Black Country Radio

[Andy Hicks]

Yes the 922 signal isn't great, it'll flick between 922 and 1025 much too frequently and the audio has a slight delay on one of the rigs, so it becomes very noticeable.
Now I don't know if there are regulations as to the height of the aerial but the surrounding stuff will need clearing otherwise it's dead money really, the flat spots for 1025 are hardly bettered by 922 unless the listener is within a mile or two of the rig.

But even our friend who is a jock on there has said that he has stopped giving any advice as they just don't listen, they know best. As I say, it's a waste with the way it's currently set up, another bill to pay just to cover the same as what's being covered now.
In my opinion it's probably in the wrong town, Dudley doesn't need it unless it's set up properly to cover the areas the license stipulates.

[Andy Hicks]

It's directional due to its location nothing else.

I probably won't know where to look now to see why they'd be directional, so apart from their 1025 rig, what would it be protecting?

Plus, in the words of the Sex Pistols. I'm a lazy sod

[Steve Marshall]

I've driven past their site a load of times, too lazy to stop and take a pic of the aerial lol I did grab one a few weeks back while sitting in a queue of traffic but i was too far away really and i wasn't gonna stop to get a better one, more interested in getting home I suspect they thought that they'd be able to cover the other side of Dudley better as 102.5 is crap the other side of the hill as you'd expect, but like the original installation many years ago, they've ballsed it up.

There is nothing to stop them having the aerial higher than the other comms stuff at all as far as Ofcom are concerned, you just needed to let them know how high the aerial is and what type of co-ax you have, also if there is any gain on the aerial itself, so they take into account the loss from the coax/aerial gain etc when setting the TX power, so you are getting your power output off the aerial, not loosing however many watts in the feeder to it.

As for them knowing better, well let them get on with it. What would we know anyway

[Andy Hicks]

I've driven past their site a load of times, too lazy to stop and take a pic of the aerial lol I did grab one a few weeks back while sitting in a queue of traffic but i was too far away really and i wasn't gonna stop to get a better one, more interested in getting home I suspect they thought that they'd be able to cover the other side of Dudley better as 102.5 is crap the other side of the hill as you'd expect, but like the original installation many years ago, they've ballsed it up.

There is nothing to stop them having the aerial higher than the other comms stuff at all as far as Ofcom are concerned, you just needed to let them know how high the aerial is and what type of co-ax you have, also if there is any gain on the aerial itself, so they take into account the loss from the coax/aerial gain etc when setting the TX power, so you are getting your power output off the aerial, not loosing however many watts in the feeder to it.

As for them knowing better, well let them get on with it. What would we know anyway

This taken from their members page.

[fm man]

was in bilston today nothing on 92.2 there engineers look pissed they might aswell give up... waste of time

[midlandsfirst]

first glance i thought that was Jon Gould in the middle lol

[Steve Marshall]

I was wrong originally with their site location then, but i saw this yesterday, its an ex Kris FM site, and they did perfectly well from there and boomed out!!! Maybe the BCR "engineers" should ask for some help from the Kris installers. Must say very very poor signal from this site indeed.

But, never mind hey, life goes on....

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.50788 ... 384!8i8192

[Mike]

its an ex Kris FM site, and they did perfectly well from there and boomed out!!!

I checked the Google street view link and if you set the history back to 2014 a large dipole can indeed be seen on top of the building

92.2 just about reaches me in NE Birmingham but it's very weak and I need to use a radio with good selectivity (like a Tecsun) as it's sandwiched between two pirates! I am way out of target area here though. I used to get Kriss very nicely on FM here.

[Steve Marshall]

Oh nice, i'd never actually noticed that link before!

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.50783 ... 312!8i6656

Dipole clearly visible from the other side, i do remember when they used that site, didn't they have a studio in some caves locally at the time too?

Maybe BCR are using 1 watt from there?

I know it breaks up while driving around in Lower Gornal which is only a few miles from that site

[Dave]

Dudley King Street
Site Height 202m
Aerial Height 25m

30watts Horizontal
30watts Vertical

Directional with most radiation between 30 and 60 degrees (North East) with up to 20dB of cut particularly to the South.

Am I reading this wrong or does that suggest they're throwing signal at Castle Hill which will then block it by virtue of being taller?