Thursday, 14 August 2008

Great name for a hosipital radio station.

The signal is very readable 30 miles from the tx.

I'm not sure whether is it on 1350 kHz because it is splattered by Coventry's local radio station, but I get optimised reception on 1350 kHz.

What power are these station running?

The students at Warwick University seem to have lost interest in their station. Even during term time a blank carrier is transmitted on 1251 kHz.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/cmr08/

When you read it, which you should, there will be smiles on the faces of Chris and Alan :-)

Regards
Eric

A young DJ who "pays to play" is now an exploited victim rather than a criminal (according to OFCOM).

Because I'm studying law at present, I'll include the definition of "accessory":

An accessory is a person who assists in the commission of a crime, but who does not actually participate in the commission of the crime as a joint principal. The distinction between an accessory and a principal is a question of fact and degree:

• The principal is the one whose acts or omissions, accompanied by the relevant mens rea, are the most immediate cause of the actus reus (Latin for "guilty act").
• If two or more people are directly responsible for the actus reus, they can be charged as joint principals (see common purpose). The test to distinguish a joint principal from an accessory is whether the defendant independently contributed to causing the actus reus rather than merely giving generalised and/or limited help and encouragement.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/enforcement/illegalbroadcast/factsheet.pdf

Illegal broadcasting is a criminal and anti-social
activity and station operations are a menace to
legitimate broadcasters and the public alike. In
addition they may: ... raise cash from illegal advertising (usually
for local nightclub events) or by exploiting
young DJs who have to ‘pay to play’ to get
on-air;

Many of these claimed successes will be reversed by the recession that is now with us and which our socialist masters have so far denied.

From: "Sterling Times" <2@slewis.biz>
Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2008 8:56 AM
To: "Anorak Nation" <(Address removed)>
Subject: [Anorak Nation] Islamic wailing on 1278 kHz

The channel was completely clear here in Birmingham after the closure of
Red Sands Radio. Now there is a weak Islamic station on this frequency.
What is the station?

1278 kHz
AGL – Emissora Provincial de Cabinda, Tenda (25) – 24h
BLR – Belaruskaye Radio 1, Zadvarcy (Brest) (2.5) – 0400–2300 exc. regional programming by Radio Stalitsa (= Radio Capital) at 0440–0500 (Mo-Sa) and
1600–1700 daily in Belarussian
EGY – Egyptian Radio, Asswan (10) – 0300–2400
F – France Bleu/France Bleu Elsass, Sélestat (<300) – 24h; France Bleu Elsass: 0600–1130 & 1330–1600 (Mo-Fr) in Alsatian; France Bleu: "General" radio with popular, adult programmes with daily life related information and entertainment
G – Pulse Gold, Tyersal Lane (Bradford) (0.430) – 24h //1170//1530 exc. local px 1400–1800; classic and contemporary hits with local, national and international sport
G – Palace Radio (RSL), Crystal Palace (0.001) – only on football days
G – Trust AM, Worksop (LPAM) (0.001) – Hospital radio station; 24h; ID "More variety – Trust 1278 MW"
G – BFBS Nepali Service, Folkestone (LPAM) (0.001) – px in Nepali language for the Gurkha based at Sir John Moore Barracks, also some px in Gurkha language and English BFBS px; English news at 1000
G – BFBS Gurkha Radio, Shorncliffe (LPAM) (0.001)
G – Blue Bull Radio, Norfolk (LPAM) (0.001) – station of RAF Marham Kings Lynn
G – Crush Radio, Hatfield (LPAM) (0.001) – Student radio station
G – Harlow Hospital Radio, Harlow (LPAM) (0.001) – Hospital radio station G – Pinesbury AM 1278, Swindon (LPAM) (0.001) – Student radio station
G – Radio Royal, Falkirk (LPAM) (0.001) – Hospital radio station; 24 h with continuous pop and oldies when not carrying live programming
GRC – NET (1st px)/ERA 2/ERA SPORT + ERA Flórina, Flórina (10) – ERA Flórina: 0500–1100 (Mo-Fr), 1330–1800 (Mo-Fr); NET: news px; ERA 2: music px IRL – Choice FM, Dublin (?)
IRN – IRIB 1, Kermanshah (200) – 24h
MDG – Radio Television Malagasy, ? (1) – Mo-Fr 0200–1900, Sa-Su 0300–2100; all in Malagasy
RUS – Radio Rossii, Dubovka (50) – 0300–2200; also other tx sites but no exact info on their activity is known; music and other programmes for the younger generation
UKR – Voice of Russia, Petrivka (50)

From: "Sterling Times" <2@slewis.biz>

Great name for a hosipital radio station.

The signal is very readable 30 miles from the tx.

I'm not sure whether is it on 1350 kHz because it is splattered by
Coventry's local radio station, but I get optimised reception on 1350
kHz.

What power are these station running?

Allegedly 1 watt!



