Solas AM TX Site

BrianD

I note from Bord Pleanala that Solas AM have been successful in their appeal for planning permission for a 61 metre transmission mast in Rathfarnham. The appeal was granted on January 8th.

Now that they have cleared this hurdle, I wonder how long it will take them to get on air. This will be the first independent licensed AM service since Century Radio went off air in the early 90's.

byte

That's interesting.

Will it be nationwide coverage or just Dublin and surrounding area?

What kind of programming can be expected from this channel?

BrianD

Solas AM were awarded a licence a few years ago to provide a religious service on AM. The licence is for Dublin City & County but I am not sure what frequency or power they will use.

Interesting to note that one of the individuals behind Solas is also fronting a soon to be launched FM service using a temporary radio licence issued by the BCI.

Heathen

i know a few years ago when i was living in dublin they were transmitting from churches on the 27MHz citzen band freq's was a bit annoying when i was a cb'er cos the bleedover was unreal and shifting freq's wasent any use, cos someone somewhere always had bleedover on that freq from a local church i still see a few antron's hanging out of the back of some churches when im up there
i was going to go for the amature licence, but to be honest (and nothin personal) its a bit boring, i love the idea's of dxing and i did a fair bit in my time, and also the repeaters are great around the country, but the content of discussion is a bit bogie, too much red tape surrounding the vhf/uhf licence i suppose (just my 2 cents)

later
Macker

Mike 1972

The most likely channel for Solus is 1278 although they could possibly be given 531 or even 1188

27MHz (and even FM broadcast) is widely used by churches across Ireland

actually maybe they should give the "UK27/81" channels to churches and "Euro CEPT" channels to CB users

watty

I thought the aerial in Croom on the Church looked like a CB ant. Never knew that.

I'm one of the "boring" folk on the 145MHz / 434MHz repeaters Hi! Hi!

I don't think the experimenters licence exam is very hard. I did the UK one when I was about 17.

A new course has just started in Limerick. PM me if you want details. Other Clubs run courses. Now the need for CW (morse) is abbolished you get 137KHz, 1.8MHz to 30MHz bands, 50, 70, 144, 430MHz, 1.2GHz and 2.4GHz bands an up.... Including Slow Scan TV on HF and Fast Scan (real TV) on 434MHz, 1.3GHz, 5.6Ghz and 10Ghz. (you can turn an old Satelitte LNB into a 10Ghz Amatuer band TV transmitter and receive with an old Sky Analog setup, with dish tilted downward 25 degrees to give horizontal paths.


Add to that Video senders on 2.4GHz, legal CEPT AM 27Mhz, PMR446 and Wireless LAN Licence free up to 108MBits/s and there has never been so much available legitimate Radio available.


I'm actually looking for a S/H AM/FM/SSB CB to "drive" a pair of Transvertors for VHF/UHF to "free up" the 1.8MHz to 30MHz HF transeiver.

I thought Solas was turned down again.

I wish they would either shut down entirely the UCB pirate FM broadcast transmitters or licence one or two. Either way the interfence is a pest, and letting illegal activity of any kind (Radio, drunk driving, speeding, whatever) go un checked just encourages a lawless attitude in general.

lawhec

Solas were granted a licence to broadcast on AM on either 531kHz or 1143kHz, with max 10kW of power. The use of 531 would give tremondus groundwave coverage but the antenna size is rather short for that frequency. 1143 on the other hand is much closer to the resonant frequency of the mast (it is centered at around 1230kHz) and at full wack should give good coverage around greater Dublin and much of Leinster.

Antenna

In the absense of a MW transmitter would it not make a lot of sense if Solas were to use the unused hours on existing Dublin stations, such as Radio na Life, to broadcast, or else perhaps have their programmes networked across existing community stations which collectively would cover most of Dublin?

BTW is Dave Heffernan still involved with Solas? I note he is heading up a temporary licensed Christian station in Dublin, to broadcast over a number of weekends. People in Co. Cork will remember the same Mr Heffernan as the founder and MD of Bandon-based WKLR back in the 1980s

Originally posted by LurkingIcon
I wish they would either shut down entirely the UCB pirate FM broadcast transmitters or licence one or two. Either way the interfence is a pest..

LurkingIcon, out of curiosity, what interference are UCB (in Limerick I presume) causing?

watty

Makes my RTE1 (next channel up) warble. Very clear path to Mungret College (I pickup the WiFi on the roof of if very well).

There is a lot of other spot frequecy interence on higher VHF / UHF bands roughly from when they started again but I havn't checked to direction of it.

It is dishonest the way UCB "sponsered" and encouraged the illegal VHF TX in this country. It's not like the "Thought" police come and take your Dish if you listen to the Legal UCB on Sky. Nor that there is any barrier to meettings, shops, people, literature or what ever else promulgationg thier emphasis of Christian Faith.

You can't just have folks running transmitters because they "feel" they ought to. I asked God and read the Bible too. I didn't get any spiritual insight telling me that this is a good way to break the law. And normally I'd be fairly much to the socalled "reformed" wing of Christianity rather than the Roman Flavour.

P.S. The Wifi Transmitter at the same site is a different group fo folks afAIk it is Legal!