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Old 12th May 2021, 1:38 pm   #129
Ian - G4JQT
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Reading/Fakenham, UK.
Posts: 1,320
Default Re: BBC Local MW Transmitters

Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio Tech View Post
Hi Folks

Don't know if any of you are aware but the BBC are closing down all of their MW local radio frequencies. These will include; Essex, Cambridgeshire, Devon, Leeds, Sheffield, Hereford, and Worcester, Stoke, Lancashire, Ulster, and Foyle.

I have sent a message to the BBC director via their contact form to tell them how important the MW frequencies are to us who restore vintage valve radio sets and asked the question as to what reason they have decided to shut down all of their MW transmitters.

Best wishes

Ken
Good luck getting a meaningful reply. Obviously a few hundred of us vintage radio aficionados won't be a reason to keep MW transmitters operating when there are tens if not hundreds of thousands of older people who only have (or only know how to use) their old MW radio. The BBC no doubt known about them, but they don't figure in the calculations.

The hard facts are that medium and longwave broadcasting have a rapidly diminishing listenership for reasons previously discussed. A point comes when the decision is made to start scaling back with a view to complete closure. I expect something like a "listener-per-watt" calculation has been made and those stations that don't hit the mark get closed.

There is also the problem of transmitter maintenance. Individually they probably don't cost much to maintain, but in total? Neither do they last for ever and sooner or later they require a major overhaul - or closure. Then there's the cost of electricity, and getting the audio to all the sites.

As a retired BBC engineer, I know a point was reached with 405-line TV transmission that it would have been cheaper to find all the 405-line TVs and replace them free of charge with 625-line sets than to keep the old transmitters limping along. But for lots of reasons that wasn't going to happen. The smaller TV transmitters closed (sometimes without any complains!) until the last one was switched off in the mid 1980s.

We have our pantry transmitters and when connected to the internet the choice and signal quality far outweigh anything available over the the air!

For those of us of a certain age, it's the ending of an era. But all good things come to an end...

Ian

Last edited by Ian - G4JQT; 12th May 2021 at 1:49 pm.
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