Long silences at radio stations (Sheffield Live blank carrier for days)

[radionortheast]

Sheffield live 93.2 has been a blank carrier for days, only came back today, I can’t pick it up here last week Radio Sangam relay 94.7 was also silent, Phoenix fm 96.7 often have silences in the past there was one that went on for 2 days, it used to be easy to look on social media its gotten hard now as you have an account, you don't know whats going on.
It does seem strange to me, it is hard to get a licence, costs money too, to have it transmitting silence. Does seem strange when theres people out there who would want to set up there own stations, the lpfm trial was only offered to organisations.

[teckniqs]

I was told you got a fine for putting out silence and silence detectors were a legal requirement of your licence!

....There's a station around here from Brighton on 101.4 called 1BTN who have continously had long periods of silence ever since they first started over 9 years ago a very regular thing, sometimes dead-silent for one or two weeks and constantly happens.

[Persona Non Grata]

It does seem strange to me, it is hard to get a licence, costs money too, to have it transmitting silence.

In the case of some stations it represents the best programming they've ever done.

I get your point though station has been off the air (or putting out blank carriers/noise) for days at a time and barely anyone seems to notice/care it hardly represents the best use of a licence/frequency/electricity.

[radionortheast]

I read that too about fine if they didn’t transmit!, it does sound crazy, when theres people who would have theirs going 24/7 if they could. Also read some were they had to have all programing recorded, if they didn’t supply it when the regulator asked they’d get fine, suppose maybe they wanting to know there was nothing going on, I can see case for that, imagine having to record everything.

[marqueemoon]

...imagine having to record everything.

Back in the 90s when I was involved with an RSL station in Sheffield (Forge FM) we did have to record everything! We had no money, so we used a LP VHS recorder, connected to a broken camcorder aimed at a clock providing a video signal. Woe betide us if someone forgot to change the tape either, as there was a local nutter (who went on to be a local councillor and then jailbird subsequently) who hated us and monitored our output for as many hours as he could stay awake waiting for transgressions of our licence.

[radionortheast]

I suppose having a clock can be quite useful, i’ve used them when recording short video clips, I do think there was rsl in sheffield called groove, don’t remember any of the others, ymca barnsley used to come on alot.

[marqueemoon]

The VCR wouldn't record without some sort of video signal anyway, but it was really useful when finding something that our resident village idiot had complained about on an 8hr video cassette!

Pretty sure Groove was a pirate... SCR was another long-running one; there were a good few around at the time. We ran RSLs in our own name from 1993-1998, and also as Festival FM for the Sheffield Children's Festival from '95-'98... can't remember any other groups running RSLs in the city during that time.

[radionortheast]

Did you ever keep them would be interesting listening back now. Energy 106 would record its programing onto 3 hour tapes, you would get 3 hours sometimes less before it repeated again, not everyone likes it, it builds a excitement you know what song is coming on.
I think they were used because years before stations had their links jammed, I think it was Nova happened, read about. Other pirates in places like sheffield they would use normal audio cassettes, you would get 1 and half hours before it would repeat during the day, (I don’t think it happend that much with stations in Leeds) earlier precusor to what happened on energy 106. I suspect no one heard it in Sheffield, I heard it here with fading, sometimes I would hear a purring sound in the back round when the vhs was waiting to come back on, I thought was with a powerful transmitter been used, think it was the vhs tape, long silence before it would come back into life. On the sheffield stations live programing would appear late afternoon early evening, don’t know if they ever though of using a vhs, sounds like they needed a video signal would be easier to make a normal audio cassette. Audio is meant to be better through a video cassette, you get buzzing now again, adds character.

There was an rsl that played some dance, not sure if i’ve got the name of it right, I do remember scr moving for an rsl to odd frequency, it was 106.2, it seems to say here that groove was a pirate than an rsl, doesn't seem like it was around for long though https://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/topic/ ... s/page/11/

[marqueemoon]

All our programming was live during the day; we had 2 VCRs: one was used to record the output as part of the conditions of our licence. The machines were loaned to us by a local hire shop - NICAM Stereo ones - because they were still relatively expensive. The other one had a pre-recorded 8hr tape in that ran from 0000-0800.

