English Broadcasts for those in Europe

The following are programmes broadcast on medium wave (MW) that should be heard in various areas of Europe using a normal "AM" radio. The term medium wave refers to the section of the radio spectrum used for domestic AM broadcasting - that is, the AM broadcast band. AM or amplitude modulation is actually the method of placing the programme onto the radio signal, and this method is also used on long wave (see below), the shortwave (SW) bands and even at frequencies above the FM (or VHF) broadcast band for aircraft communications.

Also listed are a number of broadcasts on the long wave (LW) bands below the normal AM (MW) broadcast band. This band is frequently (bad pun) found on European domestic radios, European car radios and many specialist radios that include SW. Outside Europe this band is not used for broadcasting, but for navigation beacons, time and frequency stations, amateur and other hobbyist experimentation and some communications.

Having a radio with a digital dial may make your job of selecting stations a bit easier, but any AM radio will do. Car radios are actually quite reasonable - generally better than most domestic radios. Almost all radios except car radios use in internal antenna consisting of coils of wire wrapped around a rod of brittle black ferrite. These antennas are directional, meaning that turning the radio so the case is perpendicular to the station will improve the signal and that turning in so the case is end on to a station interfering with the wanted signal will "null" it out. Also, computers generate radio interference which may affect weaker signals - try noting down the details or printing this and turning your computer off.

You will notice that most activity listed below is either in the early morning, or from dusk on into the evening. This is because MW signals travel beyond the local area much better at night. This is the result of changes in the layers of the upper atmosphere called the ionosphere which is altered by solar radiation. It is the ionosphere off which MW and SW signals "bounce" or "skip" (they are really refracted or bent back towards the earth). These changes are why each shortwave station uses a range of different frequencies.

These broadcasts are a mixture of "external service" broadcasts from national broadcasters, typically also transmitted on shortwave, short English news segments on local networks, longer programs aimed at holiday makers, religious broadcasters and services for armed forces from English speaking countries stationed in Europe.

Many of these broadcasters use very significant power levels in order to cover a wide area with a good signal. 2GB in Sydney uses 5kw (one house's maximum power consumption) to cover Sydney properly and is heard across most of eastern Australia at night. These are using up to 1000kW (1MW - a million watts, enough to run a small town)!

UTC - Universal Time is what was called Greenwich Mean Time and is the local time in the UK and Ireland during winter. Unless noted all broadcasts are 7 days per week. Several broadcasts are heard in Europe very early on the day after the "UTC Day" they are listed on - eg: 2300 (11:00pm) on Monday at Greenwich is 1:00am on Tuesday in Europe during summer time. Some programmes appear at different UTC times during summer and winter as they are based on local time in the country of origin.

World Radio Network

Many of these broadcasters and others, including SABC South Africa and Radio Australia are featured on WRN, a satellite channel which can also be heard on certain cable services and in selected hotels in the Netherlands. See WRN for details.

BBC and Independent UK stations

The BBC (Visit: www.bbc.co.uk) runs a number of national networks with several large transmitters on the one frequency and various regional stations. The are a number of national commercial broadcasters, also with several large transmitters on each frequency. In addition to the stations listed there are numerous low power stations, so tuning across the band may see you finding a smaller UK station operating on a frequency not used elsewhere, allowing its reception throughout Europe, in a similar way that the medium power (20kW) 2ZB from Wellington, NZ is heard across Eastern Australia.

BBC Radio 4 UK carries spoken word, current affairs and music programs. 198kHz (LW) at up to 500kW is the best bet with 720kHz (MW) a chance at 10kW. I remember hearing on a bus in Norway eeearly one morning when the driver was tuning around.

BBC Radio 5 Live is a 24 hour News and Sport network. Two MW frequencies: 693kHz at up to 150kW and 909 kHz running up to 200kW.

BBC Radio Scotland is heard in Norway very clearly, and I would image elsewhere in Europe. 810kHz at 100kW is the main frequency. See below for a copy of my QSL card from this station.

BBC Radio Wales is the English language service for Wales on 882kHz at up to 100kW. Radio Cymru, mainly in the Welsh language transmits only on FM.

BBC Radio Ulster is the service for Northern Ireland, transmitting on 1341kHz, running 100kW and 873kHz with 1kW.

