Hi there, these are my thoughts on the apparent death of the longwave band. Of the few stations that remain, I wonder how long it will be before they also close down and broadcasting on the band is lost forever. Thanks for watching. 73.
To me, the dismantling of Long Wave feels like vandalism. As a teenager in 1971 (!) I used to cruise the streets with a friend who had bought an old 1957 Vauxhall Victor. It had a valve car radio and, as the passenger, I took control of the listening side of things. We would pointlessly cruise the streets for the hell of it - always at night and mostly when it was raining - and I have strong memories of tuning in to DLF (at least I think it was) and listening to music. Music on Long Wave at night, in the rain is about as atmospheric as you can get! The sound quality was unlike anything else - almost "other-worldly". Hearing The Beatles "Tomorrow Never Knows" on Long Wave gave it a weird quality not to be heard anywhere else! I'm sure the fact that it was a valve radio had a lot to do with it!
And also in the basement. I remember FM having a bad reception there and DAB being rather bad (was in the early 2010‘s, I was playing with some radio receiver with like 12 without knowing what I was doing but I think I tuned into 234kHz). Well, now at least that thing got fixed with 5G where I live.
The first radio I built was a crystal set, consisting of a parallel tuned circuit, in which the coil was tapped and switched to allow medium or long wave reception. Germanium diode detector, a pair of high impedance headphones connected to a longwire aerial and a water main earth connection. Seven miles from Droitwich and the BBC Light program on 1500 metres long wave gave perfect reception, as did the BBC Home service, again from Droitwich on 276 metres medium wave. The BBC Third program from Daventry on 464 meters medium wave, which also carried the BBC European service during the night, came through well too. This simple little arrangment gave me hours of listening and got me hooked on radio which led to a 45 year career in radio and telecoms. So thank you Long Wave.
Brilliant comments, thank you very much. I enjoy building crystal radios and spent a lot of time recently listening to Radio 4 on 198 kHz with them. 73
Thanks Clint, a beautiful and poignant video. It feels like the decline of LW has been accelerating. How many of us started on LW listening long into the night as children trying to understand the world (and still do!), have been in Europe on holiday trying to pick-up 198 to see what has happened at home in the UK, listen to the cricket, have used it to test out crystal radios or basic homemade transistor radios, have not had the room to have a really good long wire antenna (I have tried but have always thought I can make improvements) and so much more. Many of those early pioneers were down in the LW and below, from Marconi and the first east-west transatlantic radio communication in 1902 on 272kHz to 2MT on 428khz (700 metres). I love the old tuning dials with the stations marked on LW and MW like they were going to be there forever. It is a great band and I hope it lives on in some form.
Antena Satelor still relies on the 153 kHz transmitter in Bod for countrywide coverage. They also have 4 regional MW transmitters and a few FM frequencies, but not nearly enough to cover the whole country. However, the number of listeners on longwave must be really tiny, so who knows how long it'll be until they shut it down.
I've actually heard 153Khz! I was in Germany. There was also 1017 MW with 600KW output. I had a Sony SRF-A100 AM stereo radio. 1017 had rtty transmit in phase modulation. It could not be heard by mono radios. Who were they broadcasting this to 30 years ago.
Greetings from Lincolnshire G1ZQC here. I was surprised you didn't mention Radio Caroline on 648kHz. Currently running 4kw with an application to increase power. They now have 18kw of Solar power, which runs the TX during the day (Sunlight permitting). Caroline pioneered the way for local commercial radio. Them being Great Britain's oldest commercial station. Coverage is quite good considering the low power and ground wave properties of such a low frequency allocation. 73 David.
Remembering as a kid in the 90s scanning the LW band and picking up stations from across the world. Was always fascinating to hear. These days my Tecsun more often than not just encounters static. I figured the LW band had been in a steady decline but you've shown that it was steeper than I had imagined especially in the last 20 years! BBC R4 LW going off air for the last time will certainly be historic for the wrong reasons. I guess the 5th reason for LW stations closing is the lack of new consumer receivers featuring the LW and MW broadcast bands. I can't remember the last time you could walk into a high street consumer electronics shop or visit a non-specialist online store and pick up a receiver that wasn't DAB/FM only. It's pointless to keep them on air if the only listeners are the few hobbyists who have invested in the receiving equipment and people with older receivers that still function. Of course the newer technologies give us more listening options, but unlike the other options, we don't have to pay for the airwaves, just the receiving equipment.
