Shortwave broadcasting band spectrum occupancy and signal levels in the continental United States and Western Europe

The initial results are described for monitoring using a mobile spectrum monitoring unit (MSMU) that has the capability of fast sampling of radio signals in the frequency spectrum between 2 MHz and 1 GHz. In the summer and autumn of 1987, the MSMU was used to measure signal level and spectrum occupancy in the shortwave band (2-30 MHz) at four locations in the continental United States (CONUS) (i.e. Stanford, California; Ft. Huachuca, Arizona; Ft. Sill, Oklahoma; and Annapolis, Maryland) and at two locations in Europe (Seckenheim and Geinsheim, Federal Republic of Germany). After the measurement period, the recorded data was used to compute occupancy statistics at 111 signal amplitude thresholds. Comparison of spectrum-occupancy and signal-level data between CONUS and Europe is reported