FM radio reception west coast Scotland

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KAM

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Has this got worse in the last few years or is there something wrong with my ariel. Used to have a wire connected to the rigging and it used to seem OK. I've tried a better ariel and radio last couple of seasons but it doesent seem as good as it used to be. Is it my imagination. What ariel system do others use.
 
Has it got worse. Has there been some change. There had been talk of discontinuing FM in favour of DAB. I find I'm having to use 3g/4g to listen to the radio in places where I'm sure there used to be reception.
 
I've now been based near Greenock for 3 years. Reception of FM radio is quite poor. I occasionally take a small, portable DAB radio with me when I visit the boat and reception is good. Ditto the digital TV channels.
 
If your radio has Long Wave you could try to pick up BBC Radio 4 on 198m. If we can receive it on Ireland's east coast it should be possible in your area, although in Summer you would have to be a cricket fan?.
You would be near enough to N.I. to pick up BBC Radio Ulster on FM, or you could try RTE Radio 1 on 252m Long Wave
 
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Me too! Have changed aerial set up several times but that did not work.
One thing that did help was fitting a suppressor ( capacitor) across the 12 volt supply to the fridge to reduce interference.
Best thing however has been to use the mobile phone to search for the radio station and then use the displayed frequency to manually tune the household radio, as the search function seems to not to find anything with a weak signal.
 
Certainly mobile phone signal seems much better than FM these days. Does that mean DAB might be a better bet. Not that desperate that I would bother with longwave.
 
KAM said:
Has this got worse in the last few years or is there something wrong with my ariel. Used to have a wire connected to the rigging and it used to seem OK. I've tried a better ariel and radio last couple of seasons but it doesent seem as good as it used to be. Is it my imagination. What ariel system do others use.
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It has always been bad! Back in the 1970s it was bad, and has never improved.
 
Never had a boat with good reception on a car radio out here though the things do seem to work better in cars, my wife brings her Roberts FM portable, it does much better. I think DAB is no better once you get into the lochs or behind the islands, our landscape is much better for climbing than listening.
Anyone with a suggestion for an improved antenna set up?
 
KAM said:
Has it changed though.
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Only if there has been more repeater antennas have been put up. When we lived in Fort William a chap who lived down the road was the local BBC engineer responsible for investigating reception issues - which usually turned out to be mountains.
 
I get poor dab reception in Ardrossan, out in the back and beyond , its rubbish, get these random channels that no one has heard off , yet all the main ones I cannot get.
4 g is better , we mainly used 3 service which is ok but EE was the best . Get a bluetooth speaker and your off .
 
Radio 2 very hit and miss on IOM, bloody poor when we have to pay for a TV license but only get 10 odd channels on Freeview and crap radio reception :mad:
 
FlyingGoose said:
I get poor dab reception in Ardrossan, out in the back and beyond , its rubbish, get these random channels that no one has heard off , yet all the main ones I cannot get.
4 g is better , we mainly used 3 service which is ok but EE was the best . Get a bluetooth speaker and your off .
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I'm in a poor radio signal area, but get a good phone signal. I ditched the FM car radio and fitted a bluetooth soundbar, which is also wired to the TV. With the Radioplayer app' on my phone i get pretty much every radio station in the country.
 
Spirit (of Glenans) said:
Wasn't the the BBC Light Programme on 1400metres on the Medium Wave? :)
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That was the Home Service, later to become Radio 4.

Saying that "The Archers" was boycotted after the murder of Nigel by the production team. TMS is still, just OK, goodness knows how it will turn out when Aggers hangs up his microphone.
 
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