Here in America longwave has been almost exclusively NDBs and Navy RTTY communications, In 1976 I bought an R-389 military surplus longwave receiver and sent for a loop antenna. I was very surprised to be able to receive all those European broadcast stations. It's a real shame that they are phasing out LW broadcasting. They almost ruined TV DXing by switching to digital and are going to replace MW AM and VHF FM with digital.
Hi Clint.Thank you again for this. I remember when one could tune through LW in the evening and hear stations from all over Europe and the Middle East. The various USSR stations were fascinating and great if you were trying to learn Russian. Anyone remember when Radio Moscow's domestic service Interval signal that could be faintly heard in the background of Radio 4 at the top of the hour? 73 and GDX
It is unfortunate that longwave/mediumwave broadcasting is being discontinued almost everywhere. In Russia, unfortunately, this has been done since 2011 in order to save money for the launch of DVB-T2 digital television. On this moment there is no LW/MW broadcasting in Russia exept 1413khz
In some cases the move away seems foolish. Norway has shut down its LW station. Is there any MW or FM station that offers reliable coverage throughout that mountainous, arctic country? I doubt it. Communication, including emergency notifications, now seem to depend on complex systems such as the Internet and cellular staying up. Norway could have turned that LW station into a nationwide alert system with inexpensive weather alert radios like those used on VHF in the U.S. It could also broadcast the weather, ensuring listeners.
Regarding energy costs, the digital systems are lower power at the transmitter end, but require more power on the receiver end (think DAB receiver running in software). So the broadcasters are pushing the costs away from themselves and onto the listener.
I'm also going to miss it I love all of my equipment just spending time tuning distant stations, seems as though everything is at a turning point in this world.
Oh, as for medium wave, over here in The Netherlands there are now 100+ low power medium wave stations on the air. Powers ranging from as little as one (1) Watt up to a maximum of 100 Watts. All on a legal basis! It is amazing to hear what distances can be achieved, either due to the disappearance of many national broadcasters and the often sophisticated antenna systems the operators use. A new industry (for all aspects, hardware and content wise) emerged more or less and as a side effect this innitiative also is a great means of combating radio piracy that still exists in Holland as a matter of fact. So I enjoy this very much and it might be worth the efforts to receive some of those situated near our cost most closely to the UK. Just a suggestion!
Internet is not killing the radio; it’s all the rest of our own technology that creates a lot of EMI noise. That’s what’s killing off all our radio. And even our FM is dying by degrees because there’s no true variety on FM, and it’s even being used as talk radio wasteland here! Something needs to be done about the entire mess. Here anyway it’s all about the money, and not about people’s safety or everything related with AM etc would be left intact and even reinforced. We even used to have the Conelrad and Civil Defense system. Long distance AM is important in the case of an extreme emergency. Had to get that off my chest! Then we use our phones to receive the broadcasts that we can’t hear on our radios because of all the RFI/EMI. That seems backwards to me!
@RJDA.Dakota most people aren't using their phones primarily because of poor reception of a station due to EMI. People are using their phones and digital devices to listen to music of their choice or radio stations as its instant gratification and requires minimal set up.
Hi Clint. This is such a great post you’ve done and your so right it’s really sad that LW is nearing the end of its time. Your knowledge and passion about radio really comes across well and in doing so is what makes me enjoy all aspects of this great hobby/pastime. As I’ve said previously I always enjoy your video’s and post and look forward to many more. All the best Dave.
As a Broadcast Engineer I can tell you the main motivation for High Power TX sites to close is power consumption.........Owners are no longer interested in providing Long Range reception for consumers that are out of their commercial area.....the internet does that now.............Religious stations are the exception , as they want to spread a message and generally don't have any Commercial interests in Flogging Product........
I wonder who will take over the empty Long wave spectrum??? I’m really surprised there’s no Long wave stations coming from China. Very interesting video good work👍🏽
Some pirate stations may well appear. My money would be on the Netherlands; radio enthusiasts there have been known to transmit just about anywhere on principle (e.g. the so called MW "X Band" between 1602 and 1701kHz which is not used in Europe for broadcasting, just below or in the FM broadcast band, in the middle of the 70cms amateur band, in the licence free allocation around 868MHz etc etc. There is at least one LW QRP pirate that has been on the air previously... there are videos on RU-vid :-) 73 from Ed M0MNG.
