BBC to close another batch of Medium Wave radio transmitters in 2021

In a posting on the 14th of April 2021, the BBC announced that they were going to close the medium wave service for ten regional stations in May & June of this year. With fewer and fewer people now listening to medium wave radio, the BBC felt that the transmitter didn't offer value for money.

"As I have written about in previous blog posts, we have been closing some Medium Wave (MW) transmitters across the UK which no longer offer sufficient value for money for licence fee payers."

"A large and increasing share of radio listening in the UK - including to the BBC - is digital, and the BBC is committed to a digital future for radio. In recent years we have made significant investment in local DAB expansion, all of our local radio stations are available on digital terrestrial TV (such as Freeview), and we have transformed our online and mobile offering with BBC Sounds."

A total of 14 medium wave transmitters will be closed down and these are shown below...

Most of them are reasonably low power with powers between 0.5 to 2 kW. The large one is the 160 kW Radio Ulster transmitter near Belfast which would have been heard all over Europe at night. 

They also announced that four regional transmitters will be reducing their output power.

The current power levels are shown above as it's not yet clear what the new power level will be.

"In addition, the following stations will have reduced MW coverage:

Radio Wales
Impacted areas including North of Snowdonia, Anglesey, Bangor, Caernarfon, Conwy, and Betws-y-Coed and Areas around Wrexham and east of Snowdonia. Still available on, FM, DAB, and online and on all TV platforms (Terrestrial, Satellite, and Cable)

Radio Gloucestershire
With areas around Stow-on-the-Wold being impacted DAB will likely be the best option for most listeners. Available on 104.7 FM around Gloucester, 95.0 FM around Stroud and 95.8 FM around Cirencester. Still available on Freeview/Youview and online (through a smart phone, computer, or smart speaker)"

The BBC announced its intention to close MW transmitters back in 2011. It's likely that more will close in the years ahead.

Link...

1) Next phase of changes to some local BBC radio Medium Wave services - Apr 2021

Long distance reception of a Spanish station on Medium Wave during daylight hours

Since I did a previous scan of the Medium Wave band in March, I have found several other very weak signals buried in the noise. One of these however is just about audible and can be heard in the middle of the day. I built a very basic loop aerial with some wire would around a cardboard box (30 x 45 cms) and tuned it with a variable capacitor. The result was that I can now ID two of the signals.

The signal on 855 kHz was Radio Nacional 50kw transmitter near Santander on the north coast of Spain, a distance of 992 kms or 616 miles. As can be seen from the map above, the path is almost completely over the ocean.

The aerial mast in Spain is just 300m or so from the water while I am 10 kms from the south coast of Ireland.

Radio mast near Santander

The other signal heard was from the test DRM transmitter of France Blue (8kw) on 1071 kHz near Brest, a distance of 500 kms or 310 miles.

I was wondering if the signals were possibly sky wave but I don't think so. They are there in the middle of the day every day and they are really steady like you might expect from a ground wave signal.

The radio used was a very basic Sony radio which was indoors. The loop aerial was just sitting on top of it.

992 kms seems like a remarkable distance for a ground wave signal on the medium band. There are plenty of much closer transmitters in the UK that I can't hear but the sea path to Spain seems to be making all the difference.