I remember as if yesterday the many thrilling stations I heard on my old AM
broadcast receiver that had short wave bands and stations like BBC marked on
the dial. This was back in 10th grade, I'd get up at 4 am to listen to
stations roaring into my New Jersey home from hundreds and thousands of miles
away. Even then, I knew 80 meters was a night time band and especially good in
the early morning.
It was an old AM broadcast radio with a wooden cabinet, built in speaker, not
even a band spread or any sort of filter, but it had shortwave capability.
The old receiver worked especially well, I thought at the time, when connected
to an external wire antenna strung on a 20 foot Birch Tree "tower" that my Dad
had cut down for me and erected outside my bedroom window.
One morning before day break I heard a search for a freighter on the Great
Lakes. The Coast Guard cutters' conversations were booming in around 3
megacycles. An ore carrying freighter was missing in a violent storm. I could
hear the strain of the Coast Guard transmissions, querying other ships whether
there was any sight of the freighter through the gloom and driving rain. I
listened until the sun came up and the band faded away. The ship was never
found, I read in the papers several days later. The search was abandoned.
No future television program was ever as exciting as that morning long ago.
73....John Bescher, N4DXI
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