When we packed it in in 1998 - lots of us had moved away or had jobs etc. - the contents of the office ended up in our treasurer's garage. He never throws anything away, so I'd be fairly sure that the boxes of logging tapes will still be in there! We're meeting up in a few weeks, so I'll ask him.

There were quite a few pirates back then in Sheffield... mostly they were OK; they were doing their thing, and we were doing ours and we all just got on with it. One time, though, one of the no-name stations actually moved frequency to ours and jammed us, swearing over the top of us when we were doing Sheffield Children's Festival radio. They got busted a couple of days later

[Albert H]

I read that too about fine if they didn’t transmit!, it does sound crazy, when theres people who would have theirs going 24/7 if they could. Also read some were they had to have all programing recorded, if they didn’t supply it when the regulator asked they’d get fine, suppose maybe they wanting to know there was nothing going on, I can see case for that, imagine having to record everything.

ROT (Recording Of Transmission) is a legal requirement. All sorts of methods of recording are used, but the most popular these days is a simple audio recording application recording either on to big hard drives, or on to USB memory sticks. Recordings have to be time-stamped and continuous. They're usually recorded at the minimum possible quality in an effort to minimise the file sizes. Windoze computers need not apply of course - they're too unreliable. There are a couplle of simple applications that can be run on Raspberry Pi (with a sound adaptor), and these are becoming very popular even in big commercial set-ups.

[pirateaddict]

Or8 radionortheast.. Yeah, groove was a pirate at some point in 92 and did do a 28 day rsl and that was it iirc. very short lived (no tapes) but very well run, think it was down at 87. Summat!
I did have someone tell me once that scr was legal,lol, but i never knew they'd moved for an rsl. The freqs scr were on were 105 , 101.7, 101.5, 104.5 during the time when classic FM came on on 101's,then 105.2, then spent their remaining days on 107.2
Marqueemoon, forge getting jammed,was it foulmouth FM lot coz iirc fmfm were on around 106.6 i think and forge came on 106 summat,or am totally wrong there?

[marqueemoon]

Marqueemoon, forge getting jammed,was it foulmouth FM lot coz iirc fmfm were on around 106.6 i think and forge came on 106 summat,or am totally wrong there?

Could have been, they didn't ever give idents so it's difficult to know. Festival FM was allocated 106.2 and there was someone just above us with a massive transmitter, versus our puny 10W. The second day we were on they actually moved down the band, effectively jamming us and shouting obscenities etc.

[radionortheast]

Windows is alright if you turn off automatic updates, have it in a sandbox its not connected to the internet, as long as you’ve downloaded what you want to work on it, stuff tends to work, with others have lots of programing

Sheffield was pirate city back then, lots of people wanting to come on, suppose its no suprize atemps were made to put a licenced station on air with simliar people from pirates. I’m glad fantasy dance fm never tried to get a licence like others, coming off air getting people to sign lots of petitions buy shares in a company for nothing to happen, its great people were able to get rsls sad no full time licence could ever be got, sorry to hear about the jamming.

I don’t know if there was an rsl to do with the shopping center there, maybe that was just white rose, must of been some kind of rsl for scr to move, likely give you some kind of rsi having to retune your transmitter constantly for these kinds of things. I remember scr on 107.2, the first programming in the afternoon would be some asian programming, it would mention my town, some of the others, interesting they obviously knew their signals were going out beyond the area. Recording of dance fm martin l sents a shoutout to the bossman listening in bradford, I always though that he was the boss of it maybe I was wrong.
Sometime from late 96 that I heard groove, pretty sure it was up there, 107.2? we moved to the top of the hill later in 1996. Scr moved to 107, the last time it was heard, this is unusual the station boss was heard on air, the station was close on the last day of april 1999, due to a youth that had died. He was giving advice to other broadcasters telling them not to broadcast cursing over the air, maybe harder to vet that in hiphop r n b music than gabba not that foul mouth the others cared about that. The other thing he said was not to be on an rsl frequency, ymca radio barnsley were setting up on the same frequency heard them they got raided. The equipment was to go into a cupboard, maybe bounce fm got hold of it. I do remember it was some chewed up tape going round scr? mmm boop playing kept speeding up and slowing down, you could always tell when tapes had been going for a bit, that would of been 1997. A vhs would of been better, course if your having to record all your porgramming you will want it recoridng in long play, to be at the lowest quailty bit rate

I do remember foul mouth fm, it was often very loud and clear in mono, don’t remember much of what went out on it, someone called the astronomer? some other station, remember hearing a prefab sprout song, about a mum pushing a push chair would been annoying to some, there was some rude phone in, a cheeky wee number. I read some were the operator went to cornwall...I think it was more of a student station, often I was listening to fantasy fm, dance fm, trying to get dream fm, pitch fm was another too, i’d often get pilots talking over the top of it, it was weak when it first came on..I’m suprized I don’t remember force fm, there was a pirate fresh fm started on 107.8, it moved to 106.5 after pitch went off air, the frequency would of been simliar to force I suppose.

