Wednesday, May 25, 2005

DAB radio back

Now have DAB reception capability. Took it back to the shop, and they replaced it with a new one, no questions asked. A+++ rating to Currys at Sheffield Meadowhall for customer service!

No additions to radio receivable on the FM band, but at least I now have DAB back again.

Monday, May 23, 2005

More bits n pieces

Last night, Radio London audible with a pretty reasonable signal after dark, a bit of slow fading but still miles better than daytime reception round here. In a departure from their daytime mostly music format, they broadcast a psychic phone-in.

This afternoon, near Leeds, "unknown licence status" station Peoples FM 104.5 was heard again - for the first time in a while. Signal was weaker than when I last heard them, and no RDS this time. Were they raided, and have just returned? Who knows?

Finally, I notice that Live365 Internet Radio allows people to set up their own internet radio station, for less than US$10 a month and with all copyright fees & needletime paid. You don't know how tempted I am ... watch this space!

Support the BBC Strikers

Good luck to the BBC workers who are going on strike tomorrow, against the threatened jobs massacre in the BBC.

I used to work for BBC Transmission (now privatised) from 1990 to 1995, when I myself fell victim to a jobs cull. Then it was in the twilight years of the Conservative government, under John Major; and I was far from the only BBC worker to be Buggered By Conservatives.

Under the Tories, jobs massacres were commonplace, so in 1997 I was glad to see the back of the Tories. In came New Labour, and I honestly thought things may become at least slightly better. However, in recent years, we have once again seen a threatened jobs massacre - in the Civil Service, and now in the BBC again. This time, you could call it a Blairite Broadcasting Cull ...

However, when it comes to choosing between which of the 2 major parties is preferable to have in government, I'm no longer willing to take sides. Buboes on Both their Cottages, in fact :-P

No doubt, I'll be hearing more about the strike and its effects over the next day or so. For a non-Establishment view of the dispute, however, I'll wait to read about it in this Wednesday's issue of Socialist Worker.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

DAB radio broken

I'm slightly annoyed that my DAB radio, which I only bought in September last year, has developed a fault. After only a few minutes, it turns off and won't turn on again. Same fault occurs with Power Supply (which came with unit) or with batteries, which strongly suggests the radio is "Donald Ducked".

< rant >

I guess it's hardly surprising the quality of electronic goods has gone down the bog, over the past few years. If electronics manufacturers insist on closing factories in the UK and Europe, putting experienced technicians out of work, so they can make everything on the cheap in Third World countries by employing 9 year old kids in sweatshops, the quality of the products is bound to suffer innit! The bosses of the electronics multinationals increase their fat cat profits, but the combination of 21st century technology and 19th century working practices, can only end in tears!

< /rant >

On the brighter side, I still have FM and MW reception. And if the mainstream radio stations do my head in with too much rabbit, there's always web radio to listen to.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Bits n pieces

Rotherham's Rother FM heard this evening at the Meadowhall shopping centre car park, with a reasonable signal. RDS is:
ROTHERFM

Spent most of the morning and early evening listening to Radio London / Big L, really enjoyable listening - a real "breath of fresh air", force 12 on the Beaufort scale in fact! As well as the 60's jingles (sound like the original offshore Big L jingles), some more recent sounding jingles heard. A few are "80s retro", at least one sounding like a jingle used on the 80s Dublin super p****e Radio Nova.
Sadly, Big L went off-air at 7pm, followed by a foreign language speech based station being heard on the frequency. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind foreign language stations - I quite like the Dutch stations Arrow Classic Rock and Radio 10 Gold. But speech based radio in any language, including English, is generally a turn off for me. So I started tuning around, to see what I could hear.

At this point, I was in a car park in Chesterfield town centre. On 87.5, an unidentified station was heard weakly, seemed to be playing non-stop music. Commercial dance and R&B (similar to that heard on Galaxy 105) was heard, stayed listening until 7:20 pm - when I went to my weekly Socialist Workers Party meeting.

Following the meeting, at 9pm, the station was heard again. Still no announcements. While driving, the signal disappeared soon after I left Chesterfield (by the East) and - very interestingly - did not resurface as I reached higher ground near Clowne. Strange!

In my not-so-humble opinion, 87.5 is a rather dangerous frequency to use, right at the bottom of the broadcast band and encroaching dangerously on a band used by non-broadcast users. Occasionally in the past, I have heard stations on 108.0 - stupidly near the Aircraft band, asking not only for a raid, but also for squarks from the Establishment media about "interference to aircraft communications" (their favourite type of interference to use as a bogey-man against free radio).

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From London to Bollywood

The new Radio London - based on the 60s offshore radio station of that name - began transmission today, on 1395 kHz MW. Broadcasting from Holland, signal here in Clowne is not that great, but the programmes make it still well worth listening to. A mixture of music from the 1960s to the recent past, and without the annoying self indulgent waffle which plagues the local independent stations. Some of the jingles used were as aired on the 60's offshore Radio London.

Up to Leeds (where I work), an Asian station - from Leeds according to their website - called Bollywood FM is audible on 87.7. Named after the Indian equivalent of Hollywood, Bollywood FM was heard playing largely Asian Bhangra music. (Bhangra is a fusion of Indian music and western dance music. Interestingly, I understand "bhangra" actually means "ghastly" in Hindi. Personally, I quite liked the music I heard, though.)

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Sunday, May 15, 2005

High Oredish, Matlock, log

Tonight I visited High Oredish - 3 miles east of Matlock in Derbyshire, on a high hill. Good view to the East, can see Bolsover Castle and beyond.

Radio reception is equally awesome - large list of stations audible, only significant ones listed here:

87.7 Rother FM is an RSL from Rotherham. Format and (especially) jingles package strongly suggest it is run by the Lincs FM group.

87.9 Vixen FM, an RSL from East Yorkshire. Interestingly, signal was much stronger than that of Rother FM. RDS was VIXEN_87

97.2 Beacon FM from Wolverhampton. Good catch considering the distance, and the hills to the west and south

107.9 Freeze FM, a "station of unconfirmed licence status", from Nottingham according to their website. I think I can safely say that Freeze FM, whether licenced or unlicenced, is a really good station which played good music and had clean audio. RDS was scrolling, as follows:
_FREEZE__
TXT_ONLY
07899
015 466

This was the contact mobile number, for text messages. Soon after I texted a reception report, the DJ kindly gave a "shout" to the "Matlock crew" and "Anthony P" - cheers!

The stations listed above are only the "tip of the iceberg", a full log (except the national networks) can be found here

The fun didn't end when I left Highoredish. Nearby, slightly lower down but on a side of the hill with better reception to the South and West, the following additional stations were heards:
  • Fiza FM, the Leicester based Asian women's station, on 97.1. RDS = FIZA___
  • Galaxy 102.2 from the West Midlands replaced Lincs FM on the frequency. Sister station to Galaxy 105 in Yorkshire, part of a large dance music network which is rapidly becoming INR4 ;-)
  • Kerrang Radio, the heavy rock and metal station, on 105.2. Thought to be from the West Midlands. RDS = KERRANG_

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Friday, May 06, 2005

Radio 102.4

This evening, I visited Shirebrook to help out with Unite Against Fascism leafleting. While waiting in the train station car park, approx 17:30, I heard Radio 102.4 on 102.4

Signal was reasonable, stereo but no RDS. Pop music format.

Sounded like an RSL, mentioned Sutton in Ashfield and Kirby in Ashfield.

Phone number read out was 01623 721 8??

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