BBC Radio 4 leaving LW has no official date yet even though the contract date is at the end of March . Also remembering when Germany & Russia were still on LW in the 2010s, but in that same decade they also stopped transmitting on the band. Great video & 73s.
Sad indeed! Unable here in the States to log any European LW but by using the Kiwi SDR site, I'm able to log several of the remaining stations at least. MW is still going gangbusters on this side of the big water. I see where some car manufacturers want to eliminate MW from new car radios but some special interest groups are fighting that decision thank goodness! I have more fun logging MW (AM) stations here in the U.S. than SW I would say. 73's...Phil
Phil, I don't know your situation, but if you live in the eastern US and have enough room for a decent antenna, you can sometimes hear them. Btw, if you are in the south/southwest, you might try the Tropical Bands. Lots of interesting low-power Caribbean stations. Here in WV they are a difficult catch, but fun when you can.
Unfortunately once a Denial of use attack occurs with the Internet, all Countries will suffer a serious communications blackout. Satellite communications are also susceptible to attacks as well as GPS spoofing. In this day and age, redundancy seems to be a bad word. The real money players want you to subscribe to all services for a fee but there is no backup plan should they fail. Power, Water, and Gas services are also remotely controlled by Smart Meters and can also be shut off once hacked. Imagine a war where no shots are fired.
It certainly is sad. I wish we had the technology we currently enjoy (sdrs with waterfall displays) with all the stations on LW and SW from the late 70s. But I suppose a lot of that type of advancement has also brought us digital methods of broadcasting and streaming too.
Great video. As a child I was stunned to find AM and news station on long wave. 😮 A lot of infrastructure has to be in place for the internet; very easy and many places to break that chain. 😢 With LW, just the transmitter/antenna (and obviously power) and the users radio-receiver covering long distances 😊
I am in Canada. LW was never used for commercial broadcasting here or across the border in the USA, but instead for aircraft NDBs. There are literally hundreds of stations on MW here, essentially every 10 kHz. In fact I can receive more than 10 music stations on AM / MW from where I live, with classic hits, hip-hop, trance/house, R&B, Top 40 being available, including a new station CFAJ on 1220 kHz from Niagara Falls which is commercial-free and wide format (big band, 50s/60s rock, metal, classic rock, dance, CHR) 1930s to 2000s with a totally random format. I love stuff like this, and there is nothing on FM like it. I believe AM will do well in North America for years to come, since new stations are still going on the air. Regarding LW, I agree with you this is an amazing broadcast band with the capability to reach very long distances! In the early 1990s, I could pick up a CHR station on 252 kHz LW (Atlantic 252) from northeastern Canada with Nordmende 808 on several occasions. I believe this was a super-powered CHR station serving most of western Europe from Ireland. I was astonished to hear the latest hits on LW ! Long live Long Wave !
Thanks very much for your interesting memories! I also used to listen to Atlantic 252 all the time, but the signal in Oxford was a lot stronger than how you copied them lol. I've thought for a long time that MW will continue in North America for a long time to come. It's just too big to fill the gaps with FM/DAB. Thanks again and 73!
Good morning Clint, from David HS0ZQA/2E0WBQ in Thailand. I'm glad your video popped up. The propagation on the HF bands is terrible here at the moment. I'm going to do some listening on LW. I only have a resanent dipole for 20 metres, so I may have to put a longer wire up but I should have enough space.
Very poignant and distressing recollections of the past Clint. Progressive values and changes are being forced upon us , and the fact that we can do nothing about it is so sad. Probably won’t be long until MW goes the same way , being available on DAB or an Alexa app 😢. Great content as usual buddy , and thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.
And when the internet goes down or out, then you’re stuck with no communications. Radio is easiest answer and simple things are elegant because of that simplicity aspect. Here we have a saying: If it’s not broken then you can’t fix it. Things work out in the end. Deny communications and then eventually everything goes down.
I remember listening to RTL Luxembourg to a rock n roll music programe weekdays nite also of course Atlantic 252 which was one the best stations on the radio. I'm so glad I taped songs I like of these stations gives me something to listen to when I'm feeling nostalgic!
Just reminds me of the song by Everclear - AM Radio. Where they talk about the portable CD player, etc... various formats have always been impacting AM radio stations. Its sad, but has been on the cards for decades :(
Hi Clint, just heard your comments aired on BBC Radio 4 Feedback programme. I would like to be able to say I was listening on 198 kHz but heard it on BBC Sounds a day after first broadcast. For anyone reading this and wants to hear the programme on 198 kHz it will be repeated at 1900 UTC on Sunday 13th August.
