AM radio in the UK is in a shocking state, as clearly detailed in the WRTH 2025 edition
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Hi there, the terrible state of AM broadcasting in the UK (and many parts of Europe) is clear to see in the pages of the WRTH 2025 edition. A shame, but a sign of the times.
Thanks for watching and 73.
Listened to 198 kHz UK Radio 4 clean signal this night in Warsaw, Poland on my 25 years old Panasonic RF 3500.
It is still such a fun.
Both long and medium waves should be treatened as strategic infrastructure due to it’s impressive and often intercontinental range.
Wise words. I hope Polski Radio on 225 continues for many years my friend. 73
I've had my own AM transmitter since 2009, little 100mw job from the US, AM lives on forever in my house.
That is fantastic Christopher!
postscript: they should keep R4 LW because the shipping forecast is available throughout the whole uk due to the reach of LW. not all fisherman can afford expensive satellite systems. I hate what the BBC have become.
Well said Alan.
@@OxfordShortwaveLog apparently they cant get the valves any more for the transmitter, so once the last one fails, thats it! plus they say its not 'green' enough uses too much power
@@andygozzo72 I can understand the power consumption issue. As for the valves, what about high power MOSFETs? They do exist because grid level DC converter stations can ramp up solar and wind to megawatts at 132kv
@@andygozzo72They use ceramic valves that are made to order. The Marconi transmitter they’re using was built in 1987 so I suspect only the power amplifier stages are valved.
@@andygozzo72They use ceramic valves that are made to order. The Marconi transmitter they’re using was built in 1987 so I suspect only the power amplifier stages are valved.
During the 80s I could drive from Holyhead to Madrid without changing the radio frequency from 198 kHz. Radio plays, documentaries, financial advice, news reviews, all good stuff to make the trip pleasant. Longwave also penetrates into tunnels and underground parking places, so very useful in a national emergency when the internet and phone networks would quickly become unusable.
Very well said. I drove from Oxford to Nantes in France - via the Euro Tunnel. Other than the bit on the train, I listed to Radio 4 all day until we arrived in the early evening.
@@OxfordShortwaveLogchildhood memories of my first holiday out of the UK in 1969 I was in a farmhouse in west Germany. The 198 khz transmitter was BBC light programme and at 200 khz at the time. I wanted to listen to the Sunday charts show so I found an old transistor radio and climbed to the top of the barn. Received it fine! I recently found a software defined online station in the Netherlands and tried 198. Clean and strong 24/7.
Great story! Thanks for sharing it
@OxfordShortwaveLog Thank you. Many fond memories of AM especially on car radios which just worked everywhere. The fun will really start in June when 198 ends. 600,000 economy 7 meters relying on radio teleswitch service needIng to be replaced by then. It's seriously not going to happen! (Even if the replacement smart meters could even get a mobile signal in Scotland once the Westerglen transmitter goes). Errrm... brain! 😂
I think the shut down will be delayed - it's got to be surely...
it's a disgrace. I could sit in my room in 1981 and listen to a raft of MW stations and local radio. now there's nothing. even back in 2016 the likes of radio Somerset was local. now it's just radio London on a re-feed. same with radio Gloucester. they still take the money for the license fee but don't serve local communities. the BBC are desperate to shut BBC-R4 LW; you don't get the weather properly on local radio anymore either. if you're in a remote or rural location it's simply not fit for purpose!
Great comments Alan!
AM broadcasting is still going strong in Australia. Our main public broadcaster’s local stations + talkback and oldies in capital cities remain on AM, in addition to many rural stations due to the better distance reception on AM (which, given the huge distances on our continent in sparsely populated areas, makes sense). Kind of makes it a bit of an annoying market situation in regard to receivers - ones which have FM, DAB *AND* AM are a rarity because European receivers tend to only have FM and DAB. You tend to notice it especially with carmakers - the introduction of DAB as standard equipment has been very slow because it doesn’t make financial sense to create custom hardware to add an AM tuner for the Australian market when the equivalent European receiver only has FM and DAB.
