How much longer will Pirate Radio last?

[shuffy]

Putting my Nostradamus hat on a moment, I predict the market demands for mobile telecommunications/internet will swallow up the juicy VHF spectrum of 87.5 - 108 MHz at some point in time. With excellent building penetration and propagation this 20 MHz block will simply be too valuable not to harvest.

Yes but, what about the wavelength (antenna size) and power needed to capitalize on the propagation properties. Sounds tricky for mobile comms / internet the way we've become used to it. I guess a split uplink/downlink might work, but I think they've pretty much reached the limit due to device size with LTE. I'm sure they'll think of something though, but it's a way off...

[eiradioguy]

I agree it's some way off, just see how Tetra grabbed the 4xx MHz spectrum recently cleared by long-standing users and the regulators quickly sunsetted and cleared the spectrum for 'efficiency' (aka that lovely auction dosh). Anything sub- 1Ghz is pure gold for in-building penetration while above 1 Ghz is prized for capacity.

Am I right in thinking a tentative move was made to test the waters to grab some Amateur spectrum (70cms or 2m) recently?

Anyways, I've strayed off the thread again....

[jvok]

I agree with shuffy. FM band is no good to the telcos, the aerials are too big for mobile phones. No one wants to slide out the whip aerial on their phone like its 1986 just to get on tiktok. TV bands will all go to the telcos though, which has already started with 700mhz clearance.

I guess there could be some use for long distance backhaul but 20mhz isnt enough bandwidth for the kind of data rates that make that make sense. That market belongs to microwave and fibre and I don't see that changing. FM could become a pmr band I guess but thats dying out too in favour of 5g.

The same applies but even worse on mw/lw. My guess is those bands will just be dead air once the broadcasters give up. Or they'll be turned into ham bands (possibly in exchange for giving up something juicier like 70cm) but that won't happen until they're clear worldwide. MW is still alive and well in the US, Australia, Spain and a few other places and as long as they're still using it the ITU won't let the amateurs touch it.

LW could go to the hams sooner, given theres only a handful of broadcasters left on it worldwide and they'll all be gone in the next 5 years if that. But whether the arrl/rsgb/etc will even push for it when theres already multiple LF amateur allocations and barely anyone uses them. The only way you're playing that game is if you have a huge amount of land for aerials and radials and thats not most hams, certainly not in the UK.

Only other thing I can see happening on LW (and this is really speculating) is a return of land based navigation systems like loran if some future conflict shows the issue of relying purely on satellites. But even then theres plenty of LF/VLF spectrum for that going unused without reallocating anything.

[eiradioguy]

It's a bit tragic to see the rush to close down Medium Wave in Ireland/UK as this band seems to be teeming with life across the rest of the globe. A quick listen to the KiwiSDRs show how lively the band is elsewhere. Still, it's an opportunity to dust off the 807s, 6146s and 813s (or those glorious new-fangled mosfets) lol
Also an opportunity pick up some AM (and HF) Optimods....

[radionortheast]

The future for mobile phones is using terahertz, the higher the frequency you go the more bandwidth, frequencies don’t penetrate the earths atmosphere that well, you direct the radiation from the phone or vice versa, likely need alot more masts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terahertz_radiation

[Albert H]

There are still a few diehards on MW - like Caroline. However, unless they make efforts to sort out the abysmal quality of their mod, they won't get many listeners! It still sounds like it's coming through a sock!

Just for amusement, I put their webstream on with a couple of hundred Watts on 666 kHz (seemed appropriate) loaded into a "Marconi" aerial with an Inovonics 222 handling the audio, and it sounded MUCH better! The second transmitter was audible throughout much of East Anglia (despite being lower power than the "official" signal just down the band from me) and when I phoned around, people commented on how much better it sounded! I only left it on for a couple of hours at Easter, just to prove the point.

Done right, MW can sound really good. When you're driving 'round in a noisy car, a tightly compressed AM signal can sound better than an FM signal. There's still a market for it!

[SundayGroover]

There are still a few diehards on MW - like Caroline. However, unless they make efforts to sort out the abysmal quality of their mod, they won't get many listeners! It still sounds like it's coming through a sock!

Just for amusement, I put their webstream on with a couple of hundred Watts on 666 kHz (seemed appropriate) loaded into a "Marconi" aerial with an Inovonics 222 handling the audio, and it sounded MUCH better! The second transmitter was audible throughout much of East Anglia (despite being lower power than the "official" signal just down the band from me) and when I phoned around, people commented on how much better it sounded! I only left it on for a couple of hours at Easter, just to prove the point.

Done right, MW can sound really good. When you're driving 'round in a noisy car, a tightly compressed AM signal can sound better than an FM signal. There's still a market for it!

Remember when Caroline had their wide bandwidth period in the 80s on 963 KHZ - some radios had trouble tuning it in! Did sound quite sharp and clear though compared to everything else including Laser. Seems they are using an Optimod AM 9200 at the moment on 648.

[Albert H]

If that's the case, they don't know how to set it up! The Optimod is pretty nasty-sounding, but can be made to sound reasonably good if you're prepared to spend time on it!

Caroline started out by using a Broadcast Warehouse DSPX-AM on 648, and it sounded horrible. If they've changed the processor, they've still managed to make it sound dreadful!

[SundayGroover]

If that's the case, they don't know how to set it up! The Optimod is pretty nasty-sounding, but can be made to sound reasonably good if you're prepared to spend time on it!

Caroline started out by using a Broadcast Warehouse DSPX-AM on 648, and it sounded horrible. If they've changed the processor, they've still managed to make it sound dreadful!

From their FB; "Today, Radio Caroline has three Optimods in use. One on the ship, a similar one in Strood, (both TV 8182 Optimods) and they are both really in pre-processing roles, and a digital Optimod AM 9200 at our 648AM transmitter site at Orfordness".

[Albert H]

The Orban stuff always was complete crap! Bob Orban doesn't believe that clipping adds distortion!

The Optimods were always dreadful. We always replaced them with other - non-distorting - processors!