Station broadcasting on 1431khz

[Arqiva BOC]

You cant really use just a single line, as your 'error' in the bearing is large. Make your lines more of a cone, expanding out from your measurement position to what you estimate your bearing error in degrees is (rough and ready - make it about a cm +/- from your lines in the Barwel area)

Your source will be within the area where the cones intersect, which will give you a large polygon area rather than a single intersection.

Ideally, you need now to get a third reading and bearing, preferably from the area to the south of your current intersection on the map (potentially a day out!?) which would then reduce the search area to a reasonably well defined polygon, within which your transmitter will lie.

Then, visit the area of the polygon and have a listen! It should be strong enough there to either work out the station simply from the content, or if need be track it down by signal strength

Of course, if you hear something like a competition being run, or a phone in, you could always call the station and ask!

[paulsherwin]

It could conceivably be the Coventry University station Source Radio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_Radio

They have 1431 allocated but apparently don't always use it.

[Arqiva BOC]

From the same page - "The decision was taken to discontinue the AM service in 2009."

so perhaps not. However, there is enough info on there that the OP could contact them and confirm if they are using the frequency and if so what their schedule is

[WaveyDipole]

Arqiva, I appreciate your point regarding accuracy and using single lines. I wasn't looking at is as being particularly accurate anyway, just as a guide. In practice it could be a few miles from where the lines intersect. I will have the opportunity to take a reading from Market Bosworth later in the week, not sure about further South at the moment, but we do occasionally go into Hinckley. Unfortunately there seems be no commentary on the station except the very occasional jingle which I am finding hard to decipher! I will have to try and capture a recording of it. Maybe someone else can decipher it?

Hinckley do have a hospital and this is served by Castle Mead radio. I have now confirmed that they provide the service via Internet only, so its not radio in the real sense of the word.

Someone also suggested Anker Radio. They do broadcast on AM but on 1368khz not 1431khz, still I have enquired and am awaiting a response.

Source Radio seems unlikely. Had to smile on reading this comment (which precedes the above quoted one re: discontinuation of service):

The young target audience are generally also quite "AM-resistant" and as a result, the 1431AM service never reached a particularly sizeable audience.

I can't imagine golden oldies being particularly popular with that target audience either! The material they broadcast is what I might have heard on the radio in the 1960s. Its enjoyable and nostalgic, but also kind of strange to hear it. The signal seems a little distrorted which is distracting and I initially put this down to my Eddystone, but having now listened to it on more than one radio and compared other stations, I am convinced that this is down to the signal itself - perhaps a symptom of overmodulation?

[paulsherwin]

You can never tell with student stations. 3 years is a very long time when you're a student and the factions controlling things change very frequently as people move on. Student stations are notorious for going on and off air or changing programming policy. Just because Wikipedia says they stopped using MW in 2009 doesn't mean somebody hasn't started using it again.

It sounds as if the station you're hearing is an automated oldies station and someone in the university may be interested in working with that format, maybe as a media studies project, having the MW frequency available.

This may all be a red herring of course.

[Radio Wrangler]

Aren't authorised broadcasters required to identify in some way periodically?

DAvid

[ms660]

Something transmitting on that frequency now at:

http://websdr.suws.org.uk/

Choose LF band, I'm using the wide band AM option.

EDIT: Sure it just said Smooth Radio...

Lawrence.

[Nuvistor]

Just listened to the websdr and the station ID sounded like Smooth radio to me, it was the same content as Smooth radio on the internet but different to a Smooth Radio in the Wigan area.
Still it does not prove that the station is the same as the one Wavey Diople is receiving.

[paulsherwin]

There are several Smooth Radio transmitters on 1431, but none near the OP. The frequency is also used for lots of other low power services.

[m0cemdave]

If I were you, I'd take a trip out to somewhere on the line between Atherstone and Countesthorpe and take another bearing. This should give you a definitive area to search further.

By the way, for accuracy you need to be well away from power lines as they can bend the bearings considerably.

I remember around 35 years ago myself and a friend tracked down a Medium Wave pirate on the outskirts of Leicester using nothing more than a map and my B&O 600 trannie. Quite fun, but caused a panic when we turned up outside their house!

[WaveyDipole]

Well, the plot thickens! I took another couple of readings from convenient locations, including Market Bosworth last night and Groby Pool (near Groby) this morning. The Market Bosworth one taken last night was between 5 and 10 deg which didn't make much sense at first since it didn't co-incide with the intersection of the other two readings. The second reading taken this morning from the Groby area was between 105 and 110 degrees and a strong signal was received. This started to make some sense but the lines were now converging near the Coalville area which is north rather than south of my home location.

