Radio Caroline power-increase application.

[Rich Woods]

Originally Posted by mister valve

It may be of interest.... In the middle of the night two or three weeks ago, I switched my bedside radio on and tuned around the Medium Wave band. Amazingly I received Radio Caroline on 648kHz here in Blackpool (Lancs.) It was very week and suffered rather prolonged fading. However, during daylight hours the next day, I couldn't hear it at all. So I must have been receiving it by skip-wave....

Wouldn't it be nice if they took over, started transmitting on the recently vacated RTE radio 1 sender on 252kHz longwave !!

I can regularly pick it up at night in West Wales in the car but sadly not at home due to power cable & internet RFI.

[SteveCG]

For what it is worth:

I've been listening to 648 daytime - a bit of a challenge due to Drotwitch on 693 Kc/s not too far away either in frequency or physical distance giving side splatter. Nightime no, too much interference. However Manx radio, when it is relaying their Radio Caroline North weekends is a good night-time signal.

Certainly a receiver with good gain and agc is desirable for 648!

[Hybrid tellies]

here near Bristol I am well outside the official TSA of their 648 coverage area so I will not be contacting Ofcom.

However I have noticed an improvement in their daytime signal since they increased there power from 2Kw to 4Kw and its now quite listenable to on some of my better radios such as my car Radio, Hacker Hunter RP38A, ITT/KB Tiny Super and original Bush TR130 just using there internal ferrite rod aerials. At night 648 does suffer co channel interference from Slovenia at times.

Manx Radio on 1368 does sound really good after dark with no co channel interference with just the normal fading and on some nights there is hardly any fading. Reminds me of listening to Radio Luxembourg on 1440.

[Sideband]

Supporting the cause, this arrived in the post today.....

[Rich Woods]

Originally Posted by Sideband

Supporting the cause, this arrived in the post today.....

👍🏻 Excellent

[boiss]

Originally Posted by Hybrid tellies

here near Bristol I am well outside the official TSA of their 648 coverage area so I will not be contacting Ofcom.

However I have noticed an improvement in their daytime signal since they increased there power from 2Kw to 4Kw and its now quite listenable to on some of my better radios such as my car Radio, Hacker Hunter RP38A, ITT/KB Tiny Super and original Bush TR130 just using there internal ferrite rod aerials. At night 648 does suffer co channel interference from Slovenia at times.

Manx Radio on 1368 does sound really good after dark with no co channel interference with just the normal fading and on some nights there is hardly any fading. Reminds me of listening to Radio Luxembourg on 1440.

2KW to 4KW a bit of a joke. I remember back in 68/9 in Marconi Co, New St Chelmsford, When the new Radio Luxembourg 4MW transmitters were under test and the dummy loads in the pool were really heating up the water. If I remember correctly they were the most powerful Marconi had ever made.
When I was a student there, I made a 100W transmitter using an EL34 running on 900V. It was Radio International on 215M (1.394MHz? I think I might still have the crystal).We transmitted at W/E and during the week retransmitted RC. Antenna was about 50 yards of wire in the treetops from a window of our hostel. Biggest problem were the series electrolytics used for smoothing which used to explode quite often. We were picked up in Clacton and also in Kent according to fellow students. Happy days.
M

[Aub]

Wasn't it 1Kw to 4Kw? That would equate to an S point increase.

Cheers

Aub

[Sideband]

Originally Posted by Aub

Wasn't it 1Kw to 4Kw?

Aub

Yes!

[G6Tanuki]

Been listening to Caroline in the evenings here on my bedside radio, an Eddystone 840A fed by a low longwire antenna - 50 feet long at 30 feet high.

Caroline comes in nicely as dusk falls but then is subject to the nasty fading thing where the carrier fades so the sidebands are stronger and it seems that the signal is overmodulated, or one sideband fades out..


Either way, the simple envelope detector and AGC in the 840A struggles to deal with this selective fading.

Caroline reception gets better after midnight.
(yes I am a hardcore insomniac)

More transmitter power can't do anything when the ionosphere is not co-operating with your radiation patterns.

[telstar]

It is a terrible shame that listeners based far from the Orford Ness transmitter can not get their say about the power increase required. Only listeners in East Anglia can email OFCOM (so I have been informed)

[Sideband]

I think it's to do with their 'Restricted Service Licence' (RSL). If they up their power too much, it's no longer a 'restricted service'.

Here in Croydon I can just about receive Caroline on most radio's, the best one being the Bush VHF80 since on AM it has an RF amplifier. Most of the other sets struggle somewhat.

[telstar]

Originally Posted by Sideband

I think it's to do with their 'Restricted Service Licence' (RSL). If they up their power too much, it's no longer a 'restricted service'.

Here in Croydon I can just about receive Caroline on most radio's, the best one being the Bush VHF80 since on AM it has an RF amplifier. Most of the other sets struggle somewhat.

Well, if they increase their power, and at present it can be received out of East Anglia, then surely OFCOM will realize this is no longer a restricted service?

[E93AFAN]

Here in West Wiltshire about 165 miles from the transmitter and using a home brew octal superhet and a 1 metre loop aerial (praise be to George Smart) Caroline comes in well during the day, save for when there is really bad local interference. In fact reception is not a lot worse than my other regular listen, the MW outlet for Radio Gloucestershire on 1413 kHz via the Berkeley Heath transmitter which is about 30 miles distant as the crow flies.

At dusk Caroline virtually disappears into the mush and sadly it is not worth trying to listen.

I'd welcome an uplift in output power, let's hope its approved so that more of us can enjoy the station more of the time. Having said that I have no idea if this would materially improve reception - what do our more technically aware colleagues think on the subject of output power - v - range/reception quality?