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Old 22nd Mar 2022, 10:39 am   #81
Hybrid tellies
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

I listened to the BBC WS over the weekend on 15730Khz and made me appreciate the magic of Short Waves again.

Has the Skelton site been mothballed or totally dismantled like Rampisham which is now a solar power farm.
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Old 22nd Mar 2022, 12:22 pm   #82
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

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Originally Posted by Hybrid tellies View Post
Has the Skelton site been mothballed or totally dismantled like Rampisham which is now a solar power farm.
The six Skelton 'A' (formerly OSE8) MWT B6122 250kW AM transmitters installed 1967/8 and the four ex-Rampisham MWT BD272 AM transmitters installed 1984 have been scrapped and all removed from site. The fancy new RIZ DRM/AMC/AM transmitter (the latest incarnation of Sender 61, the first being a WWII-vintage Marconi 100kW SWB18, followed by an ex-Daventry MWT 250kW BD272) was dismantled and re-installed at Kranji, Singapore.

A small party was held on the Evening Shift of 30 October 2011 at 23:15 when the last AM transmission closed at the end of the Summer Schedule. The transmission went out from Sender 54, a MWT B6122.

Skelton 'C' was mothballed with the best of intentions in 2013 and up until 2018 I reckoned we could've got a couple of senders back on-air, if we had to. But there's no chance now. Woofferton salvaged the Marconi B6126s for spares for their Marconi B6124s. Some HF antennas remain at Skelton 'C' but not many.

The site is now used for other customers further down the spectrum.

The last I heard about Rampisham was that the transmitters were still extant. It's a handy tap-in point for the grid, being on the main transmission line between Yeovil and Maiden Newton, or something like that.
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Old 23rd Mar 2022, 11:13 am   #83
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

Thanks Russel for the interesting reply. Sad to hear but inevitable I suppose. So its just Woofferton that survives.
So some of the 500Kw transmitters at Rampisham were saved? but I know all the aerials have been bought down.
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Old 23rd Mar 2022, 3:28 pm   #84
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

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So some of the 500Kw transmitters at Rampisham were saved? but I know all the aerials have been bought down.
Not saved deliberately, as far as I can tell, but just not scrapped yet! I'll try to find out what the current state is inside the place. It's a bit since I heard anything.
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Old 23rd Mar 2022, 7:46 pm   #85
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

Supposedly Rampisham is to have a few small businesses run from it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dorset Echo
APPROVAL has been given for a rural business centre at the former BBC transmitter site at Rampisham.

Developers say a range of firms have shown an interest in moving there despite its remote location. They include a business producing music for films, a veterinary practice, stone sculpture, a joinery business, charcutier, steel fabricator and a ceramic producer.
https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/19...n-green-light/
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Old 23rd Mar 2022, 10:13 pm   #86
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

5875khZ is from Wooferton @ 300kW...(the site is near to me) My friend G8XYJ is an engineer there.
e).

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Old 13th Apr 2022, 5:34 pm   #87
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

A dash of cold water, perhaps, from the Engineering Radio website.
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I read with interest the Radio World Article: Why reviving Shortwave is a non-starter. The main premise of the article is that reviving Shortwave broadcasting to Russia is just wishful thinking. Since I am still in contact with persons in Russia, I figured I would attempt to ask them what they thought about it (without putting them at risk, of course).

The short answer; the opinion by Daniel Robinson and Keith Perron is correct. Shortwave is a non-starter in Russia. I asked a series of questions of my Russian friends...

/.../

Quote:
Unlike during Soviet times, no one really cares about western news or opinion. Things changed in 2014 with the first set of western sanctions. The cultural ministry (Roskomnadzor) began blocking access to internet sites they deemed detrimental. There were few independent media voices left. With the 2016 US election and anti-Russia investigations, most Russians believe that the west is turned against them. The news, as presented on Russia-1 is believed as truth.
As a radio professional, I believe in the medium including HF broadcasting. The point of my Russian friends; even if the programs were directly receivable via radio (of any type), most Russian people would ignore them. It is not a technical matter of getting programming to them. It is more a perception problem, brought on by years of propaganda and negative press from the west. If shortwave had been reinstated in 2007 when the first signs of censorship began to appear in Russia, things might be different. Instead, no one seemed to notice or care.
For the sake of the awareness of the Russian people and by extension the immediate future of Ukraine, I hope it's an unduly pessimistic view. Also, I doubt that the BBC or any other serious broadcaster would engage in 'heating up the ionosphere' for no worthwhile payoff.
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Old 13th Apr 2022, 5:51 pm   #88
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

The BBC were made to start paying for the World Service by the government, who had previously funded it separately, about ten years ago.

Presumably, this would still apply. Not sure that the beeb would want to do this now, what with all their constraints.

Cheers

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Old 13th Apr 2022, 6:24 pm   #89
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

The WS funding arrangements have changed again, with the Foreign Office apparently accepting that zero government funding is unsustainable if the service is to continue. If funding all has to come from the licence fee, then there's nothing to stop the BBC just closing the WS down, which is definitely not what the government wants at the moment.

A reminder: no politics please.
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Old 14th Apr 2022, 10:58 am   #90
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

I read somewhere that some Foreign Office/Government funding had been reinstated some time ago, so well before the Ukraine crisis.

This seemed to coincide with an improvement in the content. Probably like many on here I listened to the WS long before it became generally available to domestic listeners on DAB and before overnight availability on Radio 4. IMHO today’s WS is poor in comparison.
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Old 17th Apr 2022, 10:27 pm   #91
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

I read elsewhere that the 49m band service has ended. Current schedule:

15740kHz: 1400-1500 Monday to Friday; 1200-1300 Saturday and Sunday

11680kHz: 1900-2000 Monday to Friday; 2000-2100 Saturday and Sunday
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Old 10th May 2022, 12:23 pm   #92
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

Pity the old Radio Liberty antennas in Playa de Pals, Spain, were demolished years ago. They would prove useful now!
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Old 3rd Jun 2022, 2:30 pm   #93
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

The 15740 khz service does not appear to be airing today, contrary to the service schedule on the World Service website. Has this now ended or is Wooferton having transmitter issues?
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Old 3rd Jun 2022, 8:07 pm   #94
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

Hi,

I have been listening to bbc ws for a few weeks now on my solid state single conversion superhet(still on breadboard, currently working on pcb) on 7.8965MHz-0.455KHz=7.4415MHz uk time=6pm to ? daily.

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Old 3rd Jun 2022, 9:03 pm   #95
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

Just an update, looks like the station runs from 6-9pm.cheers
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Old 8th Oct 2022, 7:46 pm   #96
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

Just wondering, have these broadcasts ceased or still going on?

Any one have frequencies and time if they are on please?

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Old 10th Oct 2022, 8:09 am   #97
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

They are still going. When tuning around on a communications set I had completed yesterday, I heard them pretty clearly. Sorry, didn't note the frequency though! Will have another tune this evening and see if I can note it. However, they are not often heard in the UK as the transmission is aimed the wrong way.
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Old 10th Oct 2022, 8:16 am   #98
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

Thanks for the response, trying to find them with the Eddystone 870 I have brought fettled and not sure if I could hear them, plenty of other stations but the set is a bit barn door'ish.

Thinking of making a pre-selector to help with image response.

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Old 10th Oct 2022, 10:18 am   #99
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Default Re: BBC WS restarts SW services

I think the lesson here is 'Don't burn your boats'. J.
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Old 10th Oct 2022, 2:45 pm   #100
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I think the lesson here is 'Don't burn your boats'. J.
??

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