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The 'AM death watch' thread...
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eulenspiegel
15-12-2015
As I understand it, every French medium wave transmitter is closing on 31st December with the exception of the station in Brittany on 1593kHz. I think all of Germany's medium wave transmitters are closing on that day as well.
MikeBr
15-12-2015
Originally Posted by eulenspiegel:
“As I understand it, every French medium wave transmitter is closing on 31st December with the exception of the station in Brittany on 1593kHz. I think all of Germany's medium wave transmitters are closing on that day as well.”

The AFN outlets in Germany on 1107 and 1143 will be closing some time next year.
swb1964
15-12-2015
Originally Posted by eulenspiegel:
“As I understand it, every French medium wave transmitter is closing on 31st December with the exception of the station in Brittany on 1593kHz. I think all of Germany's medium wave transmitters are closing on that day as well.”

Wow that is a lot.

Any particular reason why Brittany has been spared? Lack of FM coverage?
radamfi
15-12-2015
Originally Posted by swb1964:
“Any particular reason why Brittany has been spared? Lack of FM coverage?”

According to:

http://frequencyfinder.org.uk/AM_Other_Countries.pdf

that's a commercial AM music station (Bretagne 5) that opened in June 2015.
Colin_London
15-12-2015
Originally Posted by radamfi:
“According to:

http://frequencyfinder.org.uk/AM_Other_Countries.pdf

that's a commercial AM music station (Bretagne 5) that opened in June 2015.”

I don't believe this switch off is mandated by the French Government. This is purely driven by cutbacks at Radio France and commercial stations can keep going if they wish.

If they only opened in June 2015 they are hardly going to want to switch off now.

Most other commercial stations in France have an FM outlet.
MikeBr
16-12-2015
Deutschlandfunk has launched a website about the closure of German medium wave transmitters.
http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/abscha...e.2571.de.html
hanssolo
16-12-2015
Originally Posted by MikeBr:
“Deutschlandfunk has launched a website about the closure of German medium wave transmitters.
http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/abscha...e.2571.de.html”

Thanks notice there are programmes on the 17 and 18th about it in German.
RTL don't seem to have anything special for the 1440 closedown, but guess as RTL radio will continue on FM, satellite and online plus CRI German will continue on SW and online they may not see it as significant?
ex pirat
16-12-2015
Seems to me everyone else in Europe is closing down on AM ! .
So when are we going to ?.
stv viewer
16-12-2015
If the BBC get there DAB coverage up to the 90+% them the BBC's AM stations could go but I think FM will be around for the next decade
Powerplay
16-12-2015
Originally Posted by radamfi:
“According to:

http://frequencyfinder.org.uk/AM_Other_Countries.pdf

that's a commercial AM music station (Bretagne 5) that opened in June 2015.”

Around 7 years ago I picked up the Brittany station on 1593, it was a DRM test. Anyone remember DRM? Don't think it ever took off!

Originally Posted by stv viewer:
“If the BBC get there DAB coverage up to the 90+% them the BBC's AM stations could go but I think FM will be around for the next decade”

I was wondering why the BBC haven't closed their AM outlets yet for local radio. I would assume that the most listened to BBC station on AM is Radio Wales on 882?
swb1964
16-12-2015
Originally Posted by Powerplay:
“ I would assume that the most listened to BBC station on AM is Radio Wales on 882?”

How much of Wales doesn't have Radio Wales on FM?

I know some relays only offer Radio Cymru, but I'm not sure how many?
Powerplay
16-12-2015
Originally Posted by swb1964:
“How much of Wales doesn't have Radio Wales on FM?

I know some relays only offer Radio Cymru, but I'm not sure how many?”

Once 882 is switched off I wonder if Radio Wales will increase FM coverage. Radio Cymru seems to have much higher power on FM, so maybe they will just wait till DAB in Wales has better coverage before the AM the shut down!
Bandspread199
16-12-2015
Originally Posted by ex pirat:
“Seems to me everyone else in Europe is closing down on AM ! .
So when are we going to ?.”

Never if we have any sense.
Mark C
16-12-2015
Originally Posted by swb1964:
“How much of Wales doesn't have Radio Wales on FM?

I know some relays only offer Radio Cymru, but I'm not sure how many?”

Cymru has parity with R1-4 in Wales, same number of transmitters, and same coverage.

Radio Wales is only on key transmitters serving populated areas

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/reception...Walestrans.pdf
SouthCity
16-12-2015
Originally Posted by swb1964:
“How much of Wales doesn't have Radio Wales on FM?
”

It's 19% of the population.