The commercial Manx Radio on the Isle of Man uses 20kW on 1368kHz. Visit: www.manxradio.com.

Radio Telefís Éireann - RTE

This broadcaster in the Republic of Ireland is a statutory corporation like the BBC or ABC.

Radio 1 has a mix of Irish and English language programming and operates 24 hours. Frequency: 567kHz at 500kW. They are also on Astra transponder 22, audio subcarrier 7.56MHZ.

Radio 2 on 612kHz at 100kW and 1278kHz at 10kW is a 24h all English station.

An interesting feature of their radio and TV web site at www.rte.ie is the Teletext section which allows you to read the current news, weather and sport along with a wide range of other information. Teletext itself is quite an old system whereby text pages are transmitted in a spare line of a TV signal and displayed on television sets with a suitable decoder, a feature found in more and more sets today.

RTE occasionally rents the facilities of other broadcasters to transmit special events on SW.

QSL cards

Taken from the Q code, a series of abbreviations designed to speed up morse code transmissions, QSL means "confirm", more officially that a message or figures received are correct. A QSL card confirms that a broadcast station was received or that a contact took place between two radio amateurs. Radio stations use reports form their listeners to determine how well there broadcasts are being received and a QSL card or verification letter is the reward for this. The cards are often very attractive, featuring photographs and artworks from the country of the broadcaster. They are obtained by writing to the station with of the date, time, frequency, signal quality and the program content (to show you where really listening).

	QSL from BBC Radio Scotland, received in Lofoten Islands, Norway.

What's next?

So, what can I do to get more out of radio listening? There are a number of avenues you can explore, including:

• Build an external antenna. The most applicable for LW and MW are:
  • A longwire or inverted L which consists of many metres of wire strung up between trees, poles, chimneys and the like, or in an attic. The higher the better but keep away from power lines and electric fences, both for safety and to prevent noise and interference. These antennas typically receive signals coming in from the side.
  • A Beverage which is a long longwire - 150 to 325m long and 2.5 to 4 metres high aimed towards the stations of interest and terminated with a 300 to 600 ohm resister to ground.
  • A loop, made by winding a length of wire around a square wooden frame about 1 metre diagonal. This can be rotated to maximise signals or to null out interference.
• Install a ground system. A good ground connection and ground plane help many antennas work more effectively. A good radio book will explain it but keeping away from mains wiring and gas pipes are important.
• Purchase a better radio, featuring digital tuning (ideally in 1kHz steps), and shortwave bands to allow you to listen to stations not transmitting on MW or LW and to hear stations from around the world. A BFO (beat frequency oscillator) or SSB/CW mode allows reception of amateur radio, long range air traffic control and weather, government, military and commercial communications and the like using a modified form of AM called SSB - Single Side Band, and Morse code. A socket for an external antenna is important to allow you to make the most of the radio. Many portables have a clock and an alarm function. Just make sure what you set it for a station that will be there in the morning! :) Sangean radios, also marketed under other brandnames (including Tandy / Radio Shack's brands), provide good performance at a reasonable price.
• Join a radio club or society.
• Collect QSL cards from stations heard.
• Read more on the subject - Many sites on the Internet, the WRTH below, books from the Radio Society of Great Britain and American Radio Relay League, radio and electronics magazines including Practical Wireless, Radio & Communications, Radcom, QST, CQ, 73, Popular Communications, Silicon Chip and any number of others in a decent newsagency.
• Become an Amateur radio operator or join a local community radio station.

This page is based on information from the World Radio TV Handbook including Volume 53, 1999 and the web pages listed above. The WRTH, published by WRTH Publishing of Milton Keynes, UK, provides detailed information of radio stations and broadcasts with lots of very good "how-to" information for the radio listener, including writing reports to obtain QSLs. You can buy it from amazon.com®.
1999 Edition, Paperback Trade, $19.96 ISBN 0823059316 Buy.
2000 Edition, Paperback Mass Market, $19.96 ISBN 0823059324 Available 1999-12-01. Pre-order it today!

Visit the radio department of my Visrtual Bookshop.

For updates come back to: http://www.zeta.org.au/~julian/radio.html. Still a work in progress!

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Written by Julian Sortland, VK2YJS, © March 1999.
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