BANDSCAN THREAD

Rock Solid

Similar situation in Bray Co Dublin, Nova and Spirit have frequencys there, othes dont, its also a way of keeping pirates off the band.

JDxtra

Very odd situation. If it's such a problem area - why are only 98/104 getting relays?

Fuzzy Clam

marno21 wrote: »

I wonder where they are TXing from.

I was under the assumption that 98.1 and 104.4 covered the whole of Dublin no problem. You'd often hear of listeners to (the old) FM104 phoneshow from Cavan and Drogheda. I'd say something if 4FM were complaining but 98 & 104 have the two clearest frequencies and use the most power too. As I said previously too, Dublin City FM won't be too happy about a transmission on a direct adjacent frequency starting up in the same county as them.

Surprising that both 98 & 104 have relays starting simultaneously. Did 98 apply for a relay (seeing as they are advertising it), and one was offered to 104 after?

What was wrong with coverage in Balbriggan and Skerries for the first 25 years they were on air?

I think i heard DECALs service area is only within the M50.

Losty Dublin

marno21 wrote: »

I wonder where they are TXing from.

I was under the assumption that 98.1 and 104.4 covered the whole of Dublin no problem. You'd often hear of listeners to (the old) FM104 phoneshow from Cavan and Drogheda. I'd say something if 4FM were complaining but 98 & 104 have the two clearest frequencies and use the most power too. As I said previously too, Dublin City FM won't be too happy about a transmission on a direct adjacent frequency starting up in the same county as them.

Surprising that both 98 & 104 have relays starting simultaneously. Did 98 apply for a relay (seeing as they are advertising it), and one was offered to 104 after?

What was wrong with coverage in Balbriggan and Skerries for the first 25 years they were on air?

They have gotten the relays because there are a few blackspots locally for both stations. As to why it's taken so long to address them is another question but north of the county has seen some signal issues over the years; there are quite a few hills along that neck of the woods. My friends tell me that a few more stations have been allocated frequencies for a relay. They will be adding to conjestion but these are small power TX and beam set ups so damage should be minimal, on paper at least.

end of the road

Rock Solid wrote: »

Similar situation in Bray Co Dublin, Nova and Spirit have frequencys there, othes dont, its also a way of keeping pirates off the band.

well i doubt keeping pirates off the band has anything to do with this as heres the thing, they have a regulator who's job it is to keep pirates off the band. no point in licencing relays just to do that, if its a genuine issue such as a blackspot thats a different story.

end of the road

why couldn't they put the relays on the frequencies the original transmitters broadcast on and make sure they are in sink? i've a feeling these relays will mean frequencies being unusable for anything as i'd imagine the relays will be picked up a bit away from their coverage area, all though maybe the frequencies will be fine for small power community services, maybe the sensible thing will happen and none of the high power frequencies will be taken for these, hopefully not anyway

Fuzzy Clam

end of the road wrote: »

why couldn't they put the relays on the frequencies the original transmitters broadcast on and make sure they are in sink? i've a feeling these relays will mean frequencies being unusable for anything as i'd imagine the relays will be picked up a bit away from their coverage area, all though maybe the frequencies will be fine for small power community services, maybe the sensible thing will happen and none of the high power frequencies will be taken for these, hopefully not anyway

in sink or in sync?
Either way, it would create mush in the fringe areas of the local relay.

Infoanon

Odd that the frequencies chosen have the affect of blocking out 2 music based services that were crystal clear in Balbriggan.

Other frequencies would have made a lot more sense - getting too cynical in my old age !

If I was DCAL I would be fuming btw.

marno21

Fuzzy Clam wrote: »

in sink or in sync?
Either way, it would create mush in the fringe areas of the local relay.

They could have synced 98FM's one and put it on 97.9/98.3

Similar to what Newstalk have done with their network and what Nova have done with 100.3 and 100.5

barryc2010

this weeks bandscan for the pirates

88.1 nrg on
91.6 dance station on
92.2 galaxy kildare on but over the last 2weeks or so have been on & off they say on there Facebook page its ture to there broadband connection for there link.
107.1 tonik radio on.

JDxtra

I've never seen an active Galaxy Facebook page. Are you sure it really exists??

Infoanon

barryc2010 wrote: »

this weeks bandscan for the pirates

88.1 nrg on
91.6 dance station on
92.2 galaxy kildare on but over the last 2weeks or so have been on & off they say on there Facebook page its ture to there broadband connection for there link.
107.1 tonik radio on.

