Will Martin <wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL> (01/11/90)
Can anyone explain why te BBC comes in so poorly these days on 15070 kHz? It seems to me that, in years past, over the last decade or longer, the BBC could just about always be heard fairly clearly and reliably in North America during mid-day on 15070 kHz. It was always the first frequency to check when you wanted to hear some BBC program at a time when they did not have any transmissions specifically directed to North America. Given that history, one would think that now, in times of high solar activity, 15070 kHz would be even better than it had been. The reverse is the case. Signals on that frequency are so weak and marginal that it isn't worth the effort to try to make out the contents. Why is that? Has the BBC changed the antennae used for 15070 kHz and put central North America in a null? Have they dropped the power they used to use on that frequency? Or is something else the cause of this change? Luckily, 15260 kHz is often usable for the BBC these days during the day. Unfortunately, it isn't continuously in use, so that there remain mid-day times when no good shortwave BBC signal is available. One of my main gripes with the BBC satellite relays to cable systems and public radio in the US is that I fear they are using the providing of that service as an excuse to make no effort to get a listenable 24-hour-a-day shortwave signal to North America. I always felt that lack was one of the BBC World Service's main failings -- to not give this large English-language target area a full round-the-clock service. I don't consider the satellite signal to be a viable alternative to shortwave coverage; not enough public radio stations retransmit the BBC (and even those that do carry only a limited selection from it -- actually the public-radio feed explicitly includes only news and public-affairs programming), and not only do few cable systems carry the C-SPAN shortwave audio, but cable is useless for getting a signal to a portable radio. Anyway, info related to why 15070 kHz isn't as good now as it was many years ago will be appreciated! Regards, Will wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil OR wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil