Orfordness transmitter
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Orfordness transmitter
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| Basic data | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place: | Orford Ness | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| County: | Suffolk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Region: | England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country: | United Kingdom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Altitude : | 3 m above sea level NHN | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coordinates: 52 ° 6 ′ 14.1 ″ N , 1 ° 34 ′ 34.1 ″ E | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Use: | Broadcasting station | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Owner : | Cobra Mist Ltd. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Data on the transmission system | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Last modification (transmitter) : | 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Waveband : | AM station | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Radio : | DRM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position map | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The transmitter Orfordness is a transmitting device largely decommissioned in Orford Ness in the county of Suffolk in the UK . It was shut down in May 2012 after 30 years of operation. Since the end of 2017, operation has been taking place with low power again.
The station was used for powerful medium wave transmissions for large parts of Europe on two frequencies (648 kHz and 1296 kHz). It was built by the British government in the 1970s and changed hands several times during its years of operation. The transmitter system had been owned by the Babcock International Group since 2010 .
Over time, programs from several program providers were transmitted from this broadcasting station. The best known was the BBC World Service , which used the 648 kHz frequency around the clock from September 1982 to March 2011.
The name of the transmitter is written together in contrast to the place in which it is located.
history
Today's broadcasting site was originally intended for an over-the-horizon radar called Cobra Mist. However, the radar did not work correctly and the project was ended again in 1973. The property and the entire structure were handed over to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1975 , which put a 50 kilowatt medium wave transmitter into operation in Orford Ness . After successful tests and the installation of other stations, the station was increasingly used for medium-wave European broadcasts on the BBC from 1978 onwards, until all of the relevant programs were broadcast by Orfordness from September 1982. From 1986 the transmission system was finally operated by the BBC.
The Orfordness broadcaster was also affected by the privatization of the BBC's broadcasting activities, which came into force in 1997 . The transmitter system was sold to Merlin Communications International, which was founded by former BBC technicians. In 2001 the transmission system became the property of the VT Group , which Merlin had taken over. In 2010 the last change of ownership took place before the transmitter was switched off: The VT Group was taken over by the Babcock International Group and the transmitter finally became the property of this company.
After the BBC World Service closed in March 2011, a project under the working title UK International was planning to broadcast a music-oriented program on the frequency 648 kHz with the full output of 500 kilowatts from the Orfordness location. However, this project was never realized.
In November 2012 it became known that the British media company Office of Communications had canceled the license for the 648 kHz frequency at the Orfordness location and that it intends to make the frequency available to non-commercial small broadcasters in the future.
Tests with music and announcements were carried out on the frequency of 1296 kHz from August 10, 2013 by the broadcaster Babcock. The exact reason for these tests is unknown.
Current status
The transmitter system was sold to Cobra Mist Ltd. at the beginning of 2017. sold by a "local businessman" whose specific plans have not yet been disclosed. Broadcasting is suspended. The medium wave transmitters damaged by water damage in December 2013 (which ultimately led to the transmission system being abandoned) were removed by Babcock before they were sold. It is discussed to use the area for the construction of a broadband network for fast internet, but the use of the transmission towers as cell phone masts is also conceivable. The system is currently used as a medium wave transmitter for Radio Caroline on the frequency 648 kHz with 1 kW output.
Use of both frequencies by the BBC
Since September 1982 the frequency 648 kHz has been operated around the clock by the BBC World Service , which used this frequency for its English-language programs. From 1987 to 1999 a special program called BBC 648 was broadcast over the frequency , which broadcast a German, English and French. The French service was discontinued in 1995 and the German service in 1999, which resulted in BBC 648 being discontinued and the English-language BBC World Service running again on this medium wave frequency.
The frequency of 1296 kHz was used by the BBC for programs in Eastern European languages from evening to early morning. However, this use ended again when the BBC was able to put VHF frequencies into operation in the countries concerned due to the end of the Cold War .
Channel
One of the transmitters that had been installed in Orfordness for years is a Telefunken S4006 for the frequency 648 kHz with a maximum transmission power of 600 kilowatts. In the transmission contracts, however, a maximum transmission power of 500 kilowatts was always specified for both frequencies.
In the broadcasts on the 648 kHz from the Telefunken S4006, dynamic amplitude modulation was used, a system that reduced the transmission power during pauses in speech. This made for a particularly energy-saving operation.
The transmitters for the frequency 1296 kHz were designated as ORF 2A and ORF 2B and each had an output of 250 kilowatts, which could be interconnected to form 500 kilowatts.
In 2003, a DRM-compatible transmitter was added, which was called ORF 4. It was a Nautel NA200 that could be operated with 200 kilowatts in AM and 35 kilowatts in DRM .
Transmission towers
The transmitter consists of two antenna systems for two different frequencies.
