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Old 1st Apr 2019, 4:24 am   #1
Mitch-W
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Default Absolute Radio in the middle of Europe

I just put together a set I was restoring for past 6 months. It is a Blaupunkt 4W6 Bakelite set, that was in rather bad condition, with rusty chassis, mangled IF transformer can (coils intact), etc. Luckily the cabinet polished like new, other components also cleaned right nice.

I just did an IF alignment, and interestingly enough, one of the first stations I picked was an Absolute Radio on 1215 kHz. This was at about 3.30 AM. I let it play for 25 minutes with no problems, just a bit of fading now and then, but overall very clear. Antenna was about 3 m of random wire.

But this is in the middle of Slovenia, just at the edge of the Central Europe, close to the border of East Europe region. So about 1200-1500 km away.

That said, I guess my radio is working very well or I had extreme luck with the atmospheric propagation.
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Old 1st Apr 2019, 8:37 am   #2
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Default Re: Absolute Radio in the middle of Europe

I'm surprised you were able to listen to Absolute Radio in Slovenia, Mitch-W, (a) because of the fact that A-R have a number of synchronized transmitters on 1215kHz, which causes reception problems in some parts of the U.K., and (b) because, unless it's eother closed down altogether, or was off-air at 3.30AM, there is (was?) a station in Tirana, Albania on 1215kHz.
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Old 1st Apr 2019, 10:37 am   #3
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Default Re: Absolute Radio in the middle of Europe

Yes, you were quite lucky to get good reception of Absolute 1215kHz in your location. It is notorious for poor reception even in Britain. You must have been getting good stable sky wave reception from one of the transmitters in the network while receiving nothing from the others. None of the transmitters are especially huge.

This is the old transmitter network used to launch BBC Radio 1 in 1967.

https://www.radiorewind.co.uk/radio1...launch_day.htm
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Old 1st Apr 2019, 11:43 am   #4
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Default Re: Absolute Radio in the middle of Europe

Your radio is obviously working very well to pick up Absolute on 1215Khz in Slovenia. Since they have cut their main transmitter powers by 50% reception of Absolute Radio is now impossible in many parts of the UK, day or night.
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Old 3rd Apr 2019, 5:50 pm   #5
Mitch-W
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Default Re: Absolute Radio in the middle of Europe

Interesting info. Well, at day I can't receive anything on MW as the only main AM transmitter in Slovenia was shut off back in September 2017.

There are only two or three low power AM transmitters left here, but they are at the two opposite borders of the country and can be only picked up at night if the conditions are good.
And even those are being considered to be shut down in near future.

It surely was the Absolute Radio I was listening to, as I heard few idents. At first I thought it is Gold Radio 1548 kHz, that can be usually picked here at night, even on a small transistor set.

As far as I remember, the only other UK station I picked up was the BBC possibly on 909 kHz (close to the old 918 kHz Radio Slovenia transmitter - the one that was shut down in 2017). This was about 3-4 years ago on a Kosmaj 49 set (100% clone of Philips BX387A), which is possibly the most sensitive set I have.
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Old 3rd Apr 2019, 6:21 pm   #6
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Default Re: Absolute Radio in the middle of Europe

909 would have been BBC Radio 5 Live.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_5_Live
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Old 4th Apr 2019, 10:34 am   #7
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Default Re: Absolute Radio in the middle of Europe

I am sure it was Absolute Radio you were hearing on 1215Khz. As I said they have reduced the power of their 6 high powered transmitters they are still running at 50Kw. Other UK stations that you may hear in Slovenia at night include BBC R5L on 909/693, BBC R Wales on 882, BBC R Scotland on 810, BBC R Ulster on 1341.
Some of the high powered commercial stations to look out for are Gold on 1548, which you have already received, Talk Sport on 1089/1053, and from the Isle of Man Manx Radio on 1368.
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