The future of RTE Radio 1 LW

formerly scottish paddy

xMallx wrote: »

and now they want to pay triple that

How much would they be paying? Can't see them forking out that all that much.

xMallx

formerly scottish paddy wrote: »

How much would they be paying? .

Rumour is GBP 500k

formerly scottish paddy

xMallx wrote: »

Rumour is GBP 500k

Can't see them paying that unless they are planning some advertising deal and "opt-out" ads for GB.

marclt

It would appear that from that proposal RTE Radio 1 will be available on DAB+, which isn't standard in the UK as yet. Although they are moving towards it.

RTE isn't listed as a station on the UTV/Bauer bid. But on that bid, they have allowed coverage plans to be made public. We're looking at an 85% coverage, which drops to half that in parts of the constituent nations such as Wales.

xMallx

RTE must be running Clarkstown at very low power, Algeria is as clear as a bell in the background across ireland now.

feez

It seems to be down a few dB alright, never heard anything underneath it before

xMallx wrote: »

RTE must be running Clarkstown at very low power, Algeria is as clear as a bell in the background across ireland now.

petronius

Are RTE vandalising the Long Wave service by running it on reduced power...
This is disingenuous, and not in the spirit of serving the Diaspora in the UK, or the Belfast Agreement.

petronius

Radio_Fan_67 wrote: »

Hasn't the longwave 252 signal always been useless in London ? Some people go on about it as if it covers all of europe.

The LW signal is received in London, it could do with more power, Medium Wave was patchy at best in North London, and also in South Wales reception was lousy, where as LW is better. MW was excellent in the North of England according to relatives there and the rationale for LW was that it would give more coverage.

LW doest cover all of Europe, but i have received LW when in northern France and also once when in Belgium.

Mickey Mike

xMallx wrote: »

RTE must be running Clarkstown at very low power, Algeria is as clear as a bell in the background across ireland now.

Yes you're right, why for **** sake they did not move up to 270 khz where there's nothing there. But it doesn't matter now cause its ending in 2017. I don't know what the solution is, it will cost money whatever corner they turn.

winston_1

Mickie Mike wrote: »

Yes you're right, why for **** sake they did not move up to 270 khz where there's nothing there.

Because their internationally agreed allocation is 252kHz. Broadcasters can't simply choose their own broadcast frequencies.

watty

UK though has 279 KHz which they don't use.
198KHz is the Cricket Channel for over 6 hrs today. Fine if you like Cricket. An abuse if you don't. Why isn't it on Five Live (which can be picked up daytime out side UK).

Why did RTE go to 252 and close the MW in the first place? Irish LW is better in parts of UK during day, but Irish MW far better in UK at night.

Most of what Broadcasters doing since 1990s makes no sense.

Antenna

Mickie Mike wrote: »

Yes you're right, why for **** sake they did not move up to 270 khz where there's nothing there. But it doesn't matter now cause its ending in 2017. I don't know what the solution is, it will cost money whatever corner they turn.

261 kHz would appear to be a better choice than 270. nothing at all on 261 across Europe, you will hear a very weak Czech station at night on 270. Also I have come across some dial-tuned radios with LW which don't tune up as far as 270 (or 279), but 261 would be fine.

winston_1 wrote: »

Because their internationally agreed allocation is 252kHz. Broadcasters can't simply choose their own broadcast frequencies.

Could there be temporary permission granted internationally to use say the clear 261kHz instead of 252 ? THis temporary permission could keep getting rolled over if no other country in Europe reactivates 261kHz ?

In the UK some years ago, after 1566kHz MW became very clear at night due to the closure of a high power transmitter in Switzerland, a BBC local station with MW and another broadcaster elsewhere took advantage of this and managed to move onto this now clearer frequency, despite 1566 never been allocated in the UK before?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2349767.stm

Dom Phil Cobe

watty wrote: »

Why did RTE go to 252 in the first place? I

Well i guess when teamtalk 252 closed in 2002 they didn't want to leave a pretty young 13 year old giant mast and transmitter lying dormant. The trouble of
building the thing would still have been fresh in everyone's mind at the time.

Mickey Mike

Ok let's go forward to 2 years (2017) will RTE definitely pull the plug on Long Wave? Will older people adapt to newer ways of receiving radio, they will of course, they have to and it's a good thing to have change. Everything changes even we do.
The trend is AM transmitters are closing down across Europe and that's one of the reasons apart from costs. There's better ways of receiving quality radio.
MW and LW used to sound far better years ago, now their power output is down to half in some places making it TRASH Radio.
The idea of going DAB in UK is fine but at what charge, that is a sticking point. People outside the Irish state may have to dip in their pockets a little if they want Irish radio.

Dom Phil Cobe

Mickie Mike wrote: »

Ok let's go forward to 2 years (2017) will RTE definitely pull the plug on Long Wave? Will older people adapt to newer ways of receiving radio, they will of course, they have to and it's a good thing to have change. Everything changes even we do.
The trend is AM transmitters are closing down across Europe and that's one of the reasons apart from costs. There's better ways of receiving quality radio.
MW and LW used to sound far better years ago, now their power output is down to half in some places making it TRASH Radio.
The idea of going DAB in UK is fine but at what charge, that is a sticking point. People outside the Irish state may have to dip in their pockets a little if they want Irish radio.