This would seemed to suggest that the reading taken from work was either skewed or the signal was coming from elsewhere. This could be down to land contours since my workplace is just a little over the brow of a hill from the Coalville side so a line of sight signal may not reach this location. Also my workplace is surrounded by a 10ft high fence and happens to house a datacentre which probably does not help.

So perhaps michamoo is correct. I may be picking up Carillon Hospital radio from Coalville, but since they also have a station at Melton Mowbray, I may have picked up the signal from that direction at my workplace. Loughborough due North is actually much nearer but may be broadcasting on 1386khz which I will check later. I will be in Coalville later this evening so I should be able to verify it as from my location the signal ought to be coming from due east. If its from Ashby then it would be WNW.

[Dave757]

Hi

Picked up Smooth on 1431 a couple of nights ago
at about 2AM. Nearest to me would be Reading.

Kind regards

Dave

[Station X]

You could try listening to Carillon Radio online to see if it's carrying the same programming:-

http://tunein.com/radio/Carillon-Radio-1386-s121567/

[WaveyDipole]

I have confirmed that I do pick up a signal in 1386khz at a bearing in the direction of Loughborough. It does not appear to carry the exact same program as the signal on 1431khz (I heard different songs) but it does seem to be of the same genre. Thanks for the link Station X. I will be able to compare these radio broadcasts side by side with the content provided by the link above later.

[WaveyDipole]

I am pretty sure now that this is the Coaville Community Hospital radio. As expected, the signal was due east from my location on the west side of Coalville. It might have been due west, of course, but I made the assumption it was east and decided to locate its source. The PL660 did guide me to what turns out to be a very small community hospital. Once I reached the hospital car park it become almost impossible to tell which direction the signal was coming from. About 500yards or so down the road I could still null it out, but now, it was difficult to tell, except for the a very slight dip in signal strength in one particular direction. I couldn't see anything immediately obvious for an antenna mast, but then I spotted a mast protruding from somewhere behind the main building with what looked like one or two horiziontally polarised yagi's on it arranged at right angles I believe (would have been useful to have a pair of binnoculars). It did look a bit small, but I drove a bit further up the road to be sure and found the signal became easier to track again and was still coming from the direction of the hospital so I'm sure this was it. The antenna is smaller than I would have expected, but I guess sufficient for the low power being used. I have attached a photo below which is admittedly poor due to the distance, but I couldn't get much closer without being a bit intursive and arousing suspicion.

The hospital location does have the advantage of being in a elevated area and the area to the south (where my home is located) is relatively flat for miles except for the dip around Bagworth caused by mining, so I think it is possible for ground wave propagation to reach me.

Its certainly been an interesting excercise and I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who contributed comments.

At this time I can't confirm whether it is the same programme as via the link provided by Station X as all I keep getting is a message that says 'We didn't find any playable streams'. Ah well, at least the old fashioned AM still works....

[Nuvistor]

Could it be a vertical aerial with those horizontal rods a capacity hat and perhaps a loading coil at the base, out of sight?
Frank

[Ian - G4JQT]

If it's a 'restricted service licence' (RSL) station (which it almost certainly will be) the AM transmitting antennas are theoretically restricted to 10m above ground. In practice they are often mounted on roofs and are higher than that...

The antennas are not very impressive and easily missed if you don't know what they look like!

The effective radiated power is 1 watt. Depending upon earthing and other things, a transmitter of 20 to 50 watts is needed as the antenna is electrically very short and very inefficient. Nevertheless, coverage can easily be up to 10 miles on a clear channel, with little local noise on a good receiver.

Here are some AM RSL antenna photos of stations I helped set up so you know what they might look like:

[Nuvistor]

Hi Ian,
is the radiating element at the top of the pole or is it a vertical.
Frank

[Ian - G4JQT]

The radiating element is vertical, with a loading coil/matching unit at or near the bottom.

The horizontal rods at the top act as the 'capacity hat' to increase the effective height, as you correctly state in post 36.

For temporary one-month RSLs we just use aluminium scaffold poles as the vertical radiating element. I think we've used welding rods for the capacity hat!

Ian

[Nuvistor]

Thanks for the info Ian, that was all I could think of, reminded me of a Hygain 14AVQ but that had loading coils along its vertical length for different bands with an 80 M coil at the base.
Frank
Edit, the correct name for the coils in the vertical part of the 14AVQ is 'traps' not 'loading', with a 80M loading coil at its base.