I am on the other side of the pond. I had a really good long wave receiver as a kid. It was a multiband thing that did longwave by converting up and then back down. I remember listening to some very strange stuff on it. I think a fair bit of what I was picking up was illegal or unintentional transmissions. There were a bunch of morse code stations and some that gave weather reports. There were some that made sort of a giggling screaming sort of sound that ran for about a minute or so then stopped.
Found your video here by accident. With reference RTE I did notice that on 252Khz (I think?) had disappeared - I did check my antenna at the time to see if my old (from new in April 1981) FRG7700M receiver was still working! What's going to happen to Long Wave I ask myself?
It takes 2 transmitters on longwave to cover the whole of the uk. Which they say costs a lot to run and maintain. But how much does it cost to run and maintain far more transmitters that are needed to cover the UK on FM ? It will also cost plenty to run and maintain the DAB network.
It was three LW transmitters (Droitwich, Burghead and Westerglen) and many MW fillers for the mush areas, central London, Cornwall and Northern Ireland.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the 2 Icelandic LW transmitters are decommissioned and out of service? (In fact I saw a video recently of the 'take down' of RUV LW transmitter)
I would imagine Polskie Radio will endure, people there have a long memory, and once having the tallest structure in the world indicated their passion to get a message out. I have had a home there for 13 years, (Mikolajki) the people there are extraordinary, the strongest in good character l have ever met, l include Finland, who of course have SISU. But as even they have conceded in conversation , the electrician brought down communism.👍
It kind of a shame that LW and MW weren't given over to DRM. If only DRM took off as a radio standard on consumer gear, then maybe these AM stations would have gone digital. I think another reason is newer radios just not having those bands, when I was a kid, you'd get three band radios but even back then there were more and more radios that were only two band and MW was called AM. Then DAB came around and no DAB radio had any AM bands, not MW and certainly not LW. If they had anything other than DAB, it was FM. And of course fewer radios means fewer listeners, fewer listeners means the cost is less justifiable. When I'm out and about, I listen to online radio on my mobile phone which also has a built in FM only radio, no LW, no MW, no DAB (I think I've only seen two phones have a DAB radio built in and one of those was the Virgin Lobster TV phone)
I know that the antenna for RÚV is due for an overhaul and it's just not feasible to do. It's a 60 year old 412m high Loran-C tower. It also costs a lot to run (running at 150KW, can do 300) and very few people use it anymore.
Great video, shame to see the LW band becoming emptier and emptier each year but like you said, that's where we are. I also agree with you on listening to cricket on BBC R4 - picking it up on an ordinary analog receiver was very handy (especially for someone who doesn't live in the UK). Here's what I do know about some stations that are currently listed. Some of this is information that isn't first-hand so I can't vouch for everything. 153 (Chaine 1, Algeria) - possibly now inactive. I didn't find it on any SDR when Antena Satelor was off the air for a couple of hours earlier this month. 153 (Antena Satelor, Romania) - recently seems to be running at much lower power. 164 (MNB1, Mongolia) - allegedly running at significantly reduced power, breaks in transmission fairly common. 171 (Medi 1, Morocco) - no longer audible here in Ireland for about a month now on my setup. Monitoring SDRs would suggest that power has been reduced even further. Frequency no longer mentioned on their website. 209 (MNB 1 Mongolia) - allegedly at least one of the three transmitters are either off or only operating intermittently. 225 (Polskie Radio 1) - also broadcasting separate programs from FM aimed at Belarus, Russia and Ukraine since the invasion, will likely stay around for a while yet. 252 (Chaine 3, Algeria) - went off the air for several days last month. Returned but with much lower power. Was booming here in Ireland after RTE 1 left LW but now down to anorak quality level. Using a Transradio Tx just as a matter of interest (also used by one of the MNB stations on 209 which is unreliable and RTE until April which had a lot of outages in the years prior to closure). Has been intermittent for a while now. I wonder which will be next to go after Iceland, Denmark and BBC...
Thanks for the info. Conor which ties in mostly witih my understanding of what's happening on LW. It's daylight here and I have weak audio on Antena Satelor and Medi 1. Chaine 3 on 252 kHz is already booming in S9+. Next to do is Denmark at the end of the year and then probably followed by BBC R4 next year...what a shame. 73
Last I heard Droitwich was running 250kw which will mean Burghead and Westerglen are running 25kw each. BBC has said on a few occasions that they want to close the service. I understand the data service which phase modulates the 198 KHz carrier is no longer required.
