[North_Sea FM]

This station now transmitts in DRM during the day, but use old fashioned AM in the evenings.

I was listening in the car last night on my way home from work and at around 6:30PM our time, they switch antennas and go off air for 2 seconds. When they came back, the signal strength was amazing as though it was my local station, then I discovered they pump out 1,200KW, making it one of the most powerful transmitters in Europe.

Not sure if the signal is still beamed towards the UK, like the old days of Radio Luxembourg?

More info can be found here: http://www.bce.lu/transmission/mw/

[g4loe]

This is one of my favourite listens on DRM which it switches to at mid-night. The music is quite good, a fair bit of 70s and 80s songs that you haven't heard for ages and not on many UK playlists. Being on DRM the quality is also v.good, only a very occasional short drop-out (most evenings 100%) but otherwise fine. Worth getting into DRM for.

Gary

[North_Sea FM]

Originally Posted by g4loe

This is one of my favourite listens on DRM which it switches to at mid-night. The music is quite good, a fair bit of 70s and 80s songs that you haven't heard for ages and not on many UK playlists. Being on DRM the quality is also v.good, only a very occasional short drop-out (most evenings 100%) but otherwise fine. Worth getting into DRM for.

Gary

I don't own a DRM radio yet, but it's on my Christmas list for sure! I also like the music, I listen to them on 12.344 Ghz on the Astra 1H satellite with no break-up.

Is the DRM signal stronger than the AM signal, are you able to listen during the day, or only on skywave after dusk?

When 1440 is transmitting in DRM, on a normal MW radio it sounds like a constant FM hiss!

[g4loe]

I cannot hear it as strong during the day so it will not decode. Seems about the same strength on DRM at night as the AM signal at night.

Also looking forward to getting my hands on a DRM rx, at present I'm using an old ATS803 (Currys old 90's radio) with a cheap mixer which is fed into the soundcard of my pc. A bit untidy but at least it allows you to try it out before the reasonably priced DRMs become available.

By the way, as you are using the I.F output straight into your pc you can achieve some fantastic filtering on AM and SSB signals as well.

Gary

Originally Posted by g4loe

By the way, as you are using the I.F output straight into your pc you can achieve some fantastic filtering on AM and SSB signals as well.

Gary

Agreed. I love the AM mode in DReaM.

[redcar1]

As I remember it, Radio Luxembourg used to play a jingle just before the English broadcast started at 7pm which mentioned 1.3 million watts of music power or something, obviously actually referring to the transmitter power. The signal certainly could be pretty strong at times, although in summer it could be quite difficult to receive for the first hour or so. I have never been able to receive RTL during the daytime (maybe this is possible in S England?), so the daytime DRM broadcasts wouldn't be of any use up here.

In any case I'm not interested in DRM if a computer is needed to hear it. When stand-alone receivers become available I might be interested.

[drmer]

I was always told 1440 was better up North than in the South which seems to be the case, when I lived on Merseyside I got good reception but when I moved to kent during the Summer months RTL didn't come in until 8-30 ish whilst in the North it came in at 8 ish, also during the winter months 1440 came in almost all day in the North but here it still dissapears around 11am untill about 2pm, I'm just about able to decode DRM around 4-45 so get the last 15 minutes but this will get better when the clocks go back next week.

Originally Posted by redcar1

As I remember it, Radio Luxembourg used to play a jingle just before the English broadcast started at 7pm which mentioned 1.3 million watts of music power or something, obviously actually referring to the transmitter power. The signal certainly could be pretty strong at times, although in summer it could be quite difficult to receive for the first hour or so. I have never been able to receive RTL during the daytime (maybe this is possible in S England?), so the daytime DRM broadcasts wouldn't be of any use up here.

In any case I'm not interested in DRM if a computer is needed to hear it. When stand-alone receivers become available I might be interested.

[bwiggsy]

Redcar 1

Do you mean this station of the 80s
I think the late 70s startup had almost the same text voiced by (I think)Tony Prince?? on a bed of disco music (poss Bonny M?)

[redcar1]

Originally Posted by bwiggsy

Redcar 1

Do you mean this station of the 80s
I think the late 70s startup had almost the same text voiced by (I think)Tony Prince?? on a bed of disco music (poss Bonny M?)

Good to hear that again, although I think the one I remember was voiced by a different person (but same background music), possibly with an American accent, and they definitely said one-point-three million watts rather than 1 million three hundred thousand as in that one. So it looks like there was another version of it at some time (I'm most likely thinking of ca. 1984-5).

Anyway it always puzzled me as to why the station itself said 1300kW and all the books said 1200kW!

Originally Posted by drmer

I was always told 1440 was better up North than in the South

This is interesting as I remember getting marvellous reception of Luxy on a little pocket radio in 1987 on an A-level Biology field trip to the Isle Of Arran! This set me off thinking about skip distances and whether as you suggest perhaps being a greater distance away helps rather than hinders reception of Luxy. On the other hand it might just have been a good spell of reception!

[ney]

In the summer months I used to get poor signal at times from 1440 between 7pm and about 8pm and never got any sort of signal at all in the summer before 6pm. Im not going to get DRM just yet will wait a year or two. Will just take do with DAB the now and FM/MW. Altough I dont play about with MW as much as I used to since getting DAB nearly three years ago.

