Wireless Waffle - A whole spectrum of radio related rubbish

Long Live Medium Wavesignal strength
Wednesday 30 November, 2016, 20:16 - Broadcasting, Pirate/Clandestine
Posted by Administrator
paradise fm mont rigiNo sooner had Wireless Waffle discovered the existence of one medium wave pirate, another one pops up. Paradise FM was being received loud and relatively clear last night on 1440 kHz (now clear of the sadly defunkt 'Great 208') around 21:00 GMT. The web-site gives phone contact numbers in Belgium but it is written in German, and gives details for a town called Mont Rigi which is in the German speaking part of Belgium (you knew German was an official language of Belgium right?)

Their web-site also declares that the station is on FM and AM Stereo but no frequency for either is given and as the receiver we were using does not decode AM stereo, this possibility could not be confirmed. Also, there is no FM frequency for any station called 'Paradise' listed in that area of Belgium but if it is a pirate, that is to be expected! Nonetheless, perhaps the Belgian/German heritage is valid.

Either way, it seems that the medium wave band is not as dead and boring as we hadn't given it credit for. Long live medium wave!
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Top 10 European Medium Wave Countriessignal strength
Tuesday 29 November, 2016, 18:27 - Broadcasting, Licensed
Posted by Administrator
laser 558 communicatorAs a child, the medium wave band was a mysterious place replete with strong international broadcasters such as Radio Sweden International, Radio Moscow and the BBC, and who could forget the thrill of tuning into the medium wave pirates of the past, whether it was Radio Caroline in the 1960s, the land based pirates such as Radio Jackie in the 1970s, or Laser 558 in the 1980s. Being something of a radio back-water these days, the medium wave band is not something that Wireless Waffle has paid much attention to. So on a recent night-time road-trip where there was little else to do, the journey was shortened by the unforgiving task of working the way along the medium wave dial to see what was there these days.

flevo mw transmitterIt is evident that the UK still has a prestigious number of medium wave stations, though many are geared towards older listeners (whose hearing is no doubt so frequency constrained that the limited bandwidth of AM sounds just as clear as FM) and whose service area is relatively limited due to the lower powers used (most UK local AM stations have transmitter powers around 500 Watts). At night, however, is when the band comes alive and stations from all over Europe (and even further afield) become audible. Tuning around at night reveals one key fact: Spain appears to be the king of the medium wave band. On almost any clear frequency, it is the Spanish radio stations that seem to dominate. Germany has now ceased medium wave broadcasting, and there are a diminishing number of stations in France and the Netherlands (even stalwart Radio 538 on 891 kHz recently closed down just a couple of weeks ago on 26 October).

Of course, when driving it's difficult to simultaneously look up what stations are on a particular frequency (unless you have a willing passenger) so any interesting stations and frequencies have to be committed to memory for later research. One such station and frequency that sprang up was I Am Radio on 1350 kHz. At the time of listening, it was playing almost non-stop obscure disco tracks with occasional announcements and news (from NPR) in English and the odd announcement in Italian. It is the Italian language announcements that give a clue as to the station's provenance, and a bit of web-searching later revealed that the station is 'semi-pirate'. Exactly what this means is not clear but it seems to suggest that it is not a totally legitimate organisation.

i am radio 1350 amThe signal on 1350 kHz is surprisingly strong, given the stated night-time transmitter power of just 1 kW (though there are rumours of an increase to 50 kW being due). And as the frequency is almost completely clear of interference from any high power transmitters in Europe (if you exclude the 850 kW mammoth or TWR Asia in Armenia), reception is surprisingly good. If obscure disco and news from the USA is your thing, why not give it a try. They claim a contact address of 'info@iamradio.am' though the associated web-address only yields a parking page.

But coming back to the question of which European country rules the medium wave band, Wireless Waffle has conducted an analysis of the stations currently on air to find out which country uses the most frequencies and which country emits the most power into the ether, based on data from MW List.

The answers are maybe not that surprising. The top 10 European medium wave countries in terms of the numbers of frequencies used (out of the 120 possible channels from 531 to 1602 kHz inclusive) are as follows:

PositionCountryFrequencies Used
1Spain69
2United Kingdom68
3Romania26
4Italy21
5The Netherlands10
6Greece9
7=Portugal8
7=Czech Republic8
9Poland7
10=Cyprus6
10=Hungary6

So Spain really are medium wave royalty, if the number of frequencies in use is the measure. But what about if the total amount of power radiated into the ether is taken into account. The results look as follows:

PositionCountryPower Emitted (kW)
1Spain5190
2United Kingdom4130
3Romania3905
4Hungary2510
5Cyprus1910
6Czech Republic1150
7France1010
8Macedonia400
9Italy390
10Belgium310

spain retains crownSpain retains its crown as the top medium wave transmitting country in Europe with over 5 MegaWatts of radiated power, but some surprising new countries appear lower down the top 10. Hungary jumps from joint 10th to 4th. France has only 3 medium wave frequencies in use but as one of these is the behemoth 1000 kW transmitter of TWR Europe on 1467 kHz this dwarfs many of the other countries who have a greater number of transmitters but of much lower power. Belgium has only 2 active medium wave frequencies but at 300 kW, RTBF International on 621 kHz tips the scales in their favour to bring them in at (this week's) number 10.