- The antenna system for the frequency 648 kHz (built in 1981/82) consists of five 106.7 meter high freestanding steel lattice towers arranged in a row. All five transmission towers were actively fed. They were used to generate a directional diagram in a south-easterly direction (131 degrees), the exact bearing was nominal due to the wide steel in the south and east. During the day the station could be received in Belgium , the Netherlands , Luxembourg , north-west France and north-west Germany , at night the station could be received in large parts of Europe due to the strong sky wave .
- The antenna system for the frequency 1296 kHz (erected in 1978) consists of six free-standing steel lattice towers , which are arranged in two rows in a square. In contrast to the other system, only the middle towers were actively fed, the other towers served as reflector masts. The directional diagram pointed to the east (96 degrees) and was intended for night coverage of Poland , Czechoslovakia , Hungary and the western Soviet Union , which were the main target areas due to the Cold War . During the day, the transmission system had a rather poorer spread, the signal did not reach further than to Belgium .
Both transmitters are masked to the west, so reception may be poor or not possible at all within the United Kingdom with the exception of south-east England (including London and East Anglia ) despite the high performance .
Furthermore, there is a reserve antenna for the frequency 648 kHz (built in 1983), consisting of a self-radiating steel framework mast that can or could only emit an output of 250 kilowatts. This was only used for maintenance work on the main antenna.
use
648 kHz
The frequency 648 kHz has been used by the BBC World Service since it was commissioned . From 1987 a separate program "BBC 648" was operated in which the foreign service could be heard in English, German and French throughout Europe. Since 1990 the program has been called "BBC for Europe".
Due to major austerity measures on the part of the BBC World Service , the 648 kHz frequency was switched off on March 27, 2011 at midnight local time.
This frequency was used again in the period from August 2011 to September 2011. Due to the collapse of the transmitter tower in Smilde and a fire in the transmitter tower in Lopik on July 15, 2011, the Dutch public broadcaster Nederlandse Publieke Omroep took this frequency for the first radio program Radio 1 in operation in order to be able to supply the regions concerned with news .
Because the frequency was no longer used for international broadcasts by the BBC World Service, it was withdrawn from the BBC in November 2012.
Since the end of 2017, the radio Caroline station, which has become known as a pirate transmitter, has been broadcasting with a low output of 1 kW via the Orfordness antenna system on 648 kHz.
1296 kHz
Radio Nationaal
In 2001 the Dutch broadcasting station Radio Nationaal rented the transmission system for the frequency 1296 kHz in order to reach audiences in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Network Europe
In 2008, an English language program called Network Europe, founded by the European Union, was broadcast from the transmitter for half an hour every day.
BBC
From 2003 to 2012, the BBC used the transmitter on an irregular basis for test broadcasts on Digital Radio Mondiale .
Radio Nederland Wereldomroep
During the period when the BBC was not doing any trial broadcasts in DRM, Radio Nederland Wereldomroep broadcast a Dutch program on this frequency. The last broadcast from Orfordness was a 24-hour broadcast in Dutch by Radio Nederland Wereldomroep from May 10-11, 2012, which marked the end of the Dutch service.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Radio Caroline website. Retrieved November 1, 2018 .
- ^ Orfordness Transmitting Station, Orford, Suffolk History of the station, written July 2011 by Andy Matheson and reproduced in Communication , British DX Club monthly journal, September 2011.
- ↑ rnw.nl: New station plans to take over 648 kHz from BBCWS ( Memento of the original from August 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ dxaktuell.de: BBC saves - end of MW 648 kHz, successor found?
- ↑ radioeins.de: Orfordness 648 kHz no longer licensed ( Memento of the original from June 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Kai Ludwig: Tests of the MW transmitter Orfordness. (No longer available online.) August 17, 2013, archived from the original on June 28, 2013 ; Retrieved August 19, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Kai Ludwig: Medium wave transmitter Orfordness is abandoned. (No longer available online.) In: RBB Radio Eins Radio News. February 4, 2017, formerly in the original ; accessed on February 5, 2017 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.orford.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Village-Voice-November-2015-colour.pdf
- ^ [1] 75 years of BBC World Service - A History .
- ^ [2] BBC's German Service goes off air , BBC News, March 27, 1999
- ↑ Tricks of the Trade ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 281 kB) Article by Dave Porter, Andy Matheson and Pete Edwards in Signal magazine, page 14.
- ↑ Hansjörg Biener: NTT Aktuell ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Shortwave ring south. December 2012. Retrieved December 18, 2012 (citing a notice from Ofcom dated November 6, 2012).
- ↑ BBC officially announces closure of 648 kHz . In: Media Network . Radio Netherlands Worldwide. Archived from the original on February 21, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
- ↑ Dutch Radio 1 to start using 648 kHz on August 4th . In: Media Network . Radio Netherlands Worldwide. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
- ↑ Dutch Radio 1 transmissions on 648 kHz end today ( Memento of the original from March 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Media Network . Radio Netherlands Worldwide. September 22, 2011.
- ↑ RNW Dutch service to end with 24-hour broadcast ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Radio Netherlands Worldwide. May 7, 2012.
