Pirates in Cheshire

[pete1015]

All this week, in memory of August 14th, Merseyland Alternative Radio has been putting out Caroline programs and old recordings of MAR 10 years ago. These broadcast have been heard during the daytime from about 10.30am for 4 hours, or in the eveningsfrom 6.30pm. The transmissions have been heardon their frequency of 87.5 mhz fm here in Cheshire. Just curiouswhether anyoneelse has been listeningto these relays from MAR..

i heard someone relaying mar on 87.5 and also playing a recording of tony Allen from Caroline, i preferred him on Radio Nova Dublin in the early 80s, a much hotter station then Caroline.
[/quote

Yes ,thats MAR putting out a program about Tony Allen. I'm a good friend of MAR and they confirmed it was them.

[Blackjake]

Bit of a quiet Bank Holiday this weekend in the Cheshire area. No MAR, No Wk-End Radio, no nothing apart from the reliable stalwart Radio Overdrive on 101.4 fm. Overdrive was heard Sunday from 12 noon till 6pm and on the same time on the Bank Holiday Monday from 12 till 6pm.

[pete1015]

Bit of a quiet Bank Holiday this weekend in the Cheshire area. No MAR, No Wk-End Radio, no nothing apart from the reliable stalwart Radio Overdrive on 101.4 fm. Overdrive was heard Sunday from 12 noon till 6pm and on the same time on the Bank Holiday Monday from 12 till 6pm.

strange i didn't hear overdrive at all today, i heard mar on 87.7 weaker then normal tho.

[pete1015]

Bit of a quiet Bank Holiday this weekend in the Cheshire area. No MAR, No Wk-End Radio, no nothing apart from the reliable stalwart Radio Overdrive on 101.4 fm. Overdrive was heard Sunday from 12 noon till 6pm and on the same time on the Bank Holiday Monday from 12 till 6pm.

strange i didn't hear overdrive at all today, i heard mar on 87.7 weaker then normal tho.

finally heard radio overdrive again yesterday, but his mic was to high couldn't understand what Adrian was saying and it was getting keyed out by today fm a few times too.

[Blackjake]

Radio Overdrive celebrated its 5th Birthday this Sunday gone on October 13th with six hours of good music from 12 noon till 6pm.
Did anyone else hear this broadcast on 101.4 mhz fm

[teckniqs]

and it was getting keyed out by today fm a few times too.

Are they on the CB as well. "keyed out".

[Blackjake]

and it was getting keyed out by today fm a few times too.

Are they on the CB as well. "keyed out".

That would be sporadic e which occurs quite alot this time of year on fm. A natutral phenomenon. 101.4 fm is a good frequency but Today fm does override the signal. Their power is 2kw.

[pete1015]

and it was getting keyed out by today fm a few times too.

Are they on the CB as well. "keyed out".

[pete1015]

and it was getting keyed out by today fm a few times too.

Are they on the CB as well. "keyed out".

That would be sporadic e which occurs quite alot this time of year on fm. A natutral phenomenon. 101.4 fm is a good frequency but Today fm does override the signal. Their power is 2kw.

Apparently Today FM on that frequency is from carlow nr kilkenny and kicks out 400kw, crazy power and ask Adrian to check his antenna i'm not getting him that good lately.

[pete1015]

Are they on the CB as well. "keyed out".

That would be sporadic e which occurs quite alot this time of year on fm. A natutral phenomenon. 101.4 fm is a good frequency but Today fm does override the signal. Their power is 2kw.

Apparently Today FM on that frequency is from carlow nr kilkenny and kicks out 400kw, crazy power and ask Adrian to check his antenna i'm not getting him that good lately.

i seen the wattage on the Cheltenham [Headless TEF] fmdx.org, 400kw on the display when today Fm's signal boomed in a few weeks ago.

