My newly acquired but not yet recapped RCA 330 seems to cover the traditional AM band, but also 1400 - 2800 KC., according the the service sheet.

I am very new to this, and just wonder what is, or was on that 1400 - 2800 segment, besides "Police"?

A corollary question is basic antenna configuration for this machine, considering its bands?

Hi,
Police used around 1700 and 2400 in the old days. Later the BCB was expanded and 2.0-2.8 evolved into marine service. Not much left these days. The 160 meter ham band is still there, 1.8-2.0 Mcs.

Commercial marine radio used to be active in this area. I think 2182 kc was a "distress frequency" for ships.

You may be able to get WWV time signals at 2500 Kc.

For the 160 ham band (1800 to 2000 kc) you will need a BFO; most activity is SSB or CW (Morse).

I would use as long a length of wire as I could manage. Outdoors and high up. At night, you should hear some activity with 20 ft. of wire... maybe indoors, depending on your location.

Rich

http://jproc.ca/rrp/distress.html

Thanks.

BCB, BFO (Blinding Flash of the Obvious?).. I need to look up acronyms!

BCB = Broadcast Band. The typical AM segment from 530 to 1700 kc.

BFO = Beat Frequency Oscillator. An extra oscillator in the receiver that sends out a signal that will "mix" with the incoming signal. This makes Morse code sound like audio beeps instead of "quiet interspersed with background noise."


Rich

The police moved to VHF FM and also UHF many decades ago and the BCB band goes to 1700 now. The 160M AM activity is around 1950-1990 many evenings and often the wee hours.

Carl

I remember listening to the Marine Telephone operators back in the 60s. The service was
in the 2 MHz region, as I recall. It sounded like a ham radio telephone patch.
It was a radio-telephone system for boaters. No much privacy; it was on AM and anyone
could listen in. And I'd bet it was an expensive service since it required a marine operator
to make and complete the telephone call.

Pete

Early cordless phones had one side of the conversation around 1700 KHz.

160 M activity out here is across the whole band. We get a good bit in the 1800 - 1900 segment. I can't load my antenna on 160 unless I configure it as an end-fed L. Right now it's sort of a G5RV.

Rich

I remember having a car stereo a few years back with a weird glitch. If you shorted a couple of buttons out, the PLL tuner would go up to about 2500 mHz. I would get a weird talk show every night at about 2400 on the band.

Nothing wrong with an end feed L. That is probably the best most of us can do for a very
effective 160 meter antenna. The radial system is the challenge. That's my fall project

I remember hearing those cordless phones around 1700kc; a few neighbors had them.
As I recall, they may have used narrow-band FM?

I think they used AM. 49 mHz phones used NBFM. I used to hear them on my scanner all the time back in the '90s.

You're right, the old five channel system in the 1700 kc range was AM.

Pete

They were officially AM but sure drifted and FMed the audio. I used to have a lot of fun with those using them as Id tune the 6M transverter and TS-940 down below 6M and switch to NBFM.
Heard some real X rated conversations between married women and their boyfriends.

Around NE the full 160M band is used but AM stays up on the high end, CW at the low end and slop bucket in between.

Carl