We used to match the medium to the message and the terrain, but now we seem to assume mobile data is everywhere. AM radio is dying, because everybody is online. Except when they aren’t.
I recently went hillwalking in Wales, and it’s handy to have the weather forecast, and FM doesn’t really happen in remote Wales. I was lucky enough to still have Radio 4 Longwave reception on 198kHz, but I was surprised at how quickly FM became useless in Wales. RDS doesn’t really help because the problem is there is no alternative signal to switch to in a lot of Snowdonia. There’s no useful mobile signal in a lot of mid-Wales either – I have a dual-SIM dumb mobile (which ahs better RF performance than a smartphone), on the O2 and Virgin networks for diversity of networks, and that doesn’t get anything in large parts of the hills.
Bwlch Y Groes is apparently the Pass of the Cross, a pilgrim route to St Davids from the north. There is indeed a cross
and there’s sod all FM or mobile signal between Lake Bala and Lake Vrynwy, indeed none where I stayed at Lake Vrynwy
There is a article in the Guardian that the 198kHz transmitter uses some ancient tubes 1m high, and the BBC have the last 10 in the world. When they are down to the last two and one fails in service then presumably rural Wales will lose its weather forecasts along with people using the shipping forecast at sea. People in houses will be OK because they can use satellite, or t’internet, presumably larger boats have something from the 21st century. But walkers and those in cars will be stuffed. The BFI has a lovely little film from the 1930s about the construction of Droitwich
It seems a little bit sad, however, to read that we have lost the engineering capacity we had in 1984 when the current transmitter was installed, to wit:
So antique is the transmission equipment that the BBC does not believe it is possible to manufacture new valves because slightly faulty replacements could cause a catastrophic failure of the other parts of the transmitter. Whenever the valves fail a dangerous “arc of power” surges through the 700ft Droitwich transmission masts.
Seems a bit rough that we can’t manufacture a clone of the CAT27 valves [Source ex-bbc.net retired engineers] (PDF datasheet) they used any more, the Force is no longer with us it seems
My car radio is nothing special and I did wonder if it was worth buying a decent AM/shortwave radio. It’s nice to have when camping in the wilds. It seems that wouldn’t be worth it, there is no appetite for long distance radio any more – the website of Digital Radio Mondiale is a museum of tumbleweed, and DRM is not really used in Europe, though the BBC do transmit the World service on DRM. Everybody in Europe is online, it appears. Coincidentally I have a good workaround, I have since discovered my amateur radio FT897 transceiver will tune down to 198kHz and received Radio 4 fine on a wire aerial even in ADSL and computer noise hell, so it will do fine in the sticks. Until that penultimate tube blows.
FM is tough in Wales, descending into hiss and crap as you leave the coast and major towns, and DAB is absolutely foul as you lose signal, disappearing into loud chirps and bleeps. That’s what was nice about AM – as you lost the signal it got noisier and then fainter. I wonder how long it will still be around.
More widely, market forces drive innovation forward but they also drive resilience out, concentrating things towards using the Internet for information delivery. I do wonder how well we would recover from a modern-day Carrington event, needing to black start a damaged Internet with a lot of satellite communications fried and limited power.
Ah AM, that takes me back to the early 90s when I was trying to listen to live NFL commentary on the US Armed Forces Radio which was broadcast on the Medium Wave from Frankfurt ( IIRC ). It was always a bit hit or miss but slightly improved by the use of a passive loop antenna. It didn’t help that there was a Spanish station with a highly excitable DJ blasting out Euro-pop on the same frequency! Careful alignment of the radio was essential.
I like the idea of a ‘dangerous “arc of power” surge’ though. Very HG Wells.
t’internet must make that NFL commentary so much easier 😉
Where’s Nikola Tesla when we need him, eh? There’s a fellow who wasn’t afraid of dangerous arcs of power.
That was AFN on 873 kHz from the Weisskirchen transmitter, there was also a second transmitter for 594 kHz, but at another location and for a German station. Sadly, AFN has been switched off in 2013 and the masts were demolished in 2015.
Hi There,
I write as a former BBC Senior Transmitter Engineer who worked at Droitwich in the early 1970s and afterwards at the BBC Shortwave station at Woofferton, Nr Ludlow.
I am sorry to say that The Guardian had led you up the garden path a bit re the availability of valves for the Droitwich Long Wave Marconi B6042 transmitters.
The CAT27 you featured in the piece were indeed in use at Droitwich (and many other BBC sites) and started in the those same transmitters when they were installed at Ottringham, Yorks in 1941. Ottringham was closed down in 1953 and the four transmitters were placed in storage. They were rebuilt at Droitwich in the early 60’s and came on air in September 1962.
Two, T6A and T6B ran the Midland Home Service on 1088 kHz, 276m on alternate days and the other pair T7A and T7B were combined and used at 400kW on long wave 1500m. After Sept 1967 T6A was renumbered just T6 and still was on 1088 kHz but T6B was numbered T8 and became Radio One on 247m as that third service was added.
Wartime CAT27 valves were used in the RF output stages for each transmitter with a pair of CAT30 in the modulators.
In 1984 T7A and T7B were replaced by new Marconi B6042 LW transmitters using a French valve in each one. It is these modern valves that have been the subject of speculation as to their continued supply. I am given to understand that whilst the valves are not listed in the Thales catalogue as “current” they are still available to special order and so the transmitters will no go silent for loss of supply of valves.
David.
Thank you for explaining this, what a wonderful thing to read.
Dave is quite correct regarding the supply of valves for Droitwich.
This is now the only transmitter in the world that still uses these particular valves but last time I spoke to the Senior Engineer, he informed me that Thales are still able to make as many as needed (don’t ask the price!) but require a lead time of up-to 12 months.
Originally the two transmitters used two each, but one in each was eliminated by the installation of Marconi solid-state modulators.
The BBC would dearly love to close the long-wave service (and all of their MW services also) and this is why the 198kHz service has not been re-engineered. If it were not the the “Radio Teleswitching” and Flood warning data services carried on 198kHz, then I’m sure it would already be shut-down.
One thing is certain, the long-wave service will soon be history.
Loved reading this as I am currently listening to 207kHz RUV Iceland under the (massive) shadow of Droitwich. I love the AM sound and enjoy hearing MW broadcasts in the winter evenings from the USA here in Liverpool. t’internet has a lot to answer for, but it also throws up enjoyable articles like this. Thank you.
Everything seems to be going “online”
More recently it’s the phone system, also there’s plans to shut down terrestrial TV broadcasting by 2030
Radio is moving online, and pretty much everything else is now.
lf the internet were to go down due to war or other catastrophic events, we’d all be in the dark. No option to turn on a radio and keep in touch.