No more foxhole radios for the PoW
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxhole_radio
Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off
61–70 of 170 posts
Re: Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off
#62I'm very sad to see this go. I was listening to DAB in the car, not so far from here last weekend, and it kept cutting out. Whereas you could get LW everywhere! I developed a love of cricket on Test Match Special from a very young age. A tiny inexpensive radio could get it anywhere. I actually never minded the interruptions from the Shipping Forecast, the real reason they kept this service up for so long. I know ther…
Digital radio was always going to be crap, it doesn't degrade gradually as signal gets worse They should have just put all the money into a better 4G network and ran radio through that.
One-to-one communications and broadcast communications are different. Perhaps every 4G tower could broadcast the news on a special data channel, but it would be a separate system from the main 4G data channel.
Re: Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off
#63IMO, when the last LW transmitter shuts down, the whole band needs to be reallocated to hams. Realistic small-ish antennas are shockingly doable with a capacitance hat, loading coil, and counterpoise.
I thought hams already had plenty of bands. Is there not one in this range?
Re: Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off
#64Why would humans need to communicate on channels bots cannot control?
Why do you think bots don't control the mass media, of which longwave is just one outlet? Go to the website of any outlet that has longwave, read the AI nonsense there, realize they're transmitting the same on longwave.
Re: Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
In some way it is short-sited, as radio is a good backup medium for global communications in case the entire Internet ever goes down. Vacuum tubes also aren't vulnerable to nuclear weapon electro-magnetic pulses. However, other than ham radio enthusiasts I guess no one listens to analogue radio anymore.
This transmitter doesn't really have the range for reliable global communication, it's optimised for covering the UK. For the global communication usecase, there are other networks of military transmitters (DHFCS) that are much better suited for the job, and they aren't being shut down any time soon. What it did provide was a simple but reliable way to maintain emergency broadcast to general public within Britain. An…
Except nobody has a radio any more, certainly not one that receives LF. People have cellphones, and cellphones have a mandatory feature that lets the government display a message on everyone's screen, usually accompanied by loud and scary beeping. That's the new emergency broadcast mechanism. It's not as simple, but at least people actually see it.
Re: Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
IIRC, their operation relies on enormous vacuum tubes that the BBC can’t get replacements for any more.
We do spend out quite a lot here in the UK for the BBC. They could easily dump a couple of expensive presenters and use the savings for vacuum tubes, if that is what is needed. No idea where vacuum tubes were invented but I'm sure the BBC could find someone to make them.
These aren't just any vacuum tubes. They are each the size of a small fridge, and extremely specialized for use in radio broadcasting.
Re: Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
We do spend out quite a lot here in the UK for the BBC. They could easily dump a couple of expensive presenters and use the savings for vacuum tubes, if that is what is needed. No idea where vacuum tubes were invented but I'm sure the BBC could find someone to make them.
> No idea where vacuum tubes were invented but I'm sure the BBC could find someone to make them. The BBC has just cut its budget by £500 million, in an apparent attempt to limit the damage from the latest charter renewal process - which determines its funding. The new director general (ie ceo) is an ex-Google person, and they seem to be pivoting to become a social media content provider. So I'm pretty sure that spend…
I thought the license fee was a tax. You have to pay it, except in extremely specific scenarios that are basically just the bureaucracy's way of saying it's technically optional even though it isn't. AFAIK you have to own no devices capable of receiving BBC broadcasts - this includes most phones and computers since they broadcast on the internet.
Re: Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bit of hindsight bias there, DAB was first developed in the mid 1990s, ubiquitous fast wireless IP in everyone’s pockets is at least a decade, perhaps nearer to 20 years in the future. There are quite a few transitionary technologies that we needn’t have developed had we just waited for something better to come along (but without the R&D into some of them…). (Also doesn’t analogue FM also kinda cut off fairly abruptl…
FM stays listenable even with heavy distortions when you drive out of range and you can decide for yourself when you no longer tolerate the signal. Digital doesn’t give you warnings and just goes silent
DAB+ receivers can (and many do) display signal quality. Not playing distorted, noisy signals is a feature I greatly appreciate.
Re: Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also bear in mind that Droitwitch is radiating 3 different services. Talk Sport (1053 kHz), Radio 4 (198 kHz) and Radio Five Live (693 kHz). My suspicion is that this means an exciter and a stack of amps per service, which then go through a two stage combiner and out to the antenna. There might even be a pair of exciters and amps per service depending on redundancy. The combiners (certainly for FM/DAB/TV services) al…
As far as I know the medium wave services aren’t transmitted from the same antenna as Radio 4 LW, they have separate antenna, albeit with one of them (5 Live) doubling up as one of the support towers for the large long wave T antenna slung between the two large towers on site. Although I suspect the plan would be to move 5 Live to the currently unused Absolute / Virgin antenna eventually so they can demolish the long…
You're absolutely right and I was flagrantly wrong - Droitwich does use different antennas for the different LW and MF services (though still has to combine the output of two transmitters for the same service to increase the power and offer redundancy).
I was very much getting myself confused with some of their other transmission sites where they take multiple DAB or DTV services, modulate, amplify and combine them and then broadcast through the same antenna.
Re: Long Wave radio era set to end with switch-off
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
IIRC, their operation relies on enormous vacuum tubes that the BBC can’t get replacements for any more.
It's hard to believe that civilisation has lost the ability to build longwave radio transmitters.
It's like the moon rocket. At any time we could have restarted that program from scratch and run it again, but what would the point be? We don't have the direct ability to make one but we have the ability to gain the ability to make one.
If we did regain the capability it would probably be solid-state.