On Facebook, Mike Terry reminded me:
“Tomorrow France, Germany and Luxembourg go very quiet on medium wave.”
He’s right–there will be more empty space on the AM broadcast band for those living in or near France, Germany or Luxembourg.
I hope there are Post readers out there who might be able to make recordings of some of these stations as they go off the air. I would like to add those recordings to the archive. Please comment or contact me if you can.
“Also the Czech Republic will turn off 3 MW transmitters on January 5th 2016. The three transmitters carrying the CRo Plus program are: 639, 954 and 1332 KHz.”
“There are 2 transmitters on 693KHz, the bigger one in “Liblice” with 750KW will be switched off, but the smaller one in “Ostrava-Svinov” with 30KW will remain active for now, or at least until the FM coverage is good enough for this region.”
Almost completely incorrect. 639, 954 and 1332 KHz had been shared between CRo Dvojka (until 18:00) and CRo Plus (18:00 – 24:00). Since CRo Plus got FM coverage, all the frequencies have switched back to sole broadcasting of CRo Dvojka.
Ostrava Svinov 1071 kHz is a new transmitter to provide coverage for north Moravia and Silesia.
I put on YouTube a short recording of the final sign off of Radio Luxembourg 1440 kHz: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1_lI37z7HaQ
A a radio amateur I see few chances and grave dangers:
* Below 30 or 50 MHz we might be able to gain more bands – 60m is on the agenda.
* Above 146 MHz I see ever more competition from demands for more bandwidth and new services. Above 10 GHz the range available gets more and more limited so expansion to higher frequencies is seldom possible.
* With no broadcasts directed to my area I cannot complain to the authorities about any interference with broadcast reception. Such problems got a much higher priority than interference in the amateur radio bands.
There are many possible sources for such interference, from electronics made in far east to the inverters of photovoltaic installations. A roof full of solar collectors makes a reasonable good MW/SW antenna with a large head capacity 🙁
RTL shut down at 23:00 UT, Deutschlandfunk a few Minutes before, France Info at 00:15 UT.
Now there are noise and weaker ex co-channel stations to be heard.
Bad that happens.
Disappearing before our eyes, a beautiful piece of history.
This map gives a pretty decent indication of where MW is active. Central Europe may soon look like Scandinavia.
http://fmscan.org/mwcoverage_broadcast_only.php
Last night I recorded a – what seems – special transmission from RTL. They silenced their famous “Great 208” long ago, but after CRI german closed at 01:00 local time they broadcast a 2 hr review of the great days of the Great 208 followed by the National anthem of Lux.
I’ll send you a link where to download that transmission.
I look forward to that, Bernhard! Thank you.
-Thomas
Its truely sad. Before long what we enjoy could become like a dinosaur.
Tru news send me an email stating they were cutting shortwave broadcast down to1 station.they did a survey and most of their donations came from shortwavenlisteners but most of their audience was from digital. I deleted tru news because they used shortwave listeners money and cut them back while less than 1% donated from digital listeners
Talk about biting the hand the feeds them!
Businesses always talk about “Metrics” these days, as some way to measure various things; growth, profits, etc. Metrics doesn’t always tell the entire story, such is the case here: you can easily see how many people download your podcast or stream your audio but how do they actually KNOW how large/small their shortwave audience is without tangible feedback?? Did each of their shortwave listeners receive some sort of survey? How was it sent (snail, email, ?) Do they know that each of their listeners who received the survey (if one was sent) responded? Just because they did not respond does not mean they do not listen! Did the survey explain that it’s purpose was to determine whether or not to continue SW broadcasts? Doing so could increase Survey Returns.
Lots of variables here that can skew a businesses interpretation of the “Metrics”…
It is indeed a sad day for AM broadcasting. Not only Germany, France and Luxembourg, also tge Czech Republic will turn off 3 MW transmitters on January 5th 2016. The three transmitters carrying the CRo Plus program are: 639, 954 and 1332 KHz.
In France (including Monaco), there will still be few active LW and MW stations:
162 KHz. Allouis (France Inter)
216 KHz. Roumoules (RMC)
1467 KHz. Roumoules (TWR)
1467 KHz. Col de la Madone (Radio Maria France)
1593 KHz. St Goueno (Bretagne 5)
I am already recording some of the transmitters from Germany and France. I can receive few of them here in Switzerland even during the day.
Many thanks, Ayar. I’m going to post your comment so it gets even more visibility.
-Thomas
OK, thanks Thomas.
One more detail regarding the Czech Republic:
There are 2 transmitters on 693KHz, the bigger one in “Liblice” with 750KW will be switched off, but the smaller one in “Ostrava-Svinov” with 30KW will remain active for now, or at least until the FM coverage is good enough for this region.