[marqueemoon]

I don’t know if there was an rsl to do with the shopping center there, maybe that was just white rose, must of been some kind of rsl for scr to move

The shopping centre RSL... could you be thinking of Meadowhall Information Radio? The shopping centre ran an RSL in December for at least a couple of years back then. It was mostly chart/easy listening type of thing, I know a few Forge presenters had shows on there, not so much for the fun but because they paid!

Sometime from late 96 that I heard groove, pretty sure it was up there, 107.2? we moved to the top of the hill later in 1996. Scr moved to 107

We were always allocated different frequencies... 1993 - 87.7, 1994 - 105.4, 1995 - 106.2, 1996 and 1997 - 107.8, and 1998 - 106.5. It was a right pain because you could spend ages getting jingles put together and then you couldn't use then again the following year.

The other thing he said was not to be on an rsl frequency, ymca radio barnsley were setting up on the same frequency heard them they got raided.

That was good advice, I remember ppl getting busted for being on the same frequency as YMCA Barnsley; the Radio Authority (as it was then) responded pretty quickly, as they did when we reported interference on the Childrens' Festival RSL in '95.

its great people were able to get rsls sad no full time licence could ever be got

Yeah, that was one of the reasons we packed it in; our aim had always been to become a full-time, licensed station but there was no licence available and no prospect of one being issued, so people lost interest and drifted away; others got jobs and moved away and in 1998 we called it a day. Sad, but it had been a lot of fun and I wouldn't have missed a minute of it.

[radionortheast]

I remember the one from white rose shopping center, was thinking Meadowhall had its own rsl, I think it came on 106.2, 1998?. I was playing round with some free running oscilator at the time, I had to move it the opposite end of the band didn’t work afterwards. Someone posted a link the other day, had a lot of audio files on it, there is something on it called sure fm from sheffield student station, I don’t think there was any others on there, it does ring a vague bell.

I’d sometimes hear lsr fm, think dream fm had to move for them, remember dream’s transmitter coming out of lock, it was moving about the upper part of the fm band. People do look back on it fondly I do think there was something dodgy about it, I was given a shoutout a drucken dj played a really inappropriate track meant to be from my mum, there were shoutouts to people in the prison too, it didn’t flag up at the time, one one hand you’d have some nice music, jane doing her breakfast show, on the other prison shoutouts lot of unprofessionalism. My mum phoned them up, another station came on their frequency of 107.8, they moved down to 107.7, were cochanneling with their other relay transmitter, when I got my shoutout on air, you could hear alot of whistling in the backround, radios couldn’t separate two signals 100khz apart then.
Another time we were asking were they were, they dissapeared afew weeks before christmas, we were told everything was ok they were doing their christmas shopping, didn't know what was going on with it, sheffield stations were there constantly, all the merchandise too and the relays, make you feel abit unsure about it now.
if you read the comment paul taylor it says he was arrested for causing a riot in the prison, sounds like some innocent dj got caught up in it, https://undeleted.wordpress.com/dream-fm/ I don’t think it could of ever got a licence, I drifted away from this stuff, listen to energy 106, try to hear it hear it coming through. It was sad they didn’t get the licence at the time would of be nice to have a station were people could played what they liked, I do look back on it as more of jadded childrens entertainer now, you didn’t know what was going on with it, alot of people wanted to be on it, don’t think there was much chance, with the licence I do think we were waved a bone, signing the petition for nothing to come back on air, a disappointment. I do feel the same about sheffield pirates, they were unregulated too, maybe not a facade, I don’t think we felt we could ring them up, maybe we were saved. Of course all of the tapes from this era got thrown away, the only ones that I have recorded are of energy, maybe have the odd pirate from 1999 on them.