Radio Drake (Pirate station in Plymouth uk)

james_wilson16 · Post by **james_wilson16** » Sat May 02, 2015 9:51 am

Low antenna, that sounds interesting. might be worth while putting a little higher as the better the HAAT the further you will go, you may even be able to lower your power and hit the same coverage you are at now, or potentially further.

Out of interest what power are you running @?

Is there another budget cut to OFCOM? I got raided back in 2009 in Dorchester Dorset for running a station. They barely come to Dorset either I wouldn't have thought, but being a lone station in an area big or small sometimes is a bad thing as it sticks out like a sore thumb and FM doesn't become a viable option for 24/7 broadcasting which we attempted to do back then... I wish OFCOM had sent us a email.

radiodrake · Post by **radiodrake** » Wed May 06, 2015 12:22 pm

7 Watts. Yeah we're pretty careful but we've had a few nervy moments. We've had emails from OFCOM asking us for our licence number (which obviously we don't have)

We vary our broadcasting hours too and we will go off air on FM every now and then. We don't cause any interference so hopefully we'll be ok

james_wilson16 · Post by **james_wilson16** » Fri May 08, 2015 9:44 am

Reply with a made up license number lol. 7w is very low power, lucky to cover half of Plymouth with that. As long as you are not using one of them CHZ-7C rigs and something pretty decent you should be OK. I presume your ERP is higher than 7w looking at your coverage

teckniqs · Post by **teckniqs** » Fri May 08, 2015 11:41 am

It all depends on your location, 7w can cover a fair area from an aerial with enough height.

Gigahertz · Post by **Gigahertz** » Fri May 08, 2015 10:13 pm

When he said 7watts Iam thinking its a CHZ-7C transmitters.. Hope not as it just 1 complaint and the COM will be at your door!

james_wilson16 · Post by **james_wilson16** » Sat May 09, 2015 3:48 pm

Teckniqs, he had stated the antenna was low earlier in this conversation hence my surprise at the coverage, and I explained earlier HAAT is everything when it comes to coverage.

7w is a strange figure. Hopefully it is not one of those awful rigs. I got one in my gaff just as a novelty, tried it with a dummy load, even the sound quality is awful, far too much bottom end let alone the spurious emissions and bad harmonics.

teckniqs · Post by **teckniqs** » Sat May 09, 2015 9:23 pm

Yeah I also meant height of the receivers too lol. But with a good antenna and the aerial up on a nice pole above the house good distances can be achieved from low TX levels. Plymouth is very hilly and cliffy.

radiodrake · Post by **radiodrake** » Sat May 09, 2015 10:37 pm

No we aren't using those CZH transmitters. We're using an NRG Kit. A few watts is lost via the cables we use hence the slightly strange power.

Gigahertz · Post by **Gigahertz** » Sun May 10, 2015 12:37 am

Must be using 10m of RG-58!

james_wilson16 · Post by **james_wilson16** » Sun May 10, 2015 10:30 am

Mmmm might be worthwhile buying some better coaxial. I got some proper thick stuff the loss on that even at long lengths is minimal. Shame to loose power.

Gigahertz · Post by **Gigahertz** » Sun May 10, 2015 11:52 am

Maybe it's there way of attenuating the power to only put 7watts.

teckniqs · Post by **teckniqs** » Sun May 10, 2015 1:30 pm

What is the output power of the TX?

radiodrake · Post by **radiodrake** » Sun May 10, 2015 4:09 pm

Transmitter output is 10 watts. We will be buying better cable soon. We also plan on raising the aerial height a few more metres as well to clear some construction cranes that are currently in our way. We are particularly interested in anyone who listens to us via FM. We are getting good audiences on internet. FM audience is slightly more difficult to find out. So if you have anyone who lives in Plymouth let them know about us!

james_wilson16 · Post by **james_wilson16** » Sun May 10, 2015 5:50 pm

3w to loose it a significant amount, as long as it isn't an antenna mismatch guess its not the end of the world. Lol put the antenna on top of one of the cranes.
If you are getting listeners online then the chances are you are successful with your FM broadcasts as well as internet radio is harder to obtain listeners by far than FM due to the immense size. World Wide is far from local.

radiodrake · Post by **radiodrake** » Mon May 11, 2015 11:50 am

Yeah it is a fair bit to lose 3 watts. But we've been on air for over a year now with no raids from OFCOM (apart from the email which was genuinly sent from them).

Our internet feed is usually the same as the FM for 99 percent of the time. We do occasionally break away and provide a separate FM service if there is a local news/traffic issue which an internet audience may not want to hear

It would certainly be interesting to see if anyone on this forum has heard our FM broadcasts.

tokingmenace · Post by **tokingmenace** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 9:28 pm

From web...

Radio Drake to shut down soon.

It is with great sadness that we must announce that Radio Drake will cease broadcasting from Monday August 31st 2015.

It has been a wonderful time since we started broadcasting in May 2014. We broadcasted on 107.9 FM in Plymouth and right around the world on the internet.

Unfortunately however, after a big warning from OFCOM, we were faced with no choice but to shut our FM service down on Sunday June 14th.

After a meeting on Monday June 15th we also decided to shut the station down on August 31st 2015. we will continue to play the greatest music from our studios in Plymouth. You can still email us right up until closedown and our email address will remain active (and we will reply to you) up until September 30th 2015.

We wish all our listeners the best of luck. Who knows we may return one day in the future.

------

Going for a licence ??

dancemusicdj · Post by **dancemusicdj** » Wed Jul 01, 2015 10:13 pm

tokingmenace wrote:From web...

Radio Drake to shut down soon.

It is with great sadness that we must announce that Radio Drake will cease broadcasting from Monday August 31st 2015.

It has been a wonderful time since we started broadcasting in May 2014. We broadcasted on 107.9 FM in Plymouth and right around the world on the internet.

Unfortunately however, after a big warning from OFCOM, we were faced with no choice but to shut our FM service down on Sunday June 14th.

After a meeting on Monday June 15th we also decided to shut the station down on August 31st 2015. we will continue to play the greatest music from our studios in Plymouth. You can still email us right up until closedown and our email address will remain active (and we will reply to you) up until September 30th 2015.

We wish all our listeners the best of luck. Who knows we may return one day in the future.

------

Going for a licence ??

they can only try. would be no harm. they could still broadcast via the net while doing that though.

Gigahertz · Post by **Gigahertz** » Fri Jul 03, 2015 12:28 am

They are giving up? Love to know how they received the warning !

Must of been running direct and had a knock on the door and a note left!

Imagine every London station getting a warning and giving up

We'll

drake, shame was going to see family down that way was hoping to have a listen !

ofcomhater · Post by **ofcomhater** » Fri Jul 03, 2015 1:23 am

Gigahertz wrote:Must of been running direct and had a knock on the door and a note left

taken from the dark side ie digital spy

Radio Drake was broadcasting just a carrier wave for a few hours today before the music started. They said their microwave link to the transmitter was faulty. All repaired and broadcasting as normal now

james_wilson16 · Post by **james_wilson16** » Sun Jul 05, 2015 7:28 pm

Wish I had a warning note or something before my door went through lol. Seems Drake has had a few correspondence from OFCOM.

Radio Drake (Pirate station in Plymouth uk)

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