UK radio reception

[Rik]

Can anyone advise on getting Radio 4 long wave successfully in the Limousin? Is a roof aerial the only answer?

Rik

[isabelmaidment]

Radio 4 longwave can work perfectly on a car ariel however you normally need to be on a high ridge to get a good signal. A dish, cheap digital reciever very cheap TV and little hard work will also allow 1,2,3 and 5 plus Classic FM and a lot of other channels.

but what do I know about technology with a login like this :

Anton Redman

[moon]

We have a house on the borders of Limousin/Centre and have an old sky box and satellite dish and get all the bbc radio stations and tv channels plus a lot of others. No ITV,C4 or C5 though. Cheapest and easiest option, but dont forget the time difference.

bob

[Creusois]

I can get Radio 4 on my old portable Phillips radio bought in the 60s - admittedly the signal is not perfect and always manages to die at the wrong moment - "To conclude my case, I declare the name of the murderer is crackle crackle" or "Matthews runs down the right wing and centres the ball to Finney who shoots and crackle crackle" if you get my drift.  But we now have a satellite dish and that gives her indoors a chance to chuckle at Wogan on R2 while she potters about indoors but it doesn't stretch to the end of the garden so my old portable does for me - when it works!

[Rik]

Thanks for your helpful replies to my question. We have a satellite dish, to receive France 5/Arte and improve reception of the terrestrial TV channels. Does this mean we could get a radio hooked up to the same dish? Sorry if this sounds simple-minded, I know nothing about these matters.

Rik

[moon]

Rik

Our UK radio stationscome through Sky and their unencoded channels, and the satellite dish is therefore pointed towards a different satellite than the one used for french channels.

Sorry

Bob

[zeb]

We  bought small battery operated Grundig radio with LW from Connextions in Angouleme (tried it in the shop and got R4). This was after being in the Charente for a year and discovering that R4 could be received!!

I use it without mains whilst I'm working at chez client and with mains on Sunday mornings for listening to the Archers whilst ironing. Sad or what!! I listen to French radio and TV the rest of the time...honest!

Any radio with LW will do, just means you have to fiddle about a bit to find signal. R4 on FM would be better though - no cricket  grr!!

helen

[Jc]

You tend to find that the cheaper the radio(particularly in cars)the better the LW reception,at least,that the way it always works with me.

[Later]

... and don't forget if you have broadband you can always log onto www.bbc.co.uk etc etc and listen to your favourite radio station in real time or replaying soemthing from earlier in the week.

[I1]

I live in Val du Loir and cannot receive Radio 4 nor BBC World Service (on any of their short wave transmissions). contacted the BBC about this and their response was:

"Reception of BBC World Service short-wave transmissions for western Europe are currently particularly poor because of disruption to the ionosphere (the layer of the atmosphere through which SW signals are transmitted) caused by recent solar flare activity. It may be some time before conditions return to normal."

They did recommend a Worldspace system (small satellie radio some portable). If fact their response is all below as people might find it useful (and I assume its not copyrighted as they sent it to me and want people to listen to their stuff):

BBC WORLD SERVIVE VIA SATELLITE IN WESTERN EUROPE

HOT BIRD 6

BBC World Service (European schedule) is available 24 hours a day, free-to-air from digital Eutelsat Hot Bird 6 at 13° East, transponder 130U, vertical polarisation, 11131 MHz, PID 457. Hot Bird 6 covers the whole of Europe (including the Canary Islands). In stereo.

ASTRA 1H

BBC World Service (European schedule) is available 24 hours a day, free-to-air from digital Astra 1H at 19.2° East, transponder 112, vertical polarisation, 12610 MHz, PID 401. The Astra 1H footprint covers western Europe from the British Isles to the northern Balkan peninsula, including Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Canary Islands. Mono only.

You should contact a local satellite/TV equipment dealer for information about the DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) receivers required for reception from Hot Bird 6 and Astra. These work in conjunction with a television set, but you can connect the audio output of the set-top receiver box to a Hi-Fi system for better quality sound.

WORLDSPACE

The West Beam of the digital WorldSpace AfriStar satellite reaches much of western continental Europe, including Greece, western Turkey, the British Isles and the Canary Islands. It carries our West Africa schedule 24 hours a day on channel 904 (with African news programmes at certain times of day and two half-hours of French (BBC Afrique) at 0600 and 1800 GMT).

For information about WorldSpace digital receivers, which are portable, visit http://www.worldspace.com [The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.]

[Teamedup]

I just pass Radio 4 through the speakers in my PC.

[Montcigoux]

I think that French TV is on a different satellite to the UK radio channels so staelllite dish has to point to the frnech one . You would need another dish for BBC. I can also get radio 4 long wave on cheap radio alarm clock but very crackly.

[Paul_Gyn]

[quote]I live in Val du Loir and cannot receive Radio 4 nor BBC World Service (on any of their short wave transmissions). contacted the BBC about this and their response was:"Reception of BBC World Service...[/quote]

I1.,

Have you tried 648 MW in the evenings? you might be far enough away for 1 bounce. Try it on two or three different sorts of weather conditions.

this would give you the World Service European output (as opposed to the Africa service)

paul

[I1]

I've tried 648, 198, 6195, 9410, 12095, 15485, 17640 and 1296.  The 6195 (I think) give a bit of reception at the moment but quality not great.  To be honest I can't remember which is best as I normally try them all and switch back to the one that worked (best).  I generally try after 22:00 (as I listen going to bed).  I'm pretty confident about the tuning as I have a Sony ICF radio where you key in the frequency.  It has options for the radio to generate a sync frequency (I suppose to bost the carried) as well as SSB.  The SSB makes reception dramatically worse (kills it), though the Sync helps a bit (I think).

[Paul_Gyn]

[quote]I've tried 648, 198, 6195, 9410, 12095, 15485, 17640 and 1296. The 6195 (I think) give a bit of reception at the moment but quality not great. To be honest I can't remember which is best as I normal...[/quote]

I inherited a h-u-g-e old shortwave set a good while back which had the option to choose which of the single side bands (SSB) you listened to, and sometimes on certain sw signals it dramatically improved the s.to n. but on others it did nothing and it always seemed to be one of them (can't remember if it was the upper or the lower side band) which made it better and the other made it worse. I, too have a Sony with SSB capability and - yes - it seems to select the wrong one to be any use!

 

paul