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How come we have to listen to cricket test matches on Long Wave and Radio 5 Live on Medium Wave?
Can some of your techies explain with they can’t be put on FM which would allow easy listening on all devices – especially pocket radios which often only have FM?
I appreciate that there may not be many FM wavelengths left but there seems to be big gaps up in the 100s and they seem to find room for some pretty ordinary local channels.
As frequency modulation is generally the best method of radio broadcast, transmission licenses cost more. I used to work in a small radio station with a cheep and cheerful amplitude modulation license and it was seriously poor quality reception.
Obviously an issue for the people in the programming department of any FM channels which cover sports.
Thanks Bulwark but doesn’t help me to understand why the BBC – with all it’s resources – can have local stations on FM but has one of it’s flagship national stations – Radio 5 – and the ever popular Test Match Special etc on other frequencies. I’d agree with you if we were talking about a small broadcaster with limited funds but surely the BBC can afford the licenses?
Completely agree Adrian, it is a strange one. I know a number of TMS listeners would consider it sacrilege if the cricket were moved from longwave, but anyone who has bought a radio in the last ten years finds their options limited.
Better still, why not boot off the awful Five Live altogether and make it the cricket only channel. (With a brief interlude for Mark Kermode’s film reviews)
The thing about the local radio stations is that they have quite a short range so you can get many broadcasts nationwide on the tying up the same bandwidth within the frequency spectrum. For example 96.7 FM is Belfast City beat, but in liverpool its Radio City, and its also West FM and CHYM FM in other areas to name but a few.
With a nationwide broadcast (if you want a strong reception) you need a number of transmitters, these transmitters cant boadcast on the same frequency, as due to the different propagation delays to each transmitter, you would end up with a broadcast overlap, so in effect you would have two modulated signals running over the top of one another. Therefore you need to tie up a greater bandwidth through transmitting on different frequencies (a la radio1 about 97-99 FM), and if you were on a long drive you may have to change frequencies a couple of times rather than just have a garbled signal, when you cross through any overlapping ranges from different transmitters.
When you buy a broadcasting license, what you are effectively purchasing is a small chunk of the frequency spectrum over a certain geographical area. It is all well and good to say that there is area free between the 100s but in certain areas these frequencies may be leased by smaller local stations, and so to broadcast a nationwide signal over their broadcast would be infringing on their license.
As I said earlier, to be broadcast on FM it would really take one of the bigger FM broadcasters (BBC etc) to allocate it programming time on one of their nationwide channels, and this is a matter for the programming people I would expect, rather than a frequency allocation issue.
I was under the impression that the advantage of longwave is that its signal is indeed ‘long’ in that it requires few, if any, extra transmitters to boost the signal to areas distant from the originating transmitter. Hence it maybe cheaper to utilise than either medium-wave or FM when an extra channel is needed to broadcast irregular day-long programmes such as TMS
The Test is also broadcasted on the digital radio channel ‘Radio Five Live Sports Extra’
This is from the website:
Thursday 26 February
Test Match Special
13.30 – 21.30
Uninterrupted commentary on the first day of the fourth Test between West Indies and England. Live from the Kensington Oval, Barbados.Available Online
(UK Only)Get yourself a digital radio Adrian
I was under the impression that the advantage of longwave is that its signal is indeed ‘long’ in that it requires few, if any, extra transmitters to boost the signal to areas distant from the originating transmitter.
Yes, this correct Drone, as transmissions in the Low Frequency Band utilise groundwave propagation, they will travel much further, than line of sight VHF.
High Frequency Band Transmissions use skywave propagation which can actually give worldwide comms (with a few repater stations) but need to be retuned at certain times of the day due to changes in the ionisphere.
Very High Frequency Transmissions (including FM) are loosely line of site and dont reflect off the ionisphere thus meaning range is a bit poorer. Ultra High and Super High Frequencies are what are then employed on satellite communications (a minimum of three of which will give worldwide comms), but the sheer cost of getting a working satellite in orbit means bandwidth costs plenty.
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