Non-motoring > BBC Long Wave Ended Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Bromptonaut Replies: 24
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 11:35 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Bromptonaut
The BBC's use of 198khz long wave for Radio 4 ended with closedown last night after over 100 years.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/26/bbcs-long-wave-final-broadcast-national-anthem/

Was that the last LW station in Europe?
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 11:41 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Robin O'Reliant
I can't honestly remember ever listening to it.
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 11:50 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Bromptonaut
>> I can't honestly remember ever listening to it.

Do you mean Radio 4 or Long Wave?

The 198khz, originally 1500 metres/200khz before Europe settled on 9khz channel spacing in AM, was used for the Light Programme, later Radio 2, until a rejig in the late seventies.

Dad listened to the Light Programme quite a lot in the car and 1500 Long Wave was a preset on his car radio right up until VHF/Stereo became a thing.

I was still listening to R4 long wave until a few years ago as VHF is ropy in most of this house.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 27 Jun 26 at 11:51
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 12:11 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Robin O'Reliant
>>
>>
>> Do you mean Radio 4 or Long Wave?
>>
>>
>>

Long wave.
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 12:23 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Bromptonaut
>> Long wave.

Genuinely surprised, given we're in the same age group, that you managed to avoid it!!
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 12:36 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Robin O'Reliant
>>
>>
>> Genuinely surprised, given we're in the same age group, that you managed to avoid it!!
>>
>>

If Radio Luxemburg was on LW then I did.
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 12:38 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Bromptonaut
>> If Radio Luxemburg was on LW then I did.

208 metres MW if I remember rightly.
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 13:27 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Zero
>> >> If Radio Luxemburg was on LW then I did.
>>
>> 208 metres MW if I remember rightly.

He may be older than you think, Radio Luxemburg moved from LW to 208 MW in 1951

Little known fact Luxemburg started in the 30's, taken over by the germans in WW2, and was used to broadcast Lord Haw Haw.
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 14:35 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Andrew-T
>> I can't honestly remember ever listening to it. >>

I remember listening to 1500 metres LW (labelled Droitwich) on my parents' radio back in the 1950s/60s. It was either that or the Home Service.
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 14:44 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Bromptonaut
>> I remember listening to 1500 metres LW (labelled Droitwich) on my parents' radio back in
>> the 1950s/60s. It was either that or the Home Service.

Droitwich is the transmitter location.

It was used for the Home Service during the war but reallocated to the Light Programme - Radio 2 after 1967 - when wartime restrictions ended.

There was a further rejig in 1979 after which it broadcast Radio 4.

1500 metres wavelength gives a frequency of 200khz but Droitwich was changed to 198khz to comply with 9khz spacing between stations from 1988.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 27 Jun 26 at 14:45
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 11:54 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Zero
>> Was that the last LW station in Europe?

Romania: Radio Antena Satelor (153 kHz) – 200 kW
France: Allouis (162 kHz) – Used primarily as the ALS162 time signal transmitter,
Poland: Polskie Radio (225 kHz) – 1,000 kW

Plenty of North African, Mid east ones can be easily heard, and if the atmospherics are good at night you can get the Voice of North Korea.


Medium wave is on its way out as well.
Last edited by: Zero on Sat 27 Jun 26 at 11:54
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 11:59 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Bromptonaut
>> Romania: Radio Antena Satelor (153 kHz) – 200 kW
>> France: Allouis (162 kHz) – Used primarily as the ALS162 time signal transmitter,
>> Poland: Polskie Radio (225 kHz) – 1,000 kW

Thanks Z.

Dad used to listen to French radio on LW to improve his comprehension of the language which he needed for his business.
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 12:11 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Zero

>> Dad used to listen to French radio on LW to improve his comprehension of the
>> language which he needed for his business.

Back in the 60's in a 50's era caravan, perched on Cornish clifftops, I can remember listening with my dad on his portable Grundig (they mad some fab stuff back then, the germans knew their radio tech) late at night to the numerous LW stations and the short wave spy stations.

Voice of America was fab, they did a jazz hour, sandwiched between Western propaganda
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 14:01 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Bromptonaut
Droitwich is actually still transmitting with a redirection message to VHF, sounds etc.
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 Sat 27 Jun 26 14:14 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Zero
>> Droitwich is actually still transmitting with a redirection message to VHF, sounds etc.

That ends on 30th June

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 Sat 27 Jun 26 15:22 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - martin aston
The quality was pretty poor but the range was excellent. Travelling in France and elsewhere in pre-internet/mobile days it was the only way for the casual listener to pick up U.K. radio.

