The future of RTE Radio 1 LW

Mickey Mike

It would be very interesting indeed to see if anything goes on in Clarkstown, hope someone can find out.

doughnut2000

This thread is interesting for the various attacks on RTÉ regarding a technology that is in decline the world over. Couple that with nostalgia for a radio station that has long ago ceased to exist.

ClosedAccountFuzzy

The other issue is the “electronic gismos” are likely providing a huge % of communication services to many homes, with far more utility and value than this old technology that in all likelihood has very few listeners.

Atlantic 252 was a service that never should have had a market. It was a distorted and totally over regulated U.K. market that kept those stations alive. They were anomalies really, much like the way Europe 1, France’s main commercial talk station started life broadcasting in AM from Germany to get around licensing. Or the Radio Luxembourg era which grew modern RTL and Monte Carlo era etc

Broadcasting music radio on LW, and it being a commercial success, was rather remarkable in the late 20th C

RTE Radio 1 is available fairly easily on sat and online. They could put more effort into securing DAB coverage in the U.K. if they really care that much about the diaspora.

Perhaps something that should be funded by the government as an Irish World Service, rather than expecting it to be domestic licence fee funded, if that’s the intention.

Mickey Mike

For me, I do care either way, I listen to to a good few radio stations on Apps, that's the way its gone and so be it. There are no channels been launched on FM even, at least very few anyway. Internet and apps is the future I'm thinking.

Mickey Mike

Mickey Mike wrote: »

For me, I do care either way, I listen to to a good few radio stations on Apps, that's the way its gone and so be it. There are no channels been launched on FM even, at least very few anyway. Internet and apps is the future I'm thinking.

Licensing restrictions are hampering FM broadcasting as the State controls too much via the BAI, stations are not allowed to flourish without state interference and censorship.

I also listen to some stations via apps but there's no denying that the box that receives am/fm or SW is the simplest way to receive radio without having to use my limited data or be forever attached to a computer be it mobile or not. Sometimes I just want to get away from computers and poxy phones.

FuzzyThinking

FuzzyThinking wrote: »

The other issue is the “electronic gismos” are likely providing a huge % of communication services to many homes, with far more utility and value than this old technology that in all likelihood has very few listeners.

Atlantic 252 was a service that never should have had a market. It was a distorted and totally over regulated U.K. market that kept those stations alive. They were anomalies really, much like the way Europe 1, France’s main commercial talk station started life broadcasting in AM from Germany to get around licensing. Or the Radio Luxembourg era which grew modern RTL and Monte Carlo era etc

Broadcasting music radio on LW, and it being a commercial success, was rather remarkable in the late 20th C

RTE Radio 1 is available fairly easily on sat and online. They could put more effort into securing DAB coverage in the U.K. if they really care that much about the diaspora.

Perhaps something that should be funded by the government as an Irish World Service, rather than expecting it to be domestic licence fee funded, if that’s the intention.

I meant electronic Junk being the power supplies that supply most of these electronic devices are illegal and do not comply with regulations.

A solar PV company in Germany has been forced to remove and/or alter one or all of their Solar PV inverters due to causing massive levels of noise which is illegal and greatly effects the radio spectrum which is protected by international law because it's not just radio stations and Amateur radio People that use radio but also emergency services and airports, planes, Military etc. So the reason a lot of People can't hear MW radio for example can in a lot of cases be due to these extremely poor quality devices.

RTE are no more interested in providing a service to anyone in the U.K be they Irish or not than they are at providing a decent service for People on this Island.

The real issue for radio today is the quality of programming and the ever increasing amounts of ipad created "music" and lame dj's trying to be funny and of course streaming services which has made traditional broadcasters much less relevant and RTE can't adapt, it's very hard, in my opinion, for RTE to compete with youtube for instance, youtube has changed the way we watch content in ways unimaginable 20 years ago, I watch much more youtube and Netfix than I do RTE why ? because the content on RTE is poor and because I can find pretty much anything I want related to my radio hobby or cars and that interests me a lot more than the content on RTE.

It doesn't matter the means of transmission, if the content is good people will tune in, watch and listen, if the content isn't there then the best platform in the world is useless.

SPDUB

doughnut2000 wrote: »

This thread is interesting for the various attacks on RTÉ regarding a technology that is in decline the world over.

Maybe because they don't appear to be truthful

Somehow they can put off essential maintenance for a year , even though they were doing work on other transmitters

So if the transmitter is being closed next year why not postpone again until after it's closure date and figuratively speaking run it into the ground .

