BBC Radio 4 Long-Wave Reception

[tomg]

Recently installed a new Sony car radio in the boat. Also bought a car aerial (about two feet long) which is useless. FM works just as well with a scrap of wire pushed in the aerial socket (and almost as well with no aerial) but LW is lousy whatever I do. Although I can get LW in my car further south than the Loire with a windscreen aerial, but couldn't get BBC Radio 4 on LW anywhere from Cherbourg to Dieppe in the boat a couple of weeks ago. As it's LW do I need a a very long bit of wire and if so can I install it 'horizontally' under the headlining or must it be vertical. Or is there a small wonder-antenna which will do the trick? I don't want to run another wire up to the masthead. Ahy thought please?

 

[Graham_Wright]

Friend of mine, ex GCHQ engineer, installed a large spiral of wire between the deckhead and the head lining.

He claimed it disobeyed all the rules of radio reception theory but it worked a treat.

 

[Sailfree]

I use a sony world wide receiver. Last year it received R4 badly as far south as N brittany, This year it wouldn't get R4 on LW in Cherbourg!! I think night time reception may be better.

 

[Thresher]

Found the same. Last year I lost Radio 4 LW after leaving Dieppe heading west but my brother says he can get it on his car radio near Le Mans, that's a good couple of hours inland.

 

[landaftaf]

has anyone checked to see if the beeb has reduced its tx power ?

 

[pappaecho]

Had exactly the same problem on a Sony radio in Cowes over the weekend. FM/AM reception fine, LW useless. I have been offered a very elderly "in car aerial" which claims to have a ferrite rod inside- will try it and report back. Brings me back to the good old days 2LO and all that!

 

[philip_stevens]

I've got a Goodmans car radio in the boat, and the aerial is a "rubber ducky" from Halfords, just hanging loose inside the boat near the radio.

Reception from R4 and Atlantic Radio 252 (from Ireland) is excellent. Being in the far southwest at Falmouth, I am a lot further from the R4 transmitter.

A friend has his radio connected via a splitter from the VHF tx aerial, and cannot receive R4 even though we are a few boats away.

This is the second boat that I have used a rubber ducky aerial, and in both cases, reception was good.

 

[Oldhand]

Receiving R4 longwave strength 5 on a masthead type VHF antenna at the moment inland from Poole. Expect to be in Brittany next week but won't be able to report back until mid July.

Are you sure your boat electronics/shorepower are not interfering such that you don't get reception when the signal is weaker? Try switching everything off and see if it makes a difference next time.

Theoretically you should use a very long wire for long wave, but I doubt if the polarisation would make much difference. An insulated back stay would be the ideal on a yacht but on a previuos boat I just used the only thing I could find which wasn't earth bonded - a single lifeline stanchion the builders had overlooked when doing the electrical bonding!

 

[rwoofer]

I always thought that Long wave reception was handled by an internal rod dipole, not any external radio. This is certainly the case with my Sony SW100E. The only factor you can therefore affect is the orientation of the aerial, by rotating the unit.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

I thought Atlantic Radio 252 had gone. Used to listen to it all the time on passage but the last time I tried it just hissed.

Has the station come back on line?

 

[philip_stevens]

I had it on a couple of weeks ago when I was setting up my mates new stereo radio.