2FM on Medium Wave in Dublin gone forever

Marconi

RTÉ has permanently shut down the 2FM medium wave transmitter in Dublin. This station operated on 1278kHz and was located at Thorndale, Beaumont. It was officially switched off on Monday, 15th December, and the mast has since been taken down. It will not be replaced.

BrianD

I'm surprised Solas AM haven't investigated the possibility of using this structure for their service.

What has happened to the medium wave services that have been licenced in Galway and Limerick? Do they licence holders have any intention to operate these services?

rlogue

Hasn't anyone realised that the Beaumont transmitter was the direct descendant of the old 2RN transmitter?

After 77 years, there are no more Medium Wave transmissions from RTÉ in Dublin. I guess that there must have been hardly anyone listening on 1278 these days, but occasionally I could pick up a faint signal on 1278 from 2FM in London.

mike65

I'm amazed it was still going! Indeed I'd switch off
all MW transmittions of 2fm then switch off the station itself...

Mike.

Greenman

Is 1278 Cork still on???

SEAMUSD

does anybody actually listen to 2FM on medium wave anymore ? and if so WHY
I know that RTE radio 1 broadcast Footie & GAA games on MW but I cant understand why you would want to listen to 2FM on medium wave, or is this just general info, if so well done im sure some people will appreciate it.

parasite

greenman: yeah it's still there

Mike 1972

Parts of Northern Ireland and almost all of mainland Britain cant get RTE on FM.

I was in Newcastle last year and was suprised to find 1278 was stroger than 612

Seemingly RTE want to sell off the Beaumount site because its worth a fair bit of money as building land

RTE have also in recent years closed all the old RnaG MW transmitters in Donegal, Connemara and Kerry although the value of the land the transmitters were sitting was hardly a consideration there

medja

They used 1278 for the rugby world cup, on the semi final Sunday morning. Radio 1 Had Mass on MW.

Originally posted by Mike 1972

I was in Newcastle last year and was suprised to find 1278 was stroger than 612

Yeah 1278 was fairly good from cork in Brittany France when I was there driving at night but no 612.

I'd put radio one on 252 long wave and close the remaining medium wave tx's.

mm

BrianD

Better still, if RTE are no longer going to use the MW TX's they should make them available for leasing to the independent sector. Solas AM had originally talked about using the RTE site in Beaumount to locate their transmitter. So far they have been unable to locate an alternative site within the "city" though there must loads of suitable sites in Co. Dublin and even south co. meath.

thejuggler

In reply to rlogue's comment
"After 77 years, there are no more Medium Wave transmissions from RTÉ in Dublin."

Surely RTE radio 1 is still on Medium Wave in Dublin?

Both 2FM and Radio 1 are still going strong in Cork on 1278 and 729KHz

In fact when 729 was off for maintenance recently RTE had a string of complaints as people were missing the mass on sunday mornings. Don't know if anybody would miss the 2FM service though.

On a related issue for anyone who can remember back to the days of century radio (1989-1991) does anyone know how many medium wave transmitters they had? They had a good signal in Cork on 1143 KHz. I assume the facilities were provided by RTE from the same location. Just something I always wondered about!

Greenman

"After 77 years, there are no more Medium Wave transmissions from RTÉ in Dublin."

What he means is RTE MW sourced from Dublin.

I remember 20 years ago RTE Radio 1 had a really low powered TX from the Phoenix PK on 240 metres and I had an idea it dated back to the free state and 2RN. I remember listening to Larry Gogan over 25 years ago for 2 hours a day in the afternoon.

One more rambling well I remember listening to a radio station called Island Radio from Dalkey and suddenly they switched on Radio 2 on 235 as it was then and Island Radio was wiped out.

Oh ye one more thing when 1278/235 was switched on it caused a great deal of interference in the general area including interfering with the PA of the local church.

Finally I think RTE did their jamming of NOVA etc from Beaumont

BrianD

Any photographs of the Beaumount site online and where is exactly is it?

Mike 1972

The Century 1143 TX in Dublin was at the Sands Hotel in Portmarnock (old Sunshine Radio site/rig) dont know about Cork though

pbirney

Originally posted by greenman
Finally I think RTE did their jamming of NOVA etc from Beaumont

Actually, RTÉ's jamming activities were carried out from their museum in Rathmines.