That also has the bonus for RTE of making sure it can't be on the air anymore

SPDUB

SPDUB wrote: »

Maybe because they don't appear to be truthful

Somehow they can put off essential maintenance for a year , even though they were doing work on other transmitters

So if the transmitter is being closed next year why not postpone again until after it's closure date and figuratively speaking run it into the
ground .

That also has the bonus for RTE of making sure it can't be on the air anymore

When RTE said they put off the maintenance because of covid, they meant that they didn't want to deprive listeners of it last year during peak covid. Btw RTE no longer plan to close LW, the current work will ensure that it can continue until the end of the decade.

marclt

Johns nephew wrote: »

When RTE said they put off the maintenance because of covid, they meant that they didn't want to deprive listeners of it last year during peak covid. Btw RTE no longer plan to close LW, the current work will ensure that it can continue until the end of the decade.

If that is the case, they need to use their full power allocation…

Mickey Mike

marclt wrote: »

If that is the case, they need to use their full power allocation…

Yes, you got that right and should be made do it, we might get over if they don't change frequency to a clear channel, but full power is a must or the whole thing is pointless.

Mickey Mike

There's nothing on 252kHz, Algerian radio used to come in fairly strong in the late evening, for the last few nights there has been nothing. BBC Radio 4 on 198kHz and a Danish station on 234kHz are clear enough. Very strange indeed.

Mickey Mike

Mickey Mike wrote: »

There's nothing on 252kHz, Algerian radio used to come in fairly strong in the late evening, for the last few nights there has been nothing. BBC Radio 4 on 198kHz and a Danish station on 234kHz are clear enough. Very strange indeed.

I'm getting BBC R4 on 198 & RTL on 234 with a good strong signal. Weak signal on 270 which I'm assuming is the Czech station. Like yourself, I'm not getting anything on 252.

Mickey Mike

rathfarnhamlad wrote: »

I'm getting BBC R4 on 198 & RTL on 234 with a good strong signal. Weak signal on 270 which I'm assuming is the Czech station. Like yourself, I'm not getting anything on 252.

And as far as I know 270kHz is closing at the end of the year, a good slot for Radio1 to move to.

Mickey Mike

Mickey Mike wrote: »

And as far as I know 270kHz is closing at the end of the year, a good slot for Radio1 to move to.

Yes, I have heard that Czech Radio 1 is vacating LW at the end of the year. I vaguely remember reading a while back that the current transmitter was installed only in 2014 as a replacement for the old Tesla rig but don't quote me on that.

Agreed that it'd be an ideal location on the dial for RTE R1 to relocate to but let's face it, it ain't gonna happen.

I was reading this article about RTL during the week: https://www.radioeins.de/programm/sendungen/medienmagazin/radio_news/beitraege/2020/luxemburg.html

Is RTL on 234 the only non-SW AM station from mainland Europe which still has a consistently usable daytime signal into Ireland & the UK on a run-of-the-mill kitchen radio?

ClosedAccountFuzzy

Seems the only thing on air from french broadcasters on LW is an automatic time signal for clocks, carried in the old France Inter frequency. That used to be one of the most powerful signals in Europe at 2000kW during the day on 162kHz

FuzzyThinking

FuzzyThinking wrote: »

Seems the only thing on air from french broadcasters on LW is an automatic time signal for clocks, carried in the old France Inter frequency. That used to be one of the most powerful signals in Europe at 2000kW during the day on 162kHz

No doubt they'll try shut down time signals too, they tried this in the USA but I think they backed down, it would have made millions of devices, watches included useless or rather you'd have to keep manually setting them.

marno21

[Deleted User] wrote: »

No doubt they'll try shut down time signals too, they tried this in the USA but I think they backed down, it would have made millions of devices, watches included useless or rather you'd have to keep manually setting them.

162 is used in quite a few industrial settings in France apparently so less likely to be shutdown.

Surprising it’s still at 800kW. Very high power for just a carrier even if it is down from 2MW as it was when it was a broadcast TX.

ClosedAccountFuzzy

From what I gather the main user of it in France may be time signals for earlier generations of electricity meters to switch rates and also huge numbers of clocks and ticket validation machines used by the SNCF (French Rail) and various parking meters and so on.

As those devices are retired it will eventually be less relevant and probably will shut down, but it’ll be a long while yet.

