I have a portable digital radio that can tune in between AM stations and I have found several off-frequency ones. One of them is at 1696 kHz with some kind of home repair program on right now (in English) Another is located at 1713 kHz (in English) and one at 1717 kHz in Spanish. Another one I found was at 1675 kHz (religious program on). Anyone know where these might be from?
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Off-frequency AM station DX
- Thread starter Buckeyes2001
- Start date
Buckeyes2001 said:I have a portable digital radio that can tune in between AM stations and I have found several off-frequency ones. One of them is at 1696 kHz with some kind of home repair program on right now (in English) Another is located at 1713 kHz (in English) and one at 1717 kHz in Spanish. Another one I found was at 1675 kHz (religious program on). Anyone know where these might be from?
where are you?
I am in Vermilion, OH
I suspect you're hearing shortwave stations. I'm suspecting the first three are from Cuba and the last one from Nashville.
I think what's likely happening is that the "local oscillator" circuit in your radio is generating third harmonics -- a signal on 3 times the frequency it's supposed to generate a signal on. The math happens to be such that if you have these harmonics, powerful signals on the 6MHz/"49 meter" shortwave broadcast band will come in around 1700KHz on the AM dial. Even if your radio doesn't officially cover shortwave.
Assuming the "intermediate frequency' of your radio is 455KHz (a very common figure), the math works out for your radio to be susceptible to powerful signals on 6000KHz shortwave when tuned to 1696KHz. It would also be susceptible to 6050KHz when tuned to 1713; to 6060 when tuned to 1717; and to 5935 when tuned to 1675.
Cuba broadcasts in English on 6000 and 6050, and in Spanish on 6060, during evening "prime time" hours. WWCR Nashville uses 5935. Most (but not all) of the latter station's programs are religious in nature. Not entirely sure I would expect to hear a home improvement program on Radio Havana Cuba, but sometimes shortwave stations will surprise one...
I think what's likely happening is that the "local oscillator" circuit in your radio is generating third harmonics -- a signal on 3 times the frequency it's supposed to generate a signal on. The math happens to be such that if you have these harmonics, powerful signals on the 6MHz/"49 meter" shortwave broadcast band will come in around 1700KHz on the AM dial. Even if your radio doesn't officially cover shortwave.
Assuming the "intermediate frequency' of your radio is 455KHz (a very common figure), the math works out for your radio to be susceptible to powerful signals on 6000KHz shortwave when tuned to 1696KHz. It would also be susceptible to 6050KHz when tuned to 1713; to 6060 when tuned to 1717; and to 5935 when tuned to 1675.
Cuba broadcasts in English on 6000 and 6050, and in Spanish on 6060, during evening "prime time" hours. WWCR Nashville uses 5935. Most (but not all) of the latter station's programs are religious in nature. Not entirely sure I would expect to hear a home improvement program on Radio Havana Cuba, but sometimes shortwave stations will surprise one...
When you hear WWV somewhere up there, you know it's shortwave. Anyone ever hear a WWV image on 1590? I think you'd have to be pretty close for that. The key is that you will hear much faster fading of the oscillator harmonic images of SW than AM BC.
I have an old analog knob tuning AM radio that picks up shortwave even though its not supposed to. It does it by the harmonic effect explained above. I have logged WEWN, WWCR and WWRB so far from Upstate NY. The best time to try picking up shortwave on an AM radio is during the day since you don't get any AM skywave interference.
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