Great comments, thanks and agree the vast size of Australia makes AM radio the only workable solution.
The BBC should keep 5 Live on 693/909 AM & 198 LW as a useful back up & emergencies.
A 'Home Service' if you like.
1 million percent!!
@@OxfordShortwaveLog The National Emergency Broadcast service on Radio and TV was axed a while ago. How incredibly short sighted can you be. Now that Rugby VLF station GBR has gone the MSF time signal on 60kHz from Anthorn is no longer able to reach many areas of the UK. I get a better signal from DCF Frankfurt on 77.5kHz than I do from MSF. Radio in the UK is a shambles now.
If there is no internet and even if DAB still operates your batteries won't last long without power. Having a few lw/mw radios around the house is a great idea in an emergency.
In Ireland BBCRadio 5 was the only way to hear premier League football
for the Irish Players.
The Americans were spot on about DAB. They always said it was a pointless technology and that AM and FM would last us until everything went online. They were right!
They were! Thanks and 73
DAB wouldn't work in North america anyway. Because DAB uses VHF band III,which in our region uses TV channels 7-13. Canada tried DAB but it didn't work at all. Lousy audio,reception and the amount of transmitters needed to make it work lead to its demise. As a result Canada approved the proprietary US developed and deployed HD Radio standard to replace DAB which is backwards compatible with analog FM tuners. Of course,1st generation HD radios were not that great and also power hungry. I remembered one early example took as much as 8 C or D batteries. Current models are much more efficient and smaller,not to mention contain more sensitive tuners. Eg. My Sangean HDR -14 HD radio only takes 3AA batteries to work.
@ it is just very unsatisfactory and even in early adopting countries coverage is still very patchy. It was also sold on a lie of "CD quality sound" which you just do not get on most stations because of the degree of compression. Increasingly, people listen to radio on apps, smart speakers or internet radios. DAB will be seen as a curious technological cul de sac in a few years.
We may have a large number of AM radio stations in the US, but with many stations consolidated into large media companies, there isn't much original or local programming. If you have an emergency situation nowadays, a "local" station might just be offering a program from another part of the country. That's no help in a sudden event like an earthquake.
Thanks for your comments Douglas. 73
Hi Clint. Thank you again for a very informative post.. You are right. The state of MW radio in the UK is shocking with lots of stations broadcasting the same programs because it's the cheapest way to do it. Local radio has been cut back. Fortunately we still have Caroline on 648, Manx on 1368 and R4 on 198 but for how much longer? 73s and GDX
Cheers, Jim, great comments. I love Manx Radio - they often boom into Oxford and long live R4 on 198 kHz...pehaps a stay of execution?! 73
And Long Wave in the UK appears to be on shaky ground, may well vanish at short notice?
Funny thing with Caroline 648, I can receive it in Wales, but I can't in Guildford, which is maybe half way between the two. Maybe it's the antenna I'm trying to use.
@@paulsengupta971 Caroline's signal is bad in Hemel Hempstead, as well. At the same time, a Lithuanian DXer is receiving an absolutely clear signal 1000+ miles away. 😮
@@HristosTrUK Probably a null to the west on 648 from the world service days. The signal is not that good in Watford either compared to the days of the ship on 558. Programming nowhere near as good either. A wasted opportunity.
I know the feeling. It’s sad to imagine been in a world without analogue signals such as long and medium wave on radio. Even VHF FM has been discontinued in Norway I think. Also, I really miss the analogue television signals with the snowy picture. It’s been gone from Ireland since October 2012, but even to this day, I miss it. Digital television to me is too clear or glitchy. Also in Ireland last year, they closed down the last RTE AM transmission, RTE Radio 1 on long wave 252khz (originally on the Atlantic 252 position). They demolished the transmitter mast near Summerhill, Co.Meath used for long wave 252khz shortly after the end of broadcasts. In contrast, a beautiful transmitter mast which was used for RTE Radio 1 on medium wave until 2008 was only demolished in 2023. It was only a few miles from where I live and was the tallest structure in the Republic of Ireland (the Strabane transmitter in Northern Ireland is the tallest in all Ireland). Nevertheless, I was sad to see it go.