Mickey Mike

It looks very much like Algerian radio 252 is off air for maintenance too, they are hardly closed by any account.

I'm surprised that no anorak has gone down to Summerhill and uploaded some videos of 2rn at work.

marno21

Mickey Mike wrote: »

It looks very much like Algerian radio 252 is off air for maintenance too, they are hardly closed by any account.

No carrier on 252 atm. Must be off air rather than low power.

Johns nephew

Johns nephew wrote: »

I'm surprised that no anorak has gone down to Summerhill and uploaded some videos of 2rn at work.

Maybe they did & couldn't see any activity or evidence of same...

Mickey Mike

Algerian radio back on again playing great music, Rick Astley, Modonna and Bon Jovi, really good signal.
If long wave means anything to RTE, they'd change to different frequency cause this is ferice interference.

Mickey Mike

Mickey Mike wrote: »

Algerian radio back on again playing great music, Rick Astley, Modonna and Bon Jovi, really good signal.
If long wave means anything to RTE, they'd change to different frequency cause this is ferice interference.

RTE would have to change up or down 10 Khz at least and it's not that easy to do.

Not going to happen, my guess is they'll find some excuse not to fire back up 252.

Algeria 1.5 Mw day and 0.7 Mw at night, vs RTE 150 Kw day 60 Kw night, that's ridiculous.

Usually there's an agreement through the ITU in regard to frequency allocation ? surely there was another frequency that 252 Khz they could have used ?

But strong signal tonight, if they play good music I look forward to listening to it when RTE cease broadcasting on 252 Khz

Anyone else notice how poor BBC R4 sounds on 198 Khz tonight ? not the first time I noticed, perhaps they've turned down the power ? they are on borrowed time, they said next time a valve dies that's it, 198 Khz is gone.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

RTE would have to change up or down 10 Khz at least and it's not that easy to do.

Not going to happen, my guess is they'll find some excuse not to fire back up 252.

Algeria 1.5 Mw day and 0.7 Mw at night, vs RTE 150 Kw day 60 Kw night, that's ridiculous.

Usually there's an agreement through the ITU in regard to frequency allocation ? surely there was another frequency that 252 Khz they could have used ?

But strong signal tonight, if they play good music I look forward to listening to it when RTE cease broadcasting on 252 Khz

Anyone else notice how poor BBC R4 sounds on 198 Khz tonight ? not the first time I noticed, perhaps they've turned down the power ? they are on borrowed time, they said next time a valve dies that's it, 198 Khz is gone.

Are you referring to the article in The Guardian (I think) from about 10 years ago? That story was quickly refuted by numerous ex-BBC network engineers. Thales can build more valves to order apparently, so the whole thing was just a cover story which was fabricated in the hope that everyone would buy it.

As for Algeria, it has better music programming than most stations in this country!

DavidJC

252 very clear tonight. I honestly thought from the signal and music it might be RTE Radio 1 but a quick check on FM confirmed otherwise.
Think maybe they did some work on the Chaine 3 transmitter while they were off sir.

But then so is RTL sounding strong on 234khz.

R4 198 sounds perfect to me.

DavidJC

DavidJC wrote: »

252 very clear tonight. I honestly thought from the signal and music it might be RTE Radio 1 but a quick check on FM confirmed otherwise.
Think maybe they did some work on the Chaine 3 transmitter while they were off sir.

But then so is RTL sounding strong on 234khz.

R4 198 sounds perfect to me.

3 strong signals & zero chance of any of them playing a Cardi B song? I like it!

Hotblack Desiato

Deleted User wrote: »

Algeria 1.5 Mw day and 0.7 Mw at night

Jaysus, 1.5MW to basically rickroll north Africa and much of Europe...

marno21

Here’s what I can receive atm on a bedside radio in Cork

162 - TDF time signal
189 - RUV Ras 2
198 - BBC R4
207 - RUV Ras 2 (stronger than 189)
225 - Polski Radio Program
234 - RTL
252 - Chaine 3

198, 234 and 252 a cut above the rest

rathfarnhamlad

rathfarnhamlad wrote: »

Are you referring to the article in The Guardian (I think) from about 10 years ago? That story was quickly refuted by numerous ex-BBC network engineers. Thales can build more valves to order apparently, so the whole thing was just a cover story which was fabricated in the hope that everyone would buy it.

