The future of RTE Radio 1 LW

Mickey Mike

Mickey Mike wrote: »

I turned on LW in my car driving on the Kerry Limerick border, there is a lot of noise on it as the power of the TX is not what it should be, and when I went under power lines it was worse again, so I don't know how people in the UK can listen to such interference. I feel AM had its day, with so many platforms broadcasters are not going to keep them all going so the oldest ones are to go, "I'd be thinking" although I was surprised DAB got the chop.

Don't be fooled by thinking the signal is poor, most car stereos today with LW/MW are junk, there are few exceptions. Our Outlander from 2015 actually has a great MW/LW radio, very sensitive and while we were driving from Wales to Birmingham and further North LW 252 was exceptional and it was even better than many local MW stations. I was very impressed, even driving around Birmingham City.

Yes going under power high power power lines can cause some noise it doesn't bother me really. I'm not fussed by such things really.

Most LW/MW radios today you buy are also poor quality with very poor receiving capabilities except for the strongest of signals. But at the end of the day a radio is only as good as it's antenna and very few radios today allow for an external antenna to be connected, difference just like tv is night and day so why should it be different for radio ?

DAB to many Broadcast Companies is not worth the investment, going digital for the sake of going digital is a waste in my opinion, it offers nothing like the benefits of Digital TV and only offers inferior poorer reception areas. Going digital for the likes of radio just to be modern, there's really no benefit over a modern FM receiver.

However, I do admit being an radio amateur radio fascinates me and I really believe ham radio courses should be offered in schools to teach people about the older technologies and that there is other fascinating things out there besides internet and raspberry pi's, If it were not for radio, mobile phones would be useless and your laptop wouldn't work without being connected to a wire all the time.

Sending a signal thousands of miles away or to the far side of the Planet and getting a reply from someone else antenna to antenna with no infrastructure in between is just one of the most amazing feelings in the world, it's one truly fascinating hobby to have.

rathfarnhamlad

I always found that older radios, be they transistors or tubes, had far better sound on MW/LW, as they were designed at a time when that was the dominant if not the only radio platform & were optimized very specifically for that purpose. Newer receivers seem to include the MW & LW bands as an afterthought more so than anything else.

As for receiving only the strong local signals, the DX/local switch was a useful feature that should never have disappeared & I can't imagine added to production cost per unit too much...

Nothing wrong with the signal from 252, I'm a lot closer than someone in Kerry but the difference an outside antenna makes is as I said earlier, night and day but LW 252 can be picked up inside without any issues, I'm around 5 Kms from Carlow Town.

Below is a link to one of my SDRs, it's got the Bonito Megaloop FX antenna, a very fine antenna especially for signals about 1500 Kms and the other one with the Bonito MegaDipol is great for longer distance or DX.

http://emeraldsdr1.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073/

This uses the Bonito Megadipol antenna.

http://emeraldsdr.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073/

Unfortunately I suffer from some major intermittent QRM from ESB line which I have repeatedly asked them to fix for 4 years. So need to get Comreg involved. I think I have enough evidence gathered now.

doughnut2000

There are so many people posting that can't spell aerial and don't know why their TV doesn't work without one. I'm not sure LW / MW has a future.

doughnut2000

doughnut2000 wrote: »

There are so many people posting that can't spell aerial and don't know why their TV doesn't work without one. I'm not sure LW / MW has a future.

It doesn't have a future as long as the radio broadcasters shut them down. Auto manufacturers rarely include LW/MW in cars today. Any radios you can buy in most shops are junk.

Radio broadcasters think that having an ultra modern digital platform and playing pop music all day is good enough to keep listeners but if the content is good enough People will listen on any platform and LW/MW/FM is one of the easiest platforms imaginable to listen to.

LW/MW audiences are reducing not because People don't want it but because the radio broadcast companies don't want it and because the Auto Makers won't give you AM in the car and include a platform that's no good to a lot of People at least everyone can hear something on LW/MW radio................

rathfarnhamlad

doughnut2000 wrote: »

There are so many people posting that can't spell aerial and don't know why their TV doesn't work without one. I'm not sure LW / MW has a future.

