Any pirates in Greater Manchester area?

[Mr_Bandit]

I havent had a PM from you mate.

[Wk-end]

I don't want to put your name on an open Forum mate.. Out of respect! Check ya PM

[Guyofthenorth]

Great signal lads been unlistenable today don't know if you're transmitter cutting out every 10 minutes and going blank for 2 minutes and coming back on hope you lads sort it
Respect

[DJ_Cheese]

Just because I have an instrument doesnt mean i am ofcom. I am a radio engineer for community radio stations in the midlands. You need test equipment to get things right. Can't assume anything by just listening to something.

Over deviation is simply being 'too loud', causing your carrier to spread wider than 75KHz from your central broadcast frequency. I hardly think think this in itself is the biggest compliance issue for a pirate station?

Sounds like you carry one of those Pira.cz monitors around with you in order to grass on your neighboring CR stations who might be slightly too loud.. Ofcom complaints against licensed community stations ALWAYS come from a competitor

[DJ_Cheese]

We came strong the first time now were stronger again than the first time. We couldn't come back until all things fell into place. Thanks for the patience and we hope you like the results

Caught WK-END for the first time yesterday in the car on the M62. Program audio sounded like it used HC-AAC somewhere in the chain (that kind of metallic sound from that codec) - maybe a web based source, or on the STL. Processing was OK, but could sound better.

I'm interested in what sort of power is being used? I don't know the TX site, but assuming a high rise rooftop in Manchester, I'm guessing around 300w on an omni?

[Mr_Bandit]

They probably using a dipole like they are in London. Most pirates use a dipole.

[shuffy]

I'm interested in what sort of power is being used? I don't know the TX site, but assuming a high rise rooftop in Manchester, I'm guessing around 300w on an omni?

He's not going to tell you that on here. To guess those kind of specifics, you'd need the field strength, type of antenna system plus knowledge of how VHF propagates around the local terrain - which I'd say basically boils down to knowing where the site is.

[Mr_Bandit]

87.9FM is on a dead carrier.

[Wk-end]

Thought you'd be happy that its not "Over deviation" lol
Listen guys...
You all know how hard it is to pull something like this off..
So please let us do our testing. x

[Mr_Bandit]

I was only trying to help and tell you. I won't bother mentioning it's over modulating again. Some people are so ungrateful.

I won't mention anything again on these forums when people are ungrateful. I got a Dj event to do who people appreciate my music and vybes.

[SnowmanMCR]

Great signal lads been unlistenable today don't know if you're transmitter cutting out every 10 minutes and going blank for 2 minutes and coming back on hope you lads sort it
Respect

Sorry everyone I was meaning to post yesterday but was side tracked. A new method is being tested, so yes we are aware of a few issues in the north west. Please bear with us this is being looked at as we speak. Teething problems.

[DJ_Cheese]

I'm interested in what sort of power is being used? I don't know the TX site, but assuming a high rise rooftop in Manchester, I'm guessing around 300w on an omni?

He's not going to tell you that on here. To guess those kind of specifics, you'd need the field strength, type of antenna system plus knowledge of how VHF propagates around the local terrain - which I'd say basically boils down to knowing where the site is.

Not at all - assuming a basic omni dipole system, I know how Band II propagates. It's not really giving anything away to find out what power is being put into the antenna system. Field stregnth has nothing to do with it.

I know what I feed into my (Ofcom licensed) system, and can calculate what ERP comes out, so just curious.

And yes, if I could be arsed, I would get my analyser and a yagi and go out hunting.

[Wk-end]

Manny 160 watts,
Northampton 160 watts,
London 330 watts.
Don't really want to say what antennas are being use.

[Blackjake]

Manny 160 watts,
Northampton 160 watts,
London 330 watts.
Don't really want to say what antennas are being use.

Welcome back, Wk-End from all at Radio Overdrive 101.4. It's great when you've got an excellent take off from your location spreading the signal across the North West. Here at Overdrive, we do indeed run the same power as you guys in the North, but our site is low to ground but we've got the listeners as our history states, we started as a low power community Radio station and was on 7 days a week during covid lock down with free advertising at the time lol.
Nice to hear someone making a good effort to pudg beyond the boundaries.
Black Jake

[whitenoise]

Every message is an advertisement opportunity for you,BlackJake lol

[Wk-end]

Manny 160 watts,
Northampton 160 watts,
London 330 watts.
Don't really want to say what antennas are being use.

Welcome back, Wk-End from all at Radio Overdrive 101.4. It's great when you've got an excellent take off from your location spreading the signal across the North West. Here at Overdrive, we do indeed run the same power as you guys in the North, but our site is low to ground but we've got the listeners as our history states, we started as a low power community Radio station and was on 7 days a week during covid lock down with free advertising at the time lol.
Nice to hear someone making a good effort to pudg beyond the boundaries.
Black Jake

You want help sorting that out!?

[Mr_Bandit]

Listened to 87.9FM tonight around lutterworth playing oldskool tunes. Sounded good. Glad the audio is back on. Probably Laptop crashed. Use a raspberry pi and use linux not crappy windows lol. I prefer stereo tools then breakaway one.

Theres a spare frequency in Leicester to use and location if you interested wk-end.

Theres nothing in Leicester no pirate nothing. Wouldnt use 87.5FM too many car transmitters and too near to rsls on 87.7FM aswell.

[jvok]

Had wk-end on 100.8 well into north wales sunday, good strong signal with rds even most of the way. If its really 160 watts then it must be a very good site. Coverage seems about the same if not better than Xfm which is running 300w from a city centre block

Heard the metallic sounding audio like cheese said for a while but then it was gone when I tuned in later on. Think its probably the way some mixes have been recorded rather than a problem with the link

Good to have a 24/7 pirate back on in the nw. Seems like things are getting hotter on the airwaves again over the last 2 years after being dead for ages before

[DJ_Cheese]

Manny 160 watts,
Northampton 160 watts,
London 330 watts.
Don't really want to say what antennas are being use.

Thanks for the info, lower than I imagined. You have done a good job on the engineering front/ site location.

[Mr_Bandit]

If you have a high site then you don't need much power to get the signal out. If you use a double stack dipole you'll have 3db gain double the power without having to change the transmitter. make sure the dimensions are correct else you'll have a high swr.