Today FM tx problems around Dublin

bbability

Seriously has anyone in Today FM not bothered to fix the annoying problem of two different levels of sound coming from the 100.9 and 101.8 transmitters. I can't actually listen anymore.

twinklerunner

bbability wrote: »

Seriously has anyone in Today FM not bothered to fix the annoying problem of two different levels of sound coming from the 100.9 and 101.8 transmitters. I can't actually listen anymore.

Seriously annoying

Infoanon

Its been particularly bad for the last three months and makes Matt Coopers show unlistenable on a car radio.

EastCoast FM have also been suffering a similar issue on their 99.9 since Mid Jan.....

Its not exactly difficult to have the 100.9 & 101.8 at the same level......

soc160

Has anyone got in touch to let Today FM know? Ring them and they could probably have it sorted in a few days.

Infoanon

soc160 wrote: »

Has anyone got in touch to let Today FM know? Ring them and they could probably have it sorted in a few days.

It would take few minutes to fix it - I would be surprised if they were not aware of the issue......its not the first time its been mentioned on Boards !....then again their predecessor, Century, had numerous technical issues that never got resolved - though one major difference - the 101.8 installation is operated by Today FM not RTENL

gavindowd

Infoanon wrote: »

EastCoast FM have also been suffering a similar issue on their 99.9 since Mid Jan.....

I think East Coast's were out-of-sync at one stage too

JDxtra

I got in touch with them about it about two weeks ago. Said an engineer would call/email me about it but I heard nothing.

Itssoeasy

I've had dodgy reception from today fm down in cork. Every day at some point around one the sound drops really low and then sounds like its gone off air. I can get the station back by moving up the dial.

Infoanon

Itssoeasy wrote: »

I've had dodgy reception from today fm down in cork. Every day at some point around one the sound drops really low and then sounds like its gone off air. I can get the station back by moving up the dial.

That sounds like a dodgy tuner at your end

twinklerunner

Infoanon wrote: »

one major difference - the 101.8 installation is operated by Today FM not RTENL

As a matter of interest, why is this the case and why did they move from 100.3 in the Dublin area?

ofcork

Itssoeasy wrote: »

I've had dodgy reception from today fm down in cork. Every day at some point around one the sound drops really low and then sounds like its gone off air. I can get the station back by moving up the dial.

Ive found today fm the poorest reception out of all the stations,both in the car and on the phone.

Declan A Walsh

twinklerunner wrote: »

As a matter of interest, why is this the case and why did they move from 100.3 in the Dublin area?

This was to make way for Radio Nova on 100.3 - classic rock station.... and 100.5 is the second frequency for Radio Nova for the commuter belt on the Kildare side.

bbability

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

This was to make way for Radio Nova on 100.3 - classic rock station.... and 100.5 is the second frequency for Radio Nova for the commuter belt on the Kildare side.

A review of the FM band was undertaken a few years back to try and make way for the recently added licensed stations. At one stage I believe they wanted 98fm to move frequency to tidy up Lyric FM. Phantom wanted the original 97.3fm when they went to full time broadcasting but the request was turned down hence they were allocated 105.2. All low powered stations such as community and hospital stations were supposed to move to new frequencies. The only ones that I think were really affected were Near Fm and the 3 hospital stations in Dublin who were forced to move to new frequencies.

twinklerunner

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

This was to make way for Radio Nova on 100.3 - classic rock station.... and 100.5 is the second frequency for Radio Nova for the commuter belt on the Kildare side.

But why did Today FM have to move from 100.3 - why didn't Nova get 101.8?

gavindowd

Nova are on 95.7 in Wicklow too

Fuzzy Clam

twinklerunner wrote: »

But why did Today FM have to move from 100.3 - why didn't Nova get 101.8?

I think it was down to power allocation. 100.3 is cleared for higher power.
I'm not too sure of the details but I think Today FM may have been only permited to use 1 or 2 KWs, possibly because they also use Kippure which covers much of Dublin. The 3 Rock transmitter would be considered a filler.
Since Nova were granted 10 Kw(?), they would be given the frequency allocated for that power which 101.8 isn't, afaik.

marno21

100.3 is cleared for 10kW whereas 101.8 is cleared for 500W. Today FM already have sufficient coverage from 100.9 and 105.5 Clermont so it was obviously decided that 500W was sufficient.

Nova are licenced to cover Dublin + commuter belt and 101.8 at 500W would not cover that area sufficiently. There would also be problems with the Kildare relay on 100.5, that would be unavailable if Today FM continued on 100.3, and 101.6 and 102.0 would both be out due to interference from Beat/Today FM Mt Leinster and Q102.

It's strange that Nova is 95.7 in Greystones, nothing really stopping them from using 100.5 in Greystones (100.3 and 100.5 are synchronized to avoid interference, same could be done in Greystones)

Trick of the Tail

100.3 and 100.5 are not synchronised, but the 200Hz spacing is enough not to cause any problems between them with that geographical spacing too.

If they used one of those frequencies elsewhere they would have to synchronise them, and Nova's transmitters are not capable of this. They'd have to buy new ones!

I wonder if there's a co-ordination issue with the UK for those channels, given that Classic FM use that sub-nand there?

A

Infoanon

bbability wrote: »

A review of the FM band was undertaken a few years back to try and make way for the recently added licensed stations. At one stage I believe they wanted 98fm to move frequency to tidy up Lyric FM. Phantom wanted the original 97.3fm when they went to full time broadcasting but the request was turned down hence they were allocated 105.2.

'Classic Hits' 98FM was originally allocated 105.5FM - after a lot of lobbying they got reallocated to 98.1.
Lyric FM were supposed to switch to 98.1 with 'Classic Hits' / 'Now is Good' / '98' (identity crisis or what!) switching to 96.7.....alas '98' had a 'letter' from the BAI assuring them of the 98.1 frequency....

Btw is 101.8 not 2kw ERP ?

Declan A Walsh

The fact that Radio Nova was licensed for the commuter belt as well as Dublin complicated the situation as regards frequencies. The other "Dublin" stations only needed one frequency as they were not officially licensed for outside Dublin.

As said already, Today FM was well covered in any event with its 100.9 transmitter and to some extent 105.5.

Infoanon

Listening to Derek Floods 80s show tonight and noticed while flicking between 100.9 & 101.8 that the audio channels are inverted.....

(as an aside East Coasts 99.9 audio is still unbalanced - 3 months now...)

Fuzzy Clam

Infoanon wrote: »

Listening to Derek Floods 80s show tonight and noticed while flicking between 100.9 & 101.8 that the audio channels are inverted.....

(as an aside East Coasts 99.9 audio is still unbalanced - 3 months now...)

When Centuary Radio were on air the 3 rock transmitter audio L+R channels were reversed when compared with other transmitters. The same happened with Today FM I think. In fact i think it was after I mentioned this issue on a message board that the fault was rectified . So I do have my uses

As regards East Coasts engineering......**** knows what goes on in there. They've had problems for years, various levels on all their transmitters. Dead air for weeks on end on one of the rigs. Total shambles :rolleyes:
I do know they don't have a good engineer. maybe it's time they employed one.