Thanks - wonderful comments
Sadly, in the US a lot of the AM stations are now Talk Radio or rebroadcasts from networks. Music goes to FM and the kids listen to Spotify. I enjoyed shortwave back in the 1980s, then had to stop because of Life. Coming back now, I really feel the pain of all the stations that closed down. Many of the stations that I heard, logged, and reported to Popular Communications magazine have shut down in the interim.
Well said, Karl. There is, however, still a lot left on shortwave - the WRTH 2025 edition shows that. 73
Lot of people never listen to any AM at all. Cheap ubiquitous FM radios killed AM music. Thus to survive stations had to choose the proper "formula" for changing demands or go dark. I suspect alot of AM stations hang by a thread trying to generate enough income from adverts. Ads are usually from local businesses, not huge money makers, or national ad campaigns that may be more lucrative. But most of those are rubbish ads anymore. No more adverts for soap or corn flakes or hair gel. Stuff like meds for ED or financial services to prevent bankruptcy etc. Sleaze.
medium wave is dying, why can't there be a station with varied easy listening music instead of all the same old stuff. MW is a fantastic radio band.
Couldn't have put it better myself Albert! 73
Spain are prolific on MW dont understand why the UK have shut down all of our AM transmitters. Ireland have dismantled their LW transmitter for RTE1, i could pick that up at my QTH in the midlands.. it is a sad backwards move i think
Spain are prolific on MW - but it's a big country and that works to AM radio advantage.
It's true that the US has a lot of stations on mediumwave, but they are sadly mostly vitriolic talk radio, religious, and sports stations. And they are doing so poorly that they've had to simulcast on FM frequencies in order to maintain listeners. Even the high-powered stations have taken to featuring music or special events to bring in listenership.
Only those mediumwave stations that serve their communities, such as ethnic groups and locally-owned rural stations that provide vital information are doing well enough on their own.
Thanks for your message and info. shared.
As a boy I used to listen to Horror radio stories in my bed with my little radio when my parents thought I was sleeping now at the age of 72yr i sometimes listen to horror radio on my mobile phone on TH-cam
Great stuff Alex!
Whilst I am a radio anorak and am sad to see the decline of this part of the spectrum, I must admit I can’t really see a good argument for maintaining AM services if they are not drawing audiences anymore.
Maintaining 198 kHz should be a priority though. I suspect that repair after the last valve gives out would be uneconomical though.
Thanks for your comments - much appreciated
Radio Caroline is a favourite of mine to listen to in the evening, ironically you skipped over the BFBS stations which are all low power for British Forces personnel, i was interviewed by BFBS Germany when i lived in Berlin on a segment promoting amateur radio back in the late eighties when i had a DA2 callsign !!!
They did'nt call me back and that was the end of my international broadcasting career !
Regards as always and thanks for making this video.
Cheers Anthony. I couldn't include all the low power stuff unfortunately. A shame your broadcasting career was so short! All the best and 73.
It is a pro & con situation. Pro is that we are able to DX stations outside the UK which we could not previously. Con is that during the day during groundwave conditions, there is much less to listen to & really is a shadow of its former self. I managed to receive a BFBS Gurkha station on MW a while back, worth trying now as they are already on DAB so who knows if or when they decide to pull the plug to favour digital only. 73.
That is true, gaps open up on the MW band for DX, but in the end, we want to keep MW alive at the same time!
Can hear plenty of Spanish and Eastern European station in Birmingham on MW
The bit rate on some of the DAB stations is a joke
Not surprising given how hellbent the British radio industry is on Amazon Alexa and DAB+ Digital Radio.
Yeah I know - it's annoying!