One of the young engineers (yes, really) who I used to work with a couple of years back bought a top of the line kick-a55 Samsung TV for well over a grand & tried to get a refund on it when it wasn't picking up any stations. His argument was that if he was spending that kind of money then he shouldn't have to go messing about with aerials, satellite dishes, set top boxes or even pay extra for netfilx for that matter. As far as he was concerned, for that price, all he should have to do is just unbox it & plug it in!

I didn't know whether to laugh out loud or seriously worry about the future of humanity...

Gerry Wicklow

rathfarnhamlad wrote: »

One of the young engineers (yes, really) who I used to work with a couple of years back bought a top of the line kick-a55 Samsung TV for well over a grand & tried to get a refund on it when it wasn't picking up any stations. His argument was that if he was spending that kind of money then he shouldn't have to go messing about with aerials, satellite dishes, set top boxes or even pay extra for netfilx for that matter. As far as he was concerned, for that price, all he should have to do is just unbox it & plug it in!

I didn't know whether to laugh out loud or seriously worry about the future of humanity...

Sadly we get a few like that every now and then with absolutely no concept of the technology. My favourite was someone in Limerick trying to get UK channels on an indoor aerial.
Mind you, Saorviews adverts can be misleading in that respect too.

rathfarnhamlad

rathfarnhamlad wrote: »

One of the young engineers (yes, really) who I used to work with a couple of years back bought a top of the line kick-a55 Samsung TV for well over a grand & tried to get a refund on it when it wasn't picking up any stations. His argument was that if he was spending that kind of money then he shouldn't have to go messing about with aerials, satellite dishes, set top boxes or even pay extra for netfilx for that matter. As far as he was concerned, for that price, all he should have to do is just unbox it & plug it in!

I didn't know whether to laugh out loud or seriously worry about the future of humanity...

That's funny! yeah, be more worried about the future, because they will depend too much on computers than to actually think and do for themselves, all the youth want today is to be glued to screens and the most technical thing they're being exposed to in schools is the raspberry Pi, young folk today think they're great when they load a "pre built" image on to a Raspbetty PI or put the board into the case!

Every young Person today in School should learn how to tear down an engine and build it up again, or at least take it apart and learn how the thing works. Get a broken radio and learn how to fix it, get the brain stimulated.....Get a broken washing machine, here this is broke, fix it.

Sam Russell

rathfarnhamlad wrote: »

One of the young engineers (yes, really) who I used to work with a couple of years back bought a top of the line kick-a55 Samsung TV for well over a grand & tried to get a refund on it when it wasn't picking up any stations. His argument was that if he was spending that kind of money then he shouldn't have to go messing about with aerials, satellite dishes, set top boxes or even pay extra for netfilx for that matter. As far as he was concerned, for that price, all he should have to do is just unbox it & plug it in!

I didn't know whether to laugh out loud or seriously worry about the future of humanity...

Is that the guy with a BMW 740i that he cannot get to go because, having paid that much for it, does not think he should put petrol into it, pay motor tax, or even pay for insurance. Come to think of it, there are plenty like that getting stopped by the Gardai - no tax, no ins, no NCT.

I wonder did Samsung-man actually get a TV licence.

Gerry Wicklow

Deleted User wrote: »

That's funny! yeah, be more worried about the future, because they will depend too much on computers than to actually think and do for themselves, all the youth want today is to be glued to screens and the most technical thing they're being exposed to in schools is the raspberry Pi, young folk today think they're great when they load a "pre built" image on to a Raspbetty PI or put the board into the case!

Every young Person today in School should learn how to tear down an engine and build it up again, or at least take it apart and learn how the thing works. Get a broken radio and learn how to fix it, get the brain stimulated.....Get a broken washing machine, here this is broke, fix it.

You obviously haven't seen the recent todo about Americans having to pump their own petrol. Many haven't a clue how to do it. Of course we have our own generation who can't even change a puncture.

Sam Russell

Deleted User wrote: »

That's funny! yeah, be more worried about the future, because they will depend too much on computers than to actually think and do for themselves, all the youth want today is to be glued to screens and the most technical thing they're being exposed to in schools is the raspberry Pi, young folk today think they're great when they load a "pre built" image on to a Raspbetty PI or put the board into the case!

Every young Person today in School should learn how to tear down an engine and build it up again, or at least take it apart and learn how the thing works. Get a broken radio and learn how to fix it, get the brain stimulated.....Get a broken washing machine, here this is broke, fix it.

