strange sounds above AM band in the 70's

[1L6E6VHF]

I know that LORAN-A (long range navigation) systems were not far above the AM broadcast band. They put severe restrictions and interference on the 160 meter amateur band (1800-2000 kHz).

LORAN-A was partially obsoleted by LORAN-C (a longwave system that was more accurate and less susceptible to skywave propagation), before it was fully obsoleted by GPS.

I don't know how close to the top of the band LORAN-A went, but that might be what you were hearing.

 

[KR4BD]

I believe the LORAN Stations were on 1850 and 1950 kHz right in the 160 meter ham band. They were loud, constant buzzing noise generating stations all over the country, but concentrated along the coasts and waterways if I remember correctly.

 

[gar hi]

Speaking of cell phones. If you had a television set made before the 80's you could pick up cellphones by tuning to the upper end of the uhf band around channel 83 and adjusting the fine tuning knob. Newer sets only tune up to channel 69, but a few b/w sets were still being made that tuned all the way to channel 83 up until digital tuning replaced knob- type tuners. The last time I heard a cell phone on TV set would have been in the 90's. I doubt you would hear much on upper UHF tv with today's newer digital phones.

That reminds me of when my older brother visited once from college in the early 70s and he had one of those multi band radios.

We would listen to these 'mobile phone' conversations on what I think it was somewhere on the VHF band.

They were hardly cell phones as we know them now but it was real interesting and entertaining to hear some of these conversations.

Some of the things these people were talking about was a lot better than anything you'd hear on any of those soap operas. ;D


Getting back to the original topic, I too remember pushing the radio knob above 1600 back then and I assumed that's where the shortwave band started because that's what it sounded like.

The X band today behaves a lot like shortwave.

 

[Bongwater]

Another reason they did away with the 1600-1720 police band, criminals were exploiting it. Namely the Mob. But radio savvy yokels could monitor the aftermath of their activities and by carefully listening to their conversations, he/she could decide their next target. And it didn't take much to retune a standard AM radio to these frequencies.

 

[Darth_vader]

[hijack]

"We would listen to these 'mobile phone' conversations on what I think it was somewhere on the VHF band. They were hardly cell phones as we know them now but it was real interesting and entertaining to hear some of these conversations."

Mobile Telephone Service (and later, the "Improved" version.) Existed on the 35/43, 152/157 and 454/459 MHz bands. It's sometimes thought of as a "0-G" cellular service, and some of the fancier installations apparently did have hand-off capability like true cellular systems do. Channel "JP" used to be active in this area untill well into the 2000s, although it just sat idle most of the time. I think Qwest finally pulled the plug back around 2006 or 2007; a casualty of the increased popularity of cellular/?DMA/GSM services.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Telephone_Service
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improved_Mobile_Telephone_Service
http://www.wb6nvh.com/MTSfiles/Carphone1.htm <--RECOMMENDED READING
[/hijack]