Finland

Scandinavian Weekend Radio will be on air this coming Saturday July 1st from 00.01 Finnish summer time (=21.00 UTC Friday) on the MW frequency 1602 kHz as well as on 6170 and 11690 kHz and on FM 94,9 MHz.
http://www.swradio.net/

Ydun Ritz (2023-06-30)

Denmark

World Music Radio 927 kHz and Radio208 1440 kHz, both in Copenhagen, will soon be on air again, as the license just has been renewed.

Ydun Ritz (2023-06-30)

Spain

Regarding to this message:
“This evening (Thursday 29 June) COPE Córdoba and COPE León are heard again on 1215 kHz.  To the ear their power levels are back to what they were before their respective faults of a few days ago.”

COPE Córdoba has no suffered any fault at all these months back but COPE Córdoba decreased power for a few months. Some days ago they solved it and returned to its normal power. Up-to-date info on Spanish and Portuguese MW can be found at IberiaDX e-Group, based in pain: http://groups.io/g/iberiadx

Jorge Garzón/IberiaDX (2023-06-29)

Space Weather

BIG SUNSPOT ALERT: One of the biggest sunspots in years is directly facing Earth. AR3354 is 10 times wider than Earth and about 1/3rd the size of the historical Carrington sunspot. It’s so big, observers in Europe and North America are seeing it naked-eye through the smoke of Canadian wildfires. Earth-directed flares are likely in the days ahead. Full story @ Spaceweather.com.

Ydun Ritz (2023-06-29)

Mongolia

I have done some more observation on the Mongolian transmitters.

Here is the transmitter coverage map according to fmscan.org. I know that these predictions are approximate.

Here are the estimated reception levels to be expected in Novokuzhnetsk, Russia. Again these are approximate, though it does suggest 209 from Oglii should provide best reception at that location.

Here is what I observed from the Novokuzhnetsk SDR last night just after broadcasting started.

164 was barely visible but not listenable. I did not observe any activity from that particular transmitter. 209 was barely audible, which does maybe suggest that Oglii was off and the SDR was picking up signals from the other two transmitters on the same frequency but much further away. The signal from 227 was mostly listenable.

I did not observe anything at all from 882 and haven’t done so in a month or more. I haven’t been able to identify the shortwave transmitter on 4895 for even longer.

Here is a screenshot from earlier today just as the day’s broadcasting schedule was concluding.

227 is just visible. Again this was by far the best signal at the location of this particular SDR. 164 went off the air seconds later.

All I can tell from these fairly limited observations is that 164 and 227 are definitely still active, along with at least one of the 209 transmitters. The transmissions from Oglii have possibly ceased. The status of the transmitter at Choibalsan will be hard to determine as there are no SDRs near it (apart from Irkutsk which doesn’t seem to pick up anything on longwave). The medium and short wave transmissions on 882 and 4895, respectively, do not appear to be still active.

I hope this information is of some benefit to the community,

Regards, Conor (2023-06-29)

United Kingdom

A Sad Footnote To This Week’s 1170 kHz AM Transmitter Closure At Foxhall Heath, Ipswich, UK.

Back in 1991, the then Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) regulator carried out AM Stereo tests at Radio Orwell’s AM transmitter on 1170 kHz.

The IBA adopted the CQUAM standard for stereo testing with the ambition of deploying an AM Stereo enhancement to low power AM transmitters within selected Independent Local Radio (ILR) areas.

Back in the late 1980s, there was a revival of AM listening, encouraged by what was then recent programme service splits between FM and AM output within each ILR area. Previously, AM and FM output simulcasted programmes in each ILR area. The FM/AM programme splits effectively doubled the services available for listeners within each ILR area.

The IBA’s AM stereo tests at Foxhall Heath were deemed a success by the authority, but the government of the day did not rubber stamp the IBA’s proposal.

Willie Bone (2023-06-29)

United Kingdom

Clarification that 7 transmitters closed on 28 June not 6. This brings the total closed on Tuesday and Wednesday to 12

774 Smooth Gloucester
828 Smooth Bournemouth
936 Smooth West Wilts
999 Gold Nottingham
1152 Smooth Norwich and
1359 Smooth Chelmsford
1431 Smooth Southend

Currently the only 2 that remain on air are
1152 Smooth Plymouth
1332 Gold Peterborough

James Robinson (2023-06-29)