Orfordness transmitting station

The transmitter is not operating can Orfordness is a transmitting device in Orford Ness in Suffolk in the UK. It was shut down in May 2012 after 30 years of operation.

The station was used for high power medium wave broadcasting in large parts of Europe on two frequencies ( 648 kHz and 1296 kHz). It was built by the British government in the 1970s and changed during its years of operation, ownership several times. Since 2010, the transmission system owned by Babcock International Group.

With time, more program providers have been transferred from this transmitting station programs. The most famous was the BBC World Service which used the frequency 648 kHz around the clock from September 1982 to March 2011.

The name of the wireless system is written together as opposed to the place where it stands.

History

Today's transmission site was originally intended for an over the horizon radar, called Cobra Mist. However, the radar not working correctly and the project was stopped again in 1973. The plot and the whole building was in 1975 transferred to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, that in Orford Ness a 50 -kilowatt medium-wave transmitter took into operation. After successful tests and install additional stations to the station from 1978 was used increasingly for Europe BBC broadcasts on medium wave, until finally, from September 1982 all corresponding programs were broadcast from Orfordness. From 1986, the transmitter was eventually operated by the BBC.

From which came into force in 1997, privatization of the broadcasting activities of the BBC and the transmitter Orfordness was affected. The transmission system was sold to Merlin Communications International, which was founded by former engineers from the BBC in the wake of that. In 2001, the transmitter was in the possession of the VT Group, which took over Merlin. 2010, the last change of ownership prior to the shutdown of the transmitter system took place: The VT Group was acquired by Babcock International Group and the transmission system finally came into the possession of the company.

After the closedown of the BBC World Service in March 2011 a project was planning to send the location Orfordness a music- oriented program under the working title UK International at the frequency of 648 kHz with the full power of 500 kilowatts. This project was never realized.

In November 2012 it was announced that the British Office of Communications Media Authority licensing the frequency has picked up 648 kHz at the site Orfordness and wants to set the frequency will no commercial retail stations.

On the frequency 1296 kHz were carried out by the transmitter operator Babcock tests with music and announcements from 10 August 2013. The exact reason for these tests is not known.

Use of the two frequencies by the BBC

Since September 1982, the frequency 648 kHz was operated around the clock from the BBC World Service, which took over this frequency for its English-language station. From 1987 to 1999 was about the frequency a special program called BBC 648 distributed, the German, English and French sent a. The French service in 1995 and the German service in 1999 set, which led to the BBC was set 648 and instead back the BBC World Service ran across this medium wave frequency.

The frequency 1296 kHz was used in Eastern European languages ​​in the evening to early morning by the BBC for programs. This use, however again ended when the BBC was able to take in the countries concerned in operation due to the end of the Cold War FM frequencies.

Transmitter

One of the stations that were installed in Orfordness for years, are a Telefunken S4006 for the frequency of 648 kHz with a maximum output power of 600 kilowatts. In the transmit contracts, however, a maximum output power of 500 kilowatts was always performed for both frequencies.

In the programs on the 648 kHz from Telefunken S4006 Dynamic amplitude modulation was in use, a system that reduced the power in pauses the transmission power. This made ​​for a particularly energy -saving operation.

The channel for the frequency of 1296 kHz and were referred to as ORF ORF 2A and 2B each having a power of 250 kW, which could be connected together to 500 kilowatts.

In 2003, a DRM transmitter Ruggedized came about, which was referred to as ORF 4. It was this to be a Nautel NA200, which could be operated with 200 kilowatts in AM and 35 kilowatts in DRM.

Transmission Towers

The transmitter consists of two antenna systems of two different frequencies.

• The antenna system for the frequency 648 kHz ( built in 1981 /82) consists of five arranged in a series 106.7 -meter-high free-standing steel lattice towers. All five transmission towers were actively fed. They were used to generate a directional pattern in a southeasterly direction ( 131 degrees ), the exact bearing was because of the wide steel nominal towards the south and east. During the day, the station in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and North West North West Germany could be received, at night the station was to receive because of the strong sky wave across much of Europe.

• The antenna system for the frequency 1296 kHz ( built in 1978 ) consists of six free-standing steel lattice towers, which are arranged in a square in two rows. In contrast to other plant only the middle towers were actively fed, the other towers served as a reflector poles. The directional diagram showed the East ( 96 degrees ) and was intended for the night supply of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the western Soviet Union, who were the main target areas because of the Cold War. The transmitter had during the day rather poorer spreading, the signal was not broader than in Belgium.

Both transmitter systems, a mapping to the west, so that a reception despite the high performance within the United Kingdom with the exception of South-East England (including London and East Anglia) under certain circumstances was poor or not possible at all.

Furthermore, existing on the transmitting site a reserve antenna (built 1983) for the frequency 648 kHz, consisting of a self-radiating steel framework mast, which can only emit a power output of 250 kilowatts or could. This was only used during maintenance work on the main antenna.

Use

648 kHz

The frequency of 648 kHz was used since the commissioning of the BBC World Service. From 1987, a special program "BBC 648 " was run in which could be heard across Europe in English, German and French foreign service. Since 1990, the program was called "BBC for Europe".

Due to the large austerity measures on the part of the BBC World Service, the frequency 648 kHz was shut down on March 27, 2011 by 0 clock local time.

To a re- use of this frequency occurred in the period from August 2011 by September 2011. Due to the collapse of the transmitter tower in Smilde and a fire of the transmission tower in Lopik 15 July 2011 took the Dutch public broadcaster Nederlandse Publieke Omroep this frequency for the first radio program Radio 1 in operation to supply the regions concerned with messages.

Because the frequency was no longer used for international service of the BBC World Service, she has been deprived of the BBC in November 2012. Although they are not suitable for this, the frequency is now for neighborhood radio (community radio) are used.

1296 kHz

Radio Nationaal

In 2001, the Dutch broadcasting station Radio Nationaal rented the transmitter for the frequency 1296 kHz in order to reach an audience in the Netherlands and in Belgium.

Network Europe

In 2008, a company founded by the European Union English-language program called Network Europe was spread daily for half an hour from the transmitter.

BBC

From 2003 to 2012, the transmission system from the BBC was used irregularly for test broadcasts in Digital Radio Mondiale.

Radio Nederland Wereldomroep

In the days when the BBC was not performed by test programs in DRM, Radio Nederland Wereldomroep sent a Dutch program on this frequency. The last shipments from Orfordness were a 24- hour broadcast in Dutch by Radio Nederland Wereldomroep which marked the end of the Dutch service.

Current status

All transmitters are currently closed. Whether the transmission system scrapped, sold or rented to other broadcasters not yet clear.