Could have been that article but I think there were other sources but happy days if they can keep making the Valves. But one thing for sure is that BBC R4 does not have the signal at night it used to be booming in but last night there was a lot of distortion and the signal strength seemed well down.

rathfarnhamlad wrote: »

As for Algeria, it has better music programming than most stations in this country!

.

I'm not sure if it applies to LW/MW but the state interferes too much with radio stations dictating the genres at different times of days etc + the content in many cases, they have to "cater for all" This is why KFM and KCLR are plagued with one man Irish Country so called artists, because they have to have certain coverage for Irish music. This is why 2FM play ipad created junk is because they have to cater for the youth who probably don't listen to that muck anyway. All mad stuff but State control over Radio is never good especially when you read about "enforcement" on their website......

ClosedAccountFuzzy

It’s odd how it’s mostly the Midlands stations and Highland that are “plagued” by country music. The likes of the Dublin and Cork City stations aren’t at all.

I can only assume there’s a demand for county music in some areas.

In general I’m finding I don’t listen to radio nearly as much as I did. I haven’t tuned into anything other than RTE Radio 1 or Today FM for current affairs and in terms of music, the shows need to be really well curated, John Creedon for example.

I’ve zero interest in listening to play listed garbage when I have Spotify etc

Podcasts are making up a much higher % of my listening than they used to too.

I just think radio listening habits are changing rapidly and I wonder if the JNLR modelling even captures that.

However, to get back to LW, I’d like to see the costs vs the number of listeners. If they’re not stacking up anymore, I’d rather see the money going into programme making than being sunk into obsolete technologies.

DavidJC

Good list.. 207 is Iceland? Could just about hear last night.

252khz surprisingly still audible on the way to work at 9am today..
Not listenable but can hear French conversation.
1.5mw is incredible power.

I wondered how far south into Africa or towards North East Brazil it carries at night.
I haven't found a Web swr tuner in those countries with a suitable LW antenna connected. Probably no interest outside of Europe/N Africa

marno21 wrote: »

Here’s what I can receive atm on a bedside radio in Cork

162 - TDF time signal
189 - RUV Ras 2
198 - BBC R4
207 - RUV Ras 2 (stronger than 189)
225 - Polski Radio Program
234 - RTL
252 - Chaine 3

198, 234 and 252 a cut above the rest

doughnut2000

Apart from LW radio enthusiasts there doesn't appear to be much interest whatsoever.

This thread seems to contain a lot of strongly held opinions about personal taste in music.

dxhound2005

marno21 wrote: »

Here’s what I can receive atm on a bedside radio in Cork

162 - TDF time signal
189 - RUV Ras 2
198 - BBC R4
207 - RUV Ras 2 (stronger than 189)
225 - Polski Radio Program
234 - RTL
252 - Chaine 3

198, 234 and 252 a cut above the rest

I also get Czech on 270 and Denmark 243. Denmark is on air only at certain times, Sunday mornings being one. This video was made in Oxford January 2021.

FuzzyThinking

FuzzyThinking wrote: »

It’s odd how it’s mostly the Midlands stations and Highland that are “plagued” by country music. The likes of the Dublin and Cork City stations aren’t at all.

I can only assume there’s a demand for county music in some areas.

In general I’m finding I don’t listen to radio nearly as much as I did. I haven’t tuned into anything other than RTE Radio 1 or Today FM for current affairs and in terms of music, the shows need to be really well curated, John Creedon for example.

I’ve zero interest in listening to play listed garbage when I have Spotify etc

Podcasts are making up a much higher % of my listening than they used to too.

I just think radio listening habits are changing rapidly and I wonder if the JNLR modelling even captures that.

However, to get back to LW, I’d like to see the costs vs the number of listeners. If they’re not stacking up anymore, I’d rather see the money going into programme making than being sunk into obsolete technologies.

I love country music, just not that junk they're churning out these days, it's not Country.

DavidJC

DavidJC wrote: »

Good list.. 207 is Iceland? Could just about hear last night.

252khz surprisingly still audible on the way to work at 9am today..
Not listenable but can hear French conversation.
1.5mw is incredible power.

I wondered how far south into Africa or towards North East Brazil it carries at night.
I haven't found a Web swr tuner in those countries with a suitable LW antenna connected. Probably no interest outside of Europe/N Africa

Atlantic 252 could be heard in Brazil at night back in the day when it was at full power.

doughnut2000

The sound quality isn't very good for music, or for voice. I don't see mass market appeal for listening to this.

doughnut2000

doughnut2000 wrote: »

The sound quality isn't very good for music, or for voice. I don't see mass market appeal for listening to this.

