BBC Radio 4 long wave reception problems etc.

[Hybrid tellies]

Originally Posted by Arqiva BOC

The fix is to repair a fault on very elderly and extremely complex equipment.
A very difficult, time consuming and expensive task.

We all understand where you are coming from on this this. I think many of us would love to know more about the technical side. But back on topic I have been listening to R4 from Droitwich on a variety of receivers and it is sounding good at the moment.

[Andrew2]

It would indeed, Threeseven. I'm not a high-power transmitter expert but I've been involved with MW units up to about 500W, using both low-level and high-level modulation.
It's hard to think of a TX fault that would cause sibilance. Mal-tuning of the output/aerial ccts might do it I suppose, but I wouldn't regard this as a fault as such.
I wonder if the elderly equipment is part of the digital feed? It would be nice to know why the fault gets fixed but returns a few days later.

[Stylo N M]

Hi,

Without wanting to start this all over again, I just wondered is the dreaded sibilance back again on Radio 4 long wave or is it me?

Although not as bad as before, it was quite noticable at 7.00AM this morning or could that have been the atmospherics, just wondered what you good people are exspirencing right now.

Thanks, Paul.

[Aub]

Hi,

Yes. I tuned in to R4 Longwave for just a few minutes yesterday, about mid-day I think and I thought there was a bit of sibilance too. I haven't listed since though.

Aub

p.s the spell checker doesn't like sibilance

[stevehertz]

As I reported about a year ago, I get a similar - though seemingly not exactly the same - effect on R4 FM. It's noticeable as a tearing of paper effect in the form of a 'halo of distortion' around the spoken voice. It's also a bit like the old expansion noise reduction effect as an increase in background noise simultaneous with the presence of a voice. I don't recall having heard it when the sound is quiet ie no voice being transmitted, and it's not present all the time; every five minutes or so you hear a few examples. As well as being audible on various sets in various locations around my house ie from different feeds of a disty amp, it is also noticeable on my car radio in the vicinity of my home. So in my opinion it has to either be some local transmission effect, or it is being broadcast that way from SC. The latter seems unlikely. It could be due to reflections from Rugeley power station. That has just been turned 'off' for good, but I'm told it will be some years before the cooling towers and boiler house are knocked down.

[paulsherwin]

Yes, this will be either multipath reception or co-channel interference. It won't be related to the R4LW sibilance problem, which I think we've established is a recurrent fault in the distribution path. There doesn't seem any real will to resolve it permanently, presumably for financial reasons.

[electrogram]

Just been listening to r4 LW. Sound quality is truly appalling. How they get away with this I don't know.

[linescan87]

I'm a regular radio 4 listener here in Dublin on long wave and can confirm the silibance problem here. Such a shame.

[Hybrid tellies]

The sound quality up until yesterday on R4 198 has been good but today it's bad. Sounds flat distorted with loads of sibilance. I think the Droitwich area has been hit by thunderstorms yesterday. I have reported the problem to the BBC which was a challenge in its self.

[PaulR]

I noticed it a little a few days ago but then it seemed ok again. It was certainly bad last night and again this morning. Since the last episode of this a few years ago the sound quality has been excellent.

[Junk Box Nick]

I'm pretty close to Droitwich and 198 sounds poor today though not as bad as the episode a while back. By contrast RTE on 252 always sounds good - in fact it always sounds better.

We have an 'insider' on the forum who has helped out in the past so perhaps this thread will be picked up and the necessary levers given a tug once more.

[PaulR]

How do you complain about the problem? I cannot find anywhere to do this

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by PaulR

How do you complain about the problem? I cannot find anywhere to do this

I would suggest 'Twitter', or other hi-churn social media. I say this because I was told yesterday that the best way of instigating a complaint now about the mobile telephone network operators is to do just that.

They (the mobile network operators) are so image-conscious they monitor social media constantly looking for key words, and evidently they act upon such comments!

It all seems very casual to me and I'm not comfortable with it, but casual is the name of the game nowadays. And if it works...

Give it a go and see what happens!

[PaulR]

Ooo-er I don't do twitter!

[russell_w_b]

Originally Posted by PaulR

Ooo-er I don't do twitter!

I don't either! Nor do many complainants, I should think. Unfortunately, the yoofs who hold the upper hand in the mobile telephone companies appear to think EVERYONE does 'Twitter' (which has the advantage of rapid promulgation over Facebook) and tend to forget about those who don't.

In which case I suggest a registered letter to the CEO of Arqiva (Google): think big. Common courtesy would dictate a reply. I did that with BT some years ago and my problem was resolved within the week. Shortly afterwards I received a follow-up call from their 'help' desk in Shrewsbury asking why I didn't go through them.

I registered my dis-satisfaction based on their previous inability to direct my complaint accordingly, and suspected their team had received a bo**ocking.

[broadgage]

I too have noticed the sibilance on radio 4.
My question is what is the likely CAUSE ? A defect in the actual high power transmitter equipment, or some distortion to the programme content long before it reaches the transmitter.

[PaulR]

I have found the way of contacting them on line here https://www.radioandtvhelp.co.uk/diagnostic/ I doubt they will take much notice but you never know

[PaulR]

Is it better now?

[johnlees]

I have had the same sibilance on Radio 4 LW as well. I thought at first that the radio had gone off-tune but it wasn't that at all.

John.

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by russell_w_b

In which case I suggest a registered letter to the CEO of Arqiva (Google): think big.

Unfortunately I don't think this is an Arqiva problem. Arqiva own and run the transmitters, but they aren't responsible for the distribution network which is where the problem appears to lie. I don't know who is responsible for that - maybe BT or Siemens Broadcast - but whoever it is, listeners aren't their customer, the BBC is. It's the BBC's responsibility to complain to their subcontractors and get the problem fixed, preferably for good, but they don't seem very bothered about it. I suspect nobody can decide which budget should pay for it.

Problem resolution is always much more difficult where there are lots of contractual relationships as it's in the contractors' interests to deny responsibility. There are lots of cases of this across the public sector, for example where activities like IT have been farmed out to contractors.