Quote:
“- The Council also welcomed recent improvements in the DAB coverage of BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru but that at 65% of the population of Wales, there was urgent need for further improvement. Improvements had also been seen in the FM coverage of Radio Wales but, at 81% of the population this too was an area where further improvement is required.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/who_we...w_2014_15.html
radamfi
16-12-2015
Originally Posted by SouthCity:
“It's 19% of the population.”

But how many people can get at least a usable mono signal? If nearly everyone in Wales can get that, then that's a problem if it is considered necessary for DAB to match that coverage.
lundavra
16-12-2015
Originally Posted by Powerplay:
“Once 882 is switched off I wonder if Radio Wales will increase FM coverage. Radio Cymru seems to have much higher power on FM, so maybe they will just wait till DAB in Wales has better coverage before the AM the shut down!”

It would be much easier to extend DAB coverage. I was involved in looking for some sites elsewhere and it is not easy to find somewhere with clean feeds of six programme (with no interference from other sites of multipath) and frequencies for six transmitted services that will not cause interference in other areas but give useful coverage. In hilly countries the VHF FM transmitter sites often have be off the top of the hills because of this. Oversimplification but not as many of these problems with DAB.
lundavra
16-12-2015
Originally Posted by radamfi:
“But how many people can get at least a usable mono signal? If nearly everyone in Wales can get that, then that's a problem if it is considered necessary for DAB to match that coverage.”

Modern radios often don't seem to have a manual selection of mono so the radio could be switching between a noisy stereo sign and mono, and most people would not know how to switch to mono. The transmitters would to be mono.
swb1964
16-12-2015
Originally Posted by lundavra:
“It would be much easier to extend DAB coverage. I was involved in looking for some sites elsewhere and it is not easy to find somewhere with clean feeds of six programme (with no interference from other sites of multipath) and frequencies for six transmitted services that will not cause interference in other areas but give useful coverage. In hilly countries the VHF FM transmitter sites often have be off the top of the hills because of this. Oversimplification but not as many of these problems with DAB.”

I think it would be a case of adding Radio Wales to existing transmitters rather than wholely new transmitters so only one frequency required.

And not so long ago BBC Radio Scotland added new transmitters on the A9 with just Radio Scotland and nothing else on them so again only one frequency needed.
Mark C
16-12-2015
Originally Posted by swb1964:
“I think it would be a case of adding Radio Wales to existing transmitters rather than wholely new transmitters so only one frequency required.

And not so long ago BBC Radio Scotland added new transmitters on the A9 with just Radio Scotland and nothing else on them so again only one frequency needed.”

They were very much an exception, and were commissioned primarily for safety reasons to serve motorists on the A9 during severe weather.

As far as general extensions to coverage it's almost certainly going to be DAB from now onwards, opening new FM transmitters would now send the wrong 'political' message
lundavra
17-12-2015
Originally Posted by swb1964:
“I think it would be a case of adding Radio Wales to existing transmitters rather than wholely new transmitters so only one frequency required.

And not so long ago BBC Radio Scotland added new transmitters on the A9 with just Radio Scotland and nothing else on them so again only one frequency needed.”

I think they actually have Radio Scotland and Radio nan Gaidheal. Pity because Crubenmore is a fantastic location, you can see for miles from the top. A DAB transmitter there would really fill in some gaps, not just locally.
lundavra
17-12-2015
Originally Posted by Mark C:
“They were very much an exception, and were commissioned primarily for safety reasons to serve motorists on the A9 during severe weather.

As far as general extensions to coverage it's almost certainly going to be DAB from now onwards, opening new FM transmitters would now send the wrong 'political' message”

There had been early plans for proper relays over the A82, I looked at a couple of places. But as I wrote it was difficult to find somewhere able to receive and transmit six VHF FM frequencies.
Zaxx
17-12-2015
Originally Posted by MikeBr:
“Deutschlandfunk has launched a website about the closure of German medium wave transmitters.
http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/abscha...e.2571.de.html”

These are the stations closing at 23.00 UTC on 31/12/15

Nordkirchen 549 kHz (100 kW)
Thurnau 549 kHz (100 kW)
Braunschweig 756 kHz (200 kW)
Ravensburg 756 kHz (100 kW)
Neumuenster 1269 kHz (300 kW)
Heusweiler 1422 kHz (400 kW)
Robert Williams
17-12-2015
Originally Posted by Bandspread199:
“Never if we have any sense.”

It is a good idea to keep AM services going in areas where there is poor or non-existent FM or DAB reception. However in many areas, like mine, the local AM service is completely superfluous and it's just a waste of electricity to keep those transmitters going.
swb1964
17-12-2015
Originally Posted by lundavra:
“There had been early plans for proper relays over the A82, I looked at a couple of places. But as I wrote it was difficult to find somewhere able to receive and transmit six VHF FM frequencies.”

What's wrong with just broadcasting radio Scotland?
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