ShackDeck
Sign in
Download Free Now
What to listen to · Amateur radio
FT8 on 160 metres: 1840 kHz, top band at night
The lowest amateur band is a winter night band: big antennas, static, and signals that creep in only after sunset. FT8 on 1840 kHz lets small stations hear what used to take a kilowatt and a tower.
What you hear
The FT8 chorus of the main article, buried in a different kind of noise. On 1840 kHz the background is a crackle of distant thunderstorms and the hum of everything electrical for miles around, and the stripes are faint. By day there are none; after sunset the neighbours appear, and in the depth of a winter night the decodes reach across Europe and sometimes to the far side of the Atlantic.
Who transmits and why
160 m is called top band, and it belongs to patient operators with large antennas and quiet locations. Before FT8 an intercontinental contact here was an achievement for the well-equipped; now an ordinary station can take part, and award hunters who need a country on every band come here for the hardest ones. The segment around 1840 kHz is where the narrow digital modes live, just above the CW part of the band.
When and where to listen
Night only, and the longer the night the better: November to February, from an hour after sunset until dawn, with the DX around midnight and at sunrise at the far end of the path. Summer is nearly hopeless because of static. A rural receiver with a low noise floor is everything. The dial is 1840 kHz, USB.
In ShackDeck
Station catalogue → Amateur radio → FT8 160 m. The program picks a public receiver that covers 1840 kHz, sets FT8 mode and decodes into the On air list and the map every fifteen seconds, with no receiver, antenna or account of your own.