Transmitter building of Europe 1 with one of the radio masts in the background (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gaétan Teyssonneau, who notes that Europe 1 has announced that they will close their 183 kHz longwave service on December 31, 2019 at midnight. Gaétan shared the following message, in French, from Europe 1:
Cher Monsieur.
Les habitudes d’écoute étant en train d’évoluer et l’utilisation des supports numérique se multipliant, Europe 1 n’émettra plus en grandes ondes à partir du 31 décembre 2019 minuit.Un choix assumé par la station qui a toujours fait preuve d’innovation dans sa manière de penser et concevoir l’écoute de ses programmes. l’approche environnementale a également motivé cette décision. Quitter les grandes ondes c’est aussi protéger l’environnement.
Bonnes fêtes à vous .
Constance BENQUÉ
Directrice Générale Lagardère News (Europe 1/ Paris Match / JDD)
CEO ELLE International
Thanks again for sharing this news, Gaétan.
I listen Europe1 in my car on 183 kHz in the region of Beernem in Belgium. Know it is impossible, the fm do not reach so far.
I am not satisfied
It makes me laugh when I hear of transmitters being shut down for environmental reasons.
Nothing at all about the energy required for the Data Centres exploding up all over the planet. I work for Microsoft in Dublin, Ireland in a mega Data Centre which consumes over 100 Mw and rapidly growing and this is not including Google and Facebook, nor Amazon.
No mention of the energy consumption of these Data Centres which is incredibly more than any AM transmitter !
Environmental reasons a single AM transmitter, who they think they’re fooling ?
> “It makes me laugh when I hear of transmitters being shut down for environmental reasons.”
It shouldn’t. It should make you step back and wonder “how does it compare per-user or per-service?”.
‘Cos I’m betting the average data centre – providing dozens of different services to millions of users – works out much more energy-efficient than a LW station providing a single service to a few thousand listeners…
(FWIW, a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation for Europe1’s 2MW LW coverage, assuming some optimistically best-case reality-based guesstimates – e.g. 70% transmitter/antenna efficiency, 20k listeners – gives an input power of ~143W per listener for 1 service.)
The final hour of broadcasting on 183 kHz has been archived here:
https://shortwavearchive.com/archive/europe-1-longwave-end-of-broadcasting-december-31-2019
By the way, the old transmitter, transmitter hall (pictured), and the originally primary 4-mast antenna were abandoned several years ago. Lately, after BCE took over operation of the transmitter, Europe 1 used one (perhaps two initially) of two new solid-state 750 kW transmitters in the old standby transmitter building and the 2-mast standby antenna. To save electricity costs, the transmitter power had reportedly been reduced to 375 kW.
Thank you SO much, Richard! I was hoping someone would grab the final hour.
Cheers,
Thomas
resta il fatto che con un unico trasmettitore con 700 kW in antenna..metti 1500 copri 1500 km di raggio di notte e 600..700 di giorno e un camionista che viaggia non deve mai cambiare stazione.. Proprio fiocchi di neve
If the transmitter had been modified to transmit DRM instead, the power consumption would have dropped by at least 60 % on AM it is currently using.
DRM receivers use a very small amount of power when the listener is listening/watching, when in standby mode, monitoring for emergency warnings even less.
I agree with the power consumption of narrowcasting using the bidirectional wireless and wired broadband.
But who will listen to DRM? Where are the receivers?
> “DRM receivers use a very small amount of power when the listener is listening/watching”
Obviously you’ve never owned or even used a DRM receiver, Alan. The Avion AV-DR-1401, for example, draws an average of ~1/2 an amp (measured) from the battery when in normal use.
Ron, The power needed to power even the largest SW station which can be heard the world over wouldn’t probably not even power a single Colo ( server room ) in the Data Centre I work in and we have many, many Colos. This is excluding the power for the cooling.
While, yes , Data Centres are important, our reliance on them is frighting and Data Canters are in their infancy still. There are many services we don’t actually need which are being delivered from these huge server farms sucking power from the grid 24x7x365.
It’s fine to talk about saving money but talking about shutting down AM stations for Environmental reasons is kind of funny when there is an explosion of Data Centres popping up all over the globe and consume biblical amounts of energy for services most of us lived without in the past and can live without today but as I said, no one wants to talk about this explosion in energy consumption not to mention the materials needed to build these server farms + all the I.T equipment and everything else.
Put the message in English too, ok?
to protect the environment ….. ! What is that meant to be?
If proper calculations were made as to the amount of energy required to power the various digital systems, data centres, wi-fi, modems etc to enable access to what is becoming ‘narrowcasting’ we would be astounded . Just because manafacturers ( of digital receivers , eVs, and of electronic equipment in general )
do not know how properly eliminate noise interference from devices , longwave is immediately classified as ‘obsolete’. Yet another example of the ‘snowflake’ generation.
Exactly a ?? snowflake propaganda move!!
Are we still wondering why this hobby has problems attracting younger people?
Hell hath no fury like an OM disappointed…
Why do you think young people are not getting into Ham radio Ron ?
what a vain excuse
It is sad. Greed will destroy the world.
What greed? The message (translated into English says “The environmental approach also motivated this decision. Leaving longwave is also protecting the environment.” High power AM transmitters are still needed in some part of the world, but not in Western Europe. The number of people who still listen to longwave stations is small, and getting smaller every day.