I have to move off a 1700 down to the next clearest freq 1630. The county decided they want a Traveler information Highway Advisory radio system on 1700. 1630 has more noise from the power lines etc. But the fewest stations on it. But it's going to have to work, not many other options.
I think I've brought this up before I think, but years ago when I had the Rangemaster installed atop of the city's public pavilion on the beach, I was broadcasting 1700 too (its the only frequency I've ever used, though I do have a 1630 crystal too).
Almost every year a bunch of antique car enthusiasts (some kind of club) drive their old cars to the beach for the day and congregate in the main beach parking lot. Tourist are welcome to walk through and admire the cars, I noticed in one car the radio was playing.. The original stock AM radio that came with the car.. those AM radios that only go up to 1600...
And that made me think -- What a shame, I've had a AM broadcast that was receivable island wide, but probably the only people playing an AM radio were these antique car enthusiast- on AM radios that are unable to pick up my 1700 broadcast.
Even if I had switched to the 1630 crystal they probably still couldn't have received it (I actually considered broadcasting without a crystal at all because I had discovered one day, quite by accident, that if you dont insert the crystal it will broadcast across the entire AM band! - Any AM receiver picks it up no matter what frequency it's set to! .Of course I didn't actually follow through, but I did consider it just for the duration of the day.
Anyway, that's when it really occurred to me that vintage AM radios are unable to receive most Part 15 broadcast.... But there is at least one exception I know of in Buete Montana (Retro Radio 1490 AM). He had bought a huge lot of antique radios to sell in his store front. So he bought a Procaster to provde audio to them so the customers could be sure the radios worked, because AM reception in the area was spotty.
By no means am I suggesting you move down below 1600, it would kill the range too much. But it is a shame that if someone has an old AM rado he cant pick it up - or even a brand new rado from China many of which only goes up to 1600 today.
But Part 15bis full of compromises isn't it?
Incidentally, I've never been forced to change frequencies from 1700, but I did have to discontinue my "call letters" WTYB ,which I had used for years until a Savannah station adopted thos letters.
A lot of vintage tube radios did go to 1700.
Here's a typical radio(s) that did and would get part 15 stations. There are lots like this.
@mark You know, that's never really occurred to me, but I guess some would, however there were also some that went only up to 1530kz thereabouts... but I don't know radios, I presume the majority of manufactured radios in any given era corresponded with the primary broadcast bands or its era. Of course shortwave receivers were common too.
I have to move off a 1700 down to the next clearest freq 1630. ... 1630 has more noise from the power lines etc. ...
I wonder why that is... because the weaker field strength 1630 produces can't overcome the power line interference?-- or is 1630 more prone to interference from powerlines?
What I mean is the frequency itself (1610kz) more prone to interference coming from powerlines then 1700?
@richpowers Actually for some reason 1630 here is the one frequency with more power line noise, than the rest of the AM band. I think it's more prone to it. 1700 is quiet almost noise free here. But gotta scoot sadly, let the county have it.
There's always 1340 which has been abandoned by a broadcaster and it's license cancelled. That's could always be used. Probably be worse than 1630. Especially at night being that it's a graveyard frequency.
Never heard the term graveyard frequency before. You know the lower the frequency the lower the range (with a compliant install anyway).
That "Retro Radio 1490 AM" has his Procaster 50' up (or did years ago). Even though he was on on 1490 he bragged how the signal could be picked up about 7 miles away.. but your talking about totally open country out there.
@richpowers Term graveyard or graveyarder is because certain AM frequencies are local stations that operate at 1,000 watts or less 24/7. 1230, 1240, 1330, 1340, 1400, 1430, 1440, 1490 etc. I'm in the city I don't get coverage to north like I do to the south, east and west. About half mile north and around 2 miles in other directions. Due to buildings lines and other stuff this messes with AM.
Here's a link about graveyard frequencies
https://nationalradioclub.org/articles/DXingtheGraveyardChannelsRev1.pdf
Here's a link about graveyard frequencies
https://nationalradioclub.org/articles/DXingtheGraveyardChannelsRev1.pdf
That's pretty interesting. I read parts of it and skimmed through all of it. The first line confirms what you said: "The most crowded channels are the AM broadcast band are the so called “Graveyard” channels of 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450, and 1490khz. On average, there are 150+ stations operating on each frequency ...."
Hmm.. with foodservice graveyard shift is generally the least crowed, it's quiet... like a graveyard. That makes sense.
But why would the most crowded portions of the AM band be called the graveyard? it's noisy and active. How does that make any sense?
But as I read on quotes of various dx enthusiasts, I began to realize they were actually talking about the best times to dx, generally sunrise, sunset, and late night.. and then this particular quote caught my attention:
"That has changed over the years. It used to be between 2300 and 0105
local time. Second best would be 0100-0300 for then-common frequency checks. Today, I'm not sure if there is a 'best time', but sunrise and sunset enhancements apply to all channels equally, so that might be the best shot today.-Russ Edmunds"
Ok, he's talking around midnight - now that makes more sense, and then near the very end it says this:
"So, you’ve gotten the bug and want to become a “gravedigger”… where should you turn for even more information about logging these elusive stations..."
Ah-ha! So your digging in the graveyard, trying to pull up a signal.. best time to do it is around midnight.. It's starting to make sense. So just now googled it and found the real story behind the graveyard channels in a short blog post over at Arcane Radio Trivia, https://tenwatts.blogspot.com/2007/03/graveyard-frequencies.html you ought to check it out, but here's one quote from it explaining why the dxers call it that:
"...The DXer's dubbed them "Graveyard channels." That was because each of those frequencies was home to 300 stations in the lower 48. This makes picking out any single station almost impossible. If this sort of challenging DX’ing appeals to you be sure to visit the Graveyard DX blog here. It's inactive, but very telling...."
All interesting stuff, graveyard channels and such, still having a little mental block though on why it's called that.
I realized it proubally would have been better to carry my last post over to a new thread, so came back to delete this and copy it into a new one, but I was too late.
.@richpowers Actually for some reason 1630 here is the one frequency with more power line noise, than the rest of the AM band. ....
I googled "is 1630 AM more suspect to interference from power lines than other am frequencies?"
Google's AI Overview said:
"Yes, the 1630 AM frequency is generally more susceptible to interference from power lines than other AM frequencies, especially those in the higher end of the AM band. Power-line noise is often most pronounced at the lower end of the radio spectrum, and the 1630 AM frequency falls within this range."
It cited this ARRL page: https://www.arrl.org/power-line-noise
@richpowers Isn't surprising that it is. 1620 there's less, but it's not useful because of another TIS station 1 county over is on it. It can be heard here. Not strongly but enough it could be problematic.
1620 shouldn't be clearer than 1630, not if its powerline noise..
I emphasize the quote I provided in my last post was from the google ai summary, and the only reason it specifies 1630 is because my question specified 1630 - (it gave a slanted response) however it cites that ARRL page as it source of information... But the ARRL doesnt even mention 1630 at all. Here's what it does say..
... It is typically a broad banded type of noise starting at the low end of the radio spectrum. Power-line noise is usually stronger on lower frequencies. It occurs continuously across each band, up through the spectrum to some upper frequency where it will taper off." https://www.arrl.org/power-line-noise