Many thanks to several of you who recorded the final sign-ons and sign-offs of several European broadcasters who pulled the plug on mediumwave transmissions this past weekend.
SRAA contributor, Richard Langley, recorded the following broadcasts and posted them to our Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. Click on the following links for recordings and Richard’s excellent notes:
- France Info Lille 1377 kHz Final Sign-off: December 31, 2015
- France Bleu Alsace 1278 kHz Final Sign-off: December 31, 2015
- RTL 1440 kHz Final Sign-off: December 31, 2015
- RTL 1440 kHz Final Sign-on: December 31, 2015
Bernhard Albicker of IntervalSignals.org and AM-Tuners also contacted me with links to recordings he made of the following:
Radio Luxembourg (RTL) special broadcast in honor of the former English service:
Notes:
- 00:00:00 CRI german, no closing announcement
- 00:07:49 RTL special broadcast: final 2 hours of RTL “Great 208” from Dec., 1991
- 02:12:12 National Anthem of LUX
Deutschlandfunk DLF final sign-off:
A special thanks to Bernhard for including the following notes from the final DLF broadcast (in German):
- 01:03 Announcement of closure. This announcement was broadcast before the full hour since the month of November followed by time signal and news.
- Within the news at 05:05–item about shutdown of Medium Wave “Era of medium wave ends in Germany” followed by weather report at 05:37
- 46:35 switch from regular programming to interval signal loop
- 51:57 sign off transmitter Nordkirchen 549kHz
- 53:13 sign off transmitter Thurnau 549kHz
Does anyone remember a trumpet sound in the background when listening to radio Luxembourg in the 1970’s?
13dka on January 5, 2016 at 10:14 am said:
“BTW, the last German LORAN-C station on Sylt island ceased transmissions the same day”
Thank you for this. I didn´t know it. I passed Rantum again in summer 2014, I remember how slightly annoyed I was that it bled into my Degen 1103 which I had with me on my bike tours but I was never prepared to “ever” see this monument of international navigation go 🙁
Obviously the masts in Marnach are already down:
http://www.tageblatt.lu/nachrichten/luxemburg/story/Ein-St–ck-Radiogeschichte-ist-verschwunden-22197357
It’s certainly sad, really. That’s a hunk of metal that left a mark on a whole generation, oddly enough, the same generation that’s now responsible for discarding this piece of (not only) radio history. As much as I welcome new technology, the global village and all the fun things we get nowadays, it hurts to see things disappear that played a not so small role in my youth. Radio Luxemburg was one of the few stations (besides the offshore pirate broadcasters) that blew a new sound and therefore new ideas into post-war Europe and should’ve been preserved as a memorial for being one of the forces that made Europe more than a nice idea for a while. 🙁
I forgot to mention that on its last d,ay on the air, RTL 1440 kHz broadcast the Radio Luxembourg 1991 close-down show a couple of times. If you missed it, the studio version of the program is archived here:
http://www.mediafire.com/listen/rs96x5nf3wll2dg/208+Last+show+31.12.1991.mp3
That’s what Thomas linked above – the recording was from the night before final shutdown (Dec. 31, 2015, 00 – 02 UTC), but at least 1 repetition I heard at lunch time CET after the german Service of CRI. At that time of day signal level was far too low for a useful recording.
While recording the last RTL transmissions, I took a trip down memory lane, looking at an old log book. It includes a logging of Radio Luxembourg “208” on 1440 kHz in English with pop music and commercials on 25 November 1989 at 19:21 UTC from Bern, Switzerland, during a sabbatical visit to the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern. Radio Luxembourg was also on 6090 kHz at that time, and I noted in my log book that 1440 was not parallel to it. Not sure what 6090 kHz might have been carrying then. German? Or Luxembourgian? And I found another logging from here in New Brunswick of “Radio Luxembourg, RTL International” on 15350 kHz in English with pop music on 24 December 1990 at 14:20 UTC. I noted it was a good signal but there was slight QRM from Radio Moscow on 15345 kHz. A few days later, I logged them again and noted that they announced as being on “AM, FM, shortwave, and satellite.” I believe the satellite used was Astra. And they gave their phone number (for music requests?) as Luxembourg 1381. One of these days, I’ll have to digitize or at least scan all of my radio logbooks for posterity. Maybe if and when I retire. 😉
Yes, at that time they had 2xFM for German Service in parallel with 1440 MW and 6090 SW – called the “4 fröhliche Wellen” – there is a 2-part documentary on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYHYBwUSFOA&index=1&list=PLumr_t2JYFHEmN63ts29WjL4k5yxeS1mk – but MW 1440 was separated at nighttime when they switched to a different 2-tower-antenna directed to Britain with english programming “Great 208”.
They also used a smaller transmitter and a “Lazy-H” Antenna on 19m for Canada at that time. I had a look at the antenna 4 years ago but last september when I returned it was dismantled.
For 6090 a folded dipole with a reflecting curtain was used to Germany.
Turning off the last DLF transmitters was only the final blow, all AM transmitters carrying ARD programs were already turned off by mid-2015. That means Germany has left the medium waves entirely, after it abandoned shortwave years ago. So if you’re a German abroad and want to hear news from home, you better have some internet connection. Of course the compulsory charge for public service broadcasting remains the same for all Germans.
BTW, the last German LORAN-C station on Sylt island ceased transmissions the same day, despite the alleged European intentions to keep and even upgrade the LORAN system. Germany doesn’t want to be found anymore. 🙂
Of course it’s kind of sad-ish because yet another thing that accompanied us from childhood was just put to sleep. OTOH, the programming and the news are increasingly showing a certain lack of quality, and traditionally only the talk/politics programs were broadcast on AM anyway. They now made way for new and maybe better programs (c’mon KBC, buy the transmitters already! :)), and of course for DXing.
R.I.P. Schnitzel radio on AM.
It seems perhaps only the U.K. in Europe is keen to support eLoran. For a recent article on eLoran, mentioning ongoing tests in the U.S., see my Innovation column in GPS World for November 2015. You can read it online here:
http://gpsworld.com/innovation-enhanced-loran/
And if you have an opinion (or not) on whether the U.S. government should install a full eLoran network of broadcast stations to back up GPS in case of jamming, interference or other emergencies, you can vote in a GPS World poll here:
http://gpsworld.com/you-be-the-judge-to-eloran-or-not/
Link to a recent announcement by Taviga, a company developing and promoting eLoran as a complement/backup for GNSS:
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/4da9d35f4b210189eeb874d73/files/Taviga_Press_Release_Anthorn_Continuity_07JAN2016_Final_01.pdf
Tis a sad day indeed that such useful services have been take off-air.
There goes my “childhood neighbour”, 756 khz Braunschweig-Cremlingen 🙁