Does Anyone Even Know About Radio North On 846khz AM?

Jonathan1990

Remember mentioning about this AM Northern Irish radio station a while ago on here which nobody appeared to know anything about. It's on 846khz and plays some Country music. Reading their website the transmitter may be directorial towards Western Scotland which means not receivable across Ireland.

www.radionorth.net

end of the road

i know of it but not much about it, apart from that it's one of the longest running pirates in ireland.
ps i would advize removing the location of where they are based from your post as it's an active station.

Declan A Walsh

Jonathan1990 wrote: »

Remember mentioning about this AM Northern Irish radio station a while ago on here which nobody appeared to know anything about. It's on 846khz and plays some Country music. Reading their website the transmitter may be directorial towards Western Scotland which means not receivable across Ireland.

www.radionorth.net

Further to your edit comment : Reason: Didn't Know It Was A Pirate Radio Station, I am pretty sure that there are no licensed commercial Irish stations on the island of Ireland on AM, with the one exception of Downtown Radio. This is besides BBC or RTE related stations (RTE Radio 1 is still on long wave). Spirit Radio also has AM frequencies but it relies on voluntary donations. In fact, none of those legal exceptions are exclusively on AM, i.e. all of them are on FM as well.

Therefore, if you hear of any other station on the island of Ireland broadcasting on AM, you can take it that they are a pirate. Of course, most these days are on FM!

Infoanon

end of the road wrote: »

i know of it but not much about it, apart from that it's one of the longest running pirates in ireland.
ps i would advize removing the location of where they are based from your post as it's an active station.

The location of the station is well known ! Hard to hide an AM station.

The signal doesn't travel far south but both this station and Star Country have a loyal audience albeit on AM only. Audio has been well modulated when I have been able to receive it.

AM pirates are basically left alone probably because they are not going to trouble the licensed FM stations too much.

For reasons that have never been explained afaik , the IRTC would not licence AM frequencies for the new commercials in 89 - despite one as going as far as having an installation ready to go - the original national service had AM outlets but despite these being former super pirate installations they became inaudible when engineered by RTE !

Declan A Walsh

Infoanon wrote: »

The location of the station is well known ! Hard to hide an AM station.

The signal doesn't travel far south but both this station and Star Country have a loyal audience albeit on AM only. Audio has been well modulated when I have been able to receive it.

AM pirates are basically left alone probably because they are not going to trouble the licensed FM stations too much.

For reasons that have never been explained afaik , the IRTC would not licence AM frequencies for the new commercials in 89 - despite one as going as far as having an installation ready to go - the original national service had AM outlets but despite these being former super pirate installations they became inaudible when engineered by RTE !

Century Radio holds the honour of being the only full-time independent licensed commercial station south of the border that had an AM frequency! Spirit Radio is not a commercial station as such. Incidentally, on Radio North's website, it says it has been around for 20 years - surely that's an understatement!

kazoo106

Its been around since November 1986 which is a lot more than 20 years (although the website may date back to 2006)

Declan A Walsh

kazoo106 wrote: »

Its been around since November 1986 which is a lot more than 20 years (although the website may date back to 2006)

More than 34 years!

Mullaghteelin

There is also Radio Star Country on 981khz from somewhere around the Inishowen peninsula/Derry area.

I've heard one or two hams from the south of England talking about them, trying to pull them in.

Both are very weak here in North County Dublin via groundwave, but receivable nonetheless.

kazoo106

Star have been on since April 88 - Not from Donegal though, a lot further south

Declan A Walsh

kazoo106 wrote: »

Star have been on since April 88 - Not from Donegal though, a lot further south

Their website is a bit out of date too - it says they have been broadcasting 25 years, unless they mean that particular frequency or it was relaunched at some point!

Declan A Walsh

According to this dxarchive, the current Radio North is a reincarnation, rather than progression, of the old Radio North, which apparently closed in 1988. So, maybe it is a bit closer to 20 years after all!

http://dxarchive.com/ireland_a_to_z_irish_pirates_radio_star_country.html

ford fiesta

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Century Radio holds the honour of being the only full-time independent licensed commercial station south of the border that had an AM frequency!

Atlantic 252 was technically based South of the Border, though not licenced by the IRTC and no FM frequency !!

Declan A Walsh

ford fiesta wrote: »

Atlantic 252 was technically based South of the Border, though not licenced by the IRTC and no FM frequency !!

It was partly owned by RTE so was not an independent commercial station like Century Radio!

ford fiesta

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

It was partly owned by RTE so was not an independent commercial station like Century Radio!

Though it was a Commercial "venture"!

Infoanon

ford fiesta wrote: »

Atlantic 252 was technically based South of the Border, though not licenced by the IRTC and no FM frequency !!

No official FM frequency. ....

There was an FM frequency which I assume was part of a redundancy system linking to the transmission site.

I recall Atlantic getting very upset one day when Sunset relayed Atlantic in the morning time prior to their live shows from midday.

Declan A Walsh

ford fiesta wrote: »

Though it was a Commercial "venture"!

I mean that they did not have to get a license like fully private-owned operations.

As I say, Century Radio was the only full-time licensed independent commercial station with an AM option south of the border! That statement excludes RTE-related stations such as Atlantic 252, Spirit Radio (not a commercial license) and, of course, Downtown Radio, which is north of the border! Century Radio is long gone and I think temporary licensed Dublin station Choice FM during the '00s had an AM option. All that is left is some BBC frequencies. Any other operation on AM on this island is a pirate, such as Energy (Power) AM, Radio Star Country, one from Dundalk, maybe one near Sligo.... and not forgetting Radio North!

Declan A Walsh

Infoanon wrote: »

No official FM frequency. ....

There was an FM frequency which I assume was part of a redundancy system linking to the transmission site.

I recall Atlantic getting very upset one day when Sunset relayed Atlantic in the morning time prior to their live shows from midday.

The irony of that is that at least one of the presenters on Sunset did subsequently end up an Atlantic 252, namely Enda Caldwell!

kazoo106

I remember that - Sunset used to relay Atlantic quite a bit on 106.8

Spirit take ads though and they have a sales department

Declan A Walsh

kazoo106 wrote: »

I remember that - Sunset used to relay Atlantic quite a bit on 106.8

Spirit take ads though and they have a sales department

Is there such a thing as a quasi-commercial license? Maybe I was a bit rash dismissing Spirit Radio, but other than them....you know the story!

As was pointed out by another poster, the AM/Medium Wave pirates tend to be left alone these days as they are not interfering with the FM legals, and, of course, RTE stations are no longer on Medium Wave. RTE Radio 1 has still got a frequency of course on 252kh Long Wave, the former frequency of Atlantic 252, but there are no pirates on Long Wave. So it seems that the likes of Radio North could continue unhindered for some time.