The future of RTE Radio 1 LW

Sam Russell · 20-05-2017 10:00AM

Deleted User wrote: »

I've no issues with Religion but schools need to start teaching more practical things like building electronic kits and programming rather than mostly reading books and learning off Sh1t of no importance. Next is reading writing and maths and languages.

There was nothing I was more fascinated with in School as I was in Electronics but no one shared my interest and no one was repairing CRT TV's at the age of 15 that I knew. I received no encouragement or direction to nurture this ability. All people were interested in was the GAA and that's the only encouragement Children get, the GAA is the be all and end all in this country but Children with the ability for science, programming, electronics are left with no encouragement and/or direction and also the internet and social media is making complete retards out of Children today and not just Children/Teenagers.

The Raspberry Pi project was started because undergraduate candidates were turning up for interview at Cambridge with no programming experience. So the R Pi was designed as a low cost programmable computer (cost is about €30) and given to the interviewees and asked to come back in three months and relate what they had done with it. The Coder Dojo project is also intent on getting kids to get into computer coding.

All good stuff but off topic. Sorry.

20-05-2017 10:25AM

Yeah all good but we shouldn't concentrate solely on IT. Children should be guided based on their aptitude. This is where the current education system fails miserably, a one system for all and some bright Children who are not the best academically can really do well if lead in a way that reflects their abilities , the Junior and leaving cert is a joke. In fact you can bypass the whole system , learn to read and write at home, go on some courses and do pretty well and start earning money rather than get into debt in college where a lot of students graduate and end up in careers that they had not studied for what so ever !

Former Former · 20-05-2017 03:13PM

This thread has gone completely and utterly mental.

20-05-2017 03:16PM

Unsubscribe.

marno21 · 09-06-2017 12:06AM

252 getting absolutely hammered by Algeria in Peterborough tonight: http://cambs-sdr.no-ip.org:8901

09-06-2017 12:10AM

Ah sure as long as it's not the telly no one cares........

burnsey1987 · 09-06-2017 12:11AM

marno21 wrote: »

252 getting absolutely hammered by Algeria in Peterborough tonight: http://cambs-sdr.no-ip.org:8901

Same here in Limerick...

Elmo · 09-06-2017 05:04PM

ON RE in schools did no else go to second level that did woodwork, technology, tech graphics, engineering??? But way off topic.

dxhound2005 · 09-06-2017 09:39PM

marno21 wrote: »

252 getting absolutely hammered by Algeria in Peterborough tonight: http://cambs-sdr.no-ip.org:8901

Not doing too bad tonight at 9.30 pm. And RTE is dominating Algeria on this other receiver in England.

http://grimsbysdr.ddns.net:8073/

It has a lot to do with the receiving antenna. 50 miles away from Summerhill I can peak RTE at 40 dB over S9 or I can completely null it out and hear only Algeria. I have a Wellbrook loop antenna on a rotator outside.

Oscarziggy · 09-06-2017 10:59PM

Not a squeak from Algeria tonight on the Wales coast at 10:50pm unless they close down ?
Regards

09-06-2017 11:04PM

I'll try the AN200 loop when it arrives , but in theory it should be able to tune out interference and tune to the stronger signal and filter out the weaker one a lot better then the internal ferrite.

Definitely try to get a radio with external antenna connectors that also use the external input for AM, then get a loop antenna such as the wellbrooks if possible.

But I'll see how well the An200 works, it's much cheaper.

09-06-2017 11:05PM

I've no issues with LW 252 at any time in Carlow. 50 db over 9.

SPDUB · 10-06-2017 06:21AM

Deleted User wrote: »

I've no issues with LW 252 at any time in Carlow. 50 db over 9.

Had no issues in Dublin either on Thursday night listening to the RTE coverage of UK election

Grady Boyd · 25-06-2017 01:28AM

RTE lw 252 is closing down for 2
weeks from Tuesday for changing the
bottom plate on the mast, I guess the
campaigners were wrong when they
said rte were lying about the site
needing expensive maintenance as
the mast gets older ?

25-06-2017 10:54AM

Of course the mast needs maintenance but if maintenance was ongoing then it wouldn't need to be out of service for so long or needing such costly repairs, but I'm no expert on transmitters.

It could be a tactic to hope the public don't notice it missing in 2 weeks and / or to persuade people that 252 is an unnecessary waste of money.

It's small money by comparison to some of the ridiculous salaries RTE have paid hopeless presenters for years and continue to do so !

Oscarziggy · 25-06-2017 01:43PM

252 came in handy yesterday morning as it was the only place I could find live commentary of the Lions match when I was out and about in the car !!
Regards

25-06-2017 01:50PM

Not many cars today have LW, nice one !

Yes MW and LW offer greater transmitting schedule choices as the FM band is too crowded these days.

I'd like if they put RTE Gold on MW as it would be handy to get in the car without having to fumble with bluetooth and mobiles even though my car has bluetooth it's still a pain in the ass.

RTE Gold would never get a license today for regular FM because they'd have to have news every 30 mins, adds, and they would not be allowed to play the older genre of music they do, this would not be allowed today as they'd most likely have have to play R&B and the likes (normal radio music crap) during the day time and cater for the 20's generation and then they'd have to have certain % of music Irish etc etc, Licensing is highly restrictive and in my opinion highly damaging to radio in Ireland. I would expect LW and MW not to have such high restrictions / conditions. A radio station should be allowed to play whatever the hell they want....

