These transmitters consume insane amounts of power. Per Wikipedia, that's 500 kW of rated transmission power, so probably a solid megawatt of grid power input.
At 30 ct/kWh, that's 300€ per hour, 7200€ per day and about 2.6 million € a year - for a customer base that is only decreasing.
The Droitwich transmitter used to transmit on exactly 200 kHz which I always thought was very cool, but it moved to 198 kHz in 1988 to better harmonize with European stations.
The program was mostly the same as BBC Radio 4 but it used to diverge at certain times of day. I used to be woken up at 5am every day by my parents clock radio with the farming news which was very dull, but easy to sleep through.
That is too bad, you would think these could be kept active for historical purposes. But seems these services are all being turned off even though I heard a few were very useful in this day and age.
That station is said to be one of the signals used by the UK’s nuclear subs to assess the state of the country in a war scenario.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letters_of_last_resort#:~:text...
Seems like everyone's shutting down radio services. CHU and Weather radio in Canada too :(
These transmitters consume insane amounts of power. Per Wikipedia, that's 500 kW of rated transmission power, so probably a solid megawatt of grid power input.
At 30 ct/kWh, that's 300€ per hour, 7200€ per day and about 2.6 million € a year - for a customer base that is only decreasing.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droitwich_Transmitting_Station
Is that emitted power, consumed power, or effective radiated power? Without knowing that, your power calculations have no meaning.
Radio stations are usually measured by the last of those: Effective radiated power.
You can have a radio station with a 50,000 watt ERP, but running only a 2,500 watt transmitter.
For FM radio stations, it's all about the height of the transmitter above average terrain. For AM, it's about the ground conductivity and frequency.
I once worked at a 1,000-watt AM station that had a signal much larger and clearer signal than the 5,000-watt AM station a few miles away.
I'm not a radio engineer, but I'm sure there are plenty on HN who can correct and clarify what I've written.
Online stream for those without a LW AM receiver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugd8G5w-Sfo
The Droitwich transmitter used to transmit on exactly 200 kHz which I always thought was very cool, but it moved to 198 kHz in 1988 to better harmonize with European stations.
The program was mostly the same as BBC Radio 4 but it used to diverge at certain times of day. I used to be woken up at 5am every day by my parents clock radio with the farming news which was very dull, but easy to sleep through.
Thanks for mentioning the actual frequency. The article says "long wave" many times without specifying what it actually means.
It was my father's morning alarm, too. But he was a couple of thousand miles away in New York state.
That, and Atlantic 252 (I believe now long gone) were what he woke up to every morning.
As long we still have DCF77…
That is too bad, you would think these could be kept active for historical purposes. But seems these services are all being turned off even though I heard a few were very useful in this day and age.