Hi Marcy,I think your WRTVH book is in danger of being rapidly outdated. Certainly some of the LW broadcasters you mentioned are still on, but as John pointed out, others are dropping out regularly. For instance, I have not heard 153 Radio Romania since February 2024, although as discussed in your other thread, I continue to hear 171 Medi1 Radio (Morocco) as recently as the other night. I have not heard 189 RUV (Iceland) since January 2024, and even 198 BBC Radio 4 (Droitwich, GB) has eluded me since July this year (sometimes I can hear a faint carrier). I used to get 225 R Poland but have not heard that since August 2023 so either that's gone or running at lower power. But 252 R Algeria remains reliable, having logged that just the other evening.
I don't know your other LW interests but you might want to consider listening for some/any of the other fascinating stuff in the LW world (0-520 kHz). For instance, 10-50 kHz abounds with lots of military stations (mainly for submarines, etc.) which are recognizable by the distinctive crazy-sounding FSK (frequency shift keying) typified by 24.0 kHz NAA in Cutler, ME---incredibly loud for me here near Boston, then comparing frequencies of unknowns to any of several online resources I'll provide below to verify identify. For instance, 37.5 TFK Iceland and 40.75 NAU Puerto Rico can easily be identified this way. I'll park 24.0 NAA in VFO B for audio tone comparison, and then tune in others in VFO A to match precisely the FSK audio tone of NAA. In that way I've nailed down the frequency of the unknown unequivocally. For instance, on a good night, I can hear and identify 45.9 NSY (Italy - although a US military installation) by this precise audio frequency matching against the tones of NAA, adn know that's exactly what it is.
At 60 kHz is the old reliable WWVB time station in Colorado, and the Europeans have their own time station at 77.5 kHz DCF77. Then in the lower 100s, there are massive European power utility control stations 129.1 DCF49 (Germany), 135.6 HGA22 (Hungary) and 139.0 DCF39 (Germany). These are recognizable by a couple seconds of "audio hash" every 10 seconds, with the remainder of the 10 sec cycle being a solid tone. Repeats forever.
The 162 France you spoke of (TDF) used to be a regular LW broadcaster but is now "just" a time station, phase modulated so to your ears it will just sound like a carrier (but I have found if I apply a side tone very close but not exactly on frequency (half a Hz, maybe?), you can hear the tone "wobble" a bit--unless I am imagining that which is quite possible!).
Last but not least is the rapidly-diminishing "mother lode" of NDBs (non-directional beacons) run at low power out of airports for plane navigation. But these are dying off rapidly as GPS and other navigation aids for flying take the forefront. I don't know if you are a member of LWCA but if not you may want to join - you can find the inforamtion elsewhere on this board - every other month there are loggings in The LOWDOWN posted by members for 0-520 kHz, most of which are NDBs. But even NDBs can be pretty exotic: for instance, on a winter's night when I hear 329 YEK in Arviat, Nunavut, Canada (far NW corner of Hudson's Bay, 1588 miles from my QTH) I can listen to that YEK in Morse code for quite a while while I look down in Google Maps Satellite view, locate the airstrip, try to find location of the transmitter, and peruse the other photos of that incredibly remote place--just listening to YEK drone on and on for me is almost (almost!) as exciting as a CW ham radio QSO with some remote South Pacific island!
Anyway, as promised, here are some online links I use regularly for some of more common, and some of the weirder, stuff that you'll find on the LW band:
https://www.dxinfocentre.com/ndb.htm
https://www.mwlist.org/vlf.php
https://www.w1vd.com/vlf.html
https://radiohobby-pa9073-swl.jouwweb.nl/old-stuff/vlf-transmissions-10-150-khz
https://reeve.com/Documents/Articles%20Papers/Reeve_VLF-LFStationList.pdf
Sorry for this long-winded reply but hope the above may be of interest. Good luck with your LW DXing, whatever you decide to tune into!
Bruce