That reminds me, reflecting the limited contact people had with home on their travels Radio 4 used to broadcast individual “phone home” messages. These were a last resort to contact travellers who were needed urgently for health emergencies etc.

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 Sat 27 Jun 26 17:26 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - ORB>>>
That reminds me, reflecting the limited contact people had with home on their travels Radio
4 used to broadcast individual “phone home” messages. These were a last resort to contact
travellers who were needed urgently for health emergencies etc.

Henry Warren in ruined city Neville Shute.... should we ask the BBC to broadcast a message for him?

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 Sun 28 Jun 26 01:43 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - expat2
>> That reminds me, reflecting the limited contact people had with home on their travels
In the early 1970s we used Poste Restante. You would write home and tell them to reply to you at Poste Restante somewhere or other until a certain date and then after that to Poste Restante at the next place you were planning to visit. The Poste Restante system was very good in most places with the worst exception being La Paz, Bolivia where the Poste Restante mail was in a heap on the floor and you were told to sort it out yourself. They made the Arabs look organised and efficient! Using that system you were always about 4 weeks behind with family news but we managed. Tell the young ones that and they boggle.
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 Sun 28 Jun 26 10:24 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Timeonmyhands
Used to drive from Birmingham to Bristol in the eighties with an am//fm radio in my Lonsdale, Aussie built Mitsubishi.. Going by J5 of the M5 The Archers would suddenly blast out of the speakers, mass breakthrough.
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 Sun 28 Jun 26 12:04 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Zero
>> Used to drive from Birmingham to Bristol in the eighties with an am//fm radio in
>> my Lonsdale, Aussie built Mitsubishi.. Going by J5 of the M5 The Archers would suddenly
>> blast out of the speakers, mass breakthrough.

We used to go to Crystal Palace parade with an old style fluorescent light tube, stand under the transmiter tower, ground one end with a hand and hold the other end up, they used to flicker nicely.
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 Sun 28 Jun 26 22:23 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Dave_
Twin 500kW transmitters will do that.

I used to think that was a phenomenal amount of power; not so much in this era of 350kW chargers for one car!
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 Sat 1 Aug 26 16:34 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Bromptonaut
>> Henry Warren in ruined city Neville Shute.... should we ask the BBC to broadcast a
>> message for him?

I must have missed the Shute reference first time out as I'm a bit of an enthusiast for his work.

Pulled my copy of Ruined City of the shelf and put it in the grab bag for our trip to the Lakes later in the month. Probably only read it once.

It's said that some of the dodginess in Warren's business dealings were 'inspired' by his own experience with the Airspeed company Shute, whose full name was Nevil Shute Norway of which he was co-founder.

I like his later stuff albeit the combination of a love story, Australia and flying are almost formulaic.

In the Wet is brilliant as is The Rainbow and the Rose. Requiem for a Wren, also published as The Breaking Wave, is superb and so desperately sad.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Sat 1 Aug 26 at 16:35
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 Sat 1 Aug 26 16:57 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - ORB>>>
I like all of the Shute books, Marazan, Slide Rule too... In Beyond the Black Stump he comments on the Consumer society in the USA. Also Round the Bend...In over 50 years I have enjoyed multiple trips across the USA including the Greyhound/trailways experience and my first taste of Low cost flying.. People Express, 1985..

His descriptions of the early days of flying are certainly interesting.
The first one I read was a Class Book in school, (we all got a copy) English lit) that was Pied Piper..
Then we had to do a 1000 word essay about it.
Last edited by: ORB>>> on Sat 1 Aug 26 at 16:58
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 Thu 2 Jul 26 23:13 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - BigJohn
Back in the day we always listened to LW Radio 4 (Radio 2 until circa 1978?) when travelling into Europe as reception was reasonable for a surprising distance after leaving our shores. Never used it in Blighty though preferring stereo FM channels.
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 Sat 1 Aug 26 16:22 
 BBC Long Wave Ended - Bromptonaut
>> Back in the day we always listened to LW Radio 4 (Radio 2 until circa
>> 1978?) when travelling into Europe as reception was reasonable for a surprising distance after leaving
>> our shores.

Listened to Radio 4 LW as far south as the Auvergne on the car radio and further afield still with a Sony world band jobby. Five live also extends surprisingly far at night on either 693 or 909.

These days of course we just listen on the interweb.
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