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Old 18th Jan 2016, 11:11 am   #1
'LIVEWIRE?'
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Question Any European Stations still on MW??

Apart from in the UK, that is?? I know that France, Germany & Luxembourg MW Transmitters all closed down on 31st. December 2015, but are there, e.g., still MW Stations operating in Belguim, The Netherlands, Scandinavia, or further afield?
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Old 18th Jan 2016, 11:24 am   #2
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

Listen and see?

Belgian station from Wavre coming through loud and clear right now on 621 KHz, 483 metres.
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Old 18th Jan 2016, 11:33 am   #3
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

Radio Caroline on 747kHz. (previously used by a Dutch station).

DFed it and it appears to be a land based pirate using low power.
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Old 18th Jan 2016, 12:01 pm   #4
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

I don't think there is anything left on MW in Scandinavia and there hasn't been for a long time. All my AM portables in Stockholm are now silent on MW
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Old 18th Jan 2016, 1:17 pm   #5
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

When I retired, we went on a cruise along the coast of Norway up to the North Cape in 2012, and I got nothing on MW then. Nothing much on SW either come to that.

Last edited by emeritus; 18th Jan 2016 at 1:25 pm.
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Old 18th Jan 2016, 3:17 pm   #6
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

Europe/Middle East MW lists:

http://www.emwg.info/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...e_transmitters

http://mediumwave.info/news.html

http://www.hermanboel.eu/en-emwg-mw1.htm

Most should be quite accurate as the dxers keep stuff up to date.

Googled: Europe "medium wave" khz

(Top Tip: Put quotes around search words you expect to see together to keep search findings more relevant.)

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Old 18th Jan 2016, 4:41 pm   #7
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

I often 'scan' MW and found a very interesting station on 1350kHz, it was my pantry transmitter set to Radio 4, oops!
 
Old 18th Jan 2016, 4:57 pm   #8
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

Oh, 1350 kHz? Could have been mine too!
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Old 18th Jan 2016, 11:35 pm   #9
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

Still plenty of Spanish stations receivable here in my part of Essex in the evening. As of 10.30 PM tonight, I logged transmissions on the following frequencies :[kHz]

585, 639, 684, 738, 747, 855, 864, 873, 900, 918, 954, 990, 1017, 1116.

The strongest, almost interference- free, were on 585 and 684 kHz. Some of the others suffered co-channel interference, reducible by rotating my radio (a Sony ICF-SW35) to a compromise position between the adjacent station and the Hash from what I think is next door's TV. The only foreign station I could find this afternoon was the French-language Belgian station on 621 kHz (Post #2), loud and clear.
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Old 19th Jan 2016, 12:48 am   #10
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

Just had a trawl up medium-wave now (2330 GMT).

Yes, lots of Spanish stations and weaker from further afield. Quite a strong het on 1269 kHz USB from 1270 kHz. Too weak to hear any mod. Presumably from the US or Canada east coast, (probably a well-known one to MW DXers.)

What I did notice was a huge hole at 1440 kHz...

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Old 20th Jan 2016, 9:37 am   #11
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

Last evening, and early this morning, apart from the 'local' stations (5 live, T/Sport,etc.), I could only pick up very faint unreadable signals on several frequencies across the MW band, but I was only using my Brandt Multi-band portable on it's internal ferrite rod aerial. On LW I did find late yesterday evening that Algeria on 252kHz was almost as strong a signal as RTE Radio1, and both could be heard together, the radio having to carefully rotated in order to null out either station.
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Old 20th Jan 2016, 12:07 pm   #12
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

A quick check on any broadcast band can be done here: http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ The only snag is the receiver is in the Netherlands, but it gives one some idea of what is on air - and with most stations identified, too.
There are still several French, German, and Dutch M.W. stations still radiating at least part-time.
20 - odd years ago, I would never have believed it would be as empty as this today. Tony.

