BANDSCAN THREAD

Sunnyboy11

Losty Dublin wrote: »

I can almost hear the chink chink chink of them taking out the begging bowl from under the mixing desk to fund a new WIFi modem; €20,000 should do it.

Unfortunately it’s the sign of the times we are in with very little money around to make donations. If Spirit fm are struggling financially I think it would be an idea to curtail their overheads e.g staff transmission sites etc. I would believe that many of their transmission sites are not viable due to poor listenship take up. Again it’s only my opinion.

Dipole Keith

Sunnyboy11 wrote: »

Unfortunately it’s the sign of the times we are in with very little money around to make donations. If Spirit fm are struggling financially I think it would be an idea to curtail their overheads e.g staff transmission sites etc. I would believe that many of their transmission sites are not viable due to poor listenship take up. Again it’s only my opinion.

I’d imagine the AM transmitter costs a fortune to run 24 hours a day, I know a lot of the FM relays around the country are in premises that the owners are supporters of the station and do it for next to nothing.

JDxtra

Dipole Keith wrote: »

Hot FM blank on 91.0 again & Extreme FM playing happy hardcore dance music on 93.2 at 12 O’Clock during the day, My ears lol

Hot FM blank this morning again. Extreme was blank when I first listened, but audio restored now.

Losty Dublin

Dipole Keith wrote: »

I’d imagine the AM transmitter costs a fortune to run 24 hours a day, I know a lot of the FM relays around the country are in premises that the owners are supporters of the station and do it for next to nothing.

How does that work in practise? I don't think that COMREG just let stations plonk FM rigs wherever they fancy and to whomever that volunteers. Isn't there certain minimal standards that any transmission site needs to meet before it can be allowed to switch on? It's not like the old days when everybody would use Ernie's and The Blue Light or Farmer Jim's hen shack up in Killinarden

turbocab

Dipole Keith wrote: »

I’d imagine the AM transmitter costs a fortune to run 24 hours a day, I know a lot of the FM relays around the country are in premises that the owners are supporters of the station and do it for next to nothing.

It all depends on the power you are running the transmitter at.the transmitter they are using is a 25kilowatt, General consenses is they are running it at around 5kilowatts.With at 20cent per killowatt price thats 1euro per hour if there was no losses .So accounting for losses of 20 per cent that would be roughly 1euro 20 cent per hour ,Not a significant amount by any means

turbocab

Dipole Keith wrote: »

I’d imagine the AM transmitter costs a fortune to run 24 hours a day, I know a lot of the FM relays around the country are in premises that the owners are supporters of the station and do it for next to nothing.

It all depends on the power you are running the transmitter at.the transmitter they are using is a 25kilowatt, General consenses is they are running it at around 5kilowatts.With at 20cent per killowatt price thats 1euro per hour if there was no losses .So accounting for losses of 20 per cent that would be roughly 1euro 20 cent per hour ,Not a significant amount by any means

JDxtra

turbocab wrote: »

It all depends on the power you are running the transmitter at.the transmitter they are using is a 25kilowatt, General consenses is they are running it at around 5kilowatts.With at 20cent per killowatt price thats 1euro per hour if there was no losses .So accounting for losses of 20 per cent that would be roughly 1euro 20 cent per hour ,Not a significant amount by any means

I wonder how efficient an AM transmitter is? For example, if the output is 5kW - how much electricity does it need to achieve this?

Modern FM transmitters would be around 70% efficient, so a 5kW FM transmitter at full power uses around 7.1kW. With a unit price of 20c per kWh, this would cost around €1,036/month to run.

KildareP

Spirit Radio from Three Rock seems to be back on air fully but without any audio processing (and 92.2 from Slievethoul appears to be a rebroadcast of Three Rock). Possibly it's microwave fed from Killarney Road but doesn't explain the lack of audio processing. As a result massive variances in levels between songs, liners, etc. and the studio mic is almost inaudible.


MW seems to be silent but the signal is usually very weak anyway so could just be my location.


They must be having serious issues for so much of their transmission chain to seemingly be out of commission.

john 1000

KildareP wrote: »

Spirit Radio from Three Rock seems to be back on air fully but without any audio processing (and 92.2 from Slievethoul appears to be a rebroadcast of Three Rock). Possibly it's microwave fed from Killarney Road but doesn't explain the lack of audio processing. As a result massive variances in levels between songs, liners, etc. and the studio mic is almost inaudible.


MW seems to be silent but the signal is usually very weak anyway so could just be my location.


They must be having serious issues for so much of their transmission chain to seemingly be out of commission.

Why does our lord himself not help out for God's sake

JDxtra

KildareP wrote: »

Spirit Radio from Three Rock seems to be back on air fully but without any audio processing (and 92.2 from Slievethoul appears to be a rebroadcast of Three Rock). Possibly it's microwave fed from Killarney Road but doesn't explain the lack of audio processing. As a result massive variances in levels between songs, liners, etc. and the studio mic is almost inaudible.


