In Europe and Asia, medium-wave and long-wave stations often run more than
50 KW.  I think that this is one of the reasons why so many tuners in home
stereo systems are built for low sensitivity.  The highest powered AM
station I know of is BSKSA in Dhabbaya, Saudi Arabia, which runs 2 megawatts
on 1521 KHz.  In many parts of the world you can at least hear the
heterodyne.  I was able to copy its audio from Ocean City, NJ on a DX402
with WKWB Buffalo nulled out.

Ground wave AM propagation works very well over salt water, and quite well
over Midwest farmland.  Rocky terrain is quite bad compared to this.  
73,
Lloyd Rasmussen, W3IUU, Kensington, Maryland
Home:  http://lras.home.sprynet.com
Work:  http://www.loc.gov/nls
 www.facebook.com/lloyd.rasmussen

> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Dave Marthouse
> Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2009 4:22 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: anyone wanna try a 40-meter sked this Sunday?
> 
> That 500 kw experiment ran from 1936 to 1939.  There was an attempt to
> establish other 500 KW stations but the FCC canceled the experimental
> authorizations.  Another interesting historical footnote is that one of
> the
> 500 kw transmitters made by RCA in Camden New Jersey that was scheduled to
> go to one of the New York city stations ended up in England as the key
> transmitter for Radio aspidistra, an anti-nazi clandestine station.
> 
> Dave Marthouse N2AAM
> [log in to unmask]