The Raspberry Pi was originally designed to get students going to Cambridge to learn programming - as most student applicants did not have a clue about computers or how to code a program to the horror of the course organiser.

So he designed the Pi. It was incredibly successful, but how many are in the back of drawers?

rathfarnhamlad

Sam Russell wrote: »

I wonder did Samsung-man actually get a TV licence.

He didn't. The TV was saorview-compatible (it said that on the box) & there was a saorview ad doing the rounds at the time which went something along the lines of "Why pay for TV when you can get it for free". So he thought you didn't need a TV licence if you bought a saorview TV - it was included in the price as a one-off payment.

We were outside a shop eating our lunch one warm day during the summer when a Dutch-registered VW camper van with a CB aerial on the roof just happened to be parked nearby. He was wondering what the tall aerial was for & panicked a bit when I told him the the van was probably being driven by an undercover TV licence inspector... :D:D

rathfarnhamlad

Deleted User wrote: »

Every young Person today in School should learn how to tear down an engine and build it up again, or at least take it apart and learn how the thing works. Get a broken radio and learn how to fix it, get the brain stimulated.....Get a broken washing machine, here this is broke, fix it.

The problem I see with the education system here in Ireland is that there is too much emphasis on learning stuff off by rote (but not necessarily understanding it) with the goal being maximum points in the LC.

Practical skills that can set young people up for life, i.e. hands-on learning that they will actually use really are what is needed in schools. It isn't all about academics after all...

Hotblack Desiato

By no means everyone is cut out for academic third level education but we seem determined to push as many as possible down that route, and then complain about the huge drop-out rates.

Needs to be a much bigger emphasis on vocational education and apprenticeships, look at Germany where they do this very successfully. But Irish parents look down their noses at this.

Sam Russell

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

By no means everyone is cut out for academic third level education but we seem determined to push as many as possible down that route, and then complain about the huge drop-out rates.

Needs to be a much bigger emphasis on vocational education and apprenticeships, look at Germany where they do this very successfully. But Irish parents look down their noses at this.

A plumber or electrician earns more in their first decade of qualified work than a barrister does. Even a trainee barista gets more than a trainee barrister.

The whole leaving cert and 'points race' is led by the Irish Times and the Indo to sell papers by creating a hysteria over 'higher valued' university places and getting the chattering classes chattering.

Germany and Switzerland have excellent vocational trainee systems. We should copy them. Our main problem in our educational system is the belief among second level teachers that the best three things in teaching are the months of June, July, and August.

Gerry Wicklow

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

You obviously haven't seen the recent todo about Americans having to pump their own petrol. Many haven't a clue how to do it. Of course we have our own generation who can't even change a puncture.

Indeed you're correct but there's the cars with no spare wheel and just a can of sealer that may or may not work depending on the severity of the puncture.

I remember doing a job at a house one time and there was this American Family moving in, the Husband got a job I think with Microsoft and a DID truck came with a tonne of stuff and dropped the stuff in the house and legged it, The Mrs went nuclear, she had expected the whole lot unpacked, installed, tv, DVD, washing machine the whole lot, rubbish taken away, then bitching about having to take the bin to the gate, they should drive in down the long driveway and pick it up, I thought it was really amusing I have to say.

Sam Russell

Sam Russell wrote: »

A plumber or electrician earns more in their first decade of qualified work than a barrister does. Even a trainee barista gets more than a trainee barrister.

The whole leaving cert and 'points race' is led by the Irish Times and the Indo to sell papers by creating a hysteria over 'higher valued' university places and getting the chattering classes chattering.

Germany and Switzerland have excellent vocational trainee systems. We should copy them. Our main problem in our educational system is the belief among second level teachers that the best three things in teaching are the months of June, July, and August.

The 2nd level education system and points is a farce and the pandemic has shown the whole lot up for what it is.

I couldn't count the amount of people I know or have come across that have gone to 3rd level and either not completed it or in a line of work completely unrelated to their degree and all pretty successful.

The teachers unions are too powerful especially when you have People in government that are teachers or were.

Hotblack Desiato

Deleted User wrote: »

I remember doing a job at a house one time and there was this American Family moving in, the Husband got a job I think with Microsoft and a DID truck came with a tonne of stuff and dropped the stuff in the house and legged it, The Mrs went nuclear, she had expected the whole lot unpacked, installed, tv, DVD, washing machine the whole lot, rubbish taken away

D.I.D. originally stood for Deliver, Install & Demonstrate.