MW seems to be silent but the signal is usually very weak anyway so could just be my location.


They must be having serious issues for so much of their transmission chain to seemingly be out of commission.

Yes, confirmed - no processing on FM (89.9). Some poor mic settings and bad clipping on the internet stream too (which is only 32K AAC). Dig deep people, they need help.

One More Toy

JDxtra wrote: »

I wonder how efficient an AM transmitter is? For example, if the output is 5kW - how much electricity does it need to achieve this?

Modern FM transmitters would be around 70% efficient, so a 5kW FM transmitter at full power uses around 7.1kW. With a unit price of 20c per kWh, this would cost around €1,036/month to run.

Unit prices have dropped dramatically I've noticed, I'm paying 14c a unit with iberdrola

Oscarziggy

KildareP wrote: »

Spirit Radio from Three Rock seems to be back on air fully but without any audio processing (and 92.2 from Slievethoul appears to be a rebroadcast of Three Rock). Possibly it's microwave fed from Killarney Road but doesn't explain the lack of audio processing. As a result massive variances in levels between songs, liners, etc. and the studio mic is almost inaudible.


MW seems to be silent but the signal is usually very weak anyway so could just be my location.


They must be having serious issues for so much of their transmission chain to seemingly be out of commission.

Spirit Radio on MW good signal on south west Wales coast --possibly slightly stronger than normal .

Lord Nelson

JDxtra wrote: »

Yes, confirmed - no processing on FM (89.9). Some poor mic settings and bad clipping on the internet stream too (which is only 32K AAC). Dig deep people, they need help.

Probably find the optimod in the local pawn shop to raise a few quid to keep the lights on...

KildareP

Lord Nelson wrote: »

Probably find the optimod in the local pawn shop to raise a few quid to keep the lights on...

Well whatever listeners that may have had before I don't know how anyone could listen to what's going out at the moment.


The levels are all over the place - turn the radio right up if you want to listen to the presenter speak but not too high or you need to be prepared to go out and buy new speakers when a station ID plays.

turbocab

One More Toy wrote: »

Unit prices have dropped dramatically I've noticed, I'm paying 14c a unit with iberdrola

If its modern solid state transmitter the efficency would be more like 90 per cent not 70 per cent

Infoanon

turbocab wrote: »

If its modern solid state transmitter the efficency would be more like 90 per cent not 70 per cent

It's the rig used to relay UCB back in the 90s.

The problems at Spirit seem to stem from the audio chain so I am not sure where storm damage comes into it .

JDxtra

Infoanon wrote: »

It's the rig used to relay UCB back in the 90s.

The problems at Spirit seem to stem from the audio chain so I am not sure where storm damage comes into it .

I think it's just easy for a station to say storm damage. I would lean more towards lack of in-house technical skills and/or no access a broadcast service provider.

castle2012

turbocab wrote: »

It all depends on the power you are running the transmitter at.the transmitter they are using is a 25kilowatt, General consenses is they are running it at around 5kilowatts.With at 20cent per killowatt price thats 1euro per hour if there was no losses .So accounting for losses of 20 per cent that would be roughly 1euro 20 cent per hour ,Not a significant amount by any means

Interesting, I wonder how much cheaper DAB is to run?.

JDxtra

castle2012 wrote: »

Interesting, I wonder how much cheaper DAB is to run?.

With a DAB MUX, it's still a single transmission - so I would expect that the actual RF broadcast costs would be similar. However setup and equipment costs would be higher and you also need a reliable, high capacity data link. Costs can be shared with the different operators on the MUX though.

Losty Dublin

Lord Nelson wrote: »

Probably find the optimod in the local pawn shop to raise a few quid to keep the lights on...

I'd have suggested that Sean ask Kevin for the loan of one except Kev probably wanted his old 8100 back and they haven't got a back up. If they're that stuck then put everything onto cassette then press the "B" button.

Infoanon

Non stop dance on 94.3 today - no processing, no IDS , the music and modulation levels indicate that it's not the previous Unid on 94.1

KildareP

Infoanon wrote: »

It's the rig used to relay UCB back in the 90s.

The problems at Spirit seem to stem from the audio chain so I am not sure where storm damage comes into it .

Didn't that die a death?

They were off air on 549 for weeks on end back around 2018 because of it.

marno21

Cork this morning:

87.5 Power FM
87.8 True FM (not sure where exactly this comes from it has a very odd footprint)
107.0 Radio Caroline UK relay

CityView 97.6 is still going in the evenings also.

end of the road

is there any update on 94.3 in dublin?
what sort of dance music is it playing?

Declan A Walsh

Some strange things have been happening on the airwaves around south Dublin in relation to oldies pirates yesterday evening and today.

Yesterday, I came across a station on 96.0 with the RDS ABC 80s, playing eighties music (what else?!) between Ballinteer and Ranelagh. It was being murdered half the time by BBC Radio 4 cutting in on it. At one stage, my radio switched to East Coast FM on 96.2, which came in loud and clear near Sandford! No sign of it today - just picking up BBC Radio 4.

