91.5

[chesney79]

Genesis will be back in the next few months I heard.

Heard this since last year now. Should of come back on months ago to stop this happening, don't think they respond quick enough when they get taken off

[nrglcb2016]

checked this freq tonight and there isnt a full signal on there but there is a strange noise in between the fuzz. could be something interfering on there

[Undercover Neckz]

It's a good frequency someone wants to use it properly, hopefully Genesis wont be back!

[shuffy]

It's a good frequency

I think you mean "dial" ?

[ir8 pir8]

i was getting this some places before but cant get it no more .

[nrglcb2016]

getting house music back on this freq again. maybe the mystery named station is bk on again

[Albert H]

It's a good frequency someone wants to use it properly, hopefully Genesis wont be back!

91.5MHz is 200kHz above Wrotham Radio 3. It's a stupid choice - get close to correct modulation levels, and you'll cause interference to the country's premier serious music station. If the kind of people who listen to Radio 3 (like me) hear some overmodulated Darnce crap splattering across our choice of listening, you can be sure that OFCOM - along with a Police Goon Squad - will be out to locate not just the main rig, but the studio, midpoint, every DJ, DJ's girlfriend, Mother and Granny, DJ's car, home, mobile phone and everything else...

You clowns need to realise that the only safe minimum spacing is 300kHz.

[famefm]

Albert your brilliant? Radio 3 is probably the best legal music station in the country no stupid jingles and along with radio 4 for speech? anyway back to the alternative radio that we talk about I didn't say it is better than these? as for the crap that is classic fm it's just the same stupid tunes over and over again just like the other global crap? and Albert do you think 90.8 although not ideal is better than 91.5?

[Albert H]

90.8 MHz is OK(ish) - it's got some Regional repeaters on it, so you're likely to suffer during lifts, but most of the time it should be OK.

[sproggy]

90.8 MHz is OK(ish) - it's got some Regional repeaters on it, so you're likely to suffer during lifts, but most of the time it should be OK.

It's 200 kHz below Radio 3 Crystal Palace repeater. Don't be STUPID, Albert.

[famefm]

Isn't it great your listing to 90.8? one of the first lightning radio jingles with the late bill Mitchell? somehow they have lasted donkeys years on 90.8?

[Effemm]

@ Bill Mitchell - Got x3 Chrome tdk's of this guys voice jingles, must dig em out , 1 of a kind he was, quite a few online set ups still use em Fame , Sunrise & Stomp do every hour !

[famefm]

Here's another bill Mitchell one from 1986. In the car in the house? where ever you are? Fame fm. Or another one for sunrise fm. If you tune and we arnt here? don't worry we'll be back

[nrglcb2016]

getting house music back on this freq again. maybe the mystery named station is bk on again

lasted long ....... not

[Albert H]

90.8 MHz is OK(ish) - it's got some Regional repeaters on it, so you're likely to suffer during lifts, but most of the time it should be OK.

It's 200 kHz below Radio 3 Crystal Palace repeater. Don't be STUPID, Albert.

Nobody listens to the 91MHz mess from the Palace. Any serious Radio 3 listener uses the 91.3MHz from Wrotham. Half the time the 91MHz thing is on low power and is on RBR from Swingate because the BBC don't employ engineers any more, so there isn't anybody with the technical chops to fix the PCM receiver at the Palace. The Palace repeaters were just put on for political reasons - the signals from Wrotham are always of better quality, and are frequently stronger in London, too.

If you want to have some fun, go up to the Palace, with a stereo rig on 92.2MHz. You'll only need a Watt. You should be able to take over the 91MHz rig for a while - until somebody notices and mutes the RBR!

[famefm]

So does that go for 888 93.0 98.5 and the 100.6 all from the palace? isn't it great I'm still listening to 90.8

[Albert H]

No. At the moment - as far as I'm aware - the PCM equipment still works for Radio 2, 4 and 1. The 100.6Mhz "Classic" filler is run by a different company, and I'm not aware of how it's fed.

The BBC "engineering" has gone to pieces since they "outsourced" it about 20 years ago. They used to employ the very best transmitter engineers in the country, and had three departments entirely devoted to making transmission equipment work properly. The installation and commissioning department (TCPD - Transmitter Capital Projects Department) were the most exacting team I've ever come across. Their procedure for procurement, factory testing, Installation, site testing and commissioning was the most onerous anywhere. This meant that when a transmitter was fired up, it would work properly, and there would be no interference, so that the Operations and Maintenance Team (TX Group) could take it over with confidence that it would continue to work properly.

In more recent times, the BBC have employed all sorts of cowboys, and have bought some real rubbish. They even bought stuff from Broadcast Warehouse - mostly re-badged Italian junk.

The original PCM distribution system was developed in the mid '70s, and was state-of-the-art for some years. It was a 16-bit system, using time-division multiplex to get four national stereo services distributed to all the transmitter sites. Of the 16 bits, 13 were used for the audio, and the other three were "control and channelling" bits. The receiving end - at the transmitter sites - was a unit per programme feed, which recovered left and right audio from the bitstream, and fed it to the local stereo coder and then into the transmitter. Each of these 19" rack modules could be programmed internally (by means of jumpers) to choose which channel it would recover.

The PCM (Pulse-coded Modulation) digital system provided the primary feed, but there were also (in some cases) lower quality BT Line feeds as back-ups, and in all cases there were "RBRs" - Re-Broadcast Receivers. The RBR would receive the next transmitter site in the chain (usually on a frequency quite far away from the local transmitter), and re-broadcast what it hears. The RBRs have provided hours of fun over the years for the enterprising radio pirate! The Crystal Palace RBRs listen to Swingate - not Wrotham - because the Wrotham frequencies are only 300 kHz away from the output frequencies at CP and the selectivity of the old RBRs wasn't great!

There was a plan - some years ago - to send a couple of people to Twycross to block the receive dish with aluminium foil, knocking Oxford into RBR mode (listening for Wrotham). A transmitter - in stereo - near to the Oxford site would be stronger than the "wanted" Wrotham signal, so capture effect would ensure that the low powered local signal would be "heard" by the RBR..... Oxford feeds much of the country on RBR, so you could "capture" everything except Wrotham! If this was done on a Bank Holiday, when nobody's working, it would take the BBC hours to do anything about it....

[shuffy]

In more recent times, the BBC have employed all sorts of cowboys, and have bought some real rubbish.

How dare you!

[Albert H]

Shuffy - you know exactly where I'm coming from! One BBC "aerial rigger" I met at a facilities site recently told me that until two weeks before, he'd been a scaffolder! His technical knowledge was exactly zero, but he was good at climbing.

[shuffy]

I thought that was you Albert, I forgot to ask if you needed any roofing work done Yes of course I've seen what's going on in BBC Engineering and similar including (and especially) BT and the various farcical transfers of responsibility of former IBA sites through NTL/Arqiva etc etc. It's just a symptom of widespread cost cutting since the early 90s I'm afraid. I don't think it's good, but it will certainly be interesting to see where it goes and how we end up being affected by it...