Return-Path: Received: (qmail 14668 invoked from network); 6 Sep 2001 09:55:22 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO murphys-inbound.services.quay.plus.net) (212.159.14.225) by excalibur.plus.net with SMTP; 6 Sep 2001 09:55:22 -0000 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Received: (qmail 11876 invoked from network); 6 Sep 2001 09:53:25 -0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Received: from unknown (HELO post.thorcom.com) (212.172.148.70) by murphys with SMTP; 6 Sep 2001 09:53:25 -0000 Received: from majordom by post.thorcom.com with local (Exim 3.16 #2) id 15evlT-0000zV-00 for rsgb_lf_group-outgoing@blacksheep.org; Thu, 06 Sep 2001 10:48:03 +0100 Received: from imo-d01.mx.aol.com ([205.188.157.33]) by post.thorcom.com with esmtp (Exim 3.16 #2) id 15evlR-0000zI-00 for rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org; Thu, 06 Sep 2001 10:48:02 +0100 Received: from G0MRF@aol.com by imo-d01.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v31_r1.4.) id l.f5.ee7da36 (4159) for ; Thu, 6 Sep 2001 05:46:48 -0400 (EDT) From: G0MRF@aol.com Message-ID: Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001 05:46:47 EDT Subject: Re: LF: Long Wave Broadcasting To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 107 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org X-Listname: rsgb_lf_group Sender: In a message dated 9/6/01 2:54:55 AM GMT Daylight Time, donnatom@netins.net writes: << Hi from Iowa, USA, EN31do This my seem a silly question, but I am curious. How is the audio quality of European LW BC stations? The bandwidth percentage is really something on those frequencies. Do they have special audio processing techniques? Are they rather "narrow" for broadcasting? >> Good question. I recall that when Atlantic 252 first came on air from the old Butlins holiday camp north of Dublin, their audio was lacking HF content because of the limited bandwidth of the antennas. At one stage the transmitter would see a high SWR and trip down in power because of the poor match 3kHz off the carrier frequency. Now, they've added extra wires to the antenna to improve the bandwidth and they are happy. It's worth remembering that MW broadcasters here works on a 9kHz spacing and not the 10kHz US standard, that's a whole 500Hz less audio. Audio 'processing' is a silly war here on FM and AM. The station I work for has just spent about 11,000 Dollars on a processor so it can sound as loud as the competition. Unfortunately my ears rebelled and while the music sounds OK the speech is terrible. From an engineering perspective the Omnia 6 is interesting. Its located at the transmitter site and can be accessed from my PC via the phone line. The software shows the block diagram on the screen and I can turn up / down any of the functions (about 150 of them) and store the new settings to memory. It's a whole world away from the days of a single audio limiter and a volume control. Hope you get the audio clips from someone. 73 David G0MRF