10 miles west of Derby I can add Stoke and Shropshire to those. Coventry is on the sensitive car radio too.
Yeah I can get Stoke on the car radio in a few places. There is the odd spot where you can get Sheffield as well. But I'd only say Nottingham Derby, Leicester and maybe WM were really usable.
I wonder what cost-savings would be made if the BBC reduced all their analogue radio transmitters by half power, just 3dB, and what the effect on would be on reception?
None in Abergavenny. I am not counting Radio Wales as I don't consider that to be local.
In my former home of Whitchurch, Shropshire I could get Radio Merseyside on 95.8, Radio Shropshire on 96.0 and Radio Stoke on 94.6. Conditions permitting I could get Radio Manchester on 95.1 but not very well.
In normal weather conditions on FM, I can get BBC Leicester, BBC Derby, BBC Nottingham, BBC Manchester, BBC Leeds, BBC Sheffield, BBC York, BBC Humberside, BBC Tees and BBC Lincolnshire. BBC Manchester, Tees and Lincolnshire are all next to each other on the FM frequency.
In Swindon I get BBC wilts 103.6 and 104.9 and DAB
Radio Gloucestershire 95.8 and DAB
Radio Somerset 95.5 stereo
Radio Berkshire 104.1 mono
Radio Oxford 95.2 also mono
Radio Bristol via digital TV
Radio Wales 882 khz mw, very strong.
Also sometimes
BBC Hereford and Worcestershire DAB
Radio Cymru 96.8 FM
I can also get 3 counties radio on mw, through rarely listen to this.
Here near Bristol in flat conditions I can clearly hear these stations;
FM
BBC R Bristol 94.9
BBC Somerset Sound 95.5
BBC R Wiltshire 104.3
BBC R Wales 95.9 and 103.9
BBC Cymru 96.8
AM
BBC R Bristol 1548
BBC R Gloucester 1413
BBC R Wiltshire 1332
BBC R Wales 882
On FM during even the slightest tropo lifts I can clearly hear;
94.7 BBC R H&W
95.2 BBC R Oxford
96.1 BBC R Solent
103.4 BBC Devon
104.1 BBC R Berkshire
On AM during the daytime only and using my more sensitive radios I can hear clearly:
630 BBC 3CR
738 BBC R H&W
801 BBC R Devon
990 BBC R Devon
999 BBC R Solent
1026 BBC R Jersey
1116 BBC R Guernsey
Most evenings I can clearly hear:
810 BBC R Scotland
1341 BBC R Ulster
I wonder what cost-savings would be made if the BBC reduced all their analogue radio transmitters by half power, just 3dB, and what the effect on would be on reception?
The geographic coverage outdoors (and in areas with no interference limiting from other stations) might not change hugely, but within buildings, workplaces etc, often with high noise/interference levels, reception is going to be less robust.
Lets say in an office, high levels of interference from IT equipment etc, but mono reception of BBC whatever on FM is just about reasonably clear with maybe slight noise. Now drop the transmission by 3dB and reception is more than likely now too noisy to tolerate.
In areas limited with interference from distant stations, a drop of a few dB can really make a bad difference (if signal was previously just enough for FM capture effect above other co-channel signals) unless the distant stations also dropped in power by the same proportion.
Fringe areas of coverage also would be more prone to interference from high power FM transmitters in Europe both during both 'tropo' events (especially in southern England) and Sporadic-E, UNLESS these European high power stations ALSO had a -3dB drop (and how likely would they all be to agree to that!?). In the case of MW, again stations are more likely to be affected by objectionable foreign nighttime interference
The fringe areas that would suffer most are more likely going to be areas that DAB isn't available anyway.
Scan/Seek tuning on digital tuned radios would also be more likely to 'skip' stations (after a 3dB drop) in increased portions of the intended coverage area, an issue compounded by on some car radios it is rather awkward to switch over to manual tuning instead - and trying to find stations on a manual tune without knowing the exact frequency is a pain if the radio mutes during manual tuning, as is the case on most of them.
Time to update my list as it's been a few years with improvements to DAB and Freeview coverage.
BBC Radio London - 94.9, DAB, Freeview.
BBC Surrey - 104.6, 1368. DAB. Freeview
BBC Radio Kent - 96.7, 774, DAB (some rooms only from Wrotham)
BBC 3CR 630. Freeview, DAB (down the road)
BBC Essex 765, Freeview, DAB (down the road)
BBC Radio Berkshire 104.1 (pirates permitting), Freeview.
