What songs do you like hearing via skywave

[gr8oldies]

I remember being able to catch a couple of hours of Radio Luxembourg on shortwave from the US midwest on some evenings.

In the mid 80s, while serving onboard a US Submarine as a Radioman, on the mid-watch when things were slow, I would connect our new (at the time) Watkins-Johnson Tuner/Scanner to the HF-Tip of our Floating Wire Antenna and scan for radio stations in the Short-Wave and Medium Wave bands. I could always count on "Radio Luxembourg" to come in loud-and-clear! Their Top 40 format kept us up to date with current music while deployed. Many hours spend listening to this station while underway!

 

[davideduardo]

I remember being able to catch a couple of hours of Radio Luxembourg on shortwave from the US midwest on some evenings.

In the early 60's from Cleveland, the 1439 Radio Luxembourg signal was a benchmark for a northern European opening, 1466 in Monte Carlo was a benchmark for southern Europe and Morocco on 935 was the one for northern Africa and the Middle East.

If all three were coming in, judging which was best could identify targets and if there was more than one station on a frequency, the "opening" symptoms could help to identify a signal if the language was not a familiar one.

 

[secondchoice]

IMHO WSM 650 has always sound good (for AM) technically. I don't care for the music. When I live in a valley in western North Carolina in 1980 where the mountains were positioned exactly to wiped out OTA TV and FM for about a quarter of mile area that covered my house, at night I could get the old WGAR 1220 out of Cleveland OH.

 

[secondchoice]

Getting back to the original topic, Most of the Phil Spector produced songs sound great on local or skywave AM. I remember playing Sleigh Ride and the mod meter on the board barely moved. There is something to be said about multiple dub tracks the created "the wall of sound". Al Green's and The Spinners' songs sounded sounded good on WLAC when driving in rural in south Mississippi and Alabama in the early 1970's

 

[Goldilocks94941]

On the rare occasion I hear "Band on the Run" played somewhere by Paul McCartnet & Wings, i still imagine hearing it with just enought skywave phasing from WOWO to make it interesting, on those lonely late night drives from signing off the station in Archbold Ohio on the drive back to where i lived 40 miles away.
15WLAC also put in a massively strong signal at night in NW Ohio, as Spider Harris introduced this young white boy to some really great R&B and hardcore blues.

Those big directional AM signals gave the music a real energy boost that sounded great on those AM-only car radios back then.

 

[spiritof67]

WLAC had similar propagation qualities that shortwave stations had, due to its dial position. In 1979, I heard "Birthday" by The Beatles played on the station, and the skywave and phasing during the instrumental midsection of the song sounded awesome. The same can be said for Heart's "Barracuda." I heard that song on WLS while camping one night. Their audio chain, plus propagation, enhanced that song.

 

[CTListener]

The Small Faces' "Itchycoo Park" had such heavy phasing in its vocal bridge that I remember, as a kid, thinking that my radio was drifting off frequency when I heard it!