BANDSCAN THREAD

Swapped for an FM rig I think.

Officially it's a main site.....

OK. If you say so. My information I got from RTE (on paper) say otherwise.

I was told by someone who would know that 35kw was a goal , 15kw was achieved .

The aerial system issue was the height of a tower needed for that frequency to operate efficiently.

I have literature from RTE that lists the main sites as Maghera, Truskmore, Kippure, Mt Leinster and Mullaghanish. Dublin is listed as an "additional" transmitter, along with Donegal and Kerry. Admittedly, it's old info but I've no reason to believe that has changed.

They were the original VHF TV sites from the early 60s. The Dublin transmitter was probably the old relay on the Donnybrook mast, that closed around the time Three Rock opened. The main sites nowadays should be Kippure, Truskmore, Maghera, Mullaghanish, Mount Leinster, Cairn Hill, Three Rock, Clermont Carn, Holywell Hill and Spur Hill.

1980's lit. Probably out of date.

My recollection of the R Dublin big rig, was that it had an engraved plate on it indicating that it was property of the Philadelphia Power Company. It looked impressive being the first tall cabinet rig that most of us had ever seen, but the audio quality was bad from the moment it was connected up in Dublin. Following some research, Cooke then found that it had been used by the power company as a repeater relay for network service vans in the field and so it was only set up for voice telephone quality commercial bandwidth of 300hz to 3.3Khz.

It was a long time ago, but I think the plate also said that it was rated for 10Kw max but may only have run once at that power. On the day it was let loose, the mast flash arced all over the place and the power output had to be reduced. If I remember correctly Cooke ended up in A&E for RF burns on one hand when one of the flashes got through a small hole in the rubber gloves he was wearing, fusing melted rubber into the wound.

There were attempts made to improve audio quality, but it never sounded great and Cooke always thought that output power was more important than audio quality, so rather than admit a failure, the rig was kept in service (may have been left at 5kw as mentioned). I remember seeing him mixing cement in the evening after the morning raid on Sunshine in 1983, so that the rig could be anchored to the ground in an attempt to prevent its removal. The transmitter 'room' (four walls, no floorboards and a hole in the ceiling and roof where the mast went through), was then sealed up by removing the room door and walling the door space up. Entry to the transmitter room was then only possible 'Narnia like' by crawling through a wardrobe placed against the wall in another room, where a false back panel could be removed to allow access.

It was all very crazy stuff.

Christmas FM finished for this year on FM at midnight (still available online) .

As with this time last year another temporary service - Classic Hits 80s - is back and now again available around 4 cities (reduced footprint to Xmas FM) on the usual frequencies . Classic Hits 80s with 1980s music format and I expect would be of interest to those who listened to the recently shutdown Dublin pirate 'Connect FM' which was on 107.1MHz

re the Christmas fm - classic hits 80s changeover - How is the switchover completed? Are visits to each transmission site required or can the source be changed remotely?

anyone still listen to Shortwave radio ? Scanning around this morning and there is still a few stations on the band to be heard in Ireland

Radio New Zealand is coming in fairly well on 13755 kHz, on my small portable with just the telescopic antenna. Up to around noon.

Not sure to be honest, in the case of Christmas FM, they use an Orban processor. Also, BTS are not involved in the transmission.

Any pirate activity anywhere around Ireland today? It looks like all concerned on AM and FM have gone to ground in Dublin for the for-seeable future. What about pirates from Co. Meath, such as RetroNow? I am hazarding a guess that the two long-running AM pirates from north Donegal (Radio North) and Monaghan (Radio Star Country) are still on the go on the airwaves - am I correct? Any other AM and FM pirates around the country? What about short wave pirates, Dublin or elsewhere?