Scrap the LW radio?

Yellow Ballad

Yellow Ballad

Well-Known Member
Joined
10 Oct 2013
Messages
1,487
Location
Sundance, Bristol Channel
Visit site
I have an old MW/LW car type radio wired up sat in the bottom of a locker rattling around, It's not doing any harm there but I'm thinking do I pull it out to tidy up the wiring and free up a bit of space. The only long trip I may do this year is 250 miles to Ireland, the rest will be costal stuff.

What sort of range can you usually pick up R4 on LW?
The aerial is a car type plug wired to a chainplate so I assume it's using the rigging as well. Would it be worth keeping this for FM stuff? I'm just thinking with DAB taking over is it pretty redundant tech?

What are peoples thoughts?
 
A good LW radio is good to have IMHO.
I have a Sony portable which works well on its internal rod antenna. Your chainplae wiring may be for FM?
 
My radio does FM/AM/LW, i wouldn't fit DAB on a boat. DAB will drop the station if there is any interference, whereas analogue will may hiss a bit. If you want a bit of music onboard and maybe R4, look around for a cheap FM/AM/LW radio, Ebay ?
 
Depending on your exact plans, and if you don't have Navtex, the BBC long wave shipping forecast might be your only source of weather forecasts for a day or two.

Why not just tidy up the wiring and keep the radio?

The suggestion that it's 'redundant tech' is grossly mistaken. It's used for all sorts of things.

With apologies to the NRA, but if they want my Grundig, they will have to pry it from my cold dead fingers..
 
I'm just wondering how long LW will be broadcast for in reality, other then R4 what else is it used for in the UK?
(old artical)
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/oct/09/bbc-radio4-long-wave-goodbye

I'm thinking, do I want to tidy up the wiring (during the boat rewire), and cut a panel and mount the radio for it to be redundant in a few years time. One thing I'm not planning is fitting is a DAB to the boat, apart from shipping forecast the boat will be a get a way from the world place.

I could buy a portable LW radio, but would the rigging aerial be better then a portable rod one?
 
For entertainment or weather? Personally I rarely listen to R4 so can't comment on that, but for UK coastal and Irish Sea I wouldn't bother with LW. FM radio travels a heck of a long way across open sea (we listened to radio from Stornoway to Orkneys)
Met office forecasts are so short term as to be largely useless for longer passage planning. Much better tracking weather further ahead using any internet access available pre departure (and often en route near coasts). And the VHF gap going to Ireland must be quite small in practice (certainly we didn't spot it Scillies to Dublin) so VHF forecasts available except for very short period
 
dunedin said:
Much better tracking weather further ahead using any internet access available pre departure (and often en route near coasts). And the VHF gap going to Ireland must be quite small in practice (certainly we didn't spot it Scillies to Dublin) so VHF forecasts available except for very short period
Click to expand...

This is what i'm thinking really ( and have a portable for a bit of entertainment for the sake of it ).

Really what I should ask is what is the benefit of a MW/LW radio apart from the R4 shipping forecast?
 
I would keep it. I find in NW Scotland there are blank spots where I cannot get either VHF radio, or even CG VHF. Might be the same on west Ireland (been a few years since I was there - its gorgeous!).

A small battery run radio is a backup. It's not taking any resources, why chuck it?
 
From memory (maybe faulty) the BBC LW transmitter at Rugby used to put out 1 megawatt. Certainly VERY high power. You used to be able to receive it way outside UK/Ireland boundaries and coasts - down to Biscay at least and certainly up to southern Iceland.

Tuning in last year reception in Falmouth seemed poor - have they economised on the transmission power? The whole point of LW was good long distance reception.
 
jwilson said:
From memory (maybe faulty) the BBC LW transmitter at Rugby used to put out 1 megawatt. Certainly VERY high power. You used to be able to receive it way outside UK/Ireland boundaries and coasts - down to Biscay at least and certainly up to southern Iceland.

Tuning in last year reception in Falmouth seemed poor - have they economised on the transmission power? The whole point of LW was good long distance reception.
Click to expand...

Droitwich is currently blasting out 500 megawatts on 198 kHz. I think they are trying to eke out the remaining life of the valves, not having any spares and stupidly having not ordered any replacements...( which they could easily have custom built if necessary, for about 0.001% of the licence payers' cash which they pay star presenters..)

198 does other vital jobs, eg coded time signals used by our industrial infrastructure.

..and yes it works in lochs etc where VHF can't get to..
 
What the Guardian doesn't mention is that Droitwich is one of three UK transmitters.

There's also Westerglen (near Falkirk) and Burghead (near Elgin). It was these two that I could hear in Iceland. Occasionally they take one of these off air for maintenance, and then its possible to tell which one is being heard better.
I just re-read the article, it does briefly mention the other 2 transmitters.
 
Last edited:
Paddy Layback said:
Droitwich is currently blasting out 500 megawatts on 198 kHz. I think they are trying to eke out the remaining life of the valves, not having any spares and stupidly having not ordered any replacements...( which they could easily have custom built if necessary, for about 0.001% of the licence payers' cash which they pay star presenters..)
.....
Click to expand...

I suspect that the skills required to build replacement valves are rapidly disappearing. When the current valves blow, I would not be surprised if the service died.
 
MM5AHO said:
What the Guardian doesn't mention is that Droitwich is one of three UK transmitters.

There's also Westerglen (near Falkirk) and Burghead (near Elgin). It was these two that I could hear in Iceland. Occasionally they take one of these off air for maintenance, and then its possible to tell which one is being heard better.
I just re-read the article, it does briefly mention the other 2 transmitters.
Click to expand...
How can they transmit on the same frequency from 3 transmitters? Wouldn't that cause interference effects in the signal?
 
maby said:
I suspect that the skills required to build replacement valves are rapidly disappearing. When the current valves blow, I would not be surprised if the service died.
Click to expand...

The BBC said several years ago that they had no source for the high power LW transmitter valves, and when they blew, that would be the end of LW in this country. But I can't believe they couldn't be custom made quite cheaply. They're simple devices, and all the requisite fabrication skills are readily available.
 
bedouin said:
How can they transmit on the same frequency from 3 transmitters? Wouldn't that cause interference effects in the signal?
Click to expand...

Good question, happy to be corrected, but I would guess each would transmit on a slightly different frequency?

This is done on Radio 4 VHF FM in London, which is mostly covered by Wrotham Mast, but Wrotham can't reach a dip in the ground in SW London, which is served by Crystal Palace mast, and the two are on slightly different freq's, although nominally the same (93.3 MHz?).

Modern broadcast receivers jump automatically so the difference is masked (eg a car radio).

I'm only a humble 2E0 so don't take it as gospel..but not too far off the mark..
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top