Darren

[drmer]

Originally Posted by redcar1

Good to hear that again, although I think the one I remember was voiced by a different person (but same background music), possibly with an American accent, and they definitely said one-point-three million watts rather than 1 million three hundred thousand as in that one. So it looks like there was another version of it at some time (I'm most likely thinking of ca. 1984-5).

That voice was the great Bob Stewart

Anyway it always puzzled me as to why the station itself said 1300kW and all the books said 1200kW!



This is interesting as I remember getting marvellous reception of Luxy on a little pocket radio in 1987 on an A-level Biology field trip to the Isle Of Arran! This set me off thinking about skip distances and whether as you suggest perhaps being a greater distance away helps rather than hinders reception of Luxy. On the other hand it might just have been a good spell of reception!

I can't remember who told me now I think it was Bob Stewart, the nearer to the transmitter you are the harder to tune in, they often said Scotland was best?

[Texan]

The Luxy jingle featured on www.offringa.nl was circa 1982/83, voiced by Rob Jones. The Bob Stewart jingle was first heard on Luxy in November '84 after Rob left.

Originally Posted by drmer

I can't remember who told me now I think it was Bob Stewart, the nearer to the transmitter you are the harder to tune in, they often said Scotland was best?

There is some truth in this. It is virtually impossible to get a good DRM signal in Manchester from the Flevo transmitter in the Netherlands. Many DRMers in Europe report poor reception when they are only a few hundred kms from the tx site. This is why RTL are doing low power tx tests on 26MHz for those who are too close to Junglinster

[North_Sea FM]

It's interesting that the nearer to the TX site you are, the worse the signal of 1440Khz, about 15 yrs ago now, I was on holiday and we passed by Luxembourg on the coach, so I was tuning around MW on my personal stereo at 8pm and Radio Luxembourg was not to be found!

My theory is that the so called 'Luxembourg Effect' which was the constant fading and distortion of audio on 1440 at night in the UK, was caused by the ground wave signal, mixing with the sky wave signal. 1440 can be heard on ground wave during the day from the S.E. of England, all the way down to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (350 miles) whilst at night, the sky wave signal zaps out all over Northern Europe. So where the ground wave is weaker, the night-time reception should experience less fading.

Can any technical bods confirm this, or is my theory a load of cobblers?

[bobbles69]

Originally Posted by drmer

I can't remember who told me now I think it was Bob Stewart, the nearer to the transmitter you are the harder to tune in, they often said Scotland was best?

Is Bob Stewart still with us? Last I heard he was very ill.

[drmer]

Originally Posted by bobbles69

Is Bob Stewart still with us? Last I heard he was very ill.

He certainly is still with us, still living in Texas.

[ney]

Im not just going to rush into getting a DRM radio the now. I will wait untill more DRM radio sets come in the shops. I will make do with DAB radio and my FM/MW the now. Like I said in an earlier post.

Darren

[woodysdad]

Originally Posted by North_Sea FM

It's interesting that the nearer to the TX site you are, the worse the signal of 1440Khz, about 15 yrs ago now, I was on holiday and we passed by Luxembourg on the coach, so I was tuning around MW on my personal stereo at 8pm and Radio Luxembourg was not to be found!

My theory is that the so called 'Luxembourg Effect' which was the constant fading and distortion of audio on 1440 at night in the UK, was caused by the ground wave signal, mixing with the sky wave signal. 1440 can be heard on ground wave during the day from the S.E. of England, all the way down to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (350 miles) whilst at night, the sky wave signal zaps out all over Northern Europe. So where the ground wave is weaker, the night-time reception should experience less fading.

Can any technical bods confirm this, or is my theory a load of cobblers?

I seem to recall, back in the early 60s that they mover the TX antenna 208 metres to improve reception in the SE of England!

[Niknod]

Originally Posted by redcar1

Good to hear that again, although I think the one I remember was voiced by a different person (but same background music), possibly with an American accent, and they definitely said one-point-three million watts rather than 1 million three hundred thousand as in that one. So it looks like there was another version of it at some time (I'm most likely thinking of ca. 1984-5).

"broadcasting on two hunderd and eight meters medium wave, thats fourteen forty kilohertz, with the power of one point three million watts... this is the English service of Radio Luxembourg." always used to end with the american bloke saying "Our programmes commence in just a moment, so please STAND BY!!!!!"

they updated the same voiceover and editied it a bit when the "Station of the 80's" became "Luxembourg leads the way" and the voice over ended with the words "Because radio Luxembour rocks Great Britain, (Great Britian, Great Britiain (to fade)) Ok anorak moment over!!!!!

[drmer]

Originally Posted by Niknod

"broadcasting on two hunderd and eight meters medium wave, thats fourteen forty kilohertz, with the power of one point three million watts... this is the English service of Radio Luxembourg." always used to end with the american bloke saying "Our programmes commence in just a moment, so please STAND BY!!!!!"

they updated the same voiceover and editied it a bit when the "Station of the 80's" became "Luxembourg leads the way" and the voice over ended with the words "Because radio Luxembour rocks Great Britain, (Great Britian, Great Britiain (to fade)) Ok anorak moment over!!!!!

Bob Stewart was not American he came from Liverpool.