BBC Radio 2 1500m LW
Jonathan1990
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I always thought from launch BBC Radio 2 was on the same as Radio 5 Live is now but this picture of Radio 1's first day timetable shows you that it was available on VHF (FM) and on 1500m LW.
http://www.radiorewind.co.uk/images/radio1listing1967l.gif
http://www.radiorewind.co.uk/images/radio1listing1967l.gif
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http://www.radiorewind.co.uk/sounds/r270sjingle_27.mp3
http://www.mds975.co.uk/Content/ukradio3.html
Prior to 1978
Radio 1 - 1214
Radio 2 - 200
Radio 3 - 647
Radio 4 - 1052, 908, 692
World Service - 1088
After
Radio 1 - 1053 & 1089
Radio 2 - 909 & 963
Radio 3 - 1215
Radio 4 - 198
World Service - 648
The moves were due to international coordination giving all the station 9kHz spacing hence the slight changes in frequency. The MW only Radio 1 getting the best frequencies and Radio 3 getting the worse (presumably due to a higher FM uptake?)
"BBC Radio 5 (not to be confused with BBC Radio Five Live) was a BBC radio station that operated between 1990 and 1994. It mainly carried sports, children's and educational programmes. The most notable comedy programme on this network was probably the original radio version of Room 101."
https://youtu.be/EfQ5bNA6amQ
Not sure why R2 gave up 198 longwave (plus some MW relays and shipping forecast) to R4 as the revamped synchronised 909 & 963 also had good UK coverage and would have been suitable for R4?
BBC Radio 2 was on 909 kHz/330m and 693 kHz/433m not 963 kHz.
963 kHz was used by Radio Caroline 319 from the Mi Amigo during most of the 1970s until the Mi Amigo sinking in the North Sea off Essex in March 1980. When Radio Caroline returned in August 1983 from the Ross Revenge, Caroline was once again on "319" 963kHz.
The BBC Home Service on 809 k/cs 371m in Scotland became the Scottish Home Service and then with the introduction of BBC Radio 4 in September 1967 became BBC Scotland Radio 4 and then when commercial station Radio Clyde on 261m/1151 kHz launched in December 1973, by January 1974, BBC Scotland Radio 4 became BBC Radio Scotland with a full-time all-day Scotland service. In November 1978 the slight rounding-up of 1 kHz then as now, BBC Radio Scotland is on 810 kHz medium wave with 100 kW plus across Scotland on 92-95 FM and DAB digital radio at 128 kbts stereo on the local commercial radio muxes in Ayrshire, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Tayside Dundee/Perth, Aberdeen and Inverness.
Well, almost - they started out on 1600m from Daventry (5XX) in 1927 (only 25kw, which makes me wonder how "national" it really was). Moved a bit to around 1550m in 1929, then finally settled on 1500m when they moved to Droitwich in 1934.
Radio 4 also has similar arrangements - the problem being the areas of overlap of the 1500m signals between Droitwich and Westerglen and Westerglen and Burghead.
Getting them to synch is virtually impossible, hence there are ares of 'mush' where medium wave fillers are in place.
The World Service also had 1295 both before and after the November 1978 frequency changes when it became 1296.
A detailed history of the BBC AM transmitter network from its inception, including the lower power relays off the main channels of the national networks, is here.
http://www.bbceng.info/Technical%20Reviews/dev_am_tx_nw_6a.pdf
I believe the french language broadcasts were from Crowborough so they must have covered much of northern France and Belgoim.
5XX actually started at Chelmsford in 1924, moving to Daventry the following year. Thanks though, I'd missed the fact that it was originally 1600m.
Pre 1978 these were Radio 4 frequencies, used in various parts of the country though 909 was primarily the Brookmans Park frequency for the south east and 693 Moorside Edge for the north. The use of these frequencies dates back as far as 1950.
What I was wondering was why it was the case that if 1500m LW had virtually blanket coverage across the UK that the BBC felt the need to broadcast the Light Programme on 247m MW 1214 khz. This of course was long before the concept of Radio 1. I'm not sure what purpose 247m MW fulfilled. When Radio 1 launched it proved how inadequate 247m was as a standalone service because reception was abysmally bad in many areas. At the same time the BBC were happy to broadcast Radio 2 on 1500m so that proved that MW was not really necessary. As far as Radio 2 being available on FM/ VHF was concerned, one needs to remember FM was still in it's infancy in 1967. Many radios did not have FM, virtually no car radios had FM and furthermore for those that had FM/VHF radios, reception in many areas was non existant or very difficult quite often requiring Band 2 outdoor aerials as transmissions in those days tended to be horizontally or vertically polarized unlike today where they tend to be of either mixed or circularl polarization. Of course it was the case that when Radios 1and 2 launched,they continued to broadcast the same programmes on 247 and 1500 for around 60 to 70% of the time.
As above, originally it was not intended to be a network as such. R2 listeners who experienced poor 1500m reception were directed to FM.
They were only horizontally polarised originally. The network was designed for fixed table top valve radios and outdoor aerials rather than for car radios and portables with telescopic aerials that benefit from a vertical component.
Slant and circular polarisation are much the same, they are merely examples of mixed polarisation. It's the phase relationship that makes the difference.
The 247m allocation for the Light Prog was to cover largely urban areas where 1500m reception was poor. Notably London. When Radio 1 took over the allocation, extra transmitters were added in an attempt to make it a national network (including a high new power 247m tx at Droitwich). It wasn't terribly effective, as all of us around in the 70s will testify. It left Radio 2 with poor AM reception in the the areas that had been well served by 247m.
Remember, when R4 look over 1500m in 1978, it wasn't long before a MW service for London was established on 720 kHz because of many complaints about poor LW reception . (It was good old 417 metres from Lots Road, vacated by LBC in 1975)
The 247 metre Light Programme transmitters were at Brookmans Park, Burghead, Lisnagarvey, Londonderry, Moorside Edge, Plymouth, Redmoss, Redruth, Newcastle and Westerglen.
The re-organisation which came into force in November 1978 added long wave transmitters on 200kHz at Burghead and Westerglen, they had negotiated an additional longwave frequency on 227kHz for Scottish transmitters but decided not to use it plus Radio 4 mediumwave relays at Newcastle, Londonderry, Lisnagarvey, Crystal Palace, Redruth, Enniskillen, Plymouth, Redmoss and Carlisle to get national coverage. All this because Droitwich on longwave did not give national coverage.
Point of order m'lord, the London R4 MW service on 720kHz started at Lots Road, before relocating to Crystal P in the 90s I think ?
I'd forgotten about that, checked a more recent Handbook, the MB21 transmission gallery says that Lots Road Radio 4 transmitter was switched off at 1045 on Tuesday September 25 2001
Yes, see pages 7/8 of this edition of BBC engineering, part of a section on synchronised longwave and medium wave frequency networks. Same page had a map showing day and nightime coverage of Radio One 1214.
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/pubs/archive/pdffiles/engineering/bbc_engineering_106.pdf