RTE 1 252Kc Reprieved Again

[womer_uk]

http://www.independent.ie/business/m...-35096216.html

Lokks like we did make some difference doing that survey after all !

[michamoo]

Well if that's the case they need to turn the wick back up again then!

[Junk Box Nick]

And perhaps move to a vacant frequency, though on Friday night conditions were so awful I could barely hear it at all and no sign of Algeria either.

[crusher19860138]

Are they still turning the power down at night?

[Mike. Watterson]

All LW transmitters are turned down at night? Also many MW?

Frequencies are internationally agreed. Ireland has many unused MW ones, which would work fine to UK. No unused LW.

I think UK has unused 279KHz, or thereabouts, they should put Five Live Extra and R4LW Cricket on it.

[paulsherwin]

Yes, the UK has an unused LW allocation. There was some talk of using it when BBC R5 was being planned, but there were a number of problems including limits on power and potential interference from a Polish transmitter. 279kHz is actually allocated to the Isle of Man (not under direct UK jurisdiction) and there were quite advanced plans to broadcast a commercial music station from there about 15 years ago, similar to the old Atlantic 252, but the scheme eventually collapsed.

The Irish MW transmitters didn't reach London or eastern England but they gave reasonable reception in NW England and SW Scotland.

[Station X]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

The Irish MW transmitters didn't reach London or eastern England but they gave reasonable reception in NW England and SW Scotland.

Just had a look at my 1989 edition of "Guide To Broadcasting Stations" and I have Dublin 531kHz, Tullamore 567kHz, Athlone 612kHz and Dublin 1278kHz all marked as having been received in Ipswich.

I do have the benefit of good aerials though.

[paulsherwin]

I didn't mean that they weren't receivable at all, just that they didn't give good reception using a typical domestic radio. Tullamore was the best of the lot.

[Mike. Watterson]

Does anyone pick up Spirit from Cavan in England or Wales? Maybe about 549KHz? Only my best sets get it (poorly) as Mid West Limerick is rather far away and it's practically on the N.I. Border.

I can get Wales and Five Live during daytime on a really good radio, and used to even get R. Devon (maybe MW closed?) during daytime in the countryside.
R.Ulster is really poor this last few years, I get R.Scotland (and most main UK MW) far better than R.Ulster after dark.

There was a discussion on an Irish general forum about how well James Joyce would have received R. Athlone in self imposed exile in Switzerland. I think possible after dark. Less domestic interference from electrical devices.

He went to Switzerland for the last time in late 1940 and died there in Jan 1941. I think the UK had 5 or 6 transmitters in the south of England synchronised to R.Athlone then as a secret deal so that the Lufftwaffe couldn't use Athlone as a beacon. The Cork and Dublin separate mw frequencies were closed in 1939 (which did carry different material as did UK Regional till 1939), I don't know if the transmitters were kept on air synchronised to Athlone. I do know that one of the several bombings of Dublin by Luftwaffe was deliberate due to Irish Fire Engines being sent to fight fires in Belfast, with a bomb landing near the President's residence in Phoenix Park. His bedroom window broke and due to ill health he'd refused to use the air raid shelter.

[G6Tanuki]

I remember Tullamore on 567KHz - it was a real nuisance to those of us SWL-types who had ex-RAF R1155 receivers. The R1155 had a 560KHz IF and when using some antennas there was enough 'leakage' of Tullamore into the IF stages to provide an annoying background-programme to whatever you were trying to listen to.

[crusher19860138]

I have heard that station on 549khz,but only after dark.

[Mike. Watterson]

They added an Athlone "Trap" to the R1155, mine (not seen since 1970s) had it.

[Nicklyons2]

On a good day I can get 'Spirit' passably well on my car radio but household shash prevents any domestic listening.

[Mike. Watterson]

MW at the RTE Summerhill 252KHz site would give good UK coverage at night and probably all of Wales during the day.

['LIVEWIRE?']

I've never been able to receive Spirit Radio here in Oxfordshire, which is hardly surprising if it's a low power transmitter, especially as Spectrum Radio in London on 558kHz is usually audilble here albeit at only modest signal strength. When RTE Radio 1 was still on 567kHz good reception was usually possible here in Oxfordshire even after dark, the only times I recall it being problematical was back in the 80s when it was sanwiched between Laser 558 ond R. Caroline on 576kHz. Whatever made the owners of those two 'pirates' opt for 558 & 576kHz who, after all this time, knows!