They may have negotiated / paid extra for installation which didn't happen.

There may have been old appliances which were supposed to have been taken away under WEEE regulations.

rathfarnhamlad

rathfarnhamlad wrote: »

The problem I see with the education system here in Ireland is that there is too much emphasis on learning stuff off by rote (but not necessarily understanding it) with the goal being maximum points in the LC.

Practical skills that can set young people up for life, i.e. hands-on learning that they will actually use really are what is needed in schools. It isn't all about academics after all...

Yep agree 100%!

Hotblack Desiato

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

D.I.D. originally stood for Deliver, Install & Demonstrate.

They may have negotiated / paid extra for installation which didn't happen.

There may have been old appliances which were supposed to have been taken away under WEEE regulations.

They were moving in so don't think they had anything for recycling, think the Mrs said that it's expected where she's from to have things like washing machine installed, plumbed in and all that, dryer installed, packaging, transport bolts removed, TV installed and tuned in.

Sam Russell

Sam Russell wrote: »

The Raspberry Pi was originally designed to get students going to Cambridge to learn programming - as most student applicants did not have a clue about computers or how to code a program to the horror of the course organiser.

So he designed the Pi. It was incredibly successful, but how many are in the back of drawers?

Probably tonnes at the back of drawers, I mean they are cool devices but in reality most People have a PC, I have 2 of them and don't use them now at all.

I think the pi was developed to allow poorer countries access to cheap computing ?

It's fine to teach students coding and all that but not everyone has the ability, but it's equally important to teach the likes of electronics, engineering but using practical skills, Amateur radio is good to get the brain stimulated, they offer this is other countries and it gets the brain stimulated, building little transmitters, antennas and learning how it all works, even communicating with the internal space station is bound to fascinate a lot of young People and learning how that was possible. Imagine the Kids faces when they all help build an antenna that can send a signal to the international space station ? that's gotta get some of them fascinated more in science.

I really feel they should bring old cars to schools, show them the important stuff, how it works, how to change the oil, strip the engine down etc, I would have loved nothing more in school, but it was mostly just books and all that bull**** because it's all too easy for teachers to ramble off stuff in textbooks.

I do feel our education system is grossly outdated.

Hotblack Desiato

There's any amount of electronics stuff you can do with the Raspberry Pi, it's a lot easier to interface with stuff than the "golden age" 80s home computers, it's ideally suited for monitoring and control. You can't blame the device for the lack of use people put it to

Internal combustion engines will be obsolete in ten years time, I'm not a fan of that either but that is the way it is.

I'm using several Pis as media players, not their intended use perhaps but they're great at it. I have another as an ad-blocking DNS server for my home network (https://pi-hole.net/)

Hotblack Desiato

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

There's any amount of electronics stuff you can do with the Raspberry Pi, it's a lot easier to interface with stuff than the "golden age" 80s home computers, it's ideally suited for monitoring and control. You can't blame the device for the lack of use people put it to

Internal combustion engines will be obsolete in ten years time, I'm not a fan of that either but that is the way it is.

I'm using several Pis as media players, not their intended use perhaps but they're great at it. I have another as an ad-blocking DNS server for my home network (https://pi-hole.net/)

The Internal Combustion Engine age may be drawing to a close, for passenger cars at least but there's no harm if School Children were exposed to it's internals and learned how this device powered the world and still does and I don't mean by textbook.

Yeah sure there's a lot you can do with a pi but there's a lot more interesting stuff out there than raspberry Pis.

Mickey Mike

2rn are looking for etenders for demolition work to be carried out at Tullamore transmission site, must be in for 18/06/21 its sad it won't be used again, RTE say the metal and everything won't go to waste as all will be recycled, sad and an end of an era.

Mickey Mike

Mickey Mike wrote: »

2rn are looking for etenders for demolition work to be carried out at Tullamore transmission site, must be in for 18/06/21 its sad it won't be used again, RTE say the metal and everything won't go to waste as all will be recycled, sad and an end of an era.

Yea they couldn't care less, and the sad thing is it probably wouldn't cost a lot to get the transmitter up and running again, Gold would have been really good on 567 Khz and MW radios are cheap and most homes have one already.

