London Calling.

Post by **Andy Richards** » Sun Nov 28, 2010 19:36 pm

Last week conditions were a bit strange,this week they were strange and poor.
Still a lot of stations heard though.

Modulation - Interesting subject.
For those of you that don't know,I ran a MW station in London from 1979 till 1985.
Radio Floss had strong signals,but in the early days we used loads of compression and limiters on the sound.It made us sound VERY LOUD.
But the problem was that with certain songs,the ones that had softer parts and louder parts,all the drama of the song was lost.We turned our sound compression and limitation right down once we realised our signal was strong enough.

The decision a station has to make is;Is our signal strong or not?

Orang Utan does not have a strong signal,but with clever use of compression/limitation he has a really LOUD SIGNAL.
This is good for lower powered stations.
Not good for high power stations who have a strong enough signal to go for good sound quality.
Radio Scotland has always had nice mod.I heard Albert say today that he had "Wasted his time" trying to improve it because it didn't sound any better to him.
But it sounded a hell of a lot better to me!
No wasted effort Albert,the mod sounded GREAT on 6395.
I don't know if you played with it before going on 6202,but it was undermodulated on that frequency.

Bluestar sounded like he was having a party on Saturday night on 4040.........hey Pass me one of those Kebabs!!!

FRSH were all over the bands,6005 and 7600 were best here.

LHH signals were OK this weekend,but not as good as recent weeks and I haven't heard Atlantic at all recently.Poor signals from Ireland.

In general,all signals were poor before 0900 and improved after that.See my logs for Orion and Orang Utan.

Orion was having trouble with a cold TX,I am sure many other stations had similar problems.

Quintus is worth mentioning as 6325 is a "Hit and Miss" frequency,today it was good!

Strong signals from East Coast,Brandaris and Marconi too.

UNIDS -
5820 - Who came on after Saturnus?
6205 - Who was playing Christmas songs?
6425 - Who was playing 80's music?

Best signal today was from Scotland,but close behind were Orion,FRSH,East Coast Holland,Brandaris & Marconi.

Friday 26/11/10

3905Khz - 2230-2235 - Skyline Radio Int - 34333 - Status Quo.

Saturday 27/11/10

4040Khz - 1825-1830 - Bluestar Radio - 43333 - Euro Pop & Dance Music.Lots of laughter and talk of Kebabs!
6220Khz - 1158-1203 - Radio Mazda - 34333 - Soft Rock and Pop,"Saturday Night".

Sunday 28/11/10

4025Khz - 0940-0945 - LHH - 35333 - Pop Music.
5800Khz - 0900-0905 - FRS Holland - 24332 - "Follow Me".
5820Khz - 0820-0825 - Orion Radio - 35433 - Scorpions.
5820Khz - 0915-0920 - Orion Radio - 45434 - Medley.CD at 0957.
5820Khz - 1017-1022 - Radio Saturnus - 25433 - Oldies,Rock and Dutch Music.
5820Khz - 1215-1220 - UNID - 35433 - Dutch Pop music.
6005Khz - 0905-0910 - FRS Holland - 45434 - History of FRSH.
6200Khz - 0830-0835 - Radio Orang Utan - 24332 - Billy Idol.
6200Khz - 0925-0930 - Radio Orang Utan - 25433 - Middle of the Road - "Chirpy,Chirpy,Cheep Cheep".CD at 0931.
6202Khz - 1005-1010 - Radio Scotland Int - 35434 - French Song.Undermodulated.
6205Khz - 1112-1117 - UNID - 34333 - Christmas Songs.
6210Khz - 1015-1015 - LHH? - 24332 - Music.
6220Khz - 0825-0830 - Radio East Coast Holland - 45434 - Alison Moyet - "All Cried Out",Anouk - "Nobody's Wife".CD 0913.
6265Khz - 1117-1122 - Radio Geronimo SW? - 33333 - Paul Simon,Tom Petty.
6280Khz - 0935-0940 - Top Radio - 34333 - Dutch Music.Dire Straits.CD at 0948.
6285Khz - 1000-1005 - Radio Shadow? - 24332 - Pop Music.
6290Khz - 1255-1300 - Radio Rainbow? - 24332 - Neil Young - "Heart of Gold".Talking about old Pirates.
6300Khz - 0835-0840 - Radio Brandaris Int - 45434 - Talking,Bryan Adams.
6305Khz - 1230-1235 - Radio Marconi - 44333 - "Green Tambourine","Satellite".CD at 1250.
6305Khz - 1250-1255 - Radio Powerliner - 34333 - In QSO with Marconi.Playing Aha - "High & Low".
6310khz - 0840-0845 - Radio Bonofox - 34333 - "Everybody listens to the Radio".
6325Khz - 0920-0925 - Radio Quintus - 35434 - Dutch Pop Music."We Love the Pirate Stations".
6325Khz - 1127-1132 - Radio Powerliner? - 34333 - Alice Cooper - "Elected".In QSO.
6325Khz - 1305-1310 - Radio Sonic? - 33333 - Soft Pop/Rock Music.
6395Khz - 0845-0850 - Radio Scotland Int - 55434 - "Who can it be now?",French Song.Superb mod.
6425Khz - 1238-1243 - Radio Dutchwing - 24332 - Dutch Music.
6425Khz - 1425-1430 - UNID - 24433 - Killing Joke - "Life like Blood",Duran Duran?
7600Khz - 0950-0955 - FRS Holland - 45444 - History of FRSH.

Andy Richards.

Post by **JoJo** » Mon Nov 29, 2010 05:29 am

Hello Andy, thanks for the log and comment much appreciated.

Trans Europe · Post by **Trans Europe** » Mon Nov 29, 2010 09:03 am

Hi Andy,

the UNID on 6205 was me...Trans Europe

Was going to have a longer transmission but I had some family coming to visit, so had to C/D.

Thanks for the report anyway.

Hans.
Trans Europe Radio

Radio Scotland · Post by **Radio Scotland** » Mon Nov 29, 2010 15:03 pm

Hi Andy,

Thanks for reporting and comments about modulation.
For my ears it seems the mod. make no difference at all on the freq. i was on at 28-11. (6395, 6202, 6160)
Was using the same audio output on all freq.

But offcourse the French music was not played just as loud as the one of Motorhead... Or: the combination TX/modulator/antenna is just working better around 6400 as they do around 6200-6300!

Albert.

Post by **Andy Richards** » Mon Nov 29, 2010 22:28 pm

JoJo - Thanks for the mention on air too!

Hans - Thanks for clearing up that UNID for me!
Bit early for Christmas?

Albert - You may have a point.The mod was so good on 6395 I would say it was as good as Borderhunter used to be or Boomerang.Really clear with enough Bass,Treble and Mid.
There are many stations with really good mod,and Scotland is one of them,but very few stations have achieved that high level of mod quality.
I don't think your time was wasted,but maybe it works better on certain frequencies.