Absolute Radio proposal

[Nuvistor]

Link to an Ofcom document for more MW transmitter switch off and others with reduced power.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/asse...M-coverage.pdf

[G6Tanuki]

Alas it's a bit late to offer any kind of tresponse to this:

"1.7 We are currently aiming to make a final decision and publish a statement in March 2018.
We will carefully consider any comments that stakeholders might wish to make before
making any final decision. We are giving stakeholders until Friday 2 March 2018 to provide
comments."

[Nuvistor]

The document was only published on the 9th Feb, I wouldn’t have found the document but was just browsing OFCOM's web site.

[G6Tanuki]

Are you aware of the OFCOM alerts service?

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom.../email-updates

I'm subscribed to the Telecoms and Spectrum ones, but not the broadcasting one.

[Nuvistor]

I am now, thank you.

[paulsherwin]

The 1215kHz network used by Absolute is pretty hopeless, and has been since Radio 1 launched on it, so I'm not surprised that they don't value it very much. There are big mush zones all over the place. They operate a lot of infill relays on adjacent frequencies to try to counteract this, but these are a waste of time in my experience - the Oxford relay on 1197 certainly is. It's these relays that are mostly closing down (though the Oxford one appears to be surviving).

It would have made more sense to move their big Droitwich transmitter to 648kHz when this was vacated by the BBC, as this would have eliminated most of the mush zones in England and Wales and thus the need for relays, but I guess nobody was prepared to pay for the engineering work required.

[Boom]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

It would have made more sense to move their big Droitwich transmitter to 648kHz

NO! Radio Caroline needs the frequency! In fact give the 125kW transmitter to Radio Caroline and put that on 648kHz.

['LIVEWIRE?']

A small historical comment - 1214kHz (as it was before the 1978 frequency changes) was originally used by Radio 3, and before that, the Third Programme/Network 3, originally to cover areas not served by the Daventry 647kHz transmitter, which, IIRC, was 150kW and covered most of the Midlands, so, if the current Droitwich Tx was put on 648kHz, it would, in some respects, be returning to the old way of covering the country with what originally was the U.K.'s Third AM Radio Network. Point taken about R. Caroline being on 648, though, but I doubt if either option is likely to be taken up. Generally speaking, I know the situation here is different from that in N. America, but why do we need transmitters of up to 400kW in this relatively small Island, when across the Atlantic, they manage very well with maximum power no more than 50kW. I guess it could be that AM radio reception in areas far from large towns & cities is, at best, poor, and, at worst, practically non-exsistent.

[paulsherwin]

North America has a city based model of broadcasting, while Europe has always used a regional/national model.

[michamoo]

Quite sad to be loosing the 1197Khz Relay here at Cambridge. Gives me perfect reception night and day as 1215Khz is really quite poor here.

[emeritus]

Interesting to note that they would have accepted submissions from blind people in the form of sound recordings in a number of formats, and from the hard of hearing as videos (5 mins max) of them signing, posted on youtube, as long as a link was provided.

[ThePillenwerfer]

For me Absolute and Radio Sheffield are the only decent signals on MW. The latter I've no interest in I prefer other stations to the former. If I've got to use a DAB radio anyway I'll tune it to a different station.

So, it won't really bother me but does mean that I won't be exposed to Absolute's advertising on which it depends.

[music-centre]

The 1215 kHz signal is really good here so I hope they don't switch that off, at the moment I am quite lucky here with Absolute, also Smooth radio and Gold playing the sort of stuff that I am going to listen to, but it doesn't look as if that is going to continue much longer the way things are going.
Steve.

[colly0410]

I'm thinking Absolute should do a swap with Talk Sport: TS uses the old dual frequency Radio 1 275/285 metres (1089/1053 Khz) network & seems to cover most of the country without mush zones. The 247 metres (1215 Khz) single frequency network is very mushy & have to use low power relays to cover the mush zones. With Absolute being all music & Talk Sport all yabbering this would be my solution...

[ThePillenwerfer]

I could never listen to Radio 1 in the old days as 275m was very weak and 285m not much better and that was very close to the strong Radio Sheffield signal on 290m. It was OK on decent radios but not on the sort of 'Tranny' I had as a child.

Absolute on 247m is pretty hopeless but great on the 243m relay.

TalkSport is barely audible and Five Live not much better, especially at night. Of course the main trouble these days is these signals fighting against RFI — in my house anything above about 350m is solid noise. There's nothing on MW that I'm sufficiently bothered about to get into fancy aerials, and modern portable radios don't have suitable sockets anyway.

[Dai Corner]

That more or less sums up the MF part of the spectrum I think. It's effectively been 'reallocated' from broadcasting to random RFI-producing gadgets. I feel sorry for those in areas who perhaps have no alternative.

[crackle]

What gadgets are those?

Mike

[Dai Corner]

SMPSs and powerline adaptors are two that are often mentioned. I meant things that produce unwanted RF through inadequate design.

[Hybrid tellies]

I managed to respond to this for what its worth. Below are my comments.

Hi

It’s interesting to note that they believe they can cut down the power of their main transmitters by 50% because the level of co channel interference on 1215Khz is a lot lower that it was 25 years ago.
What they fail to understand is whilst the level of co channel interference is lower the level of manmade noise right across the AM band has increased many times over the years which means for most of us only the stronger AM signals can now be heard clearly. This is due to major failings by regulatory authorities and governments around the world and the problem is just being allowed to get worse.
The shutting down of some of the lower powered stations in SW England, Wallasey and parts of Scotland means that Absolute will lose many more listeners than the 5% stated because D1 coverage is patchy and together with poor or reduced speed internet in these areas many listeners will no longer be able to receive Absolute on any of its platforms except fixed point Freeview Satellite and possibly Cable TV.

Kind Regards

Simon Hockenhull