Message from the Chairman, M0WSZ

To all TARS Members, we thought this may be of interest to you. Its interesting reading if a little sad that another AM broadcast band is effectively dying a death.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66644709

How I long for the days of a great range of AM stations when we had Luxembourg on 208m, Radio one on 247m plus all the others now long silenced by the march of internet and digital technology.

It is a joy some nights to hear the strains of Pink Floyd and other old music coming out of my 1960s Valve Eddystone on 648m, with the familiar ting of the Radio Caroline bell being broadcast from the “pirate Ship” Ross Revenge.  The fading and interference as eluded to in the BBC article is all part of the character.

We are in an age of much change in the world of radio and it is a sobering reminder that if we do not use our bands, they could become lost to us as they have to the Broadcast stations although much of that is simply down to cost for them when running high power transmitters.

Perhaps we need to be campaigning for smaller local community radio stations to take over the AM broadcast spectrum and allow dedicated stations to deal with local issues or even act as repeaters for stations such as Caroline to give it a wider reach.

Use the airwaves folks whilst we still have them.

On another note, and if anyone is not aware of this, as I only discovered it yesterday, there is a Radio Museum in Watchet in Somerset that has a huge range of radios, televisions and equipment  from the 1920s onwards including BBC transmission equipment, some of which was used at the transmitter site just up the road at Washford Cross now operated by Arquiva and broadcasting Talksport and BBC Wales to the South West.  The station was originally built in 1933 although much of the original station is now taken over by other uses.  The museum is in the middle of Watchet in the former Anchor public house and there is plenty of parking close by.

An interesting visit for anyone up that way or for part of a day out in North Somerset.

Catch you further down the log

Jeff

M0WSZ

TARS Chairman