No virus found in this outgoing message.
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Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.6.0/1603 - Release Date: 10/08/2008 18:13

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/14/twitter_goes_silent/

Twitter has stopped sending SMS updates to UK customers, thus leaving them unaware of the latest important updates on what their friends had for breakfast.

Twitter is a service for bloggers who can't string a sentence together and who want to appeal to readers who can't focus beyond a headline. Updates can be sent in over SMS message, limited to 140 characters, and are bounced out to interested parties.

The problem, for Twitter, is that sending SMS messages is an expensive business in Europe, even when they are purchased in bulk, and if an incoming message is bounced out to 10 "friends" then Twitter has to pay to send those ten messages. But while in Europe the sender has to pay the full cost of message delivery, as getting messages is free, in the USA received messages are deducted from the tariff bundle, so Twitter can continue to offer the service there. Back in Blighty, however, it's just too expensive.

The company reckons that even with a cap of 250 messages it could cost them $1K a year per punter, and given their complete lack of revenue that's hard to maintain. Those Twittering in the USA, Canada and India will still be able to have their day interrupted by the random ramblings of others.

You are looking at around 100 watts from their TX to achieve 1 watt EMRP or is it EIRP?

There is probably a 3db difference!

And people say our antenna isn't effiecent (we only run 20 watts!)!

I won't hear it here anyway as there are at least 2 users on that freq that are in my range, not that I am the service area of either of course!

Dave

Dave, what do they use for aerials?

No doubt some of you have recieved this,

"Clive here - I'm one of the new team in charge of Virgin Radio.
And what a great station to inherit.

As you may know, we have some exciting plans. My goal is to keep everything that's great - and, where we can, to do more of those things - and do them even better. And try a few new things too.

We know from your response, for example, that you like the fact that our music is, well, proper music - from real composers and musicians. That's a hallmark of what we do and we're not going to touch the style of music we play - although there's probably a case for even more variety like we started to do on
'I Haven't Heard It For Ages'. We know that the '80s is a very popular decade. We know that you love many of the presenters and, for some listeners, life really would not be quite the same without Christian or Geoff. The Zoo Sessions are always well received - and, frankly, I'd like us to be doing more in that whole area of live performance. In short, though, it's the spirit of this station which makes it special - and we hope that we can build on that character rather than take anything away.

And, yes, there'll be a new name over the door and for the station on-air. As a VIP listener, we'll make sure you are amongst the first to know the name - and all the new stuff as it happens.

I'm really keen to hear from you now - and also along the journey - as this unfolds over the next few months. Your thoughts are really useful. In fact, if you're really interested - do check out our staff blog at onegoldensquare.com, where you can peer under the bonnet and eavesdrop (and take part in) some of our internal debate on where we go next.

Thanks for listening, logging on, calling in, texting us, emailing us - and for your loyalty over the years. Appreciated.

Clive Dickens "

Dave (I don't know where the pics came from!) Martin

Or if you can't be bothered, read The Register's amusing take on this self-puffery:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/14/ofcom_annual_report_zzzz/

If memory serves me right, no more than a 10 metre vertical with top loading, there are a few commercial options out there but some make their own, I was going to direct you to a couple of instances, notably Stoke Mandaville Hospital radio and L&DHR but they both seem to have updated their sites and removed the interesting (to us) technical stuff! So You will have to google a bit.

Dave



 Twitter is total non-sense another digital service about to bite the dust due to a massive lack of consumer demand.

Twitter hasn't bitten the dust, and there is still a massive demand for it. It's just no longer paying to send free texts outside of India, America and Canada. In those countries you pay for incoming calls and incoming texts, as well as for outgoing calls and outgoing texts. Whereas, here in Europe we only pay for outgoing calls and texts. We don't pay for incoming calls or texts.

In India, America and Canada, Twitter has been able to come to arrangements with the cellphone service providers to not have to pay anything to pass texts to them, based on the fact that the more texts that Twitter sends the more money the cellphone service providers actually make out of the people receiving them.

Meanwhile, over here the cellphone service providers don't make money when we receive texts, so want to charge the senders (ie Twitter). Twitter paid for a little while (a year or so?) but then decided it was silly.

I suspect they pulled it quickly to see if they could put pressure on influential users to put pressure on our cellphone service providers – after all, Twitter is used by 10 Downing Street, the BBC, Sky News, etc., etc., to send out bulletins directly to people's phones. I also suspect that this will fail to achieve anything, and so a package will be offered to non India, America and Canada users where they pre-pay a certain amount for receiving texts (called tweets) from Twitter. Then, everything will be back to 'normal'. Well, as normal as the world of micro-blogging can be.

You have to remember that micro-blogging and presence-sharing seems pointless and crazy to a lot of older stick-in-the-mud folk today who have only just mastered email (Meanwhile kids no longer use email, just micro-blogging and instant messaging as the Ofcom findings pointed out). I'm reminded of the 1960s when the older stick-in-the-mud types couldn't see the point or purpose of ships in the North Sea playing all that racket and thought it was all going to just be a pointless flash in the pan. They were wrong weren't they.