Hi All. Now that the Long and Medium wavebands are soon to be abandoned in the UK, is there any now any interest in Free Radio broadcasting on those old AM bands in the UK as is done in Holland and other Euro contries? Being new to this forum, I made the mistake of posting this in the London pirate radio section. Apologies for my mistake. Got a nice reply from "jvok" there, so tt's all good !!

Theres defiantly activity on MW in the UK now, you should try using the Kiwi SDR Map and have a listen around http://rx.linkfanel.net
Currently I can think of 3 stations but not sure of the schedules, so try listening at the weekends either day or night.

FreedomRadio 927KHz
Radio Blackbeard 1512KHz
Maxx Dance Radio 1575KHz

i have an 8 watt rig but its way harder than FM to make up an aerial for it I find I am going try join to really long wires up some time see if it goes better.

fmuser877 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 15, 2025 2:23 pm i have an 8 watt rig but its way harder than FM to make up an aerial for it I find I am going try join to really long wires up some time see if it goes better.

The older Sandpiper antenna works reasonable well on MW and only requires a simple modification to move it down from 160m band.

looks sick

seen a 4w and 10 Watt AM Pole Transmitters 4W £200 which go in little garden wonder if it will work better. SVJ

There are stations on though I have not heard any myself for a while. One problem is the antenna size, very big for efficiency, very small means you can divide down your power as most is lost in a big coil somewhere in the antenna and realistically probably still 10m tall.

Very few people have time, space or a situation where no neighbours overlook for all that messing around and putting 'f*** off long' antennas up.

Also there is such a big amount of noise. Turn your MW radio on, for myself it is now totally unlistenable, as cheap electronic equipment in my neighbourhood is pouring a buzzing noise all over the band, I cannot hear anything. They moan about illegal broadcasters but people at home are unwittingly interfering with broadcast bands all the time with cheap, poor quality equipment, which if unlucky will have a greater risk of burning your house down as well cause some of it is made absolutely as cheap as possible, what other corner s have been cut ?

You simply have to ask whether it is work bothering ? A question only yourself will answer.

And who will be listening within 1-2 miles of your TX, if you are running 10 watts into a short 10m antenna with an ERP of 0.5 Watts and also probably a really bad ground. I cannot make it work in my head never mind in real world.

Hi. All interesting. An aspect of this is also pirate DX'ing. Buried antennas work well at these MF / LF frequencies, so it all becomes a bit like Ham Radio. Why not enjoy it for what it is, and enjoy using your vintage Roberts / Hacker / valve receivers too!!! At least you will get decent progs, instead of the usual BBC "propaganda" / Bauer / Global crap that now infests the other UK BC bands

As always it all depends on ones ability and knowledge to achieve a successful transmission on MW, something which is a little lacking in this forum to be truthfully honest when it comes to MF & HF. But for the small number of HAM's & Engineers that frequent this forum it's not a challenge. Experience, knowledge, time and in most cases the space to install antennas with a reasonable efficiency is not too difficult.

Regarding QRM, whether that be from unwanted cheaply made electric devices that do not comply with UK EMC regulations in the home, or in busy towns & city area's from a plethora of noise generating electronics that are nearby as you drive. This is something that plagues legitimate stations on MW too.

Also its worth considering the type of antenna polarisation, vertical is obviously going to be the first choice for best local reception. But to consider horizontal for DX would be great for skip conditions. Something like an Inverted L antenna would give you mixed polarisation. However both still will struggle for the time beginning when propagation is best for MW due to the large number of DX stations on the band at night.

Heres a video from last night, as you will see MW is jam packed.

Here's a video of MDR being received as driving into and out the other side of a noisy town centre. Considering the station only has 1.5W of power its very good.

Interesting share thanks. Not if it is in the same town with a 80m long antenna? Not my idea of something worth doing really but maybe for some so that's up to them.

FMEnjoyer wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 10:31 am Interesting share thanks. Not if it is in the same town with a 80m long antenna? Not my idea of something worth doing really but maybe for some so that's up to them.

Reception has been reported in Medway towns, Isle of Sheppey, Paddock wood, Tonbridge and even on the Whitstable WedSDR.