@@lionelsear5606 Smart meters will do it all. Modern smart meters use 4G/5G mobile phone service for data and control. So no need for Radio 4 long wave. Anyway the BBC is indicating March 2024 the service will be closed.
So if this part of the electromagnetic spectrum is no longer used, or at least used by only a diminishing number of stations then how can these frequencies be constructively employed? My mobile telephone works tolerably well if I want to use it to access the internet. I can play games on it and unfortunately my employer uses it to send me work. However, it's not that good at being a...... telephone. I've only got to go over a hill or go near the coast and the signal dies. Unfortunately the locals don't want more telephone masts. So could the LW and even MW and SW frequencies be re-allocated to give me a good signal?
Many years ago I hear Iceland's LW station in Latvia. Today with powerfull IGBT transistor inverters can will create powerfull LW AM transmitter. With solar panels can create free energy for transmitter.
The declining of longwave goes fast indeed. I remember Atlantic 252 which was quite popular among younger listeners in the nineties. And I know BBC radio 4 has listeners in the Netherlands too on longwave. Sad that even the BBC will leave longwave. 😢
As someone from the US, which never had commercial stations on LW (though not sure why considering the midwest would have been perfect for LW stations) I never grew up with longwave radio. In fact, I didn’t even know about it til I was 13 or 14 when I first seriously got into shortwave radio. Finding websdr allowed me to hear a LW broadcast for the first time, BBC 198. Once I got a Satellite 750, my first radio with longwave, I could finally hear some local, nondirectional beacons, and I once even had Algeria on 252, though it was exceptionally week and hard to hear, but it was there! AM transmitting in general is extremely efficient at covering large swaths of land with less power than FM could ever achieve. SW, LW and MW are vital means of communication and you’re right, it’s extremely near-sighted of those in charge to do away with these bands rather than invest in less expensive means of transmitting on LW MW and SW.
Do the UK authorities have any plans for the band? For example, to turn it over to public use? I'm old enough to remember when, if you wanted to listen to BBC Radio 4 in the UK, you could ONLY find it on LW on 198kHz (moved to LW in 1978, apparently).
Unfortunately with the rise of consumer electronics with the accompanying RF noisy switch mode power supplies because all the filter components are removed to save a penny, is it any wonder joe public doesn't listen to LW with the constant buzz ?. I remember for a time in the 80`s all the building sites had Atlantic 252 blasting out as it was as good as BBC radio 1/2 on MW..they were the days!
Next door has something switching on and off creating a huge buzzing noise which then decreases in it's level on both m.w. and l.w. Even the strong Radio 4 is affected.
Hmmm .. Medium wave is also getting abandoned these days ( I thought my radio was defective until I fired up my signal generator ! ! ) + no more 199 Caroline ! ...... DAVE™ 🛑
Longwave, Mediumwave and the crystal set - the ultimate fall back position when everything else fails! We might even have to re-learn making a "Cat's Whisker"...! Not that I've ver made one, but the details will be in a book somewhere.
Linking CB radio to feed LW with talk would allow people to add a mobility to the long wave band. Aircraft ADF radios can receive the upper half of longwave.
Cost of everything has to be the big thing. Internet must be cheaper and as more people get computers and such it becomes more popular that way. Perhaps we can have our miserly 137 kHz amateur band extended. Maybe move it away from the strong signals near to it to make better reception of the weak amateur stations on there. Bill, G4GHB.
The costs for a transmitter installation and maintenance and power consumption are enormous. That is why more and more radio stations are going digital via Internet radio.
I always found RTE on 252 to be an unusual one. RTE already had a very good MW allocation on 567 kHz but they discontinued it in 2008 in favour of LW. I suspect that they did so because they already owned the LW site as part of their involvement in Atlantic 252, and that there was a stipulation in the planning permission that it had to be demolished once no longer in use. This happened, the tower was demolished a few months after closure. The construction was very controversial among locals and ended up in court in the mid 80s, hence the stipulation. RTE ended up replacing the Atlantic-era 500 kW TX pair with a single 300 kW Transradio unit in 2007 but within 5 years or so, they had dropped it to 150 kW (as can be seen in the WRTH guides here). So it wasn't uncommon for Algeria to overpower RTE at night even in Ireland.
