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Comment by DoubleGlazing | Hacker News Reader

There is something nice about listening to it over long wave though. The crackling and the fading adds a certain charm. I kind of want to enjoy while it lasts, the BBC has said that when the LW transmitter valves fail they won't be replaced signalling the end of Radio 4 long wave.

As for the iPlayer the BBC has started to mess around with geoblocks on radio shows. For example I can listen to the News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, but Dead Ringers is geoblocked. Also, the shows I can listen to now contain adverts along with a voice at the start telling me that BBC radio shows and podcasts are ad-supported outside the UK. This mildly disappoints me.

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> the BBC has said that when the LW transmitter valves fail they won't be replaced

They better tell the Royal Navy - the broadcast of the Today Show on Radio 4 LW is one of the tests submarine captains supposedly use to detect if the UK has been annihilated in a nuclear strike.

Lest anyone think this is a joke at least the BBC themselves think it's true:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/36824917/trident-what-...

They had a captain of a nuke sub on the Today programme once, and they asked him.

His answer was that there was a protocol of multiple checks, including Radio 4 LW. Not the only check, but definitely one of them.

I think the BBC would probably run cap in hand to the MOD to pay for a new transmitter in that case. The BBC transmitter is getting on for 70 years old, once it fails repairing it will require custom made equipment or complete replacement - both of which will be very expensive.

One other curious issue with radio 4 LW is that it carries a data sub-carrier for the National Radio Teleswitch. Basically the signal that controls the Economy 7 and Economy 10 heating systems. If Radio 4 LW goes off-air any renaming E7 and E10 systems will just stop working.

One crazy proposal that went nowhere was for the BBC to move Radio 4 LW to RTÉs Clrakstown transmitter in Ireland. That used to be the Atlantic 252 transmitter (remember them?) but has been carrying RTÉ Radio 1 since that venture failed and RTÉ really wants to shut it down. The transmitter at that site was built in 1998 which makes it a very young in radio transmitter terms.

Not the BBC any more. They were required to privatise tranmission in 97. Not sure who owns them now.

The Beeb still has a couple of world service transmitters I think, but the rest are gone.

Arqiva. Owned by an Australian investment bank. They also own the old IBA transmission network that broadcasts ITV/C4 and co-owns the Freeview service. I.E. They hold a monopoly on TV and radio transmission in the UK. Plus with the roll-out of 4/5G mobile all those hilltop sites are making them a fortune for providing microwave relay feeds for data services.

RTÉ still owns their network as 2rn Ltd (the callsign of Irelands first radio station - phonetically 'To Erin') and they are making decent money from providing the same mobile services. Making the BBC sell off their transmission network was shortsighted.

I'm a radio and love all this. The head engineer of 2rn is a member of my radio club - he really knows his stuff.

Of course, you can listen to the longwave transmission via the internet:

http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ (198kHz, AM)

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