[Blackjake]

Thanks for that Pete. Yes, it certainly looks like something may have changed with the antenna. I'll past your information on. Either get Dave the engineer or if it's minor, get Adrian to check it out. They'll run a few test when time allows.
400kw is very excessive. Maybe they've decided to up the anti recently, I did read in Radio Today magazine that it was 2kw but that was a few years ago now.
Hopefully the mic muffle problem has been eliminated. Obviously you won't be able to tell us due to the power drop in your area from the Overdrive signal. Anyway the aerial will be looked at.
Blackjake

[teckniqs]

Yeah it's 400kW and it definitely said it was 400kW back when I used to live in Manchester (2007-2011) and it used to bleed into a local pirate on 101.5 so they moved to 100.7 because of this. As far as I know it's never been 2kW, not ever.

[Blackjake]

Yeah it's 400kW and it definitely said it was 400kW back when I used to live in Manchester (2007-2011) and it used to bleed into a local pirate on 101.5 so they moved to 100.7 because of this. As far as I know it's never been 2kW, not ever.


[/qu

Another factor which cannot be ruled out regard reduced signal strength into North Manchester with Overdrive, is that there's a chance that the noise level has increased into Pete's location resulting in the signal being nulled down because of it. Now I'm not saying this is the facts, but this possibility can't be ruled out. It may be a problem with Overdrive's antenna but at vswer of 1 to 1 . 3, I'd have thought that it would not be the antenna. But we'll look at it regardless.

[radionortheast]

if you can pick up today fm on 101.4, you can probably also pick it up on 100.9, Kippure is another powerful transmitter, they are 200khz below holme moss frequencies of radio1,2,3,4 and classic, get both mt leinster and kippure here weak, fading, i’m too far away, when i’ve got them very strongly with rds aerial pushed throught a roof, I was able to hear MAR very weakly in 2019.

[pete1015]

if you can pick up today fm on 101.4, you can probably also pick it up on 100.9, Kippure is another powerful transmitter, they are 200khz below holme moss frequencies of radio1,2,3,4 and classic, get both mt leinster and kippure here weak, fading, i’m too far away, when i’ve got them very strongly with rds aerial pushed throught a roof, I was able to hear MAR very weakly in 2019.

i do get today FM 100.9 but not that well, i can hear radio nova on 100.3 with bleed over from smooth radio 100.4.

[pete1015]

Thanks for that Pete. Yes, it certainly looks like something may have changed with the antenna. I'll past your information on. Either get Dave the engineer or if it's minor, get Adrian to check it out. They'll run a few test when time allows.
400kw is very excessive. Maybe they've decided to up the anti recently, I did read in Radio Today magazine that it was 2kw but that was a few years ago now.
Hopefully the mic muffle problem has been eliminated. Obviously you won't be able to tell us due to the power drop in your area from the Overdrive signal. Anyway the aerial will be looked at.
Blackjake

i heard overdrive when it came on was strong at first then it started going weak after an hour or so but it mite of been because of that storm we had on Sunday but not sure, and the mic sounded a lot better then it has been.

[Lyle.James]

Good to hear Mar 87.5 yesterday 1.30pm Northwich area M6/M56 on a week day.
Good signal.

[Blackjake]

Yes I notice too that MAR were on . I was listening to them in my home in Crewe. Maybe they were testing in preparation for the weekend. I will let them know that you picked them up and was reported in radio necks.
Regards Blackjake

[shuffy]

Driving across north Cheshire this lunchtime, I was getting 80s pop on 100.8. In the back of the box but strong enough to ID the tunes, no idents however (not that I heard, anyway) and quite flat audio. No noticeable change in signal strength so I'd say running some power but distant. I do know there's a lift on, as Today FM are remarkably strong on 101.4 today. Anyone else head this or aware of anything?

[Blackjake]

Driving across north Cheshire this lunchtime, I was getting 80s pop on 100.8. In the back of the box but strong enough to ID the tunes, no idents however (not that I heard, anyway) and quite flat audio. No noticeable change in signal strength so I'd say running some power but distant. I do know there's a lift on, as Today FM are remarkably strong on 101.4 today. Anyone else head this or aware of anything?

Strangely enough , I did hear a flutter of a signal on 100.8 on Wednesday. Not enough to I d it as signal was poor. I couldn't even hear what the music was. I thought it might be WK-END testing on low power but
maybe it was this station that you heard. I wondering if anyone else heard this signal playing 80s music that you heard today. Interesting report.
Regrds Blackjake