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Poor Radio 1 reception in Brum
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I live in south Birmingham, and recently the reception of Radio 1 on 97.9 FM has been very patchy. Has anyone else experienced the same problem?
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Try retune to 98.8
Also 97.7 979 98.2 98.5 98.8 99.3 99.5 are all going on my radio :yawn:
And the signal might be better on DAB but wont sound as good as FM.
I have the car radio set to manual tune.
But yes when RDS is on it keeps changing from BBC Essex to BBC Suffok and back to BBC Essex where I live :rolleyes:
There are a few spots, south of Birmingham and more likely in the Kidderminster area, where reception is weaker - what is your reception of 98.2 (Ridge Hill, Hereford) like?
Interestingly, the major urban area where the National stations really do vary of signals, is Stoke-on-Trent, where the the RDS code literally 'dances' the frequency all over the place, from 97.9 to 98.5 to 98.9 constantly, wherever you are in the area.
Bogstandard stuff really, car radio, little Roberts portable in the house. I never used to have a problem,
Hmm, haven't tried, I will have a go. Thanks
There is lots of work going on to the main Sutton TX which is effecting almost everything and has done for several months.
There is a temporary mast up at the moment whilst the work is being carried out to hold more digital services so many stations (including TV/Radio) are on reduced power.
I live a 5 minute walk from the 97.9 transmitter and I get constant TV reception problems - as well as odd radio interference. You would not believe that people living in the Gravelly Hill area near spaghetti junction cannot recieve decent TV (which is around 7 miles away from the Sutton Coldfield TX) and have their own relay transmitter, and radio reception is very poor in parts - and that is on a good day with everything on full power.
http://www.thisissuttoncoldfield.co.uk/news/MP-demands-action-digital-disruption/article-1369418-detail/article.html
My car radio does this. It often retunes 95.8 Capital FM to 101.3 Invica (or is Heart these days?). It also switches BBC London 94.9 to BBC Essex on 95.3
I don't know why it does it but it's very annoying! :mad:
Ah, that might well be it then, thank you.
It might well be a malfunctioning transmitter nearer to you on a completely different frequency causing the problem.
I remember years ago when Radio 1 very first came on FM in the Midlands on 89.4 back in 1988... (Can't believe it was actually 21 years ago!) and I remember listening to it in Walsall whilst at work on my Sony Walkman...the reception was very poor - hence why they moved to 97.9 on more power. I have never had a problem with the reception on Radio 1 in and around the Midlands as it has always been quite solid for at least 60+ miles in either direction. That Sutton mast is pushing out some serious power and I have listened to radio 1 in the car as far as North Manchester and it is only the 98.2 TX which knocks the 97.9 signal out. Like any area, there are 'black' spots through hilly terrain and buildings of which decrease the signal in small areas from time to time.
Yes. With as many transmitters spread out all over the band wasting space anyone who moans they can't get any BBC National needs a new set up. Or a brain.
On 97.9 in some parts of Brum you might be getting multipath. Try another freq.
I suffered badly with multipath distortion when I lived near Minworth a couple of years ago. Anything from that mast sounded as though it was 'off-tune' although the tuner was set correctly on the frequencies. The reason being was that I lived in a flat at the time and I was facing the opposite direction. Heart 106/ Mercia/Oak/BBC C&W etc...all blasted over perfectly...but Radio 1-4/Classic/BRMB etc...were very poor. 98.5/98.9 and 99.1 are all quite listenable in most parts of the Midlands for radio 1.
Hmmm....I am wondering if 97.9 from Sutton would officially cover that area? There are a few relays between Sutton and Northampton. I could hear most nationals from sutton coldfield just outside Gloucester a while ago...
Not really strange because Wales is located quite high in parts so you would have more or less a line of sight from sutton coldfield...whearas hilly areas could be blocking the 98.5 relay.
The only thing I can really think of is that ever since the temporary mast has been put up (which infact is 'higher' than it's original mast) that the aerials are possibly located in a different position of which would effect 'fringe' areas. Where reception was fine before...it may be poor now...and where the reception was poor before...some parts may benefit more. (such as your area)
Lots of people are encountering severe reception problems at the moment from sutton coldfield ever since this new mast was erected last year and the flood of complaints are continuing to rise. Almost every week there is a column about this in our local newspaper. (Sutton Coldfield Observer/ Sutton Coldfield News) People are also spending huge amounts of money on new aerials they dont need and are still having reception problems. Once Tv and radio broadcasting aerials have been disturbed or re-positioned, the reception is never the same...especially on fringe areas.
Here in Northampton we have the main frequency from the Northampton relay transmitter on 98.5 which is only 123W, but louder than 98.2 that is 10 KW, and only down the road near Milton Keynes.
I would have thought a 10 KW frequency would have been louder than that of 123 W
The main mast for this area is Peterborough