days Of AM "Long Wave" Radio
Sadly, new technology has made "ham radio" virtually extinct, much like some of our broadcast services. Still, I continue to dabble in the hobby. I can talk, tap (morse code), and text (digital modes) around the world with 100 watts of power. It ain't the same, and some of the magic is gone, but it's still here.
Anytime you can connect somewhere with a radio and antenna, be it wire or otherwise, it's magic!!
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Re: British DXers Lament The Dying Days Of AM "Long Wave" Radio
Sadly, new technology has made "ham radio" virtually extinct, much like some of our broadcast services. Still, I continue to dabble in the hobby. I can talk, tap (morse code), and text (digital modes) around the world with 100 watts of power. It ain't the same, and some of the magic is gone, but it's still here.
And thankfully, it's still there when it's really needed. Ask the people in Nova Scotia.
Climate change is affecting telecommunications infrastructure. Ham radio might be able to help
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