RTE don't want MW to be successful anyway, that is crystal clear, if a MW station was good enough People would listen, no doubt about that, I think there's not that many People who would say " I wouldn't listen to that because it's on MW and I wouldn't listen to MW just because that's old tech" there's still a lot of MW radios in cars too. It's as if there's a whole conspiracy to rid us of this dreadful technology more than a push from people themselves.

Mickey Mike

While the mast is still standing, you'd think a government body or a wealthy music guro or indeed anyone would bring it to life, all it needs is a new TX, there's tremendous wealth in this country, "can we save it" once its down, that's it.

Oscarziggy

Anyone up for it ?
https://irl.eu-supply.com/ctm/Supplier/PublicPurchase/189012/0/0?returnUrl=ctm/Supplier/publictenders&b=ETENDERS_SIMPLE

dulpit

[Deleted User] wrote: »

RTE don't want MW to be successful anyway, that is crystal clear, if a MW station was good enough People would listen, no doubt about that, I think there's not that many People who would say " I wouldn't listen to that because it's on MW and I wouldn't listen to MW just because that's old tech" there's still a lot of MW radios in cars too. It's as if there's a whole conspiracy to rid us of this dreadful technology more than a push from people themselves.

I really doubt this. Most cars, even with MW, make you press a few buttons to switch bands. Why would you do this when there's a decent range of fm stations available, and most people can use Bluetooth in car too for the likes of podcasts, music streaming, etc.

It's old tech, it's not used, why keep it apart from the obvious nostalgia shown in this thread?

Mickey Mike

What is the actual future of Long Wave 252? how long more is it going to keep transmitting, the steam of the Diaspora in the UK is bound to run out, a switch off is going on since 2014 and quite a few attempts have been made to shut it down. Medium Wave 567 got no chance, it was shut down on the first announcement, if anything MW should have been maintained, just that one TX, I feel I'm repeating myself.

dxhound2005

The planning application to remove the Tullamore transmitter also included this:

THE ERECTION OF A 48-METRE-HIGH LATTICEWORK COMMUNICATIONS TOWER WITH ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT ATTACHED AND WITH EQUIPMENT CONTAINERS AT GROUND LEVEL ALL WITHIN A NEW PALISADE FENCE COMPOUND AND THE SUBSEQUENT REMOVAL OF AN EXISTING STAYED MAST

http://www.eplanning.ie/OffalyCC/AppFileRefDetails/2033/0

I don't see any Appeals against the plan.

Hotblack Desiato

RTE Gold on medium wave would be great.

It would have to have ads then, though, and all the usual BAI bullshít

Mickey Mike

Mickey Mike wrote: »

While the mast is still standing, you'd think a government body or a wealthy music guro or indeed anyone would bring it to life, all it needs is a new TX, there's tremendous wealth in this country, "can we save it" once its down, that's it.

I'd say if RTE were offered 10 million for the site and transmitter they would not take it such is their contempt for AM radio.....

dulpit

dulpit wrote: »

I really doubt this. Most cars, even with MW, make you press a few buttons to switch bands. Why would you do this when there's a decent range of fm stations available, and most people can use Bluetooth in car too for the likes of podcasts, music streaming, etc.

It's old tech, it's not used, why keep it apart from the obvious nostalgia shown in this thread?

Most cars have a "band" button, hardly complicated, much easier than using tune in via bluetooth on the good, far more dangerous too.

There's a decent range of FM stations but sadly they're complete and utter junk and play genres of music that make people tune away and DJ's that talk utter shyte thinking their funny or entertaining.

Quality of programming/music is more important than whether it comes from an app, fm or AM, if the quality of programming is there People will listen.

Even RTE R1 on rising time are playing a lot of crap music, the other morning driving to work I heard them play Hello by Adele, it was absolutely cringing listening to it, this type of shyte turns me off of RTE R1, tubridy show is allowing this sort of muck in too and RTE R 1 is not the kind of station to play this crap, this is why they have 2FM.

Hotblack Desiato

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

RTE Gold on medium wave would be great.

It would have to have ads then, though, and all the usual BAI bullshít

Government control of Radio and TV will always have a poor outcome for the Public.

dulpit

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Most cars have a "band" button, hardly complicated, much easier than using tune in via bluetooth on the good, far more dangerous too.