Hello. After many years, I caught the long wave broadcast of TRT Erzurum Radio in Turkey with my retro analog radio. You can see the broafcast on my akkount.
Sad reality is, demand for LW and MW broadcasting is just diminishing. If broadcasters could get away with it they, would be happy to scrap all costly radio transmission facilities. Recently, in the US, Ford started removing AM (MW band) radio from their new cars. There was a bit of a push back and they have reintroduced them. So, suspect at least MW will be around for a while. However, as you say the situation and geography in some areas of the World maybe means that some LW stations also still make sense for a while.
Listening to the dull, soulless, flat sound of TMS on DAB as opposed to the crisp audibility of longwave in the garden with a beer and the occasional crackle of distant thunderstorm.
Thanks for this interesting video. What a great shame that LW is in decline. I actually like the background "hum" of LW and also the faint bleed-over from other stations (usually Slavic) that is "just" audible during a pause. FM sounds a bit clinical. The hum & bleed-over both lend an atmosphere of of fashioned-ness, and it constantly reminds me of how wondrous it is that radio signals can travel through the aether AT ALL ! And you're right, TMS is better on LW. LW is a tradition - just like cricket is.....and likewise full-test matches. Thanks again.
Here in the US, my favorite time to DX on AM is during the baseball season. The local AM 590 carries the Detroit Tigers. But the 50,000 watt stations are best heard after the sun goes down. 670 AM from Chicago has the Cubs and White Sox. The best part is I don't spend $100 per month on cable TV bills.
hello, I'm a 60 year old newby... I'm listening to lw (153 - 282 ) I can sometimes get an emission on 245 kHz starting around 6pm (France time) I hear a musical chime, same notes repeated in different musical approches and then a man or a woman giving a short sentence message that I can't tell the language (I get some noise) This transmission spreads to 243 with les quality. On the list in Wikipedia 243 is from Denmark, is that what I'm hearing? Why the chimes? There's nothing on 245 in accordance to Wiki. Thanks, Cheers from Normandy.
Hi there, yes you're definitely copying the signal from Denmark - Kalundborg on 234 kHz. The chimes are an interval signal they've been using for ever! 73!
I really really hope they don't get rid of LW. I'm Irish and I lived in the UK for about 5 years, many years ago. While I was there I started to listen to the BBC. Now back in Ireland I still listen to the BBC on LW. MW doesn't reach here as intact as LW. It doesn't have the reach that LW has. I'm sure it's the same for many people in France, the Netherlands and possibly Denmark also, who listen to the BBC on LW. This is a form of soft power and the UK really should hold on to that. The UK has already shot itself in the foot with regards to influence in Europe due to Brexit. If the BBC drops LW it'll be yet another loss of influence. Also in times of emergency, LW is a great way for getting news out across the UK (& Ireland).
Fm QTH Denia, Spain. Noticed today 3 feb 2024, Polskie radio is a few Khz off on 228khz. My stongest station is Nador on 171khz. All very nostalgic... ex-merchant navy radio officer who used to transmit CW on frequencies in 500khz band... that's all gone too!
I've been curious about longwave since I was quite young. Here in the US about all we have is nondirectional beacons on the band, and those are going away. One of my lifetime goals is to get a European LW broadcaster in my log. Probably not going to happen, though. 😢
@@OxfordShortwaveLog Thanks for the suggestion! A couple of years ago I saw a presentation about SDRs and the presenter said that he had been able to copy a longwave broadcaster from his QTH in Texas at least once. I have logged about 20 NDBs just sitting out in the yard in the early morning with my PL-990X and the add-on reel antenna. Between the 990X and my HF+ Discovery I might have some luck. I also like DXing VLF and have logged three of the high power US Navy stations down around 25 kHz (NAA, NLK, and NML4).
And then you think that MW or even FM, how about DAB, will be around forever? Although I did think that my local MW station would be around most of my life. Things really do change so quickly now. So called outmoded systems, so many of them never really even caught on. MDs, CDs also a thing of the past. Vinyl records making a comeback (temporarily because of the nostalgia, that’s all). I used to have a small tape recorder, as a teenager, which later traded for a cassette recorder. It goes on and on. But sometimes simple things like radio endure. When the internet goes down or out because of any number of things, that radio will still exist. Remember, the first real receivers were crystal sets. I don’t like to be a pessimist but with all the things going on in the world today, radio, especially shortwave and medium wave, would be more useful for all, than the few that can afford digitalization. That leaves a lot of Africa and Southern Asia out. Radio and radio stations are important. And real news, not slanted opinions.