I get Talk Sport on 1107 kHz very clearly here, but it didn’t seem to be mentioned?
I can't mention every station! This was centred around the lack of high-power stations left. 73
For me, but personally and sentimentally, there has ever been and will always remain The only one Queen among all MW stations of the whole Earth and maybe even of the whole Milky Way (I will not dare say the whole Multiverse, it could be most probably already a bit too far-fetched...). Radio Luxembourgh 208m (1440 kHz). I came across that station as a teenager, quite accidentally, in the eighties....and despite its large distance from me and its wonderful music as often as not fading away but then to come back with its double strength, I grew enchanted and captivated by it! Late in the evening, on my marvelous SANYO portable, that music sounded magically transformed by AM! Now, after a couple of decades, sometimes, in a turn of deep nostalgia I tune my radio to 1440 kHz, but so far I haven't found any echo of that station, gone so long ago...
Your words ring so true with me 'the great 208'! I spent many hours listening at home and then through the night working in a supermarket whilst I was at 6th form college studying. Loved Tony Prince et al. That was all such a long time ago now! 73
It's one of my oldest memories of listening to the radio in the car. My father used to have Radio Luxemburg on in the 1970s when we drove back home from my grandfather's at night. I remember vividly the fading and distortion as we drove along. The two songs I remember most are Led Zeppelin's Kashmir, which doesn't quite sound right without the restricted bandwidth and the fading if I listen to it these days, and Donna Summer's I Feel Love. Oh yes, there was another one which came a bit later which was Lipps Inc. - Funkytown. In contrast, my grandfather always had Radio 2 on in the car, on long wave, 1500m, as it was then. It used to get completely blotted out when driving under the 400kV power lines. As an aside, a car we had in the 1970s, an Audi, had a radio with LW, MW, SW and VHF on it. This was my first introduction to shortwave radio. I think SW was marked KW and VHF marked UKW, but I might be mistaken.
Great memories - thanks! Yes, SW was marked KW....
I was going to put a comment on about Radio Luxembourg until I found you'd beaten me to it. It was my go to as a teenager with a small home built transistor radio (it was TRF - I wasn't smart enough to build a superhet) and a crystal earpiece.
Couldn't hear the station during the day but after dark it would fade in and out and many nights I'd fall asleep with earpiece in.
Getting old and technology "improvements" have taken the wonder and pleasure out of a lot of things.
AM radio in America, except for a few independent stations, is either right wing talk shows, alleged news or religious programming and most of ours are controlled by 5 or 6 corporations so don't be fooled by the fact that we have hundreds of stations. This can be deceptive. I just suscribed so best wishes to you from America.
Great comments, thanks.
@@OxfordShortwaveLogI just made a similar comment about this. And I agree that despite the apparent prevalence of mediumwave stations in the US, it's quite deceptive. They're more like one station cloned into several hundred, rather like on an assembly line 😀
They're needed, with all the far-left mainstream media.
All we have on those is atheists; woolly-minded ' liberalas ', (the most intolerant people of all); and mainstream political party propaganda.
I live in such a liberal area that we have left wing talk shows more than the right.
Medium Wave AM Broadcast radio in North America is not all that it may appear to be. First, geographically, we are probably not that dissimilar to the UK in terms of radio channels per square mile or square kilometer. The land area of the US is over 35 times that of the UK. The population is well over five times higher as well. So we’re broadcasting to fewer people over a much wider territory.
One of the main reasons why people still listen to the radio is that there are vast areas of the country where cell phone coverage is poor. But with satellite service going direct to phones, pretty soon that too will no longer be true. MW AM is dying, and that’s okay. We have too many syndicated programs with too little content. Let’s hope that the few that remain will be interesting to listen to.
Thanks for the background info. on the current state of affairs over the pond. 73
It's not just AM in the UK .The whole concept of British broadcasting has gone down the pan. It's all become dull and unimaginative. I've now resorted to listening to broadcasts from other countries.
