In ham jargon, the "magic band" means 6 meters. In the place where I live, surrounded by Europe's highest roofs, that magic is very little, as it's limited to openings more sporadic than the E layer causing them (I have experienced TEP in 10 meters, for the first time in five years last april-may, and am still waiting for it to happen on 50 Mhz). So, for yours truly, the real magic band is medium wave. The slow fading classic of its propagation characteristics can reveal lots of gems, like pearls in water when tide retires. I know it's not MW season, but last week at late night I did gave the band a try, and some magic happened. Hear for yourself how, on 1530 kHz at 22.51 UTC, the Voice of America (from the transmitting station in Sao Tome) did struggle with Radio Romania Actualitati. Africa vs. Europe. At first, VOA was dominating (it's a female speaker, for a classy music programme), then RRA grew up, with equally interesting tunes. At top of the hour, the romanian id is very clear, but you can hear anyways the VOA announcement. All this with my R71, and the PA0RDT "Mini-whip" antenna, in a band intended for local coverage. Yes, they call it magic…
 

73,
Chris