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What to listen to · Amateur radio
SSB on 40 metres: 7150 kHz, voice on the lower sideband
The 40 m voice segment is where Europe talks in the evening: nets, round tables and contests from 7060 to 7200 kHz, all on the lower sideband. What 7150 kHz sounds like and when the band reaches furthest.
What you hear
Voices, as described in the main article, but on the lower sideband: tune 7150 kHz in LSB; in USB the speech is gibberish. By day the band carries stations within a few hundred kilometres, and the talk is local: national-language round tables, club nets, friends who meet daily at the same hour. After sunset the whole continent arrives, a voice every three kilohertz, and late at night a few stations from the Americas appear among them.
Who transmits and why
Everyone with a licence and an evening free. 40 m is the home band of ordinary conversation in Europe, the band for an hour of talk after work; it also carries contests on weekends and the emergency and traffic nets of several countries. In Europe the voice part runs from about 7060 to 7200 kHz; the Americas have the band up to 7300, and strong broadcasters sit just above the European edge.
When and where to listen
Late afternoon through the night, with the busiest hours from 17:00 to 22:00 local time; winter nights reach furthest, summer nights are short and noisy. A receiver in central Europe hears the most. The dial is 7150 kHz in LSB, the mode the catalogue sets.
In ShackDeck
Station catalogue → Amateur radio → SSB 40 m. The program picks a public receiver covering 7150 kHz, tunes it and sets LSB with the voice passband; a click on a signal in the waterfall puts the voice on pitch. No receiver, antenna or account of your own is needed.