Cheers Paul
Every time an AM station is switched off. It turns out later to be a poor choice, and yet broadcasters that have the money to continue an AM service don't learn or understand why it's important sadly. It is nice that we still have a lot of stations in the states but with all the political talk on almost every station it's like only listening to one station. Of course Canada is really starting to lose it's AM stations and we are slowly starting to as well. Let hope they stay active for years! 73's
Thanks for your comments. I'm with you on that - fingers crossed AM radio is with us for many years to come...
Then you have countries like Switzerland and Norway where not only is MW empty, but they're getting rid of FM as well.
Yes I know....what is going on!
Australia still has rock & pop music on AM
Great to hear that. 73
Hi Clint, that is truly sad to see the declination of MW there in the UK. Guess it is the sign of the times unfortunately…
Yes, it is how things are going unfortunately. 73
Ireland ditched DAB roll out in 2019 and RTE finally switched off the service in March 31st 2021. It was an abject failure, much as it has been in the UK mainland. My only hope is that BBC radio 4 lasts out on 198kHz LW as life without the test match on radio 4 which I listen to on my 1920's one valver would be unimaginable. There are no English language broadcasts in my area now except Caroline and 5 Live. Most of my listening now is to RRI on SW with my Yaesu FRG-100. 73's.
Thanks for your great comments.
sad sign of the times. domestic radio is mostly driven by add revenue and demographics and the numbers just don't work on MW any more outside of niche providers like the Asian language/music and the "gold" types and diehard hero's like Caroline. [RANT] FM isn't much better thanks to certain players buying up the whole dam market *cough*global*cough* and Ofcom making it as hard and expensive as possible to get a license and a frequency. choice is not a thing on FM you get the BBC or a Global adfest [/RANT] i avoid FM like the plague and on AM i hop about a few good stations as prop allows such as Caroline, R Monique, Zee100, Coast FM (pirate) and Manx R gold the rest of the time im on SW as the rest of the AM is either more of the same bbc or wall to wall Spanish domestics.
Thanks for your comments - all very valid. 73
Entertainment radio has disappeared. Now all it's either music-radio or chatterbox-radio.
Totally agree the state of AM radio in the uk is disgusting i live not far from the Essex coast i have a 70 year old Bush radio the only thing i can get is Radio Caroling and occionaly Manx Radio at night
Well said, Sarah....
Brazil, is riding that sad road too. You'll be welcome to Argentina where MW stations still survive dispite Mileinomics 😊 73
It's a shame to hear that my friend. I hope all is good with you. 73
Ireland 🙂🇮🇪☘️ RTE have stopped MW + LW and DAB. FM and Smart Speaker only now. BBC Radio 5 was the only option to hear live premier League football here in Ireland in the past. Radio Luxembourg 208 MW back in the day 😢
As a Brit with Irish parents I have fond memories of listening to RTÉ radio 1 during the 90s, and would often pop on the Irish jigs on Saturday night before/after a trip down the pub. Was pretty gutted when RTÉ ditched 567MW.
Great comments David. I'm with you on The Great 208!
Ditto on the 50 years ago thing. To be fair, US vs UK is no comparison. My area, the Twin Cities of MN, has a decent amount of AM, including my favorite Oldies station, I'm going to appreciate as much as I can while I can. I've been inspired to build a box loop antenna for some DXing lately..
Thanks for your comments and good luck on the box loop - I've built them mysel and they work so well.
Try my country - Norway. We turned off the entire FM band in 2017, except for a very few local radio stations that have a temporary reprieve. No date has been set for them to close, so they will be around a good while yet. However pretty much all of Norway is now completely DAB+. Even for the local radios. In many areas there is no FM signal at all. As for AM every AM station has literally been turned off with ONE exception. That is the station up on Spitsbergen that has been retained for the area's remoteness. Not only that but the state broadcaster has upgraded their equipment and transmitter, and increased the transmission power. Previously the 1485 khz transmitter had 1000 W. This has now been increased to 3000 W. However, it is the only AM station remaining, both on MW and LW. Our last LW service was closed down in 2019.
