Ham Radio Frequency

[kr236rkParticipant]

Hi,

What is the best frequency for hearing Ham Radio transmissions please?

I have an SX-190 receiver.

Thanks 🙂

[M0PWXParticipant]

best place to start is the band plans published by the RSGB https://rsgb.org/main/operating/band-plans/display/

main bands are 80m, 40m, 30m (narrow band mainly digital modes) 20m, 17m, 15m and 10m

80m band is 3.5Mhz – 3.8Mh
40m band is 7.0Mhz – 7.2Mhz
30m band is 10.1Mhz – 10.15Mhz
20m band is 14.0Mhz – 14.35Mhz
17m band is 18.068Mhz – 18.168Mhz
15m band is 21.0Mhz – 21.45Mhz
10m band is 28.0Mhz – 29.7Mhz

the 60m band and 12m bands are little used so i haven’t included them here

in general CW is near the bottom of the band, followed by digital mode, and then SSB the rest

SSB below 10Mhz tends to be Lower sideband (LSB), 10mhz and above tends to be Upper sideband(USB)

AM is rarely used on HF amateur bands,

FM tends to be used on 10m and above

daylight hours activity tends to be 40m and above,
night time tends to be 40m and lower
(all to do with the D, E and F layers of the atmosphere and how the change due to solar radiation) https://www.rfwireless-world.com/Terminology/Difference-between-Ionospheric-layers-D-E-F1-and-F2.html

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by M0PWX.

[kr236rkParticipant]

Thank you.

This is of great interest 🙂

I will update when I have repositioned my SW Receiver, it is very awkward to access at the moment.

Best regards!

[kr236rkParticipant]

How does solar activity affect SW please – is it the sun spots?

On my SW Receiver – I usually pick up interesting things on Band 7, at night, but am curious about the other bands, & when they are active.

Can I post pictures of my receiver here please?

Thanks 🙂

[kr236rkParticipant]

So, how do my Channel-Bands equate to your meter-bands please?

You posted:

80m band is 3.5Mhz – 3.8Mh
40m band is 7.0Mhz – 7.2Mhz
30m band is 10.1Mhz – 10.15Mhz
20m band is 14.0Mhz – 14.35Mhz
17m band is 18.068Mhz – 18.168Mhz
15m band is 21.0Mhz – 21.45Mhz
10m band is 28.0Mhz – 29.7Mhz

I have these bands on the SX-190:

3.5
5.7
7
9.5
11.5
14
15 (WWV)
17.5
27 (CB)

————————————-

WWV is, I think, a government radio station located in Colorado, about 100 kilometers north of Denver.

CB is Citizens’ Band.

Channel/Band 7 gets me most activity after dark, I have not experimented much with daytime SW.

[M0PWXParticipant]

from the manual the bands you have are

80 meter Band 3.5 to 4.0 MHz
49 meter Band 5.7 to 6.2 MHz
40 meter Band (HAM) 7.0 to 7.5 MHz
31 meter Band (WWV@ 10 MHz) 9.5 to 10.0 MHz
25 meter Band 11.5 to 12.0 MHz
20 meter Band (HAM) 14.0 to 14.5 MHz
19 meter Band (WWV@15 MHz) 15.0 to 15.5 MHz
16 meter Band 17.5 to 18.0 MHz
11 meter Band (CB) 27.0 to 27.5 MHz

so the 80m, 40m and 20m bands will cover the main HAM bands (80m / 40m most active at night, 40m / 20m most active during the day)

the WWV bands are for WWV time signal used mainly for calibration etc https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/time-distribution/radio-station-wwv

the CB band is for US (possibly some EU) but i think also some EU countries have 11m available for hams as well

the 49m, 31m and 16m just miss the relevant ham bands

Peter

M0PWX

[M0PWXParticipant]

Yep, sunspots are good, but if the sun throws a bunch of stuff at us (whats known as a coronal mass ejection) in our direction depending on the speed and density of it if the CME hits our atmosphere it can lead to HF blackouts

if you look at spaceweather on twitter or the NOAA https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/

[kr236rkParticipant]

Cool

Like a solar storm / wind?

I am going through the information you kindly posted, comparing it to what I see in the SX-190 manual.

The NASA site keys-in with my initial enthusiasm for low frequency VLF radio – but it was a huge disappointment where I live in SW Britain, all I got was static, which was lightning strikes around the globe. I’d need to be in Scandinavia to hear sun effects, associated with the Northern Lights, I think.

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