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The longwave radio
Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic radiation with frequency below those of visible light.Electromagnetic radiation radio propagation by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space....
 band is a range of frequencies used for AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting

AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation....
, which extends from 148.5 to 283.5 kHz. It falls within the low-frequency
Low frequency

Low Frequency or LF refers to Radio Frequency in the range of 30 kHz–300 kHz. In Europe, and parts of North Africa and of Asia, part of the LF spectrum is used for longwave service....
 (LF) part of the radio spectrum (30–300 kHz).

Unlike the medium wave band, which is widely used throughout the world, the longwave band is only used for broadcasting within ITU region 1, i.e. Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, the Middle East
Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
 west of the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes Persian Gulf naming dispute referred to as the Arabian Gulf by certain Arab countries or simply The Gulf, although nei...
 including Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Mongolia
Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and People's Republic of China to the south, east and west....
.

Typically, a larger area can be covered by a longwave broadcast transmitter than a medium-wave one.






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Encyclopedia


The longwave radio
Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic radiation with frequency below those of visible light.Electromagnetic radiation radio propagation by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space....
 band is a range of frequencies used for AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting

AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation....
, which extends from 148.5 to 283.5 kHz. It falls within the low-frequency
Low frequency

Low Frequency or LF refers to Radio Frequency in the range of 30 kHz–300 kHz. In Europe, and parts of North Africa and of Asia, part of the LF spectrum is used for longwave service....
 (LF) part of the radio spectrum (30–300 kHz).

Unlike the medium wave band, which is widely used throughout the world, the longwave band is only used for broadcasting within ITU region 1, i.e. Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, the Middle East
Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
 west of the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in the Southwest Asian region, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Historically and commonly known as the Persian Gulf, this body of water is sometimes Persian Gulf naming dispute referred to as the Arabian Gulf by certain Arab countries or simply The Gulf, although nei...
 including Iraq
Iraq

Iraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros Mountains, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Mongolia
Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and People's Republic of China to the south, east and west....
.

Typically, a larger area can be covered by a longwave broadcast transmitter than a medium-wave one. This is because ground-wave propagation suffers less attenuation due to limited ground conductivity
Ground conductivity

Ground conductivity refers to the electrical conductivity of the subsurface of the earth....
 at lower frequencies.

Carrier frequencies

Carrier frequencies are exact multiples of 9 kHz ranging from 153 to 279 kHz, except for two stations in Germany on 177 kHz and 183 kHz.

Until the 1970s, some longwave stations in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
 operated on frequencies as high as 400 kHz, and there was even a station on 433 kHz in Finland
Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland , is a Nordic countries situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland....
.. However broadcasting on frequencies above 400kHz can cause interference to reception by superhet receivers as some intermediate frequencies can be as low as 430 kHz, although in practice most IFs are between 450 and 470kHz. This caveat applies even to double-conversion receivers as the second IF is still 450 - 470kHz.

Some stations, for instance Droitwich in the UK, derive their carrier frequencies from an atomic clock
Atomic clock

An atomic clock is a type of clock that uses an atomic resonance frequency standard as its timekeeping element. They are the most accurate time and frequency standards known, and are used as primary standards for international Time dissemination, and to control the frequency of television broadcasts and GPS satellite signals....
. They can be therefore used as frequency standard
Frequency standard

A frequency standard is a stable electronic oscillator used for frequency calibration or reference. A frequency standard generates a fundamental frequency with a high degree of accuracy and precision....
s.

ITU regions 2 and 3

Outside region 1, there is no longwave broadcasting.

In North America during the 1970s the frequencies 167, 179 and 191 kHz were assigned to the short-lived Public Emergency Radio of the United States
Public Emergency Radio of the United States

The Public Emergency Radio of the United States was a communications system conceived during the cold war era in the 1970s for use in case of a national emergency....
. Nowadays the 160-190 kHz range is used in the United States for Part 15 LowFER
LowFER

LowFER is a license-free form of two-way radio communications practiced on frequencies below 500 kHz....
 amateur and experimental stations, and the 190-435 kHz band is used for navigational beacons
Non-directional beacon

A Non-directional beacon is a radio transmitter at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. As the name implies, the signal transmitted does not include inherent directional information, in contrast to other navigational aids such as VHF omnidirectional range and TACAN....
.