There's a decent range of FM stations but sadly they're complete and utter junk and play genres of music that make people tune away and DJ's that talk utter shyte thinking their funny or entertaining.

Quality of programming/music is more important than whether it comes from an app, fm or AM, if the quality of programming is there People will listen.

Even RTE R1 on rising time are playing a lot of crap music, the other morning driving to work I heard them play Hello by Adele, it was absolutely cringing listening to it, this type of shyte turns me off of RTE R1, tubridy show is allowing this sort of muck in too and RTE R 1 is not the kind of station to play this crap, this is why they have 2FM.

I strongly believe the days of music radio is on the way out. Streaming platforms replacing them. Talk radio, on the other hand, is alive and well. But I still don't see the need for a different band to be used for what? 1 Station?

dulpit

dulpit wrote: »

I strongly believe the days of music radio is on the way out. Streaming platforms replacing them. Talk radio, on the other hand, is alive and well. But I still don't see the need for a different band to be used for what? 1 Station?

it's just another way for media to be delivered and in my opinion rte r1/newstalk etc in general would be better suited to am and keep Fm for something more positive and uplifting but there are a lot of FM stations that are crap and I wish I knew why because it used to be a lot more entertaining, perhaps too much BAI interference restricting the freedom of broadcasters to do what they want ?

most People still have access to Am radio, at least those who still listen to radio.

I agree though, streaming is proving a big challenge to radio broadcasters, was it in Norway or Sweden the national broadcaster switched off FM for DAB and lost almost half of listeners, the moral of that story is if it's not broke, don't fix it.

rathfarnhamlad

Deleted User wrote: »

it's just another way for media to be delivered and in my opinion rte r1/newstalk etc in general would be better suited to am and keep Fm for something more positive and uplifting but there are a lot of FM stations that are crap and I wish I knew why because it used to be a lot more entertaining, perhaps too much BAI interference restricting the freedom of broadcasters to do what they want ?

most People still have access to Am radio, at least those who still listen to radio.

I agree though, streaming is proving a big challenge to radio broadcasters, was it in Norway or Sweden the national broadcaster switched off FM for DAB and lost almost half of listeners, the moral of that story is if it's not broke, don't fix it.

NRK in Norway closed all it's national FM transmitters at the end of 2017. Local & commercial stations are still on FM.

This was on Paul Groves website:

"Norway kindly volunteered to act as a test-bed for in-car DAB installation by switching off its national FM transmitters in 2017. A few months after the FM transmitters were switched off, only a third of drivers of cars without DAB before the switch off had installed DAB receivers with the result that nearly half of Norwegian cars were unable to receive national radio."

Full article can be read here: http://frequencyfinder.org.uk/Opinion_AM.pdf

Although if I'm not mistaken, NRK recently commissioned a brand new MW transmitter for the Svalbard region.

National FM radio is still on air in Sweden. I don't know whether or not there are any plans to switch to DAB-only.

Neighbouring Finland got rid of DAB a while back I think.

Switzerland will be the next country to do away with FM. This has been talked about for a while & I have to say surprised me. Here's the link to a recent article: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/switzerland-to-pull-plug-on-fm-radio-by-2023/46260292#:~:text=The%20radio%20industry%20has%20reached,follow%20suit%20by%20January%202023.

The article says that: DAB+ offers better sound quality (no, not necessarily) and broader coverage areas (???).

In a country with plenty of mountainous terrain, I can see these plans backfiring big time...

kazoo106

Multipath +FM not good
Multipath +DAB very good

So this may work out very well in Switzerland

doughnut2000

dulpit wrote: »

I really doubt this. Most cars, even with MW, make you press a few buttons to switch bands. Why would you do this when there's a decent range of fm stations available, and most people can use Bluetooth in car too for the likes of podcasts, music streaming, etc.

It's old tech, it's not used, why keep it apart from the obvious nostalgia shown in this thread?

Agree.

Deleted User wrote: »

the other morning driving to work I heard them play Hello by Adele, it was absolutely cringing listening to it, this type of shyte turns me off of RTE R1

Sounds like a case for Joe Duffy.

kazoo106

Has anyone here tried listening to RTE Radio 1 on FM in areas like Swanlinbar, Carlingford, Bawnboy, parts of Drogheda, and Belfast (as its within their GFA obligation) or indeed anywhere outside the M50?