I find the idea of paying a six figure sum for dab carriage in the uk a shocking waste of tax payers money. The small amount of elderly irish uk based 252 listeners are very unlikely to bother listing via dab. why not have Terrestrial carriage of RTE Radio 1 in boston and australia too ?

formerly scottish paddy

Dom Phil Cobe wrote: »

I find the idea of paying a six figure sum for dab carriage in the uk a shocking waste of tax payers money. The small amount of elderly irish uk based 252 listeners are very unlikely to bother listing via dab. why not have Terrestrial carriage of RTE Radio 1 in boston and australia too ?

Presumably if carried on DAB in the UK RTÉ could have substitute ads aimed at UK audience which would cover some of the cost.

dxhound2005

Longwave 252 will be off the air from 9 am Monday next for three days. The announcement says it is for essential transmitter maintenance.

dxhound2005

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Longwave 252 will be off the air from 9 am Monday next for three days. The announcement says it is for essential transmitter maintenance.

Part of me suspects it's a test to see who complains! Or maybe it's something to do with why it has been on so low power lately? Who knows!

Mickey Mike

Well it will give us a chance to hear Algerian radio for a couple of days. When RTE Long Wave returns on Wednesday evening after service we'll have top audio quality, just like in the old days.

dxhound2005

Algeria is very strong. During the day S9 + 10dB on JRC NRD525 and Wellbrook loop located indoors temporarily. Same signal strength on Eton E1 outside away from the noise, just on the telescopic whip (the E1 has no internal ferrite antenna)

They must be using the full 1500 kW.

Mickey Mike

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Algeria is very strong. During the day S9 + 10dB on JRC NRD525 and Wellbrook loop located indoors temporarily. Same signal strength on Eton E1 outside away from the noise, just on the telescopic whip (the E1 has no internal ferrite antenna)

They must be using the full 1500 kW.

Yes Algerian radio is very strong 1500 kw by day and 750 kw by night. It makes our 300 kw day time and 100 night time a bit of a joke when it should be at least 500 kw by day.

The Cush

MarkK wrote: »

RTE1 is listed as part of the "Listen2Digital consortium" bid for a new national DAB mux in the UK

The second UK national radio multiplex licence was awarded on 24 March to Sound Digital Limited - http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-broadcast-licensing/digital-radio/national-multiplex-award-mar15/

RTÉ Radio was part of the losing Listen2Digital licence bid.

Antenna

Mickie Mike wrote: »

MW and LW used to sound far better years ago,

This is mainly because older receivers allowed better quality audio from MW/LW. Manufacturers choosing cheaper and smaller size components was bad news for AM.

Older receivers had I.F. transformers (rather than the small Ceramic IF filters nowadays) which generally gave better AM quality audio, and this is just one aspect of older receivers being better for AM

Modern AM receivers worldwide usually have AM audio roll-off at around 2-3kHz (which is very irritating to the human ear) - even though UK AM stations may have 6kHz of audio, and American stations can have 10kHz of audio (provided they do not have IBOC - a digital signal surrounding the AM signal)

Mickey Mike

Does anyone know if the Tullamore MW transmitter is still standing or what are they going to do with it? I know Athlone MW has been dismantled. Will there be any use for 567 khz

How is the power level on 252 since the restart? I'm in Dublin so never had any issues here, but how about further afield?

dxhound2005

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/irish-in-britain-consulted-on-shutdown-of-rte-service-1-6836058


Ireland’s Diaspora minister has urged emigrants in Britain to speak out about the planned shutdown of RTE’s longwave radio service.

Jimmy Deenihan said government-funded research into the use of the service, particularly by older Irish people in the UK, would help determine a decision on its future.

The Cush

The Cush wrote: »

The second UK national radio multiplex licence was awarded on 24 March to Sound Digital Limited - http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-broadcast-licensing/digital-radio/national-multiplex-award-mar15/

RTÉ Radio was part of the losing Listen2Digital licence bid.

RTÉ Radio 1 is to be made available in the Manchester area on a 9 month trial Local DAB minimux operated by Niocast Digital and is due to begin broadcasting next month.

RTÉ weren't part of Niocast Digital's original trial application and were added recently. According to a516digital.com RTÉ's carriage on the Manchester DAB trial is subject to regulatory approval by Ofcom.

The licence was 1 of 10 trial licences awarded by Ofcom last June. At the end of the 9 month trials Ofcom will report to government in mid-2016 and make recommendations on a licensing framework.

Niocast Digital's trial application - http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/radio/digital/small-scale-trial-multiplex-licensing/Niocast_Digital_application_form_-_for_publication.pdf

The Cush

The Manchester trial minimux has been up an running since the 20th of last month but RTÉ Radio1 hasn't appeared yet, possibly awaiting its Ofcom licence.

6 of the 9 services carried on the mux received their licences in August - http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radio-broadcast-licensing/monthly-updates/update0815

The mux operators, Niocast Digital, have a Coming Soon caption beside the RTÉ Radio1 logo on their website - http://www.niocast.com/

One of the current services on the mux is identified as Niocast DAB (C1D5 128 kbit/s Stereo No PTy), probably a placeholder for RTÉ R1 - http://www.wohnort.org/DAB/ukloc.html#Manchester Mini

dxhound2005

The research amongst the diaspora, and any other interested parties has started. LW is running an announcement asking listeners in GB to phone a number to express their interest in taking part. Announcement is just before midnight, and just before 8am, probably other times as well.

John Joe Jones

Does anyone here know for sure what KW has Clarkstown been running at the past year ? I know its a 300kw rig but I understand it hasn't been running at 300kw for some time.