This page has the details: http://www.radiowaves.fm/jamming.shtml

~Paul.

BrianD

I believe RTE used the Rathmines site to jam Nova's microwave link from it's Herberts St. studio to transmitter site in Rathfarnham. Rathmines would have been in the line of sight between both locations. If you read the news clippings on the Radiowaves link you will see a reference to this.

I understand that RTE jammed MW transmissions from a number of pirate stations from the Beaumount. Perhaps John Clarke who was then working with Nova but is now head of RTE 2FM can elaborate!!!!

BTW is there still a mast at the Sands Hotel?

ford fiesta

Originally posted by BrianD

BTW is there still a mast at the Sands Hotel?

Can someone confirm are the old Sunshine studios(the portacabins) still at the Sands hotel??

Antenna

ford fiesta, i'd say there would be people on the radiowaves.fm messageboard that would be inclined to know the answer to that question,

Yes medja 2FM's mediumwave was used for the Rugby World Cup coverage on that Sunday, I thought it strange when I heard only the 612kHz being mentioned for it on an RTE Radio 1 news bulletin some days beforehand (no mention of 1278 in Dublin and Cork)!


Greenman yes 2FM on 1278 in Cork is still on air but with lesser power than it used to be. I notice the modulation level is also low on it!

I am told the Cork mediumwave transmitter for Radio 2 also on 1278 kHz (235m) was first introduced in late 1982, in tandem with that happening the (co-located) transmitter for RTE Radio 1 and the (now defunct) Cork local opt-out was moved from 1188kHz (253m) down to 729kHz (412m).
Prior to Cork getting a MW transmitter for Radio 2, the transmitter there for Radio 1 used to carry Radio 2 after Radio 1 closed down every night!

(Maybe someone might document the history of RTE's radio transmitters on a website!!)

re. Century on MW, They had 2 MW transmitters, one in Dublin, one in Cork. A plan for a third higher powered one at Athlone never materialised. It was originaly planned to use RTE sites, just as with the FM network. However the Cork 1143 kHz was the mediumwave transmitter of former pirate station ERI located at Hollyhill which they leased. The same freestanding mast supported the FM aerials for Radio South (which became 96FM and is still in use). The whole mast was the MW aerial if you know what I mean. And the Dublin 1143 was the former AM transmitter of Sunshine Radio. These were introduced some weeks after Century launched. I suspect these arrangements may have been considered temporary. The Cork 1143 had a test tone on for a couple of days before it carried Century!

Century on FM BTW people may remember they were only on 3 FM transmitters in the whole country when they lauched in Sept 1989, serving the cities of Dublin (100.3), Cork (98.8) and Limerick (98.4) and their surrounding areas. High powered regional transmitters were then introduced on a piecemeal basis. Most of the Century FM frequencies were moved about as well a few months after launch, i.e. Cork city 98.8 moving to 101.0 MHz - i.e. transmitters ended up in the 100-102 part of the band.

Mike 1972

RTE jammed MW transmissions from a number of pirate stations from the Beaumount
Mainly Sunshine (531 from the sands)

RE: Centurys moving about on the band the original plan was for them to be on/round 100 (Century 100 get it) but under the international frequency plan most of the allocations for the UK and Ireland above 100 didnt come into effect until early 1990 so most of their transmitters were temporairly stuck in the 98-99 range

The slow roll out was entirely down to *sabotage by RTE engineers who made up all sorts of delays in rolling out the network and transmitting Century at far lower power than RTE so that half the country never heard Century or couldnt get a decent signal. Many listeners complained to Century but the never did anything about it and in the end it was poor coverage that resulted in low listenership and the ultimate collapse of the station Radio Ireland/Today FM had the sense to insist on performance related payment clauses in their transmission contract with RTE and miraculously both R Ireland and Lyric FM were getting over 95% coverage right from their launch date !

* =This is well documented and has never been denied Indeed an RTE report following Centurys demise (which I still have on tape) acknowledged that Century had signal problems but conveniently forgot to mention who was responsible for Centurys transmission

ford fiesta

I do remember that Century had a real bad signal in Mayo. So bad that I thought it was a Dublin station and I was lucky getting it in Mayo

How innocent I was