As far as I remember, that band was never a ham band.  It was occupied by 
some carrier-current devices (which ran over power lines).  It's actually 
part of the long-wave broadcast band.  I think that a lot of experiments 
were carried out by hams and others using equipment that complied with Part 
15.  Because antennas are so inefficient at those frequencies, you could put 
a lot of RF into an antenna and still not radiate much.  Official 
internationally-agreed allocations are around 137 and 475 KHz, although I 
don't remember which of those are fully legal in the USA at the moment.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Phil Scovell
Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2013 12:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 170 to 190 KHz

Is that still a ham band and has anyone ever heard any beacons on it =
before?  I read an article about a guy in Canada and a guy in England =
that actually made a contact using software the sent and received dits =
at 30 seconds and dashes at 90 seconds, or something like that, and =
actually established a contact many years ago.

Phil.
K0NX


Phil.
Living His Name