YESTERDAY'S MW BAND A site mainly dedicated to Mediumwave Dxing |
LISTINGS OF FORMER COMMONLY HEARD MW TRANSMITTERS: Below is a page for listings of former common heard transmitters that have now closed down. Some are gone for good, and the towers demolished, others may be mothballed. In the 1970's and 80's, who would believe that channels such as 1179, and 927 would fall silent of the major transmission on the frequency. But time is passing, whether we like it or not. If you can remember the 70's mw band and early 1980's when there was a sudden burst of UK ILR and BBC activity, you are of a certain vintage. Where does the list stop?? It doesn't, but we are not going back as far as 2LO and 5SC etc..LOL.. Being a selfish mw dxer, I will not miss the Euro powerhouses one little bit. It is quite unique being a witness to this demise of the very high power Euro stations, which clogged the band for decades. Where does it end? Will we ever have clear frequencies again?? Although many high power Euros are closing, there seems to be a trend for someone somewhere to jump on a clear channel whenever one becomes available. A few years ago, 1476 and 1593 were the last clear channels, and by clear, I mean very very clear. They were used by hobby pirates to an extent. 1395 was clear on and off, when BIG L was off air, but in winter 2011/2012 a strong Russian started using the frequency, and blew the last remaining channel. Spain began the use of 1386 and 1476 in the North of the country. As a result, signals are powering in here in Scotland. A new French station was using 1593, though not completely blocking the channel with white noise like the German jammer. (Update in July 2013, The French station on 1593 thankfully never returned, though a German low powered station has appeared, and Spain have left 1386 and 1476) 227m - The old 227m band used to consist of the area of the band from 1287ish through to 1341ish, or 1286 to 1340 as it would have been pre November 1978. This area of the band used to be a hive of Dutch MW activity from the late 1970's till the band became useless due to ILR crud from the UK, 24 hour NRK etc etc. But in those days of the clear channels, they all cleared one by one at local closedown. I often wonder what dx would have been heard on these channels back then with the long beverages I have now and the receivers I have. Especially on weeknights when there were no (or at least very few) Dutchies. Another area that was clear all those years ago was around 250m, when the BBC had gone off and the channels LF were also clear. Lets also recall the MW transmitters that went off air at the end of 1988 when Ireland closed down the pirate stations. One can look on the dx archive area of this site for Irish lists from the past. One can look through this page listings_index.html, or even the all time list here listings_ireland_all.html. Let us not forget either, the frequencies associated with offshore stations Caroline 963, 576, 558, 819, Laser 558, 576, Delmare 1611, 1566, Mi Amigo 1100, 1098, 963, Moneik 963, etc etc. Recent closures, since 2007, are often recorded in a Perseus file, which must be assumed to be historical by the very nature of that wideband recording. We never had the technology to record the band before 2007, but I have for example RTE closing MW, but continuing on 252 as one of the early Perseus recordings. I really must ensure this is backed up on spare drives. Of other closures, I may have the final sign offs, but one or two I deleted by mistake, eg Radio Sweden, though the likes of Radio Sweden has plenty presence in old Perseus files in general. Yes there are recordings taken from MW no doubt of the various stations, but a wideband Perseus file shows the characteristics of the transmitters, strength, splatter, audio quality etc. Like a real time machine that goes back and tunes the receiver in 2007!! Anyhow, let's make a list of the stations I can think of, many that were once powerhouses, or at least heard widely. Some have been off air for years. Many I have QSLs from for reports sent about 30 years ago!! ======================================
177 Russia - Radio Rossi Jan 2014 252 RTE CLOSING JAN 2015 531 Switzerland 729 Ireland
- RTE 1 Cork (closed 31st March 2008) 765 Switzerland
- Sottens (Closed 31st December 2010) 792 GERMANY NDR closing 13th Jan 2015 (702, 792, 828, 972) 819 Sud
Radio Toulouse FRANCE / ex 900kw ANDORRA 828 GERMANY NDR closing 13th Jan 2015 (702, 792, 828, 972) 837 FRANCE (NANCY 200kw) off summer 2014 (945, 837, 792) 846 RAI
Italy 936 FRESH
Yorkshire local station 963 Finland was off and back with Chinese relays. Status uncertain. 972 GERMANY NDR closing 13th Jan 2015 990 Old
RIAS Berlin channel closed 4th September 2013 1179
Radio Sweden (October 31st 2010) 1278
RTE 2 Dublin closed 15/12/03 (Date to be verified) 1287
Czechoslovakia / Radio Prague (been closed for years) 1386
Kalliningrad / Radio Moscow 1413
936 FRESH Yorkshire local station =====================================
TRANSATLANTIC STATIONS OFF AIR:
Greenland - All transmitters off air, though at least some being reactivated end of 2014 onwards 570, 650, 720, 900, 810
540 CBGA1 French CBC off air Dec 2014 (Often dominant in Europe) 550 CHLN
===================================== MAJOR INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTERS OFF AIR: At this moment I am not at all sure which countries really are still left on air for English listeners, or on air at all for that matter. Does anyone else want to make a start at updating the list??
CZECH REPUBLIC - RADIO PRAGUE (Closed Jan 31st 2011, ref - wiki) DDR -
Radio Berlin Int (Closed in 1992) |