Technical

United Kingdom

mw

Radio Caroline
Service Message: Monday 21st July.  Our 648 AM is currently on reduced power on our standby transmitter following thunderstorms and lightning strikes in the Orfordness area on Monday afternoon. Our main transmitter has shutdown with an HV overload and will not restart. We will arrange an engineering team to site shortly.

Freeview: Radio Caroline has ceased broadcasting on Freeview Channel 277.
https://radiocaroline.co.uk/home.html

Mike Terry to MWCircle iog (2025-07-25)

United States

mw

With the installation of this beautiful new 50,000 watt, American made transmitter, combined with an entirely new ground system, 940 KYNO will soon be the most technologically advanced AM radio station in California!

John Ostlund via Timothy Goodrich in The Boss Radio Group FB group (2025-07-25)

Armenia

mw

One of the two 350 kW TRAM transmitters, which used to broadcast Europe 1 on longwave from the Saarland in Germany, is back in service. It has been reinstalled at the Noratus station on Lake Sevan in Armenia. The transmitter has been modified by Broadcasting Center Europe to broadcast on medium wave.
This TRAM transmitter offers an efficiency close to 100%. Thanks to the modular system, broadcasting continues even when one or more modules fail: power is only reduced by 1 kW per defective module.
Modules with a power of 1 kW are grouped together in different cabinets per 50 kW. Modules can be replaced on the fly, without shutting down the transmitter.
The transmitter now broadcasts on 1377 kHz and replaces an old Soviet Borey RV 601 radio transmitter.
It is coupled to a KinStar low-profile directional antenna system, built by Kintronic Labs. It allows waves to be sent to azimuths -67, 127 and 247 degrees. (info Andrei Molokov, the page V contact “Радиорубка. Страницы истории Мощного Радио”).
In the evening, the transmitter broadcasts Trans World Radio programs to Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
(Translated from French with DeepL.com)

Radio Magazine FB group (2025-01-28)

Netherlands

mw

Radio Seabreeze
I just received the message that due to regular maintenance work the Radio Seabreeze medium wave transmitter in Laren (1098 kHz / 272 meters) will be temporarily out of service tomorrow morning (03.01.2025).
The transmitter in Grou (1395 kHz / 215 meters) is not affected.

Reiner Schneider to A-DX iog (2025-01-02)

Ireland

mw

A word of apology to all Radio North listeners, unfortunately due to technical difficulties we are experiencing reduced power to our signal on 846mw and also problems with our online streaming services.
We are currently trying to have these problems rectified and hope to restore our programming to full power soon.
We thank you all for your patience during these works.
https://www.facebook.com/people/Radio-North/61550758123717

Steve Whitt to mwcircle iog (2024-10-27)

Armenia and Tajikistan

mw

About superlong Zarya MW transmitting antennas, Armenia and Tajikistan.
In our work at both Gavar and Orzu we inquired and the local folks had essentially no technical information on the Zarya antennas.  They were set up and tuned by folks (from Moscow?) for specific frequencies and that’s that.  I can say that from my notes it is clear that retuning them would require moving a lot of shorted transmission line sections used for phase and amplitude control.  And we have notes from a talk given to IBB personnel by a Russian engineer which state that the gain (presumably of the long version) is “40” which (if that is voltage) would be ~32 dB. I also have horizontal and vertical gain patterns for the 8 lambda and 10 lambda versions taken by a colleague from photographing a document he was shown at Orzu, but that is the extent of my actual technical data.  The drawings are so small that measuring them with a polar planimeter to obtain the gain would be subject to ambiguity.

Ben Dawson, OR, Hatfield-Dawson Consulting Engineers to WOR iog (2024-10-10)

Pakistan

mw

More than two months after a 1 kilowatt (kW) frequency modulation (FM) transmitter at Radio Pakistan Larkana went off-air due to faults, another 100kW medium wave transmitter also went out of order and stopped transmission nine days ago.
Sources at the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) disclosed on Monday that the 1kW transmitter developed fault on July 15 and was subsequently sent to PBC headquarters for maintenance and repairs.
The PBC headquarters was insisting on ensuring uninterrupted power source to keep the transmitter working properly and efficiently as fluctuations and low voltage was causing harm to it, sources said.
Officials concerned at the headquarters informed the officials at Larkana radio station that the fault had been successfully removed, the transmitter was working perfectly now and it had been conveyed to the Larkana managers that it would be sent back soon. But according to the sources, it was still lying at the headquarters after the repairs. On the other hand, listeners had been urging resumption of FM transmission since the development of the fault.
Meanwhile, the 100kW medium wave transmitter developed faults around Sept 28 and 29 and subsequently its transmissions also went off-air, said the sources in the radio station.
The faulty medium wave transmitter, installed on Oct 16, 2017, had been dispatched to the official technicians in Karachi for repairs, said the sources. Already the transmitter was working at hardly 15 per cent of its capacity due to minor faults, said the sources.
As both the transmitters of Larkana Radio Station were off-air, the radio transmissions currently were available only on Facebook streaming, they said.
They said that the officials were in touch with Sepco for obtaining an express feeder line of electricity so that likelihood of faults in both the transmitters could be avoided in future.
The listeners are frequently calling officials at the radio station to know about the reasons behind suspension in transmission and urging resumption of broadcasts.
Published in Dawn, https://www.dawn.com/news/1863896/another-radio-pakistan-transmitter-in-larkana-stops-functioning October 9th, 2024.

Ydun Ritz (2024-10-09)