Sydenham based Pirate Radio Station shut down

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back_ache
Posts: 84
Joined: 7 Jan 2005 18:00
Location: North-West Sydenham

Sydenham based Pirate Radio Station shut down

Post by back_ache »

Pirate radio has its plug pulled Jan 9 2006
A PIRATE radio station that disrupted frequencies used by firefighters has been closed down.

Whoa FM broadcast hip-hop and R'n'B across London from the top of Countisbury House in Crescent Wood Road, Sydenham, until it was raided last Tuesday.

Officials from broadcasting watchdog Ofcom removed the aerial and transmitter - shutting the station down.

Ofcom investigator Graham Markwick said the station was illegal and broadcasting without a licence.

He added: "Illegal broadcasting affects the communications systems used by emergency services.

"Whoa, for example, caused interference to the radios used by the London Fire Brigade.

"Ofcom will continue to identify and take off air illegal radio stations that broadcast without a licence."

The end of Whoa FM's broadcasts was welcomed by firefighters.

Assistant Commissioner John Anthony said: "Pirate radio transmissions such as these interfere with, and sometimes entirely disable, the communications systems London Fire Brigade relies on.

"The interference makes it more difficult for the firefighters to go about their daily business of protecting Londoners."

http://tinyurl.com/cdhwy
admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2575
Joined: 20 Sep 2004 21:49

Post by admin »

Thanks for that back_ache. Hope you don't mind me shortening your link - you probably spotted what the long URL did to the formatting. Great site http://tinyurl.com

BTW the location is very near the Dulwich Wood House with its panaromic views over the the West End & City one way and Kent the other. Probably why the pirate chose that location. You must have line-of-sight to more mobile base stations then almost anywhere in the UK. Yet around there i get zilch on my Orange phone. Walk a hundred yards either way down the hill - no problem. Could the pirate's harmonics been blocking the transmission - or is there just too much noise for my simple phone to work?
back_ache
Posts: 84
Joined: 7 Jan 2005 18:00
Location: North-West Sydenham

Post by back_ache »

admin wrote:BTW the location is very near the Dulwich Wood House with its panaromic views over the the West End & City one way and Kent the other.
I have been on the top-floor north-facing balcony of Countisbury House and I can confirm the view is stunning.
admin wrote: Could the pirate's harmonics been blocking the transmission - or is there just too much noise for my simple phone to work?

Err, dunno! All I do know is despite being close the transmitter my TV reception leaves a lot to be desired, acccording to the "engineer" that tried to fix it, you can be too close to a transmitter.
rockrabbit
Posts: 1
Joined: 25 Jan 2006 19:26
Location: Suffolk

Post by rockrabbit »

I recall the terrible interference we used to get from the old 405 BBC1 transmitter. We lived at the bottom of Wells park road and not only did the interference cause trouble on radio's, it also caused an annoying buzzing on any kind of amplifier (guitar amp, Hifi amp, cassette machines, turntables etc). It was not until they closed the old 405 transmitter in 1984, that we finally could listen to the clicks and crackles on our records, that were previously hidden by the video buzz from Crystal Palace.

One good point of trying rid the interference from my hifi, was I started to get interested in radio and electronics and I eventually went into a career in radio and TV broadcast engineering.

There is still masses of interference around the Crystal palace area from radio and TV transmitters which make analogue radio and TV reception difficult to this day (its almost always better to push the telescopic aerial of a portable radio closed as extending it causes the radio to overload).

Regarding the pirates. Its very old and well worn out comment from the authorities that pirates cause interference. Most do not and locally another fairly low powered pirate transmitter hardly adds anything to the general level of noise and radio interference in the Crystal palace area - certainly comparing their puny transmitters to the massively powerful transmitters used by the BBC etc. In my youth I too was involved with some of the very early pirate stations (1970's) on FM and we used Crystal Palace a great deal. We never caused any interference problems, in fact the legal transmitters were the cause of problems to us and the public.

As for improving TV reception around CP and Sydenham, it is rather difficult due to the strong signal and strong reflections off of the hills (ghosting) which is very difficult to reduce. Most people rely on indoor or loft aerials as the signal is so strong, but in fact a fairly directional aerial (10 element) outside on the roof would do a much better job as it will point directly to the mast at CP and be less sensitive to the reflections and thus less ghosting. You will need a large attenuator (24dB) in the aerial lead at the back of the TV, but this is the best solution. The whole point is to reduce the chance of the reflections getting into the signal and therefore an outside roof aerial pointing accuratly at the BBC mast is the best solution. Also good quality coaxial aerial cable to reduce as much as possible the reflections being received by the coax downlead.

I now live in Suffolk some 35 miles from my local transmitter and reception is near perfect. Its a totally different situation to the years of struggling with poor reception at CP.

I still visit Sydenham every few months as friends and family live there and still have ambitions to return to Sydenham one day, but with house prices the way they are, I cannot afford to buy much in Sydenham. Anyone wanna swap for a 2 bed bungalow in Suffolk. Ideal for military plane spotters (USAF F-15's) :-)

Rockrabbit
Cod
Posts: 10
Joined: 15 Jul 2005 00:05
Location: Sydenham, in LB Bromley

Post by Cod »

We moved over the hill from Thornton Heath over a year ago and live (almost) in the shadow of the CP transmitter. We had difficulty receiving ITV when the other side of the hill and can't get BBC here (or is it the other way around?). We found that the only way that we could get a decent picture was to get Sky / Freeview.
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