Thank you for your interesting comments. i would like to try to copy the signal on 1485 kHz...
@@OxfordShortwaveLog i think its stupid going entirely 'digital', analogue is a simpler technology that just 'works' , plus you can easily self build analogue radios or even transmitters, not so with digital
It is even worse on the continent. In the Netherlands there are just low power stations with 100 watt of power. In Belgium there is no mediumwave station anymore. The truth is that here nobody is listening to mediumwave anymore. And I am afraid that the BBC will leave mediumwave as well to cut expenses. Unfortunately Radio 4 is leaving longwave within a few months.
Hi Rene, yes that is all correct, although Radio 4 might last a bit longer on longwave because of the issue with domestic power meters. 73
Long live long wave @@OxfordShortwaveLog
Definitely!
I am hoping they'll return one day, but yes, little to listen to anymore in the UK. Since I was a nipper I always enjoyed catching distance UK stations.
Thanks for your comments!
If you hear of any old AM MW transmitters I am absolutely desperate to find one. Despite all the closures old AM transmitters seem impossible to find. I could start broadcasting on MW and LW here.
Don't worry my friend, I will! 73
US radio collectors often build or buy the low power home broadcasting devices that are just enough to reach across the home and play music programming through those. They are legal if they meet the criteria to prevent interference with regular broadcasting, which will not be a problem if your MW is depleted anyway.
@@TomSherwood-z5l I have a high power broadcast licence.
@arcticradio try rte radio Ireland
Interesting you say R.Scotland is 100kW. It was very strong here in Finland but seems to be weaker these days? Maybe they have reduced power? I’m finding 693 kHz is stronger.
I did receive a 100w MW station from the UK here a few months back.
Here in the US, at least, FM radio overtook AM radio in the late 70’s.
I’m 50. I love the medium of radio. I’m a ham, SWLer, have done some college radio and still listen to FM radio daily. I have little to no personal history with AM listening. Sure, I’ve used it for traffic reports, read a lot about the history of AM broadcasting, I’ve even done some AM DXing, but I’m a radio nerd. Most people my age and under don’t listen to AM radio. It’s had a good run, but the fading away of AM radio has been a long time coming
Well, the tech is over 100 years old now so the fact it's still around is quite incredible.
I listen every night to BBC 4 198khz in NE of Romania with a Supertech SR-16 DN and a loop antenna. Sad to hear that they will end it this year
Great stuff - I listen to the folk music on Antena Satelor a lot. I hope they stay on 153 kHz for many years to come!
No one under about 40 is listening to *any* proper radio now! And we know AM suffers badly from all the cheap and poorly suppressed SMPS, chargers, etc. Most other European counties have even fewer stations - except Spain. I've built my own, excellent modulation little AM transmitter that gives about 50mV/m signal (1mV/m is defined as the limit of BBC AM service area) throughout my house fed from Alexa with any programme source you like!
Great comments, thanks.
I get the sentimentality, and whilst I avoid all radio generally I can see the appeal of AM radio.
However it does consume a shed-load of power for probably only hundreds of listeners if you take out the two nationals.
I suspect some of the MW-AM equipment is becoming very aged too and there’s little momentum to replace or maintain old Tx sites? The old studio-transmitter circuits are no doubt getting rather aged too, I dare say some of them are are still NICAM etc which is tricky to maintain now?
There’s nothing but R5L & TalkSport out here in the wilderness of East Anglia.
Good comments
1260 Farndon is closing at the end of February 2025
Another one bites the dust.....
