Wednesday 29 April 2020

Bandscan on Medium Wave

With time on my hands whilst "locked in" at home, I cleaned and checked all the cables on the Wellbrook Loop. To my surprise I got up to 10/15db gain on stations like BBC Radio Norfolk and Radio 5 Live. I guess the connections had weathered over the winter and gradually deteriorated.

I had an hour or two to spare so I did a bandscan on MW, which I have now completed. I have made a log of all the MW stations that are possible to receive clearly here in the daylight hours. I may have missed one or two stations and I will update the list if I find any errors or other stations.

I was rather surprised by the large number of staions I could receive. When I first started MW DXing in the 1960s, how we would have loved to have been able to hear all the stations I have listed. Yet this is supposed to be a period of decline on the medium wave!

This is not free radio, of course, but I thought that some of my readers might find it interesting. So here is the list with signal strengths, locations and powers of the transmitters:

Updated with addition of a station on 1305 & a Beacon on 850 that I missed on a previous look around the band. 1030 UTC 23/05/2020

Medium Wave

549 Spirit s9+5 Carrickroe Ireland 25kw
558 Panjab s9+20 London, 1kw
603 Smooth s9+20 Kent, 0.4kw
648 Caroline s9+25 Orfedness, 1kw
657 BBC Wales s9+10 Wrexham, 2kw
693 BBC 5 s9+45 Droitwich, 150kw
720 BBC 4  s9+10 N. Ireland, 10kw
729 BBC Essex s9+20 Manningtree, 0.2kw
738 BBC Hereford & Worcs s9+10 Worcester, 0.4kw
765 BBC Essex s9+25 Chelmsford, 0.5kw
774 BBC Leeds s9+5 Farnley (W. Leeds) 0.5kw
792 Smooth s9+33 Kempston (Bedford), 0.3kw
801 BBC Devon s6/7 Barnstaple, 2kw
810 BBC Scotland s8-9 100kw
828 Smooth s9+32 Luton, 0.2kw
837 BBC Asian s9+33 Leicester, 0.5kw
850 "CIT" Cranfield (NDB) s9
855 Sunshine s9 Ludlow (Shropshire), 0.2kw
873 BBC Norfolk s9+35 King’s Lynn, 0.3kw
882 BBC Wales s9+25 Washford, 100kw
909 BBC 5 s9+48 Brookman’s Park (nr. Hatfield, Herts) 150kw
936 Smooth s8-9 Naish Hill (nr Chippenham, Wilts), 0.2kw
945 Gold s9+17 Derby, 0.2 kw. Smooth underneath (s8-9), Bexhill, 0.7kw
963 Sunrise s9+18 E. London, 1kw
972 Sunrise s9+18 W. London, 1kw
990 Greatest Hits s9+6 Doncaster, 0.3kw
999 Gold s9+18 Nottingham, 0.3kw
1017 Absolute Classic Rock s8 Shrewsbury, 0.6kw
1026 BBC Cambridgeshire s9+38 Chesterton Fen (nr. Cambridge), 0.5kw
1035 Lyca Dilse s9+20 Southall (London), 1kw
1053 Talksport s9+35 Droitwich, 500kw
1071 Talksport s9 Newcastle, 2kw
1089 Talksport s9+35 Brookman’s Park, 400kw (nr Hatfield, Herts)
1107 Talksport (carrier only) s9+28 Boston, 1kw
1116 BBC Derby s9+15 Derby, 1kw
1134 Luton & Dunstable Hospital s8-9 Luton (North), 0.001kw
1152 Smooth s9+15 Norwich, 0.8kw
1161 Greatest Hits s9+10 Hull, 0.4kw
1170 Smooth s9+15 Ipswich, 0.3kw
1197 Absolute s9+15 Trowell, Nottingham. 0.5Kw
1215 Absolute s9+28 Brookman’s Park, 62.5kw
1233 Absolute s9+35 Kings Heath (Northampton), 0.5kw
1242 Absolute s9+33 Boston, 2kw
1251 Smooth s9+25 Bury St. Edmunds, 0.8kw
1260 Sabras s9+25 Leicester, 0.2kw, Audio fault on speech
1296 XL s9+12 Birmingham, 10kw
1305 Premier Christian s9+15 Chingford (Epsom echoing behind) 1kw
1332 Gold s9+48 Werrington (Peterborough), 0.6kw
1359 Greatest Hits s9+15 Coventry, 0.3kw, then I rotated the Wellbrook Loop 90 degrees and received Smooth (next column)
1359 Smooth s9+10 Chelmsford, 0.3kw
1386 Carillon s9 Coalville, 0.001kw
1413 BBC Gloucestershire s9+10 Bourton on the Water, Glos, 5kw
1413 Premier Christian s9+13 Heathrow or Dartford, 0.5kw
1431 Smooth s9+8 Southend, 0.35kw
1449 BBC Asian s9+41 Gunthorpe (Peterborough) 0.2 kw
1458 BBC Asian s9+18 Langley Mill NE Birmingham), 5kw
1458 Lycra s9+18 Brookman’s Park (nr Hatfield, Herts), 125kw
1476 Carillon s9+15 Coalville (nr Leicester), 0.25kw
1503 BBC Stoke s9 Stoke (South), 1kw
1521 Panj s9+15 Ryton-on-Dunsmore (Coventry), 0.1kw
1530 Pulse 2 s9+5 Huddersfield (West), 0.7kw
1548 Gold s9+18 Saffron Green (Herts, N. London), 98kw
1557 Gold s9+26 Kings Heath, Northampton, 0.8kw
1566 Premier Christian s9+8 Guildford, Surrey, 0.8kw, (BBC Radio Somerset from Taunton in the Background), 
1575 Seerah s9+8 Leicester, 0.003kw
1584 BBC Hereford & Worcs s9+10 Woofferton, 0.3kw
1584 Love Sport s9+6 Sewardstone (NE London), 0.02kw
1593 Bretagne 5 s6/7 NE of Loudéac, Bretagne, 5kw
1602 Desi s8/9 Southall (London), 0.1kw

Long Wave
153 Antena Satelor s8 Brasov, Romania, 200kw
162 Time signal s9+33, Allouis, France, 1100kw
198 BBC 4 s9+53, Droitwich, 500kw
234 RTL s9+28 Budweiler, Luxembourg, 1500kw
243 DR P4 s9+20 Kalundborg, 50kw
252 Algérienne 3 s9+15, Tipaza, Algeria, 750kw (1500kw max)
252 RTE 1 s9+30, Clarkstown, Ireland, 150kw (300kw max)


RTE 1 mast in Ireland, transmitting on 252 kHz

6 comments:

  1. A lot of effort you've put in there, Terry! A shame it is quantity over quality.

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  2. I am more interested in the propagation side of MW and seeing how far signals travel with very low power. I cannot really comment on the quality because I only listen to BBC Radio Norfolk out of all the stations I have listed!

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  3. Great list Terry. There's certainly plenty of UK stations still on the medium wave

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  4. Hi Terry. Well done a great list of stations.
    Out of interest Carrilon Radio on 1476 comes in here very well from late evening onwards.

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    1. Thanks Irish Paul. I was surprised at how well low power stations like Carillon and Luton Hospital Radio are received here by ground wave.

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