The antenna system used is the Sandpiper antenna which has a total length of 8m, but it should be noted only the top section is responsible for radiating the signal which has a total length of 2m after the loading coil with a V Hat configuration.
The efficiency of the antenna is typically very poor and with a very narrow SWR curve of around 10KHz, but considering it's limitations it's still able to achieve a respectable coverage.

The radial grounding system is a cook book X plain over soil with centre earthed mast.

Well congrats on your station, I take back anything I said. Seems you do very well, enjoy the station ! And it is interesting with MW.. I am sour here cause I cannot here bugger all just a BUZZZZZ over the entire MW band ! Even FM is affected with a 15dB noise hiss level on empty frequencies by some trashy noisy domestic equipment somewhere near by.

i was fine 6 months ago with the Dutch pirates but now just noise.

Zozo wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 9:03 am Here's a video of MDR being received as driving into and out the other side of a noisy town centre. Considering the station only has 1.5W of power its very good.

This 1.5w into the aerial or 1.5w radiated?

Also I don't get why if you're going to the trouble of putting up an 8m mast why not make the whole thing radiate?

Impressive coverage though either way

I cannot seem to find any sandpaper antennas that look like your one there zozo. Would it not be better to make a huge coil and run a wire up a long fibreglass plag pole like 12m they are only about £60 I think. then you have 10 x more element, than resistor.

FMEnjoyer wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 7:01 pm Well congrats on your station, I take back anything I said. Seems you do very well, enjoy the station ! And it is interesting with MW.. I am sour here cause I cannot here bugger all just a BUZZZZZ over the entire MW band ! Even FM is affected with a 15dB noise hiss level on empty frequencies by some trashy noisy domestic equipment somewhere near by.

i was fine 6 months ago with the Dutch pirates but now just noise.

Thank you for the support and I do sympathise regarding the high noise floor on the bands that many people suffer with, and the addition of unwanted QRM from noisy electronics in close proximity. I hope whatever is causing your high noise on the upper part of MW will disappear so the Dutch pirates are receivable once again.

jvok wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 7:03 pm

Zozo wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 9:03 am Here's a video of MDR being received as driving into and out the other side of a noisy town centre. Considering the station only has 1.5W of power its very good.

This 1.5w into the aerial or 1.5w radiated?

Also I don't get why if you're going to the trouble of putting up an 8m mast why not make the whole thing radiate?

Impressive coverage though either way

It's the topology of the antenna, the business end is after the loading coil so not much RF lobe being radiated from the lower section.
This does however has one advantage being the RF current is nice and high above the ground and over the top of obstacles and terrain. It's also worth noting that the tip of antenna sits about 220 feet ASL.

(edit)

Sorry I forgot to say the power from the TX is 1.5W RMS, so 4x = 6W PEP @ 100% Mod.

FMEnjoyer wrote: ↑Sun Mar 16, 2025 7:30 pm I cannot seem to find any sandpaper antennas that look like your one there zozo. Would it not be better to make a huge coil and run a wire up a long fibreglass plag pole like 12m they are only about £60 I think. then you have 10 x more element, than resistor.

Sadly the Sandpiper MV27 I think is no-longer available, but you can see them from time to time secondhand on eBay.

You are also indeed correct with the loading coil at the base of a telescopic fibreglass pole with a wire going up to the tip, in practice I found that the radiating RF lobe is much lower to the ground and causes a weaker propagating signal than the Sandpiper. But the bandwidth of the antenna is greater and somewhat better efficiency. I would say this would work better in an obstacle free site or terrain.

Well done, good you found out. It is certainly having a mystique about it. I suppose it makes sense to get it up higher in some ways at least it is something very different.

The kick in the mush with anything radio is that you will have 10 or 100 x more people looking at the video of it, than actually tuned in. Same with hams, it is not enough to have a amateur station and make contacts you have to be on Youtube filming yourself.

I bet a grand total of no one who you told it was on tuned in cause extremely few people bother, literally a few die hard anaorks.

Those are the facts but of course do as you want to and enjoy it if you do for what it is.