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Old 23rd Sep 2020, 10:12 pm   #5
trh01uk
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, UK.
Posts: 1,648
Default Re: Is Radio as we know it obsolescent?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Julesomega View Post
Why would anyone want a radio which has to receive RF signals from outside your room?
Because I am not always in my room?? I can be in various parts of my home where the wi-fi is still a bit dodgy, and also I can be well away from home, where mobile signals are non-existent. I walk quite a lot, and stay in remote places, and its not surprising that GHz signals (which is most mobile networks these days) don't get that far. Indeed DAB and FM signals can get pretty patchy when you get far enough away from inhabited areas - try driving around the Scottish Highlands for instance.

So for me, even in the UK, radio on VHF and sometimes on MW/LW, is far from obsolete.

One area of radio which appears to have been declared obsolete by the government is HF radio as used by radio amateurs. The government - despite laws saying they mustn't - have allowed devices which effectively blank out most of the HF spectrum to proliferate, and if you live in any sort of built-up area, you will probably find that HF reception is now severely degraded.

Having said that, I note the SAS still have the antenna farm up and running near me, which consists of a lot of very impressive towers with rotatable HF log-periodics on the top. No doubt they are playing for safety when the Russians start shooting the satellites out of the sky.


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