Radio Static

About a month ago I bought a multi-band world radio receiver, including a scale from 520-1600 kHz, which is supposedly quake sensitive. I can say that the scale is indeed sensitive to many factors. Reception is much better in the evening than in the morning or during storms, so this does not necessarily indicate a quake.

Three days ago, in the evening I found a "strange" situation, where I could easily receive stations east, south, or north from here, and a station about 50 miles west, but could not receive a station in Italy, further west. A day later news reported a Richter 3 quake about 100 miles west from here. This may be a coincidence, but I guess is not. I'll try to do a more systematic approach (exactly locate radio stations, monitor receptions daily, etc.) and if I find something of interest I'll post it here.

If a $30 radio can save your life, why not? :)

Kiko

520-1600 khz corresponds to AM (amplitude modulation) radio stations within the Us and Canada, just in case you didn't know. When the sun goes down AM shoots up into the sky. If the sky is clear, you can get stations from thousands of miles away. Some US stations such as WJR 760AM, WABC 770AM, CKLW 800AM, and many more are referred to as "clear channel" stations. This means that they are the only station east of the Rocky Mountains with that frequency and they can be heard in all states east of the Rockies on a "clear night". The key is how clear the night is over how much geography.

This is the most likely case of your station reception. What was the weather in Italy vs. the rest of the continent?

John