US MW is still full. But many bemoan the supposed lack of variety programming that existed many decades ago. Market pressures have forced a majority of stations into a limited range of networked sports, talk, and news. Not a great number of surviving of music stations. But the problem is that people largely would not listen to AM music stations anymore. Rather FM stereo, or even satellite in vehicles. We do not have a DAB type of thing. Except of course satellite is digital. I never activated the pay to play sat in my car because I do not spend a lot of time driving anymore. Now I just get an antenna fault notice on that. But publicly funded NPR AM in America is not under the pressure to perform and it shows. Often deadly dull sleep inducing programming. Versus possibly annoying commercial radio with constant ads like TH-cam popping up. I listen in the car for local news and maybe talk depending on subject or switch to FM music. One reason that AM survives in America, I suspect, is that no one else wants that part of the radio spectrum.
Thanks again, Tom. A great overview of AM broadcasting in the USA.
No one wants the spectrum here in the UK either, but no one wants the electricity bills to keep the transmitters going.
No customers = no business
I think there are still a lot of listeners on AM....
I like what you say about AM tone. I also like listening to music ona AM Senasation is different than FM , may be due to less fuzz about stereo balance and expectations. but it has strong character instead.
Well said, Mike!
Manx Radio 1368 AM is awesome…still covers the whole of the Irish Sea area…👍👌🇮🇲
Yeah I love Manx Radio - they boom into Oxford some nights
Australia still has a lot of AM on air
Great to hear - but necessary since Australia is a big place!
Not true I am from Australia and in city we’re I live both AM station have closed one Local Station had been on Air for 90years it had large Audience it was run by AWA Australia largest firm making Electronics they got in difficulty due to poor management,And had to sell there Radio industry,Sadly it was down hill onwards,We had Radio National using the same site as Commercial Site
So they went FM also,Many AM Stations in Australia have moved to FM the ABC radio have station on AM in Australia in capital city’s,Ian from Australia,
@@eddyaudio you obviously never tune across the AM band at night. Still lots of Aussie signals there
I can listen to 909kHz and talksport from Lisbon, unfortunately the spanish radios ruin bbc
Well that might be true, but at least Spain are one of the few countries left in Europe that still fully embrace AM radio. 73
Even DRM didn't rescue it.
True!
DRM was a solution in search of a problem on HF, and no commercial receivers have been available for nearly 15 years now. The ones that were were extremely poor quality and exposed the dire shortcomings of the format on the HF bands. DAB+ was always going to win in the rational market, and it has.
I have never liked the audio on DRM...it's very tinny...even if the stability is good and drop outs are few and far between.
@@circattle I worked with some of the early R&D implementations of it at Rampisham when it was still on air but that was well over 20 years ago. I've been away from it elsewhere since so no idea what has happened to it [DRM] except experimenting with reception of it at home 15 years or so ago.
At night there can be found Spanish and French speaking stations down in the mix in the US. I assume they are the high powered in Mexico or perhaps an island and the French is Canadian. But I do not easily I.D. them, I am not particularly adept at Spanish no matter what some would like. Like alot of stuff is now bilingual all over the nation. Call someplace and get press one for Spanish etc. Or dual language signage. Which annoys some people to no end. Then again there can be small very local stations sponsored by ethnic groups speaking a variety of languages in some places.
Cheers, Tom, great comments. The WRTH could be a big help to you with identifying stations.
@@OxfordShortwaveLog That confused me for a moment, WRTH sounds like an American station ID!
LOL!
So is music programming. Not to worry, we have TH-cam
Wise words, Tom!
Radio 5 live Tywyn 600 watts annoys me living within a mile can play havoc with some of my electronic projects. Can't wait for it to shutdown
Oh dear....
Good news, hand MW to hams!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes that's a great idea and one that I know others are working on!
In philippines very much alive
Every other 9 khz channel has a station
Good to hear....!
I remember one summer BBC radio 1 transmitting stereo over their two allocated frequencies before FM took off in earnest had two radios set up 😂 ah well fun times
Great memories!
AM in AmeriKa: all hate all the time.
That is a shame....
Mw
Kazakhstan nil
Uzbekistan nil.
Kyrgyzstan 612 khz government
Thats about it
Oh dear...
th-cam.com/video/HHSGh_1T8kY/w-d-xo.html