wow how congestered is the upper part of the fm band now

[radionortheast]

here I have
105.1 Capital
105.3 Seaside (only under tropo)
105.4 Capital Heart
105.6 Capital
105.8 Capital
106.0 Gem? (signal varies around alot)
106.2 Heart
106.4 Capital (greatest hits under tropo)
106.6 BCB and Smooth mixing together Smooth wining most of the time
106.8 greatest hits
106.9 Hull (in the clear but alot of breakthrough)
107.1 greatest hits
107.2 driftfield (weak but you can tell what song is playing)
107.3 fever fm
107.4 tempo fm (clear but less strong than stations either side)
107.5 tmcr ( just below rds levels)
107.6 heart fm (rds sometimes)
107.7 heart fm
107.8 greatest hits
107.9 sangam

I do have fond memories of when it was all clear, I don’t think there is any space, nothing low power could break through, very rarely i’ve heard ireland on 105.5, even rarer french something on 106.5 sounded french.

[fmuser877]

It would be interesting try to use a little TX of your own in London.
I think a 7-watt would break over by your house but you not want to be over a legal one.

[Persona Non Grata]

I do have fond memories of when it was all clear,

Apart from the Cops/Gas Board/British Rail/Whatever else the authorities thought was a good idea to stick in an internationally recognised broadcast band.

Even when it was clear some pirates were initially nervous about using the very top end of the band lest planes suddenly start dropping from the sky.

[teckniqs]

I saw in an old 1979 BMW the digital radio only went up to 104.0 MHz, I don't think anywhere above that was used for FM radio back then.

[EFR]

I have an old 1958 tube radio, had to tweak it little bit, original FM ended 100, and local rock station is 100.9Mhz..

[Persona Non Grata]

Up until the mid 1980's many radio's of European manufacture only tuned up to 104-and a bit MHz (Japanese export radios always went up to 108 MHz IIRC) Even older ones only went up to 100 or 102

Ive never seen a digitally tuned radio which didn't cover the full band (bar maybe the one's one sometimes encounters in Japanese import cars which tune a non-standard band and top out around 90 MHz) then again I didn't think digital car radios were a thing in 1979 ?

The odd pirate did venture into the high-end frequencies (particularly in Ireland) although in the 1980's the very top end of the band tended to be reserved for link frequencies.

[radionortheast]

They only cleared 105-108 for use here in 1997, it was very clear, kiss 105 been the only station to come on air, used to think of as the pirate band, pirates did use frequencies below 105, they were much easier to hear above 105Mhz. I do remember a local news report in the mid 90’s was talking about pirates in Sheffield, interference to aircraft, I used to get aircraft interupting Pitch fm 106.5, though it was my radio, I don’t really know, do miss the pianoy gabba bag pipe music it used to play. Around 95, I had a really good hifi radio rod aerial in the loft, sometimes I could hear Virgin fm 105.8 and Heart 106.2 from London, there were once some weird french noises down at the bottom of band during some fog, don't know what they were.
Home was limited to 100w on 107.9, not that you would know it, autoseek tuning would lock onto miles away from it, they would often limit the power above 107 to protect the airband, many of the transmitters than came on in this area were 100w.

It would be interesting try to use a little TX of your own in London.
I think a 7-watt would break over by your house but you not want to be over a legal one.

I suppose it depends on the frequency, a built up area can chop up a signal alot, you might have line of sight for only a few miles, here more used semi built up, from the roof, you do get line of sight that goes for 10’s of miles, you would likely get the same signal strenght afew miles away as you would get near to the transmitter. Obviously 7w can not compeat with 100’s of watts, likely they would be no difference between 1w or 7w, in a congested band a couple of 100meters would be the best, you might get abit further I suppose if you can find a clear frequency, using a tef radio. 107.5 was alright here, had heart on 107.6 was a problem, 108 was good after home stopped on 107.9 but sangam started, their alright for car transmitters, 105.5 and 106.5 are too cruddy to use. If you wanted to try there probably are online tuners in London, would certainly take less time than walking driving around, hypothetical of course, the further away from it suppose the less chance of hearing anything, have to tune through see what frequencies are clear, if it can pick up stuff which is further away than you in the same direction, you might hear something.

[radionortheast]

Up until the mid 1980's many radio's of European manufacture only tuned up to 104-and a bit MHz (Japanese export radios always went up to 108 MHz IIRC) Even older ones only went up to 100 or 102

Ive never seen a digitally tuned radio which didn't cover the full band (bar maybe the one's one sometimes encounters in Japanese import cars which tune a non-standard band and top out around 90 MHz) then again I didn't think digital car radios were a thing in 1979 ?

The odd pirate did venture into the high-end frequencies (particularly in Ireland) although in the 1980's the very top end of the band tended to be reserved for link frequencies.

American tuners go up in 200khz steps they had tv station or sound on 87.7, kind of weird, they don't cover the whole band, which is annoying. Radios in the past were designed very differently, the radios I had in the 90’s, they all had local oscilators (so you could make a small transmitter) they had 10.7ifs so if a strong signal was 10.7mhz above I suppose it could break through. One of my eariliest getto type blasters, had no am rejection so at night it would suffer from hearing mw/shortwave stations on fm at night, the voice of god knows what coming over. Once had a pilot talking over radio 1 on one of my radios, I suppose there was some confusion around the time about the airband, with no internet around, (think the internet started about 96, didn't come into homes until the late 90's) 105-108 not been cleared for use, there was uncertainly over weather it could to be used, though I don't think I ever though it was for pilot use.

[oldtech]

though I don't think I ever though it was for pilot use.

It was used for various PMR services, we used it on London Buses 107MHz being the mobile Tx frequency of Mid-band which had it's Rx on 140MHz. Also used by various water supply authorities. Never used for Airband services

[87to108]

I used to get aircraft interupting Pitch fm 106.5, though it was my radio, I don’t really know,

You were hearing an image of transmissions approx 21.4 MHz higher (the other side of the local oscillator, 10.7+10.7 = 21.4 ),. so they were of course not actually around 106.5 but around 127.9). Less likely to happen with a better quality radio.

[87to108]

American tuners go up in 200khz steps they had tv station or sound on 87.7, kind of weird

the 87.7 / 87.75 FM stations in the USA were/are using a TV station licence to operate a radio station.

despite a complete analogue TV switchover, a fudge allowed most of these '87.7/87.75 FM radio stations' to continue transmit an FM analog sound carrier alongside a somewhat reduced bandwidth Digital TV signal

all explained here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_6 ... ted_States

[Persona Non Grata]

Fair point re: American tuners having 0.2 MHz steps (although many have an option somewhere in the settings for narrower steps because Mexico uses 0.1 MHz spacings)