CrowdedHouse · 25-06-2017 02:30PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Not many cars today have LW,...

I haven't had LW in years but my last 3 cars bizarrely have Short Wave - the 49m band.

I'm all bit of SW listening but you're not going to pull in much dx using the rear window element as an antenna!

25-06-2017 05:02PM

Wow, SW in a car ? please tell me what cars you had that had SW.

No you won't get many stations on such an antenna. But you'd be surprised what you could pick up on a small active whip.

Oscarziggy · 25-06-2017 05:32PM

We had a Merc Sprinter van where I worked --- it had a built in radio that had the 49m band on it .
Never heard a thing on it --- it had an aerial on the roof of the van .
It's possible there was another aerial socket at the back of it --- I never looked.
Regards

CrowdedHouse · 25-06-2017 05:41PM

They're all BMW's

I can hear weak music on 5970 kHz

(apologies for OT)

SPDUB · 25-06-2017 05:45PM

Grady Boyd wrote: »

RTE lw 252 is closing down for 2
weeks from Tuesday for changing the
bottom plate on the mast, I guess the
campaigners were wrong when they
said rte were lying about the site
needing expensive maintenance as
the mast gets older ?

Accordingy to the technical information page on Aertal it's between 12 noon and 5pm from 27th June to 7th July .

I wouldn't put it pass RTE to be "degrading the service" though ie doing maintenance in the most annoying and time consuming way possible

dxhound2005 · 25-06-2017 05:51PM

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

They're all BMW's

I can hear weak music on 5970 kHz

(apologies for OT)

That is China Radio International in German from a transmitter site in Albania.

25-06-2017 07:01PM

There are many, many stations on the 49 meter band , particularly from Sunset throughout the night. One of particular interest to me is radio Habana Cuba on 6000 KHZ from 2 am - about 7 am or 5040 Khz from 11 PM and 6145 Khz from 2am again, not as strong sometimes as 6000 Khz. It's an hour long English broadcast any SW receiver should pick it up, depending on conditions but mostly about 30 feet of wire in a tree seriously improves reception.

Anyway, manual tuning would be best as auto tuning would be more for stronger stations but a car aerial is not going to be ideal for SW still very interesting to see SW on any modern car !

26-06-2017 12:05AM

An announcement was made on 252 at midnight, advising of the closure. It said that the transmission equipment has been in constant use for 27 years (not entirely true) and needs urgent maintenance. It mentioned the replacement of the mast's baseplate.

I also noticed that I can null RTE completely and hear Algeria by turning the radio, even though the transmitter is only about 30km away from me.

marno21 · 26-06-2017 12:46AM

Karsini wrote: »

An announcement was made on 252 at midnight, advising of the closure. It said that the transmission equipment has been in constant use for 27 years (not entirely true) and needs urgent maintenance. It mentioned the replacement of the mast's baseplate.

I also noticed that I can null RTE completely and hear Algeria by turning the radio, even though the transmitter is only about 30km away from me.

Same here in Limerick, although that's understandable given the distance, lower power of RTE and sea path helping Algeria.

The announcement has been playing hourly today. It was on at 4pm just at the start of Dublin vs Westmeath.

ei9go · 26-06-2017 12:15PM

Was in Kent for the past week and there is no signal strength there at all in the car.

252 is not really usable past Cardiff. They must be only running about 50 kw.

As data roaming has arrived, I tried the RTE Radio Player with Bluetooth in the car. Perfect sound but stopped and buffered all the time. Unusable.

So much for moving to modern delivery methods.

26-06-2017 12:30PM

Not only that but RTE's streaming quality is crap and still stuck in the days of mp3 at 96 Kbps which was designed for ISDN connections back in the late 90's and early 00's !

dxhound2005 · 26-06-2017 01:50PM

ei9go wrote: »

Was in Kent for the past week and there is no signal strength there at all in the car.

252 is not really usable past Cardiff. They must be only running about 50 kw.

As data roaming has arrived, I tried the RTE Radio Player with Bluetooth in the car. Perfect sound but stopped and buffered all the time. Unusable.

So much for moving to modern delivery methods.

I have a receiver with a signal meter. I can peak signals with a loop antenna. RTE is 40 dB over S9 at peak so there has been no reduction in power. If you had a receiver with a loop antenna in a quiet location you would get reception in Kent.

RTE is dominating Algeria on the Dutch receiver just now, and that is past Cardiff.

Sam Russell · 26-06-2017 02:04PM

dxhound2005 wrote: »

I have a receiver with a signal meter. I can peak signals with a loop antenna. RTE is 40 dB over S9 at peak so there has been no reduction in power. If you had a receiver with a loop antenna in a quiet location you would get reception in Kent.

RTE is dominating Algeria on the Dutch receiver just now, and that is past Cardiff.

Depends on whether you are receiving the ground wave or the sky wave. Up to Cardiff is ground wave, Netherlands would be sky wave, as would Kent.

The future of RTE Radio 1 LW

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