RTE ending 252kHz LW transmissions next month.

[Nicklyons2]

Originally Posted by SteveCG

I was suprised to be receiving RTL on 1440 kc/s (once known as Luxembourg on 208m) during the afternoon - complete with big fades in he signal strength!

But for how much longer? the 1440 KHz service was also slated for closure at the end of this year, although this seems to be in doubt due to pending contracts with China Radio and religiuos broadcasters.

[SteveCG]

Really Nicklyons2? I didn't know that. Crickey! - LW and MW broadcasting is not an endangered species, it is in a worst state than that.

[Mike. Watterson]

Yes, the 208 preset on my TR130 gets China Radio

[raditechman]

It seems that RTE could be broadcasting in the UK starting from Spring 2016 using DAB+, before closing down Long wave transmissions in 2017
See link below.
http://www.a516digital.com/2015/01/r...uk-on-dab.html

John

[paulsherwin]

John, why do you think this will be a DAB+ mux? All existing muxes are bog standard DAB and lots of older DAB radios can't receive DAB+. Nobody would be happier than me if the entire UK DAB system switched to DAB+ but Ofcom have shown absolutely no interest in this.

I've always thought it made sense for RTE to rent some space on one of the UK DAB muxes though.

[raditechman]

Paul,
Without digressing too much from the RTE LW topic.
If you read at the bottom of the link page it stated that Ireland is now trialing DAB+ and I have also read elsewhere that if OFCOM give the new DAB licence to Listen2Digital they have said that they will have some transmissions in DAB+.
Here is a link which gives the frequency for the new multiplex and also says 30% of output will be DAB+
http://www.a516digital.com/2014/07/1...tal-2-dab.html
To me this all ties in with the loss of LW,and MW as DAB+ might be enough to persuade a few more people switch to digital.

I guess RTE listeners in UK will be happier to listen on DAB radio as it will be clearer over here than the LW reception. I think many recent DAB radios can decode DAB+

I notice that today's England v Australia cricket was on digital radio only and not LW. I am listening to LW and MW as much as possible before it goes.

John

[Mike. Watterson]

RTE has no intention of using DAB+ in Ireland
The Irish Commercial trials are to establish if twice as many stations can be fitted. Target bit rate is 64bps.
RTE rollout stalled ages ago at less than 50% coverage. The 2RN network has only the one RTE only MUX. The extra RTE stations on DAB are on DTT at 99% coverage!

It's criminal that RTE are spending Irish Licence payers money on DAB in UK. A system being force/foisted on people, that isn't fit for purpose. Not enough UK TX. FM is much better coverage and reason for Cricket on R4LW usually is because it's the best coverage! Probably it was a mistake it wasn't on R4 LW.

Various countries are now looking at DVB-T2 with same bandwidth as a DAB mux (I think 1.7MHz in 2MHz channel) as it gives better coverage rather than DAB+ upgrades.

The point of DAB+ isn't more quality, but to reduce costs by having twice as many stations paying for same mux bandwidth. DVB-T2 is even cheaper.

[paulsherwin]

We can argue about the merits of DAB (though not in this forum - hint) but if RTE and Irish society in general feel they have a duty to cater to the huge Irish population in Britain then they have to choose the best technology to do it. I would guess that a low bitrate channel (64kb mono?) on a UK commercial DAB mux would cost a lot less than running the 252kHz LW transmitter. There's also the problem that 252kHz doesn't serve London very well, which I believe has the largest number of Irish citizens of any city in the world apart from Dublin.

One factor which may help the economics is that RTE is a partially commercially funded service, and a large UK listenership (not just the Irish in Britain) may boost advertising rates.

[Junk Box Nick]

I read somewhere recently that RTE really had no idea how much of the Irish diaspora listened to RTE on LW. I think the original planned shut down in October 2014 (perhaps the thread title should be changed?) brought a lot of this out of the woodwork.

Not because I am part of the community, though I do have a family connection to Ireland, I know an awful lot of Irish and Irish descended people - it's amazing how many people in this locality have connections with Ireland - and all of a sudden the RTE close down became a talking point. I had no idea how many of these listened to RTE as it had never come up in conversation before. There was also a lot of comment about the signal being weaker than it once was.

I would be happy to hear RTE on UK DAB. (It would be better than a lot of the stuff on there but 'nuff said about that.)

I have noticed that the cricket one-dayers have quietly disappeared from R4 LW. I wonder what will happen with the OD World Cup coverage? Perhaps this is a 'drop it and see who complains' strategy? For ages now when cricket commentary has been promoted (and available on R4LW) only 5 Live Sports Extra has been mentioned.

[Mike. Watterson]

Nor have they any idea how many people IN Ireland listen to LW or DAB. Their survey about turning off the 6 MW transmitters was laughable. The MW RTE was of course poorer in day time only reaching Wales well. But night time RTE MW worked far better than LW into all UK and Europe.

I can actually get Five Live here in Limerick on MW in daytime, but only on better Radios. Any LW set gets R4.

DAB for a portable typically is x5 to x20 times battery consumption of an AM radio.
UK DAB needs x6 as many masts for coverage equal to VHF-FM for a portable, though almost all low power. Even that is short of LW coverage, also for portable more than 1/2 areas need the whip extended vs no external aerial on MW & LW.

Oddly despite having Sony ICF2001D, Hacker RP18, Yaesu VR500 with larger whip, Yaesu FT817ND, a decent Koyo etc, the best VHF-FM radio (sensitivity and selectivity) is my old Sony Xperia Android phone. The battery life, tuning GUI and favourites setup beats most DAB/FM combo portables I've tried.

[Brian R Pateman]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

We can argue about the merits of DAB (though not in this forum - hint).

Just to reiterate Paul's warning. This forum is not the place for the DAB argument.

[Mike. Watterson]

Yes. It's not about DAB. It's about closing of RTE's only AM Station. The only other Irish AM is Spirit (low power near N.I border).

How would people feel about RW LW, or Five Live MW being closed with the excuse that Irish DAB is cheaper?

[Paul Stenning]

Two warnings from moderators and a post being deleted seems to be having no effect. If certain people won't take the hints then we only have one option....

Thread closed.