530 KHZ

I'm thinking it's reserved for TIS stations?

This LINK lists quite a few TIS stations on 530 kHz.

While hunting for carrier current frequencies in the low end of the MW band, I checked out 530 kHz.

15.221 (CC rules) allow 525-1705 kHz.

BUT, there was a TIS station operating on that channel across the river in Illinois which was strong enough here, 7-miles west of the river, to be heard on auto radios.

15.219 allows 510-1707 kHz, so you could use 530 or even 520, but with a 3-meter antenna? Might be a lost cause.

There are a few Canadian BCB stations

on 530.  Some have 4 letter callsigns

starting with the letter C but are only

50 watts.  There are a few other low

power stations that have "LP" callsigns -

I think.  These are only 50 watts. 

There are 2 stations on 530 in Canada

that are 1000 day and 250 night.  I am

almost certainly hearing CIAO in Brampton, Ontario. 

The station is listed as a multicultural format

- but when I have tuned them in at night -

I have only heard strange music - it almost

sounds like the old "elevator music" from

years ago.  No vocals.  And I have not been

able to get any IDs.  20 years ago CIAO

was a rock station, and it sounded good at

night if the band was open.  Real good - but

that was a long time ago. 

There are 2 carrier current stations that are

listed from colleges in the U.S.  I don't know

if they are still running on 530.

There is one other 530 kHz 1000 day/250 night

in Canada - and this station is in Alberta.  Too

far away for me to hear. 

I would love to put my CC station on 530.  But

actually - there is a Long Island station on 540

that barrels in during the day.  Well - on a really

good radio, anyway.  I have put my SS-Tran on 530.

It didn't go very far -but then again - I didn't try very hard. 

Just for trivia - I have heard split frequency stations

on the low end of the AM BCB - 535, 545, and 555 kHz

from the Carribean. 

They have all been turned off.  555 was the last to go -

a few years ago.  I liked it.  It was in English language

and ran the BBC news.  I sort of miss them. 

Ten or 15 years ago, and for a long time -

there was a 530 TIS in Connecticut.  Because

of groundwave it had a HUGE footprint.  Maybe

that's why it isn't on anymore.  I heard it in

Hartford, but it was about 10 or 20 miles away. 

I'll have to try to figure out what the 530  in

Ontario is doing now. 

If anyone wants to try Part 15 on 530 - well -

you would think that the groundwave would

help the signal a lot.  But I believe somebody

already did the math for field strength from

a Part 15.219 perspective and the numbers

weren't very good.  But maybe they did not

take groundwave into account. 

Bruce

IT may be fortunate that 530 kHz came into the conversation, because now that we are talking about it, come to think of it, that Illinois TIS station that WAS on 530 hasn't been heard in a long time.

Indeed I may have been asleep, because 530 might be JUST RIGHT for carrier current here in the midwaste.

Tomorrow I'll set the car radio on 530 and let you know what I find.

From what I've noticed a lot of TIS stations drift into ill repair because no one spends the money to get them repaired.

It might be fun with the Talking House or SStran rigs to experiment.  Especially since the comments about ground wave came into the discussion.  Maybe a trasnmitter at the base of the mono-pole antenna with a good ground plane.  Comments anyone? Also, has anyone considered the Talking House for CC operation at this low frequency?  Certified from 520 to 1610 KHZ.

Here are the numbers using NEC4 for a 3-meter monopole of 3/4" OD with its base a few inches above the surface of the earth, driven against a set of 8, evenly-spaced radial wires each 6 meters long and 4mm OD and buried in 8 mS/m d.c. 13 earth, centered at the base of the monopole.  An unmodulated carrier power of 90 milliwatts is applied to the input of the loading coil at the base of the monopole.

530 kHz (coil R = 30 ohms):  Groundwave Field at 1 km = 37 µV/m

1650 kHz (coil R = 15 ohms):  Groundwave Field at 1 km = 132 µV/m

These groundwave fields at 1 km include the propagation loss across the 8 mS/m d.c. 13 earth.  Those losses are greater at 1650 kHz than they are at 530 kHz, but that is not enough to make up for the greatly different powers these two systems radiate.

Other factors in determining these fields are:

(1) the different resistances of the loading coil needed to resonate the 3-m monopole, and

(2) the radiation resistance of this 3-m monopole is about ten times greater on 1650 kHz than it is on 530 kHz.

The radio noise level usually is higher at the lower end of the AM broadcast band, so the 530 kHz field at 1 km would need to be at very quiet location, and the AM receive system would need to be unusually good for that signal to be very useful there.

One kilometer (km) = 0.6214 miles

Thanks, Rich.  I kinda thought that. Now that being said, what if anything would much longer ground radials have if say they were bare copper and in contact with the soil. The 8 mS/m is typical for my area as you know.

Drove around at 11 AM CDT and was able to detect the TIS (Traffic Information Station) coming from the Illinois Department of Transportation, about 8-miles away. I'll do a search to find exactly where their transmitter is located,

The audio quality was severely garbled, an actual kind of electronic distortion, made all the worse by the limited frequency response imposed on TIS stations.

I was unable to de-code the words, maybe the announcer was poor, but with the other quality problaems it was not possible to judge.

Anyway, 530 isn't open for me to use.

Not much difference, because r-f currrents flowing in the earth around the monopole would have much more resistance in the path through the earth to reach the longer parts of those 8 radials. 

The NEC model used bare copper radials wires buried in the earth,

Thanks, Rich

520 KHZ?

between 520 kHz and 530 kHz.