87.6 NLR
93.2 PVR aka Phever
99.5 Heat

All on air in Dublin

end of the road

barryc2010 wrote: »

this weeks bandscan for the pirates

88.1 nrg on
91.6 dance station on
92.2 galaxy kildare on but over the last 2weeks or so have been on & off they say on there Facebook page its ture to there broadband connection for there link.
107.1 tonik radio on.

could you link me to their facebook? found one for them but its very out of date, thanks

s8n

How many candles are you burning ?

end of the road

live programing on heat fm now, stream title still says base fm though

Rock Solid

Same crew as BASE you can tell by the djs ! Keep it locked etc ! ! !

castle2012

Rock Solid wrote: »

Same crew as BASE you can tell by the djs ! Keep it locked etc ! ! !

so no change there, bottom of the barrel radio.

end of the road

castle2012 wrote: »

so no change there, bottom of the barrel radio.

ah thats a bit harsh, base actually had some good trance and hard house shows, anything that gives me a break from the "deep" house **** (sorry chart dance) is welcome, not perfect but they do something a little different all though leave the "deep" house to tonik and others IMO

barryc2010

The hot weather conditions can cause big problems if the tx is big like anything from 300watts up wards they need to be kept cool at all times so having them lock,t up in a box wouldn't be a good idea,but there is robbers out there that you have no choice to have them under lock and key like a safe.

Infoanon

barryc2010 wrote: »

The hot weather conditions can cause big problems if the tx is big like anything from 300watts up wards they need to be kept cool at all times so having them lock,t up in a box wouldn't be a good idea,but there is robbers out there that you have no choice to have them under lock and key like a safe.

Transmitters at that power level have in built cooling fans.

barryc2010

Yeah I think I know that.it doesn't make a difference how big or how many fans are in the tx or amp there needs to be sufficient cool air coming in on them,what i mean is if you but one in the likes of a 6x6 steel box and even have extra fans blowing in on it the hot air needs to escape other wise it will just be hot air blowing around and when we had them weather conditions with high temp they are guaranteed to knock off until they cool down,only if they have a protection shut down feature,i knew one or two stations in the 90,s that had this problem every summer when the temp,s where high the likes of the big stations have them proper air condition cabin units

Rock Solid

All transmitters 15w and up have fans, if they get hot they switch of for 30 seconds and start again after a while it will shut down. A tx must have cool airflow, most pirates have an exicter 15-30w with fan and then a 300-500w amp also with a fan, some have built in or stand alone power supplys which also have fans, if the exciter goes off the whole station does, if the amp goes off the exciter will still broadcast the station on low power, some stations Ive seen domestic fans used to blow air into the intake, works fine, depends on tx, if its an all in one unit say a CTE 250 it will have exciter and power supply built in. Due to Comreg raiding tx sites it has forced pirates to use less expensive gear, some use cheap gear with seperate amps like a 15w and a 300w amp pcb board with a cheap power supply and a Power City type fan.

barryc2010

ya you are spot on but there would be more of a risk for the higher powered tx or amp to switch off radar then the little power stuff like 15 0r 20 watt transmitters,even under very hot condition they possible could stay on,the ball changes in every way when your working form 250watts up wards,i have seen in the past the pl plugs on heavy duty coax burn away from the heat,anyway a lot of the big power tx/amps yous mw mean well power supplies like the se 600 48v & the se100 48v they all have little vans in them they would,nt be the thing that is knocking off it would be the amp its self as you say the exciters will normally stay on as they would,t get to hot regarding they are a 1,2 or 3 watt exciter but thats not much good if the high powered amp switches off so the best option is to have it in a good open space in a good size shed with a few air vents and it should be ok even under hot conditions i will finish now with the topic just something i brought up on a question the other day.

mick masterson

Lad’s most Modern TX’s are programmed to lower power with high SWR or High temperatures to protect mosfet .With high current or voltage overload the transmitter will cut out and need to Be reset as happens in the mountains sometimes .

There are some great new features on TX’s now a days Password protected Telemetry(not as many trips to the mountains these days controlling parameters via software visual modulation alarms etc . An engineers life is much handier these days.

Rock Solid

Most of the legal and some pirates can link upto the tx via software at site, and can see on screen the frequency, swr, tempature and audio settings, a tx can also be switched on or off my the operator at home or office or anywhere, playlists and playout systems can also be operated outside of the studio, once the fader is up and somebody has the pc playing music it can be controlled by the operator.

Fresh Pots

Anyone know what happened to KIC FM?

JDxtra

It reverted back to Galaxy FM.

Fresh Pots

JDxtra wrote: »

It reverted back to Galaxy FM.

Didn't realise they were the same set up. Was listening to galaxy today for a few minutes and they seem to have changed the music policy. Its not Kildare's dance station anymore,its music for the millennium generation. Thought I was listening to spin or 104.

Infoanon

Fresh Pots wrote: »

Didn't realise they were the same set up. Was listening to galaxy today for a few minutes and they seem to have changed the music policy. Its not Kildare's dance station anymore,its music for the millennium generation. Thought I was listening to spin or 104.

Or even Pulse 103...

TallGlass

You would want to be a lunatic or of little understand of electronics if you where to put a high powers TX in a steel box with no airflow. Be lucky if a cable is all your melt before the TX shuts down.

I wouldn't worry about on-board fans on the TX, I would worry about what you have to do and is supply the TX with a cool air flow and an proper exit for the exhausting air.

Here's a TX with remote access software

pcs-electronics.com/cyber-1000w-p-1683.html