Last edited by boxdoctor; 20th Jan 2016 at 12:12 pm.
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Old 20th Jan 2016, 3:00 pm   #13
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

Quote:
Originally Posted by 'LIVEWIRE?' View Post
On LW I did find late yesterday evening that Algeria on 252kHz was almost as strong a signal as RTE Radio1, and both could be heard together, the radio having to carefully rotated in order to null out either station.
That Algerian blaster does seem to have become even more powerful since it restarted after the engineering shutdown - maybe they're trying to cover the whole of France now. RTE seem to have cut their power from the 300kW their transmitter is capable of (they are actually licensed for 500kW but haven't run that since 2007). RTE used to be easily listenable here but even daytime reception now requires that the Algerian station be carefully nulled out.
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Old 20th Jan 2016, 3:27 pm   #14
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

Algeria is a humungus signal now. Listening in the car at 5pm (though dark) last night it was giving RTE serious gip.

At night, when I suspect that the wick is turned even lower I can only get RTE with careful nulling. At my location it's near 90 degrees so it's possible to completely null Algeria. Turned the other way Algeria is a much stronger signal - like a local in fact.

It's my guess that RTE is running about 50kW at night if that. They probably work on the basis that the Irish diaspora listening on LW is elderly and are mainly daytime listeners. I thought when the reprieve came about there was a plan to go to daytime hours on 252 before an eventual shut down.
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Old 20th Jan 2016, 9:49 pm   #15
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

I just did a MW bandscan on my Vega Selena; almost every frequency was in use, so the band isn't dead yet. The Selena heard nothing on 1440 though, so I tried my Sony ICF-6700W with a loop aerial, and it certainly picked up a station on that frequency.

I have mixed feelings about what is happening. Although it is sad that so many of the high power broadcasters are going, the scope for DXing is now so much better than it has been since probably the 1930s or so.

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Old 20th Jan 2016, 10:00 pm   #16
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulE27 View Post
I have mixed feelings about what is happening. Although it is sad that so many of the high power broadcasters are going, the scope for DXing is now so much better than it has been since probably the 1930s or so.
Indeed: there are still a number of high-power AM broadcasters in the USA which should be receivable here in the latter part of the night (when there's still a dark-path from UK to USA).

I've been working US stations on 80M around 06:30AM - if my 100 Watts to an end-fed can reach across "the pond" then their 50, 100, 150Kw to professional-grade towers should sometimes do likewise.

List of US "Clear Channel" stations [who have no-one else sharing their frequency] here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear-...annel_stations

[I have fond memories of listening to WINS on 1010KHz in the late-1960s]

Last edited by G6Tanuki; 20th Jan 2016 at 10:07 pm.
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Old 21st Jan 2016, 9:44 am   #17
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

I can't say that I've ever heard N. Americam MW stations here, as, other than portables and a HiFi Tuner, I've never owned a receiver or aerial capable of pulling in such weak signals. Early this morning (around 7AM) The MW band seemed a little more active than of late, but, from what I could decipher, what i was hearing was some more distant UK stations, plus some Europeans & N. Africans (There were two Arabic Language stations on MW). Regarding U.S. AM Stations, I always understood that FCC Regulations limited Transmitter power ot a maximum of 50kW on any frequency. The only high power stations 'over there' of which I know are in Mexico (at least two 250kW) and the Carribean TWR(PJB) Bonaire is/was a 500kW 'Heavyweight'
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Old 24th Jan 2016, 2:17 pm   #18
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

I can receive some (with a lot of commercials) AM stations in North Holland from GB.
My place is at the other side of the North Sea near the coast,opposite Great Yarmouth.
Maybe the other way around will also work?
http://www.kbcradio.eu/ at 1602 kHz as a try?
Jard N.
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Old 25th Jan 2016, 3:26 pm   #19
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

At least mainland Europe now has enhanced signals from Start Point in Devon, seeing as the south mast is now the radiator after the north mast was demolished recently!

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/gallery...74&pageid=2419
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Old 25th Jan 2016, 5:06 pm   #20
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Default Re: Any European Stations still on MW??

There are quite a few RSL (Restricted Service License) MW stations in the UK. They are only 1W but are fun to try and catch. I have found a few within a few 10's of miles and go for a ride on the motorcycle to visit them.
 
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