List of longwave broadcasting transmitters


List of the most important longwave broadcasting transmitters (Source: and World Radio TV Handbook
World Radio TV Handbook

The World Radio TV Handbook, known also with the acronym WRTH, is a directory of virtually every Radio station and TV station on Earth, published yearly....
).

Height Diagram1


See also

  • Low frequency
    Low frequency

    Low Frequency or LF refers to Radio Frequency in the range of 30 kHz–300 kHz. In Europe, and parts of North Africa and of Asia, part of the LF spectrum is used for longwave service....
    : for other uses (military, commercial and amateur) of this part of the radio spectrum (30-300 kHz)
  • Electromagnetic spectrum
    Electromagnetic spectrum

    The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible electromagnetic radiation frequencies. The "electromagnetic spectrum" of an object is the characteristic distribution of electromagnetic radiation from that particular object....
    : Very low frequency
    Very low frequency

    Very low frequency or VLF refers to radio frequency in the range of 3 kHz to 30 kHz. Since there is not much Bandwidth in this band of the radio spectrum, only the very simplest signals are used, such as for radio navigation....
    , Shortwave
    Shortwave

    Shortwave radio operates in the frequency range of 3,000 kHz to 30,000 kHz . In radio, short wavelength corresponds to high frequency given the inverse relationship between frequency and wavelength, thus, ?shortwave radio? is denominated so, because its wavelengths are shorter than the long wave-lengths used in early radio communications; m...
    , Groundwave, Skywave
    Skywave

    Skywave is the Radio propagation of radio waves bent back to the Earth's surface by the ionosphere. As a result of skywave propagation, a Broadcasting signal from a distant AM broadcasting station at night, or from a shortwave radio station can sometimes be heard as clearly as local stations....
    , Mediumwave
    Mediumwave

    Medium Wave is a part of the Medium frequency radio band used mainly for AM broadcasting. Some experiments and trials are planned or under way for a digital modulation such as Digital Radio Mondiale ....
  • Radio
    Radio

    Radio is the transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic radiation with frequency below those of visible light.Electromagnetic radiation radio propagation by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space....
     broadcasting    : AM radio, BBC Radio 4
    BBC Radio 4

    BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history....
    , BBC Light Programme
    BBC Light Programme

    The Light Programme was a BBC radio station which broadcast mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the longwave frequency used before 1939 by the BBC National Programme....
    , Radio clock
    Radio clock

    A radio clock is a clock that is synchronized by a time code bit stream transmitted by a radio transmitter connected to a time standard such as an atomic clock....
    , Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française, Warsaw radio mast
    Warsaw radio mast

    The Warsaw radio mast was the List of tallest buildings and structures in the world until its collapse on 8 August 1991.The Radio masts and towers, which was designed by Jan Polak, was tall....
    , Digital Radio Mondiale
    Digital Radio Mondiale

    Digital Radio Mondiale is a set of digital radio technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for AM broadcasting, particularly shortwave....
    , International broadcasting
    International broadcasting

    International broadcasting is broadcasting that is deliberately aimed at a foreign, rather than a domestic, audience. It usually is broadcast by means of longwave, mediumwave, or shortwave radio, but in recent years has also used direct satellite broadcasting and the Internet as means of reaching audiences....
    ,
  • Shipping: Satellite navigation system, Navigation
    Navigation

    Navigation is the process of reading, and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks....
    , Shipping Forecast
    Shipping Forecast

    The Shipping Forecast is a four-times-daily BBC radio broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles....
  • Lists: List of wave topics
    List of wave topics

    This is a list of wave topics....
  • Other: 1 E3 m
    1 E3 m

    To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists lengths between 1 km and 10 km .1 E+2 m...
    , National Institute of Standards and Technology
    National Institute of Standards and Technology

    The National Institute of Standards and Technology , known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards , is a measurement standards laboratory which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce....
    , Fail-Safe
    Fail-safe

    Fail-safe or fail-secure describes a device or feature which, in the event of Failure mode, responds in a way that will cause no harm or at least a minimum of harm to other devices or danger to personnel....
    , WGU-20
    Wgu-20

    WGU-20, also known as "the last radio station," was operated by the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency in the mid-to-late 1970s....


External links

  • Tomislav Stimac, "". IK1QFK Home Page.
  • - The premier club for MW/LW enthusiasts
  • - Published regularly since 1954
  • "".* (German)