We’ve been looking at the various types of frequencies that we use to listen to the radio, covering both standard FM and AM. But there’s more to AM radio than what you can get in your car.
What we listen to in North America is also called “medium wave,” because our AM is right in the middle of the spectrum allocated to this kind of broadcasting. Below standard AM is longwave, which occupies the frequencies between 148.5 and 283.5 kHz. What’s longwave used for?
Parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia use longwave in conjunction with regular AM. Then we have shortwave, which operates from somewhere between 2.3 and beyond 30 MHz. It’s used for ultra-long-distance international broadcasting. It’s been around since the early 20th century.
More next time,
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