As I have said I would use 198kHz as a hybrid Radio 4 station of World service, Cricket and nostalgic archive. If the valves are used up I imagine new cathodes and getters can be made. Oxford university dept of science might be able. They have a glass lathe.
I've built a transmitter using NE555 timer as many on RU-vid. Simplest was best. Output pin 3 via resistor to 2+6. At least I can remember. Sound not bad. 5.2 volts and fussy. Small aerial to pin 5 via 1uF audio input helped. A 180 uH inductor pin 7 to plis.
I heard 243khz DR in Denmark two days ago...I remember trying to get DR on Shortwave....i hear Northern China and Eastern Russia after 12 midnight my time in the Pacific.....so sad to see this band going out...way is that...MW AM Band has too much stations everywhere....i remember trying to get Longwave for Europe from California back in the 1970s-1995...i heard a few at night when it was a cold night... from Germany and the UK why is this happening!!!
If ever there was a time when we need the simplicity and resilience of AM broadcasting for emergency situations, surely this is it. As for 2025 when the UK is set to close the public switched telephone network, I think there is a real risk of people being totally without information if the power goes out. Data over mobile fails instantly when there is a power outage in my area.
Maybe the MW and LW could be for local low power. An 807 valve would do it. Aerial might be tricky. I revived a 1957 Bush VHF61 radio to enjoy the last moments.
@@OxfordShortwaveLog There's a decline in the US as well from what I have heard, even though it may come later. Many cars are no longer sold with medium wave radio, so I'd expect it to end there too.
The situation across all the AM bands (LW, MW and SW) is increasingly worrying. I first started listening as a 12 year old, having just got my hands on a R1155. Back then the bands were a playground. There was always something interesting and perhaps even exotic to listen to. These days, not so much. SW is dominated by China and a handful of religious broadcasters, although it is possible to pick up African and South American locals. LW is almost dead, and MW is slowly following in its footsteps.
The Montego had the most sensetive Philips LW MM FM radio. My dad taught me radio aged 5. How he caused wipeout in Germany in the RAF using a regenerative radio, that type was forbidden. He explained positive feedback using a microphone into our Sobel radio, saying valves can feedback. Stangely he never mentioned the Mullard factory 3 miles fron Sutton where he grew up. Hitler knew it was there. I built VOX style valve amp, my brother really if honest, my ideas ( no feedback, fixed bias ). Dad asked who taught me. " You dad ".
To improve my French I listened to RTL. I once got a question right on La Grosse Tete. This was in my beloved Montego Countryman 2DL in traffic. I have had " better cars". The Montego was true LW.
I haven't heard Denmark or Iceland. I started listening on a small radio that only had long and medium wave. I assembled a battery in a paper tube to power it. Today there is too much interference to listen indoors. An English broadcaster can have listeners far outside the country borders. The Internet requires an additional chain of infrastructure to be working. World Service is only available in big cities on USW, and may go down if there are local problems of they lose visibility to the satellite. In some places like in the kitchen or in the garden, I can't load streams off the internet because there is no computer, and I can't listen on headphones. BBC used to have restrictions of the iPlayer; and their apple-format streaming is a bit bloated for old PCs. I think each country could maintain at least one station where they still have multiple duplicating ones that clutter the band.
Long wave is essential for information. It is the fundamental form of radio communication that has existed for over one hundred years. Like the telephone copper wire.....Fundamental form of communications. Both could disappear in the UK soon. When all else fails due to a WW3, only a few with short wave radios will be able to communicate. I have a battery Sony VHF, SW, MW and LW receiver that can also work with mains power. I suspect that the LW transmitters in the UK, will be mothballed as all equipment including power generators, copper feeds, aerials etc would be impossible to replace once scrapped.
I think you forgot to mention the recent loss of RMC (Monte Carlo) on 216 kHz too. Sad times, but I do enjoy listening to the crazy Algerian music on 252 (and also Jil FM on 549 kHz) at night.
Sad to see the slow death of MW & LW. Technology advances - look at the changes with TV - VHF broadcast > UHF Broadcast > Satellite & cable > Digital > Streaming. Ironic that with each advancement the reliability & robustness decreases.