[Hybrid tellies]

I can pick up Spirit Radio on 549Khz, during the day on many of my portable radios but on some days the local electronic noise does spoil reception somewhat. At night it is often swamped out by the high powered Jill FM transmitter from Algeria.
I can quite often receive Radio North on 846Khz from Redcastle. Reception is often clear as it is on a nice clear frequency.
Reception of RTE1 from Clarkstown on 252Khz is very good during the day with little or no co channel interference but at night it is often totally drowned out by the high powered Algerian transmitter. I wish they could switch to the now clear 261Khz frequency and stay on full power night and day. That way they would have excellent coverage of large parts of the UK.
In the past the high powered 500Kw Tullamore transmitter could be received here loud and clear during the day and but with some fading and co channel interference at night.

[Junk Box Nick]

Eireann on 567 was always receivable here in the Midlands on a domestic set but in the days of the 'old' 252 tx LW was a thumping signal as was Atlantic beforehand. Atlantic 252 and its 'long waves of music' was advertised on the backs of buses in our area and had a good listenership.

The pirates woke up to the potential of the low frequency end of MW when the Dutch Radio Veronica, which only broadcast with 10kW switched from 1562kHz/192m to what was then 557kHz/539m in 1973, though Radio 390 from Red Sands Tower had paved a bit of a path as its 773kHz signal was promoted as 'Britain's most powerful commercial radio station' and could be heard well into the north of England during the day. Before this the pirates seemed to prefer the high end of the band probably because this meant aerials near the resonant frequency were physically shorter and it was also the Radio Luxembourg end of the band - a number of radios of the era had a 'Luxembourg bandspread'. Radio Veronica never used a tall mast but a T antenna strung between two masts fore and aft. I could never hear it on 1562 but 558 was there until Capital Radio was allocated the same frequency.

When Caroline planned its return after the the Mi Amigo sank the plan was to use 558kHz. (Radio Veronica had closed due to the Dutch Marine Offences Act and Capital Radio in London had also left the frequency.) To cut a long story short a faction broke away, formed Laser 558 on board the MV Communicator, and got to the frequency first. When Caroline finally arrived from the Ross Revenge with its massive lattice mast they got as close in frequency to Laser 558 as they could which meant 'the other side' of Radio Eireann.

Laser 558 was, in my listening experience, the best daytime signal ever from an offshore pirate station. It was comfortably listenable in the midlands on a domestic set and I regularly listened in my car using a cheapo car radio screwed to the parcel shelf. I knew plenty of people locally who listened to Laser. Caroline was easily listenable too, though not quite as good, but I distinctly remember listening to it in a hired car during a journey from Birmingham to Oxford (not all my cars had radios back then!).

It is a shame that RTE 252 has to compete with Algeria. As LW stations have closed better frequencies have become available but as 252 remains reprieved (I saw in one of the newspapers for the Irish in the UK last week that the plan was still to close 252 but with no closure date set) I guess that any spending beyond maintaining the status quo is out of the question.

[D Cassidy]

Hello.
Spirit Radio on 549 is strong here a few miles south of Glasgow. Also a good friend of mine can just about resolve it on a very selective crystal set he has designed, you need good hearing though to make it out.
252 is also a good signal but I am around 280 feet above sea level and can see the "sea" from my house on a clear day which is in the general direction of Ireland.

[Stylo N M]

Hi,

Yes i can just hear Spirit Radio on my Pye Jewell Case radio if I place it on top of the cooker hob, and also I've heard Spectrum radio down there as well the one that serves Greater London I think.

I like listening to that consumer programe, on BBC Three Counties Radio on a Monday morning.

Paul.

[colourking]

Originally Posted by Mike. Watterson

I can get Wales and Five Live during daytime on a really good radio, and used to even get R. Devon (maybe MW closed?) during daytime in the countryside.
R.Ulster is really poor this last few years, I get R.Scotland (and most main UK MW) far better than R.Ulster after dark.

BBC R Devon is still there on 801 kHz. It possibly might be lower powered than in times past, but you should still be able to hear it where you are with a sensitive receiver and quiet location.

Also try for BBC Radio Cornwall on 630 and the lower powered 657 (the 657kHz Bodmin transmitter suffered from low modulation for MONTHS earlier this year until fixed sometime in July!)

Another to try in daytime is the Redruth BBC R4 filler on 756 ?