dab technologyWhat does this tell us? Nothing in particular, and definitely nothing of any use or value, it's just a somewhat pointless academic exercise. But it does suggest that if you are a manufacturer of AM transmitters, you should undoubtedly aim to site your offices in London, Madrid and Bucharest. Or that if you are learning Spanish, you might do well to buy a medium wave radio and tune around the band at night!
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FM Bandscan, Lomé, Togosignal strength
Thursday 30 June, 2016, 12:43 - Broadcasting, Licensed
Posted by Administrator
Information on broadcast radio stations that are actually on-air in various cities around the world is sometimes easy to get hold of, and sometimes very difficult. For many African countries, the situation is quite dynamic as stations come and go, and also many stations have no web presence (whether web-site or streaming) making verifying things very complex.

As occasional readers may be aware, the Wireless Waffle team travel to some pretty out-of-the-way places in pursuit of digging out the most important factlets regarding all matters related to radio spectrum. And with that in mind, we bring you a bandscan of the FM band in Lomé, the capital city of Togo in West Africa.

FrequencyStationNotes
89.9City FMStereo89 9 city fm lome
91 9 sport fm lome
92 3 zephyr fm lome
93 1 taxi fm lome
93 5 kanal fm lome
95 5 nana fm lome
96 3 victoire fm lome
97 9 radio maria lome
99 5 radio lome lome
105 5 radio ephphata lome
91.5RFI 1 AfriqueStereo. RDS: Radio France Internat
91.9Sport FMStereo
92.3ZephyrStereo
93.1Taxi FMStereo
93.5Kanal FMStereo
94.3Radio ZionStereo
95.5Nana FMStereo. RDS: Test 123
96.1Victory FMAflao, Ghana
96.3Victoire FMStereo
97.1Radio Metropolys Lome
97.5BBC World ServiceStereo
97.9Radio Maria Togo
98.7Bonne Nouvelle
99.5Radio LomeStereo
100.7Radio De L'EvangileStereo
101.1Radio Horizon
101.5Radio KaraStereo
102.7KNTB
103.1Radio Carre Jaune
103.9Frequence 1
105.1Radio Ephphata La Voix Du PresbyterienRDS: RADIO | EPHPHATA | LA VOIX | DU | PRESBYTE | RIEN
105.5SinaiStereo. RDS: FM 105.5
106.3Providence
Correct as of 30 June, 2016
For a country where the average annual income is just US$650, there sure are a lot of radio stations on the air!
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Putting pirates to good usesignal strength
Thursday 24 March, 2016, 12:50 - Broadcasting, Pirate/Clandestine, Spectrum Management
Posted by Administrator
This week, Wireless Waffle took a rare trip to the far reaches of the UK. Or Birmingham to be precise. To be even more precise, the motorways surrounding the UK's second city, whilst en route to elsewhere. The journey gave the opportunity to do a bit of tuning around the FM band to see what's happening in the West Midlands these days. Other than the various commercial stations (including local regional stations Touch FM and Free Radio), and a handful of community stations (including some in neighbouring Coventry), the thing that was most different to the airwaves in the South East was the absence of much in the way of pirate radio.

hot 92 birminghamOnly two pirate stations were heard during the journey:A bit of desk-research has yielded the fact that there arpparently three other stations that are often on the airwaves in the area, including:None of these were heard though.

It's probably about time that Wireless Waffle stopped banging on about pirate radion stations, after all it's now just a year shy of the 50th anniversary of the Marine etc Offences Act whose purpose was primarily to bring down the original pirate stations of the day. The fact, however, that such stations continue to abound suggests that the mainstream UK radio market is failing certain sections of society, which appear to be certain ethnic minorities (Caribbean, African and Turkish in particular) and those who like gruff-beat, wacka-jam and gutter-beat music (or genres with similiarly bizarre titles). It's also clear that Ofcom's efforts to take the stations off-air is not having the desired effect (meaning 'to force pirates off-air').

Information on enforcement activity released by Ofcom under the freedom of information act reveals, for example, that between 2007 and 2012, Kriss FM had its transmitters taken off-air by Ofcom 17 times and its studios raided 6 times. Hot92 had its transmitter raided 42 times and its studio raided 3 times. Sting had an astounding 60 transmitter raids (and 3 studio raids) over the same period.

ofcom raid rooftopWe recently discussed the idea that pirate radio could move to small-scale DAB radio services, or conversely that the closure of regular FM services might open up the FM band as a playground for even more pirates. But could there be yet another option... If Ofcom were to cease all enforcement activity on pirate radio (except in casese where it was causing interference to safety-of-life services) and let the illegal broadcasters run riot, the amount of intereference they would cause to legitimate stations would increase and this might be the incentive needed for those listeners to finally go out and buy a digital radio! So instead of continued enforcement, why not leave the pirates alone and see if that has the desired effect (in this case meaning 'forcing a move to digital radio').
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