In fairness the radio speaker isn't going to give great Audio, those communications receivers are designed to be used with headphones or external speakers, the same as ham radio transceivers but never going to achieve Spotify quality for sure. Still I find it quite nice listening to the AM sound with proper headphones or speaker.

lw 252 is more than good enough for the likes of News Talk and most of the content on RTE Radio One, who wants to listen to Joe Duffy and all the whingers in High Quality Digital Audio ?

ClosedAccountFuzzy

Is relocating a LW transmitter's frequency simple? Or is there a whole load of hard-tuned components? I know some of the older ones used specifically built coils and stuff.

TAFKAlawhec

rathfarnhamlad wrote: »

Are you referring to the article in The Guardian (I think) from about 10 years ago? That story was quickly refuted by numerous ex-BBC network engineers. Thales can build more valves to order apparently, so the whole thing was just a cover story which was fabricated in the hope that everyone would buy it.

To the best of my knowledge, the BBC Radio 4 transmitter at Droitwich in the English midlands is a solid-state piece of equipment - it seems rather quaint to think that it is still running on equipment that uses valves but that would imply that the TX is more than at least 50 or 60 years old.

There's a fair bit of folklore concerning BBC R4 longwave, one other urban legend being that British Navy submarines are required to monitor are required to monitor its transmissions and that if its transmissions suddenly cease without warning they're to deem it that the country is under nuclear attack. This fails on several points - one is that a transmitter can suddenly go off the air without warning for several different reasons e.g. fire, mast collapse, not to mention that the 198kHz broadcasts are part of a 4 transmitter SFN. Second, if this were indeed true it would almost certainly be classified information with consequences to anyone that disclosed such information (so a case of "neither confirmed nor denied"), thirdly this potential method of monitoring transmissions would only work reliably within the vicinity of the UK - about 3000km at best. Finally, and most importantly, the cruising depth of most navy submarines whilst again being normally classified information is generally reckoned to be in the hundreds of meters below sea level - far too low to receive radio signals in the longwave broadcast band due to the skin effect concerning the conductivity of sea water. How deep it can go below the surface will depend mostly on the salinity of the water, but some old mathematics I seen a long time ago gave a rough figure of a depth of around 10-15 metres at 150 kHz before signal levels became useless. Communications to submarines traditionally relies on using much lower frequencies than these - the USA, Russia and India have all built transmission systems in the SLF range (30 to 300 Hz) though the USA have decommissioned theirs - these days the transmissions lie mainly in the VLF (3 to 30kHz) ranges which can go down in tens of metres below the surface that can be sensed by trailing wire aerials.

What is much less of a myth is what is generally keeping BBC Radio 4 going on LW other than simple broadcasting - that is contracts with electrical suppliers in the UK to maintain the teleswitching system that modulates the carrier to enable certain consumer electrical meters to switch to different tariffs at different times of the day like Economy 7 (yes, it still exists) in places where "smart meters" have yet to be installed - they're behind on the roll out to install these, at one point they were 18 months behind schedule and this was prior to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

TAFKAlawhec

On another matter - and this thread is as good as any, I found among my bookmarks a section of the ITU website (it isn't exactly the most user-friendly one in the world) that holds details and information concerning previous ITU and International Telegraph conferences...

https://www.itu.int/en/history/Pages/ConferencesCollection.aspx

...one link which I'd say will be of interest to those wanting more details concerning broadcasting in Region 1 in the LW & MW bands will be that concerning the regional (1 & 3) 1975 conference in Geneva concerning low and medium frequencies i.e. GE75...

https://www.itu.int/en/history/Pages/RadioConferencesRegional.aspx?conf=4.98

...scroll to the bottom of the page on the "Conference Outcomes" tab and you'll find PDF links to some documents - the ones of most likely interest are those of "Final Acts of the Regional Administrative LF/MF Broadcasting Conference (Regions 1 and 3) (Geneva, 1975)" and "Annex 1 (2nd edition - 1981) to the Regional Agreement (Geneva, 1975)". Unfortunately the Annex 1 3rd (1987) & 4th (1990) editions don't contain frequency allocation information that would be very useful and personally I've no plans to head out to Geneva to visit the ITU library, but the original "final acts" and second edition contain a lot of information concerning frequency allocations agreed upon at GE75 and also in its first few years up until 1981 in all of the world outside of the Americas (they are region 2).

