In North Central Oklahoma, there was an opening on Sunday
July 16 that lasted for hours.  I don't have a transmitter for 6,
but I do have a receiver and was listening to 6 which sounded
more like 20 because of the opening and the contest.  I also like
to listen to TV Channel 3 and the 30-50 MHZ VHF low band which
still has activity in it during openings.

	I live about 60 miles from Tulsa which has a Channel 2 so
things really have to be loud to overpower Tulsa's Channel 2 but
there are no normally-strong signals on Channel 3.  The nearest
Channel 3's are all over 100 miles from Stillwater and you can
certainly hear them from day to day, but any skip just rolls
right in and completely takes over.

	If you have a receiver that can do this, you should also
occasionally tune between 72 and 76 MHZ.  This little band
between TV Channels 4 and 5 is used for point-to-point wireless
distribution systens owned by paging companies which aren't
terribly exciting, but there are other uses such as remote
broadcast cuing systems, remote receivers which are part of
larger radio systems, and augmentation devices used to allow
listeners in a public auditorium or classroom who have hearing
difficulties to wear headsets that let them directly hear the
output of the public address system.

	I live near the OSU campus and have heard a few such
systems in buildings near by as well as a similar system in a
grade school that relayed the teacher's voice as she patiently
rode herd over her little charges.

	I have also heard somebody's radio reading service
somewhere when the 72-76 MHZ band was open, once.

	It was during the late 80's or early 90's and I could
tell it was a reading service but it faded out as usual before I
could get a positive ID.  I imagine it was using that band to
distribute the RRS signal to more than one FM transmitter in the
area.  This is also a European low-power ham band so if it is
ever really open, you might hear SSB or other emissions from
Europe.  While you can't transmit on that band, a few people have
tried crossband by listening in the 72-MHZ band and transmitting
back on ten or six.

	Mostly, when we have skip, you will hear digital garbage
from pagers but you will be able to tell the band is open.  Also,
75.0 MHZ is an aeronautical beacon frequency and many airports
use it, but there are no ID's which means you will hear signals
but can't tell where they are.

	Our working group used to have voice pagers which were on
the 158-MHZ band but the distribution link was 72. something MHZ.
I remember listening to our local paging transmitter and hearing
Sporadic E key it up from pagers hundreds of miles away.

	There are also radio-controlled model cars, boats and
planes which will sound like a steady AM buzz that kind of
changes tone as the operator guides the model around.  You are
apt to hear those on a nice day if there is a model airplane
event near your house.  In all, that band can be exciting to
listen to if you are patient.  It has been many months or even a
year or so since I have heard anything interesting there from

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
Systems Engineer
OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group