Radio London and BBC Surrey are strong on DAB as they both use London based transmitters near my location.
Also worth noting until the HBB and Northants muxes were split, it was also possible to hear BBC Radio Northampton quite easily in North London.
Comments
Yeah I can get Stoke on the car radio in a few places. There is the odd spot where you can get Sheffield as well. But I'd only say Nottingham Derby, Leicester and maybe WM were really usable.
FM clear stereo:
BBC York (Acklam Wold) FM 103.7
BBC Tees FM 95
FM mono:
BBC Leeds FM 92.4
BBC Humberside FM 95.9
BBC York (Scarborough) FM 95.5
plus occasionally (!)
BBC Newcastle FM 95.4
BBC Sheffield FM 104.1
On AM, at any time:
BBC York AM 666
BBC Leeds AM 774
On AM, daytime only:
BBC York AM 1260
BBC Humberside AM 1485
In my former home of Whitchurch, Shropshire I could get Radio Merseyside on 95.8, Radio Shropshire on 96.0 and Radio Stoke on 94.6. Conditions permitting I could get Radio Manchester on 95.1 but not very well.
Radio Gloucestershire 95.8 and DAB
Radio Somerset 95.5 stereo
Radio Berkshire 104.1 mono
Radio Oxford 95.2 also mono
Radio Bristol via digital TV
Radio Wales 882 khz mw, very strong.
Also sometimes
BBC Hereford and Worcestershire DAB
Radio Cymru 96.8 FM
I can also get 3 counties radio on mw, through rarely listen to this.
Easy to get radio solent 96,1 in local hills
On FM during even the slightest tropo lifts I can clearly hear;
94.7 BBC R H&W
95.2 BBC R Oxford
96.1 BBC R Solent
103.4 BBC Devon
104.1 BBC R Berkshire
On AM during the daytime only and using my more sensitive radios I can hear clearly:
630 BBC 3CR
738 BBC R H&W
801 BBC R Devon
990 BBC R Devon
999 BBC R Solent
1026 BBC R Jersey
1116 BBC R Guernsey
Most evenings I can clearly hear:
810 BBC R Scotland
1341 BBC R Ulster
The geographic coverage outdoors (and in areas with no interference limiting from other stations) might not change hugely, but within buildings, workplaces etc, often with high noise/interference levels, reception is going to be less robust.
Lets say in an office, high levels of interference from IT equipment etc, but mono reception of BBC whatever on FM is just about reasonably clear with maybe slight noise. Now drop the transmission by 3dB and reception is more than likely now too noisy to tolerate.
In areas limited with interference from distant stations, a drop of a few dB can really make a bad difference (if signal was previously just enough for FM capture effect above other co-channel signals) unless the distant stations also dropped in power by the same proportion.
Fringe areas of coverage also would be more prone to interference from high power FM transmitters in Europe both during both 'tropo' events (especially in southern England) and Sporadic-E, UNLESS these European high power stations ALSO had a -3dB drop (and how likely would they all be to agree to that!?). In the case of MW, again stations are more likely to be affected by objectionable foreign nighttime interference
The fringe areas that would suffer most are more likely going to be areas that DAB isn't available anyway.
Scan/Seek tuning on digital tuned radios would also be more likely to 'skip' stations (after a 3dB drop) in increased portions of the intended coverage area, an issue compounded by on some car radios it is rather awkward to switch over to manual tuning instead - and trying to find stations on a manual tune without knowing the exact frequency is a pain if the radio mutes during manual tuning, as is the case on most of them.
BBC Radio London - 94.9, DAB, Freeview.
BBC Surrey - 104.6, 1368. DAB. Freeview
BBC Radio Kent - 96.7, 774, DAB (some rooms only from Wrotham)
BBC 3CR 630. Freeview, DAB (down the road)
BBC Essex 765, Freeview, DAB (down the road)
BBC Radio Berkshire 104.1 (pirates permitting), Freeview.
Radio London and BBC Surrey are strong on DAB as they both use London based transmitters near my location.
Also worth noting until the HBB and Northants muxes were split, it was also possible to hear BBC Radio Northampton quite easily in North London.
BBC Norfolk
BBBC Suffolk
BBC Cambridge