There are some differences between the final acts/1st edition and 2nd edition that should be notable - one being that in the 1st edition the 612 kHz allocation for Ireland is listed as "Tullamore 3" whereas by the 2nd edition (RTÉ Radio 2 now on-air) this has changed to "Athlone" - also in the second edition are the Enniskillen MF allocations (693, 774, 873, 1053 & 1197 kHz) that weren't in the 1st edition. Also take into account that both the 1st and 2nd editions list the long wave allocations on their "old" frequencies before they were later on shifted down in stages by 2kHz in the late 80's/early 90's e.g. Ireland's allocation in these editions are on 254 kHz.

If you don't have the fastest of internet connections, be aware that the linked PDFs are quite big, and might take some time to download. But hopefully the PDFs will be of use to some, as it took myself years to try and track down these documents that could not be found elsewhere. Other conferences that also might be of interest include the "European VHF/UHF Broadcasting Conference (Special Regional Conference) (Stockholm, 1961)" which details allocations in the European Broadcast Area for analogue TV and FM radio allocations at VHF (Bands I, II & III) and UHF (Bands IV & V) (interesting to note some of the allocations on both sides of the border e.g. L/Derry was originally assigned as a main UHF station with horizontal polarisation while the Mohercrome site in Co. Cavan was also assigned as a UHF broadcast station but never came to fruition, with Clermont Carn instead serving most of the north-east), while the "Regional Administrative Conference for FM Sound Broadcasting in the VHF band (Region 1 and certain countries concerned in Region 3) (2nd session) (Geneva, 1984)" aka GE84 is the basis for much of the current FM radio broadcasting allocations in the European and African Broadcasts Areas - of interest is the large amount of low-powered allocations in the Rep. Ireland in the upper part of the band between 105 & 108 MHz - I wonder what the initial idea was for these, possibly relays of RTÉ stations?

Glaceon

BBC R4 Droitwich is a pair of 250 kW Marconi B6042 transmitters. They date back to 1985 and are valve-based, but parts are available when required. It was definitely that Guardian piece that had everyone thinking it was a pre-WW2 antique, probably because of the perception that 'valves = old' due to consumer electronics not using them for decades.

TAFKAlawhec

Glaceon wrote: »

BBC R4 Droitwich is a pair of 250 kW Marconi B6042 transmitters. They date back to 1985 and are valve-based, but parts are available when required. It was definitely that Guardian piece that had everyone thinking it was a pre-WW2 antique, probably because of the perception that 'valves = old' due to consumer electronics not using them for decades.

Happy to be corrected. My assumption would be that the interest in using valves instead of transistors were, given that they were installed during the height of the Cold War, that valves have a lot higher tolerance of EMPs compared to transistors & other solid state electronics. That's only an assumption, though.

Mickey Mike

Nothing on Long Wave this evening, BBC Radio 4 is very weak, must be atmospheric conditions.

Mickey Mike

Mickey Mike wrote: »

Nothing on Long Wave this evening, BBC Radio 4 is very weak, must be atmospheric conditions.

Pretty good on my Kiwi SDR tonight compared to last night, haven't checked on the Portables. Using external Bonito Mega Dipol,

With regard to 279 (Turkmenistan), according to Google Earth, this transmitter was demolished over half a decade ago. Co-ordinates for the site (supposedly) are 37.854167, 58.366111.

Mickey Mike

Mickey Mike wrote: »

Nothing on Long Wave this evening, BBC Radio 4 is very weak, must be atmospheric conditions.

Algeria appears to be off again, tried my Pye radio, Sony handheld FM/LW receiver & car stereo - nothing.

Mickey Mike

rathfarnhamlad wrote: »

Algeria appears to be off again, tried my Pye radio, Sony handheld FM/LW receiver & car stereo - nothing.

I got up Chaine 3 (which is the channel on 252) on my tablet, sur its far better quality.

Mickey Mike

Let's face it we all know LW radio days are numbered, high power and low power ones. And if RTE are coming back on 150kw sur jesus they are only codding themselves.

ClosedAccountFuzzy

Would 252 kHz even work at low power with Chaine 3 in Algeria sharing the same frequency?

It would seem to make more sense to move RTE Radio 1 to one of the vacated frequencies, if they intend to remain on LW.

If it were on a clearer frequency, maybe it might improve reception in the U.K. and near continental Europe too?