BANDSCAN THREAD

Losty Dublin

Driving along the Ballinteer/Knocklyon area and I heard an unidentified station on 99.3 yesterday evening. It was playing some rather slick 80's soul, if that's any indication of its source.

DublinsABC

Just down in Blessington and Hot FM on 94.3FM Top40 /Dance music … Retro FM heard until you enter village

Antenna

One for the AM DXers, reports in recent days of temp licence community station Finn Valley FM in east Co. Donegal (95.8) being relayed and heard distantly at night on 1206kHz AM. Someone experimenting

I don't think there has been any Dublin weekend activity on 1206, or any other AM (MW) frequency, in some time?

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123416858#Comment_123416858

HotFM is a new one to me. Is that the long time occasional operator from the bog of Allen I wonder?

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123416858#Comment_123416858

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123417839#Comment_123417839

I don't think I heard of this particular Hot FM before. Is it Blessington based, or is from the Bog of Allen direction? Regardless of source, how long has this station been around? It would be fascinating if this only started this year and if it was not a Dublin pirate either.

DublinsABC

Hot FM Did lock on in car around village but Retro still in back ground ..I think i heard it a couple of weeks ago but not great could be based elsewhwere (Bog Of Allen )

JDxtra

Dublin City FM on 103.2 very distorted today.

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123432459#Comment_123432459

Which is an improvement on their regular output 😁

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123007734#Comment_123007734

I found out where the music on 107.1 is coming from. The Church of the Immaculate Conception, Belturbet. Choir singing in Latin on Saturday 07 June, until their 7 pm Mass came on. Fighting with Newstalk on the frequency a few miles away. I think Newstalk started up more recently?

marno21

According to a post on Digital Spy, Classic Hits have a new outlet at Redmount Hill in east Co. Galway on 95.1

This site has been home to a relay of Galway Bay FM on 97.4 for some time.

Infoanon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123532881#Comment_123532881

It's listed as their 'East Galway ' outlet (95.1)

marno21

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123534029#Comment_123534029

Makes sense now with Classic Hits parent company acquiring Galway Bay FM, with the site that 95.1 is on being a long standing Galway Bay FM site.

I note that the press release by Classic Hits today says their Clifden outlet (formerly 104.2) is now on 94.9, with a new "north Co. Galway" outlet on 104.2 from a site that appears to be near Maam Cross.

https://blog.classichits.ie/new-east-galway-transmitter-for-irelands-classic-hits-radio/

dxhound2005

Classic Hits being relayed on 1575 kHz Medium Wave. This one from Tenerife. Very strong on SDR's in the West.

https://www.coast.fm/

TheBMG

Greatest Hits (a mere 63 watts from Scotland!) was battling it out on 103.0 against Hits Radio (the former Key 103/Picadillly in Manchester) last night here in South Dublin.

BBC Cumbria, BBC Manchester, BBC Scotland all clear as a bell too.

East Coast FM on 99.9 was swamped by ClassicFM on the same channel.

Mid West on 96.1 and Northernsound on 96.3 were either side of East Coasts big 96.2 rig but not causing any problems.

Together FM (the Ballyfermot community station on 96.0) normally puts up a poor fight against BBC Radio 4 from Divis and last night was no exception.

Antenna

"Greatest Hits (a mere 63 watts from Scotland!) " on 103.0

BMG, was that power on the frequency finder website?, it may not be accurate,

other sources say the Cambret Hill Scotland 103.0 Greatest Hits is 700W (or 0.7kW) , such as here:

https://bdxc.org.uk/ukfm.pdf

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123626592#Comment_123626592

yeah saw it on Frequency Finder and the low power surprised me.

Normally if there’s DX conditions I tend to receive Capital Wales or Hits Manchester on that frequency; it’s only recently the Cambret Hill signal has made an appearance. Wonder if there was an upgrade of some sort?

Antenna

BMG: "Wonder if there was an upgrade of some sort?"

Doesn't appear to be any change in the listed power, was the same years ago.. Maybe car reception of it greatly depended on position.

"Together FM (the Ballyfermot community station on 96.0) normally puts up a poor fight against BBC Radio 4 from Divis and last night was no exception."

was it actually on air that night?, as they are operating with a 100-day temporary licence - on Saturdays and Sundays (so covering almost 1 year)

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123631042#Comment_123631042

could’ve sworn TogetherFM have their rig on 24/7 but I’ll check tomorrow. It’s always been a shockingly poor frequency around Dublin anyway, even with their previous incarnations.

(Phoenix on 92.5 also has a bad habit of disappearing when the sun comes out but Together is even worse)

Declan A Walsh

I was paying more heed to DAB+ stations (when I had control of the car that has them!) and the monthly Radio Caroline North broadcast from the Ross's Revenge via Manx Radio AM this weekend, but I did check this evening for pirate activity on the airwaves - what is now an increasingly occasional check. I found what I presume is ABC Dublin on 93.3. 94.3 was silent. Was Retro FM on earlier? Was there any other activity - FM, MW/AM or Short Wave?

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123631612#Comment_123631612

Retro were on today about Midday (live presentation with Mike Doyle). Not sure what frequency because I was paying attention to the road 🥲

Declan A Walsh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123631645#Comment_123631645

I would guess either 94.3 or 99.5, assuming that they have given up on their previous frequency of 92.0, but who knows! It's great to see Mike Doyle still flying the pirate flag after so many decades.

TheBMG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123631042#Comment_123631042

TogetherFM seemed to have a blank carrier on this morning. Couldn’t resolve RDS and the Beeb weren’t doing them any favours (this is in Ballinteer, D16)

Declan A Walsh

I briefly did a pirate scan this afternoon in the D16 area. This is what I got.

93.3 FM - countryish music with no RDS - I am guessing ABC Dublin. The signal was not great so probably explains the lack of RDS.

94.3 FM - Retro FM - oldies - Paul Wilson was on live taking requests. The signal was very good.

99.3 FM - Unidentified station playing automated oldies with no RDS but with very good signal. I would hazard a guess that it is connected to the former MW oldies pirates Energy, as it sometimes used that frequency for both relay/streams of the MW broadcasts and for the odd separate automated oldies broadcast. More often it used 99.5 FM, but I think 99.3 is a better choice of frequency around south Dublin as it avoids clashing with the use of 99.5 for north Wicklow for temporary license runs. It is odd that it never identifies itself at any stage, even with an RDS.

I could not detect any pirate activity on MW.

TheBMG

was working in Croker earlier (lucky me!) and both Heart and Capital were audible from the UK (107.2 and 103.0)

Losty Dublin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123631602#Comment_123631602

That's a great reason to pray of good weather 😊

TheBMG

some unusual catches this morning in Balinteer (Dublin 16).

Heart on 107.2; Capital on 103.0 and a bunch of the Irish ILR stations coming in with enhanced reception. MWR were audible on 97.1 which I’ve never received in Dublin.

ryangontv

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123669833#Comment_123669833

MWR 97.1 from Achill Island ~1.7kW.

Tonabrocky Newstalk reactivated. 107.0 MHz. Approx 1kW (estimate)

TheBMG

good evening for skip with Italian, Spanish and Algerian stations coming in on the lower part of the FM band here in south Dublin

TheBMG

BBC nationals all over the dial in Dublin this morning and some sort of lift coming in from the west means I’m getting perfect reception of the Mid West death notices (thankfully they haven’t read my name out)