United Kingdom

Reception of Droitwich 198 kHz this evening is weaker than normal. I have seen unconfirmed report this is currently running at 250kW instead usual 500kW. Poor reception in Merseyside at least. Normally I get thus no problem.

James Robinson (2023-11-23)

Here at my QTH in southern Denmark BBC 198 kHz is heard very well tonight.

Ydun Ritz (2023-11-23)

United States

KOKC 1520 [Oklahoma City / Ed] Back at 50KW
I got a text from someone connected to OKC area broadcast engineering and apparently KOKC is operating with the 50kw night directional signal.

Paul B. Walker Jr. to irca iog (2023-11-14)

Ireland

Little announcement about radio north 846am:
“Our AM transmitter on 846 kHz will not be broadcasting on Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th of October because of maintenance.
Back on Friday 13th bigger and better than ever.”

John Lines to mwcircle FB group (2023-10-10)

Norway

Today we have been to Bergen Kringkaster and increased the transmitter power on 1611 kHz to @700 watts, and at the same time we turned up the volume. This should also be audible on 5895 kHz since both frequencies now have the same program stream. In addition, the promotional rebroadcast of Kysten (FM 93.8 and 100.3) was taken down from medium and shortwave, so now only our mother station Radio Northern Star is on 1611 and 5895, as it was until autumn 2019. The transmission time is 0659- 0005 CET. Address for listener reports: 1000@northernstar.no.
Hope you can hear the difference! And thanks for listening to us!

Svenn Martinsen on FB (2023-09-26)

United Kingdom

Service Message: Radio Caroline 648AM – we are continuing to have problems with our 648 service and are currently running on approx. half power.  Thank you for bearing with us.
Radio Caroline website

Kari Kallio to nordx iog (2023-09-01)

New Zealand

Why RNZ’s AM broadcast in Auckland is off air.

RNZ and a range of other stations’ AM broadcasts went off air on Friday, and the unusual daytime disruption is likely to last a week.
A mast in the West Auckland suburb of Henderson will be shut off during work on guy wires between 9.10am and 4.50pm each day.
Guy wires are cables used to stabilise tall structures. The mast in Henderson was first installed in the 1930s, and has been in continuous use since then.
Mark Bullen, RNZ chief technology and operations officer, said the maintenance was “critical”.”The mast is responsible for RNZ National’s AM transmission for the Auckland region (AM 756) as well as a range of AM broadcasters in Auckland – 531PI, Parliament / Southern Star, Radio Apna, Radio Ake, NZME Gold AM, SENZ.

“RNZ regularly maintains its masts and sites and typically schedules overnight outages where possible to reduce overall disruption. However, due to the intricate process and the nature of the work required this week, it must be done during daylight hours for safety reasons.
The work began on Wednesday, and was expected to take “up to seven days'”.”We acknowledge the disruption this has on our clients and their audience, but we can assure it’s urgent and are working swiftly to secure normal programming resumes for broadcasters,” Bullen said.
“A more detailed and technical explanation has been provided to the broadcasters affected.”
While not carrying the same audio fidelity as FM signals, AM can travel much further.
The site in Henderson was chosen “because the location was widely considered appropriate for radio transmission due to the extent of open, flat land surrounding” according to a document on the Auckland Council website.
It began operations in 1934, the same year the first purpose-built public radio building on Shortland Street, which was later home to TVNZ.

Michael Forbes to “I Love AM Radio” FB group (2023-08-13)

Canada

A CRTC decisions affecting the Canadian radio landscape for July 2023.
SK YORKTON 940 CJGX Reduce night power from 10,000 to 690 watts. Daytime power will remain 50,000 watts.
Information is compiled in association with Andy Reid’s Canadianradiodirectory.com

Canadian Radio News FB group (2023-08-01)

Romania

(Translated from Spanish)

As reported by Victoria Sepciu from RRI…
“Dear friends, due to budget cuts, the Board of Directors of Radio Romania has decided to temporarily stop using two of the five Radiocom shortwave transmitters that broadcast Radio Romania International programs from August 1, 2023 .
As of August 1st, our programs can be received through each of the transmitters located in Țigănești, Săftica (both near Bucharest) and Galbeni (east). If Radio Romania’s budget is increased, we will broadcast again on 5 transmitters.
RRI programs in Romanian, English, French, German, Spanish , Russian, Arabic, Chinese and Hebrew will be affected . All of them can be received from August 1, 2023 in one frequency instead of two. We will announce in the broadcasts, on the website and on Facebook the frequencies in which the programs can be received, as well as the specific frequency changes operated by Radiocom, based on the monitoring of the reception and on the messages we receive from you about the quality of the broadcast.

Due to budget cuts, it has also been decided to halve the power at night on the medium wave transmitters that broadcast the internal programs of Radio Romania Actualități and some regional stations.
We invite you to follow Radio Romania International programs on www.rri.ro (including on demand), on SoundCloud, on Android and iOS apps, via TuneIn and via satellite.
You will find more details on the website. You can also follow our content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Spotify.”

Jorge Garzon to iberiaDX iog (2023-07-31)

United Kingdom

Radio Caroline has been having transmitter problems this week, with breaks off air and bad quality signal and splatter.

Knob Twiddler on Digital Spy posted yesterday at 16:38:
“Oh dear, technical problems with 648 kHz , it’s just gone off the air at 4.20 pm.
The transmitter has been causing interference all up the East coast from Ipswich to Southend on Sea and beyond.”

I have noticed the signal weaker here in Bournemouth (where it’s not strong anyway).
I expect Alan Beech the Chief Engineer, when available, will be attending to it.
Meantime it now seems they are using the old lower power spare transmitter.

Mike Terry to mwcircle iog (2023-07-29)


Audible at my QTH opposite the North Sea in southern Denmark (12:50 UTC).

Ydun Ritz (2023-07-29)