Radio Caroline improved reception

[telstar]

Hi.
I am really pleased that the reception on Radio Caroline has improved on 648 kHz. It is now long overdue but worth the wait. There is still background noise, but that is probably due to local overhead power lines that are nearby.
Once I take the Bush TR130 transistor radio away from home, the reception is much better.
Anyone else found that listening quality has improved?
Cheers
Mike

Here in sunny Maidenhead, just now, using a RSPDX SDR (software defined radio) I get a good quality signal on both the loop and vertical aerials. The radio says it's about 15dB signal to noise, fine for a tranny/laptop a bit rough for HiFi. They seem to be using +/- 7kHz bandwidth too.

[ionburn]

I have noticed slightly higher signal level on the meter in the last few days. I remember a few days ago they announced possible disruption due to work on their transmitter / aerial.

[stuie319]

Hi Folks,

Caroline were operating 648 from the smaller 160ft standby tower at Orfordness. They have recently run the tx into one of the full height (350ft) towers, to increase the efficiency. Apparently they have approached Ofcom for an increase in the 1kw power as well

Regards

Stu

[Junk Box Nick]

They switched over to one of the quarter wave verticals a week or so before the last Caroline North weekend which coincided with the 14/15th August anniversary of the Marine Offences Act.

Reception on 648 went from 'it's there' to usuable in the daytime on my Hacker Sovereign on the ferrite rod and my small Sony with loop. If I had received Caroline as good as this during the daytime in the 1960s and 70s I'd have been delighted. It's nice to have something 'genuine' to listen to on the vintage sets.

I listened to the personal Top Fifteen this morning – I always enjoy these. (It looks like David Naylor has defected from Serenade Radio to Caroline.)

Unfortunately, reception at night on 648 remains unusable - the opposite of the 'old days' of course.

Caroline North, with shows live from the Ross Revenge, is well worth a listen. There is no competition for the Manx Radio AM Tx on 1368 now and at night it comes in a treat here. It's a great workout for vintage sets and they play a lot of oldies you don't usually hear these days. The next weekend is 19/20th September.

[Andrew2]

Here in north Cheshire the signal is marginally improved in the daytime, nothing to write home about.

[raditechman]

It is now just about daytime usable for me in West London, depending on what set and aerial I use, but even a Roberts R200 picks it up fairly well.

John

[Hybrid tellies]

Here near Bristol reception 648 reception is still the same. Very weak during the daytime stronger at night. If you use a portable radio you can null out the co channel Spanish station rather well.

[Aub]

Tuned in this morning, in the car, to see if there was any improvement in this area. It didn't seem any different to me.

Aub

[AC/HL]

The transmitter aerial probably has slightly different directional properties, depending on it's original design use.

[Graham G3ZVT]

A bit of a challenge to receive it here with the noise, but the WebSDR at the University of Twente, Enschede, NL gets good daylight reception in a mini-whip antenna recorded today at just before 1500 BST.

[music-centre]

Listening to it this afternoon, a good signal in Essex, not very far of course but if they are only using 1Kw not bad.
I was reading that the Orfordness site has used 500Kw units at one time when the BBC world service was transmitted from there but with directional Aerials towards Europe.
Steve.

[AC/HL]

If they get an increase, presumably the other community stations will too.

[Aub]

That's a thought. Presumably Caroline is not classed as a community station, or wouldn't they be limited to 1watt, under a RSL arrangement?

Cheers
Aub

[stuie319]

Hi again,

Interestingly in the original statement that they released they did say that investigative work was being carried out to see how the remaining non radiating towers at Orfordness would affect their radiation pattern. Though it didn't go far as to mention what remediation might be possible when presented with the report...

Apparently, albeit slightly OT, the organisation has bought an existing FM community station, and successfully applied to have it's 25W power allowance raised to 200 Watts prior to relaunch.

Even more OT they've also bought and refitted a replacement tender for the Ross, appropriately renamed 'Ronan' I believe. Interesting, because one thing Caroline has never had is money. I suppose one shouldn't speculate on such things, but I do wonder if they've had their 'inheritance' as it were.

Good luck to them say I

Regards,

Stu

[raditechman]

Maybe the aerials are arranged to send maximum signal toward mainland Europe as they originally carried the BBC European service.

John

[Junk Box Nick]

Originally Posted by Aub

That's a thought. Presumably Caroline is not classed as a community station, or wouldn't they be limited to 1watt, under a RSL arrangement?

Cheers
Aub

Caroline is classed as a 'Community of Interest Station' – and it may be a unique operation in that respect – which is why it is allowed far more power than a community station tied strictly to a local area. An application has been made to Ofcom for a power increase so there must be the funds to run it. I can't see there being great objection to this as AM is on the way out for commercial operators and the BBC are following suit where they are able.

The directional towers might still be at Orfordness but I understand that the big transmitter is long gone. If the other towers are still there there might be some directional effect even though phasing is not used.

RSLs seem to be limited to 1w but community stations are allowed more. However, many community stations are being granted an increase in power as commercial operators are abandoning local programming as fast as Ofcom will allow and community stations are now seen as a way of filling the gap.

Local to me The Bridge, which originally was for Stourbridge and a bit of a struggle for me to hear, is now Black Country Radio with a greater coverage area.

I wonder if we might end up with stations similar to NPR in the US supported by donation and membership. Caroline already has a membership scheme which they don't push very hard on the regular service, however, the recent Caroline North fund-raiser (delayed from the Easter weekend) raised over £40,000.

[Aub]

That's interesting . Thanks. I don't listen to Caroline very often, but I thought I'd heard adverts on there a while back?

Community stations are good but I'm always hoping that Amateur Radio will be able to use some of medium wave in the future 🙂

Cheers

Aub

[Station X]

Originally Posted by Aub

That's interesting . Thanks. I don't listen to Caroline very often, but I thought I'd heard adverts on there a while back?

Cheers

Aub

They do carry adverts including one for this company:-

https://www.vintagetvandwireless.com/

[Junk Box Nick]

Yes, there are a few ads on Caroline – there's one for dating that is truly dreadful! – as there are on other community stations. There is some formula for how much finance can be raised by ads by community stations but I'm not well-informed on this aspect. The idea behind it is that an operation using volunteer staff does not overly threaten the revenue of local commercial stations.

Caroline even airs the occasional CV-19 information ad. I do find HM Government providing ad revenue to Caroline a little ironic. Thankfully the CV-19 'ads' are few and far between – they have driven me from the regular commercial stations.