News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Long Wave radio era set to end with Droitwich switch-off. Parent comment

Re:Long Wave radio era set to end with Droitwich switch-off by yakkers on Saturday June 27, 2026 @12:20AM (#48695097)
There’s still a lot of utility stations in the LF/longwave band. Particularly time signals (WWVB in the US, ALS162 in France, DCF77 in Germany, JJY in Japan, etc.) and NDB beacons.

At least in VK/Australia, there’s the 2200 meter band, but it’s quite limited (1W power limit, CW/digital only, 135.7–137.8 kHz).

At the same time, as much as I don’t want the AM broadcast band to die, I’d love an amateur band in the lower/middle part of MF/MW.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Long Wave radio era set to end with Droitwich switch-off by bilegeek on Saturday June 27, 2026 @12:57AM (#48695269)
> There’s still a lot of utility stations in the LF/longwave band. Particularly time signals (WWVB in the US, ALS162 in France, DCF77 in Germany, JJY in Japan, etc.)

I meant just the broadcast band 148.5-283.5 kHz. (Though I'd love if 2200m and 630m were just a bit wider.)

> and NDB beacons.

Good point[1]. So 148.5-200 kHz in ITU Region 2 (and keep LowFER allowances on 160-190kHz as a consolation prize.)

[1]https://www.dxinfocentre.com/ndb.htm

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Long Wave radio era set to end with Droitwich switch-off by ErroneousBosh on Saturday June 27, 2026 @05:14AM (#48696556)
In the UK we have 2200m but it's 1W *ERP*, so you're probably running a good couple of kW to get there with any practicable aerial.

We've also got a chunk just off the bottom of MW around 475kHz, which ought to be good for long-range night-time communications. It's licenced for CW, QRSS, and narrow-band digital modes.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Long Wave radio era set to end with Droitwich switch-off by pfdietz on Saturday June 27, 2026 @10:07AM (#48698439)
> Particularly time signals

Doesn't GPS utterly replace this?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Long Wave radio era set to end with Droitwich switch-off by mrob on Saturday June 27, 2026 @10:15AM (#48698502)
Longwave penetrates buildings better than GPS and is harder to jam.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Long Wave radio era set to end with Droitwich switch-off by rafski123 on Saturday June 27, 2026 @10:13AM (#48698491)
Many wall clocks and wrist watches (Casio WaveCeptors) plus cars set their times from radio.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Long Wave radio era set to end with Droitwich switch-off by ballooney on Saturday June 27, 2026 @12:21PM (#48699534)
In no way whatsoever, for low power devices.
[ Parent | on HN ]