There exists very much a need for AM - and preferebly something better than what we have at present.

The series of very serious DDOS attacks on various Internet providers over the last few days (large enough for the National Cyber crime centre to finally get up off their ass last night at 11pm) demonstrate that the Internet is fickle and should not be relied upon in a national emergency.

Gerry Wicklow

A friend's town lost internet for almost a week recently because someone dug up the fibre. Mobile internet didn't work either because too many were trying to use it. Too many eggs in one basket?

doughnut2000

kazoo106 wrote: »

Has anyone here tried listening to RTE Radio 1 on FM in areas like Swanlinbar, Carlingford, Bawnboy, parts of Drogheda, and Belfast (as its within their GFA obligation) or indeed anywhere outside the M50?

I think the GFA only discusses TG4.

Can't say for sure about Radio 1, but 2FM and Today FM work brilliantly across the north from my experience driving through their regularly. I've made regular trips from Dublin to Letterkenny via Belfast and Omagh and get continuous coverage. I know Radio 1 FM does work in the middle of Belfast, I can remember Joe Duffy had someone giving off that their neighbour was using their bins.

marno21

kazoo106 wrote: »

Has anyone here tried listening to RTE Radio 1 on FM in areas like Swanlinbar, Carlingford, Bawnboy, parts of Drogheda, and Belfast (as its within their GFA obligation) or indeed anywhere outside the M50?

There exists very much a need for AM - and preferebly something better than what we have at present.

The series of very serious DDOS attacks on various Internet providers over the last few days (large enough for the National Cyber crime centre to finally get up off their ass last night at 11pm) demonstrate that the Internet is fickle and should not be relied upon in a national emergency.

RTÉ never took up FM allocations at Dowra, Drumshanbo or Blacklion which would have covered the general north Cavan/Leitrim area. Same with an allocation in Carlingford.

It’s the same nationwide. Many of their smaller relays were never commissioned. There are plenty of FM black spots around the country, several I can name in Cork/Kerry.

Mickey Mike

marno21 wrote: »

RTÉ never took up FM allocations at Dowra, Drumshanbo or Blacklion which would have covered the general north Cavan/Leitrim area. Same with an allocation in Carlingford.

It’s the same nationwide. Many of their smaller relays were never commissioned. There are plenty of FM black spots around the country, several I can name in Cork/Kerry.

With the demise of DAB and Long Wave switch off sometime in 2022, RTE should expand their FM network and upgrade existing lower power txs to higher power to bring 99 or 100% coverage, it will be the only analogue system they have left.
NI can be covered in Mono form if necessary.

doughnut2000

doughnut2000 wrote: »

Sounds like a case for Joe Duffy.

Yeah, could be, but seriously, that type of crap music is not suitable on RTE R1 in my opinion.

Mickey Mike

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Yeah, could be, but seriously, that type of crap music is not suitable on RTE R1 in my opinion.

In some way RTE Radio1 is like the RTE Radio2 when it launched over 40 years ago, so its more our liking. 2FM is gone to hell with the utter sh1te there playing, I'd like to see Gold incorporated in it, its terrible trash.

Johnboy1951

I stopped tuning into LW, MW and SW many many years ago.
Once I lost interest in distance radio and various things like airplane and even some emergency stuff, there was nothing left I wanted to listen to that I could not receive better on FM.

Johnboy1951

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I stopped tuning into LW, MW and SW many many years ago.
Once I lost interest in distance radio and various things like airplane and even some emergency stuff, there was nothing left I wanted to listen to that I could not receive better on FM.

Ever thought about getting your amateur radio license ? I get some buzz out of getting DX contacts from minimal setups. So much more to do on Shortwave when you have the license.

doughnut2000

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I stopped tuning into LW, MW and SW many many years ago.
Once I lost interest in distance radio and various things like airplane and even some emergency stuff, there was nothing left I wanted to listen to that I could not receive better on FM.

That's it exactly.

Johnboy1951

Deleted User wrote: »

Ever thought about getting your amateur radio license ? I get some buzz out of getting DX contacts from minimal setups. So much more to do on Shortwave when you have the license.

I thought about it 'way back' for some years after I got my RO ticket, but never bothered.
I moved in a different direction.