[ARC5] The World Below The Broadcast Band

[Mike Morrow]

Dennis wrote:

> After I restored my BC-453-B several years ago I started logging beacons
> with it using the 160M wire.  Being in an urban location on a city lot
> I usually had to wait until the neighbors were in bed to DX the NDB's.

A BC-453-B that my dad received through USAF MARS in the early 1960s
was the first piece of surplus equipment I ever used, starting in 1964.

NDBs seemed to be much more numerous, and the bands less noisy then.  Many
NDBs carried a lot of AM weather and terminal information as well.

I was too late to catch the earlier era of the directional Adcock beacons
and the airport towers operating on or near 278 kHz.  I think the last of
these operations closed down in the US in the very early 1960s.

But my main LF/MF listening interest from the start was the MF maritime Morse
band that occupied 405 to 535 kHz.  There were only a handful of ship MF
frequencies in standard use, and coast station frequencies were standard and
well-known.  At night, listening was a blast.  I listened to 500 kHz on many
nights right up to the cessation of commercial Morse operation on 12 July 1999.

I was one of the few USN people who liked going to sea, so after leaving active
duty I licensed for maritime radio officer (second class radiotelegraph license).
But just months afterwards I developed a permanent medical disqualification
for SOLAS duties...so no joy for getting what in my mind was THE most exciting
maritime position operating on THE most exciting radio band.  However, in 1991
I received a solicitation from one of the radio officer unions looking to fill
vacancies.

I miss MF maritime Morse band activity more than anything that has ever been
on the radio bands...including ham operation.  The BC-453-B with its BFO was
an amazingly useful device for covering the world below 560 kHz.  In late years
I used a AN/WRR-3B VLF/LF/MF receiver (all vacuum tubes) of the type found
on my ship (USS Daniel Boone).  But AN/BRR-3 VLF receivers did most of the real
work there.

73,
Mike / KK5F