Month: December 2023

France

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Translated from French:

The MW antenna in Tramoyes will not survive its 90th birthday. This December 15 at 1:15 p.m. the MW pylon in Tramoyes near Lyon was destroyed. Tramoyes is a commune in Ain in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Its transmitter covered the entire Lyon region. Construction dates from 1934, but its history begins in 1930: General Ferrié heads the commission responsible for organizing the technical infrastructure of French public broadcasting: this is the “Ferrie plan”. According to the Ferrié plan, eleven transmitters were to comfortably cover France, which will lead, among other things, to the construction of the Lyon-Tramoyes station. The site was chosen because it was flat, well cleared and without obstacles.
In 1934, work began: The antenna is of the single-pylon umbrella type and the building includes a 100 kW transmitter and a backup studio.
In July 1935, the station was put into operation. With its 100 kW, it transmits over 463 m (643 kHz). The broadcasts leave the new studio, 47 cours Gambetta in Lyon.
The station was seriously sabotaged at the end of August 1944 by the occupying German troops before their departure. The mast was dynamited. The transmitter only regained full power in 1947, with a new 100 kW transmitter installed by the French Thomson Houston Company and the installation of a new antenna with a height of 220 m.
In the 1960s, the transmitter was replaced by a 300 kW unit and ensured the broadcast of France Culture.
During the second half of the 1990s, the center was modernized. The transmitter is replaced by two 150 kW units which are coupled to develop 300 kW. The new transmitters are transistorized and offer better quality and save energy. It broadcasts the Radio Bleue program.
In 2000, France Info was broadcast instead of France Bleue.
On January 3, 2016, the transmitter permanently stopped its broadcasts, like all other medium wave transmitters of Radio France (France Info and France Bleu), in order to save operating costs.
For seven years, the building, which belongs to TDF, has housed the company’s offices and those of ITAS, a subsidiary of the TDF group. This company provides studies, design, installation and maintenance of radio site infrastructures.
As for the antennas, there are only a few mobile phone antennas on the building. The pylon, which no longer has any use, will certainly be deconstructed very soon.

Radio Magazine FB group via Mike Terry, WRTH FB group (2023-12-29)

United States

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Sports talk on 1250?. 
I’m wondering if anyone on the west coast has changed formats or program schedules. 
I had ESPN on 1250 here in alaska Thursday night at 0500UTC/8pm AK. 
Looking at radio locator, no 1250 “listed” as news/talk on the west coast has ESPN on their schedule and/or no 1250 on the west coast is listed with a news/talk/sports format. 
The only sports stations on 1250 are TX in WI.. with only one listed as ESPN. 
I guess its possible, especially considering WOAI is a semi regular for me on 1200 and the 1250 in TX thats ESPN is.. San antonio… and if KZDC left day power and pattern on? Its possible. 
And no, of course I did not get any ID or commercials

Paul B. Walker Jr. to irca iog (2023-12-29)

United States

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https://yachatsnews.com/yaquina-bay-communications-foreclosure-sale/

KNPT-1310 Newport, KBCH-1400 Lincoln City, & KWDP-820 Waldport, according to KXL Portland, they will shut down 1/1/24 including 2 FM’s (KNCU-92.7 & KCRF-96.7). The only buyer is the bank according to the info. They owe over $500K the last I heard. If they sign off, that will leave only 1 AM in the county. 1230 KCUP Newport/Toledo. There are some other FMs though.
Sorry to hear this. KNPT used to be solid as a rock. A station my mother listened to when we lived in Newport in the 50s. Also logged and QSL’d from Alaska in the 60s. A regular here all day.
Maybe someone will buy them and get them back on. The dept has to be paid off first.

Patrick Martin to irca iog (2023-12-28)

Australia

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3GL 1341 Reactivation.
3GL back on air today 29/12 after txer failure. It will be interesting to see if there is a New Years launch of the station.

Chris Rogers via ICDX-AM iog (2023-12-29)

Sweden & Denmark

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Wideband recordings with the SAQ Christmas transmission and simultaneous Kalundborg morning gymnastics:

In the COHIRADIA archive there are now two new AM-wideband recordings from 2023-12-24. Recording 1 was made by Walter Barteczek in Neunkirchen-Seelscheid (D) and contains a VLF-wideband IQ-file with the traditional Christmas transmission of SAQ in Grimeton on 17.2 kHz. The band extends from 10 – 60 kHz and has very good SNR with a clear signal. Recording 2 , made by Hermann Scharfetter in Graz (AT), extends from 10 – 260 kHz. It contains, in addition to SAQ, the LW band including a transmission of Kalundborg (243 kHz) with morning gymnastics. The SNR of SAQ in recording 2 is by ca. 4dB worse than in recording 1, so for SAQ allone recording 1 is preferrable.

Both recordings can be downloaded and played back with software for software defined radios (e.g. SDRUno) and contain the complete frequency spectrum which was received at the respective QTHs. They can also be played back on analogue equipment when using the RedPitaya platform supported by COHIRADIA.

Footnote: The files, though having the extension ‘wav’, are no audio files and cannot be played back with standard audio players. Use SDRUno, SDR#, SDR-Angel, HDSDR or similar tools.

Best regards Hermann Scharfetter (2023-12-29)

Turkey

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Turkey MW off? update 28/12: again on?
This morning, December 28th, in a location close to Taranto, Italy, Franco Fischetti has reported a strong signal from East on 927 kHz. According to him the transmission could be in Turkish. 

I checked against the files at our remote Perseus in Liguria and indeed, at 05:57utc a moderate signal suddenly pops up over WMR’s program. I’m pretty sure the language was Turkish. At 06utc, Power927 Milan blocks the reception just over an apparently revived Izmir time pips. 
audio: https://vocaroo.com/1irFbQjewItO

Andy Lawendel to MWlist iog (2023-12-28)

Curaçao

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Sad news in the Dutch Caribbean: Longtime broadcaster from Curaçao Z-86 on 860 AM (formerly known as “Curom”) and their FM outlet “MI 95” on 95.7 FM, both stations operated by Curom Broadcasting Corporation has ceased operations on Friday December 22nd 2023, due to a court ruling declaring the corporation bankrupt, there was a third outlet that was also part of Curom Broadcasting Corporation that is “88 RockCorsou” 88.3 FM (rock/ R&B format) but for some time was already operating independently from the parent company, this station was spared from the court ruling.

Z-86 on 860 AM, is one of the oldest commercial radio station in the Dutch Caribbean (formerly known as The Netherlands Antilles) broadcasting since 1933 for 90 years, with the departure of Z-86 from the airwaves, there are almost no AM stations left in the Dutch Caribbean with exception of Trans World Radio in Bonaire (TWR) on 800 AM.

There might be some hope that a buyer may come forward and take these stations out of the dark, even tough the process for a radio station ownership transfer are different in the Dutch Caribbean. 
Richinald Velasquez to I Love AM Radio FB group (2023-12-26)

Denmark

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World Music Radio now on reduced power – 100 Watts only – on 927 kHz due to problems with the aerial. The aerial is very sensitive to rain and high winds, but reducing the power has helped to minimize breaks in transmissions a bit.

Radio208 on 1440 kHz back on full power (600 Watts) after a day off air due to problems with the coax cable.

Stig Hartvig Nielsen (2023-12-26)