Today, I picked up a station playing quite an eclectic selection of oldies on 105.7 with the RDS Star1057. At one stage, the RDS information displayed "Star Radio - Real Music Variety". Some variety alright as it included: Diamonds are Forever by Shirley Bassie, Magic Fly by Space, Christians by China Crisis, Moments in Love by the Art of Noise, '70s David Bowie (forget which song), The Bed's Too Big Without You by The Police and easy listening "lounge" type music from the 1960s and/or 1970s! The reception was pretty variable.

Energy Power AM was not on 1395kh MW yesterday or this morning, but it was on this afternoon. However, it had no ids but what else could it be on that frequency playing oldies? While Energy was off earlier today, there was a station on 99.5 playing a very specific blend of oldies - soul, R'n'B and funk. It had no id or RDS. The signal was very strong around Ballinteer and Nutgrove. Later, when Energy was back on air, it was being relayed on 99.5, as per usual, but the signal was poor on 99.5. - possibly interference.

Max Power 2010

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Some strange things have been happening on the airwaves around south Dublin in relation to oldies pirates yesterday evening and today.

Yesterday, I came across a station on 96.0 with the RDS ABC 80s, playing eighties music (what else?!) between Ballinteer and Ranelagh. It was being murdered half the time by BBC Radio 4 cutting in on it. At one stage, my radio switched to East Coast FM on 96.2, which came in loud and clear near Sandford! No sign of it today - just picking up BBC Radio 4.

Today, I picked up a station playing quite an eclectic selection of oldies on 105.7 with the RDS Star1057. At one stage, the RDS information displayed "Star Radio - Real Music Variety". Some variety alright as it included: Diamonds are Forever by Shirley Bassie, Magic Fly by Space, Christians by China Crisis, Moments in Love by the Art of Noise, The Bed's Too Big Without You by The Police and easy listening "lounge" type music from the 1960s and/or 1970s! The reception was pretty variable.

Energy Power AM was not on 1395kh yesterday or this morning, but it was on this afternoon. However, it had no ids but what else could it be on that frequency playing oldies? While Energy was off earlier today, there was a station on 99.5 playing a very specific blend of oldies - soul, R'nB and funk. It had no id or RDS. The signal was very string around Ballinteer and Nutgrove. Later, when Energy was back on air, it was being relayed on 99.5, as per usual, but the signal was poor on 99.5. - possibly interference.

Also came across something strange today, was doing a scan passing the Rathfarnham exit on the M50, 90.3Mhz locked with RDS 'Fresh 107', over modulated dance music is all I could make out, swiftly moved on.

Declan A Walsh

Max Power 2010 wrote: »

Also came across something strange today, was doing a scan passing the Rathfarnham exit on the M50, 90.3Mhz locked with RDS 'Fresh 107', over modulated dance music is all I could make out, swiftly moved on.

Could this be the Unid which has turned up on different frequencies since last year including most recently 94.1? Or, could it be the "other" Unid that was on 94.3 very recently?

I just did a check. I thought the frequency seemed familiar. NEAR FM is on 90.3 - North East Access Radio, a licensed northside community station. Not a great frequency for a pirate to use at all (if it's not NEAR FM itself!), even if it may just be outside their coverage area. I know I can pick up NEAR FM in some parts of south Dublin.

TheBMG

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Could this be the Unid which has turned up on different frequencies since last year including most recently 94.1? Or, could it be the "other" Unid that was on 94.3 very recently?

I just did a check. I thought the frequency seemed familiar. NEAR FM is on 90.3 - North East Access Radio, a licensed northside community station. Not a great frequency for a pirate to use at all (if it's not NEAR FM itself!), even if it may just be outside their coverage area. I know I can pick up NEAR FM in some parts of south Dublin.

The 96.0 has been on for a while under different names from the North City. I suspect ABC 80’s is the same operator.

Any chance the 105.7 signal with the eclectic mix is a rebadged “The Beach”? They did flip formats before to the “Vault” done time ago.

Declan A Walsh

TheBMG wrote: »

The 96.0 has been on for a while under different names from the North City. I suspect ABC 80’s is the same operator.

Any chance the 105.7 signal with the eclectic mix is a rebadged “The Beach”? They did flip formats before to the “Vault” done time ago.

I did consider both possibilities. Re 96.0, is it not south inner city?

Max Power 2010

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Could this be the Unid which has turned up on different frequencies since last year including most recently 94.1? Or, could it be the "other" Unid that was on 94.3 very recently?

I just did a check. I thought the frequency seemed familiar. NEAR FM is on 90.3 - North East Access Radio, a licensed northside community station. Not a great frequency for a pirate to use at all (if it's not NEAR FM itself!), even if it may just be outside their coverage area. I know I can pick up NEAR FM in some parts of south Dublin.

I don't know Declan, never heard the unid myself, but agreed with NEAR on that freq, with a decent aerial you'll pick them up in most parts.