[cma-l] Community Radio 50% Rules

[Tony Bailey]

Exactly, anyone who has driven around and listened to power hikes
would confirm that, apart from a less crackly sound, increasing power
by as much as ten times has little effect on the outdoor coverage.
Since VHF waves bounce off things, the physical location of the
transmit aerial and the antenna pattern will determine which bits of
the valley you get into.

Some radio receivers are semi-deaf to all but the strongest signals
as well!  This can make one station apparently sound louder than
another.

Tony Bailey





Julian Mellor wrote:
> Stroud's situation is absolutely mirrored here in Somerset - pesky
> hills and valleys.
> 
> Soo at Ofcom tells us that increasing the height of our transmitter 
> (which they'd allow) would have a greater impact on reception than 
> increasing output power, but the landlords aren't happy with the idea
>  and I suspect the planners might have a wobbler as well.
> 
> Equally we are aware that some households are amazingly inept when it
>  comes to tuning a radio and don't realise that trying a different
> room, changing position in the room, or just turning the radio round
> can make a big difference.
> 
> That aside though, we can do nothing when people complain to us about
>  poor reception, apart from suggest they try the web stream.
> 
> Perhaps the most frustrating thing is that a commercial station in
> Wales (about two hour's drive from here) that transmits on the
> waveband next to ours has a stronger and overpowering signal when one
> is listening just a few minutes away from our studio.
> 
> Julian 10Radio Somerset
> 
> 
> On 11 Oct 2010, at 01:42, claire penketh wrote:
> 
>> Absolutely!!!!! Here in Stroud we have a nightmare topography of 
>> valleys and hills, reception has been traditionally been really
>> tricky here, even for the mainstream media.  Despite the fact that
>> there is no commercial station in Stroud itself, as Star FM handed
>> back their licence, and only the ubiquitous Heart  blasts from
>> Gloucester, we had to trim our  transmitters output to just over 20
>> watts in order to comply with OFCOMS regs The feedback we get from
>> people is that they love us, but can't pick us up easily. Tricky to
>> reach the whole community really...
>> 
>> Claire Penketh Station Manager Stroud FMl
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
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