What frequency / band are you listening on?
LW (198kHz) is being turned off and service may be intermittent.

Robert.

Not had any problems with Radio 4 recently but it, and other services, aren’t rock solid, and never have been!

Unfortunately Nigel hasn’t said which Radio 4 he’s listening too, and there are at least 6 possibilities.

• Streamed off the internet – probably not what Nigel is doing, but you never know these days.  I’ve seen these devices sold as ‘radios’.
• The National Service is Amplitude Modulated on 198kHz Long Wave, broadcast from near Daventry in the midlands.   The transmitter is antique, and when the unobtainium transmitting valve gives up the ghost, I expect the BBC will save lots of money by closing the station down.   Not because all the old master-craftsmen who built it are dead, but because it’s not worth spending money on a channel not many listen too.  It’s expensive: an massive antenna strung between two tall towers, on a plot the size of a small farm, with a megawatt power supply!  The advantage is long range – R4 LW puts a good signal into most of Europe and the Atlantic.  Most Long Wave, Medium Wave and Short Wave broadcast services have already gone –  BBC LW is one of very few survivors,
• FM.   On VHF Radio 4 is broadcast from many local transmitters.    Some are tiny, used to extend the service into valleys, others big, covering a region.  Local transmitters are needed because VHF is essentially short range, say 60km.  Although audio quality is better than R4 LW AM, the service is still analogue and subject to “noises off”.
• DAB.  This is a digital service, also transmitted at VHF, but twice the frequency of FM.  Very different from AM or FM: it’s a packet system, very like the internet,  in which many stations share the same channel.  The receiver selects packets corresponding to the wanted channel and ignores the others.  The packets contain compressed data with mathematical error checking and automatic correction.    The receiver, which is mostly a computer, unpacks the data and plays it.  Although DAB still fails if the signal is too low, or interference too strong, it outperforms FM and AM, and allows many more stations to be packed into the spectrum.   For convenience, DAB transmitters may be located on the same tower as FM services,  but this ain’t always the case.
• Freeview.  Like DAB but on a UHF TV channel.
• Satellite.  Like DAB except the source is a GHz TV Channel transmitted from Outer Space.

All these transmitters get content from a distribution network that connects studios together.  The studio can be almost anywhere, other than near a transmitter!  To avoid interference, they are usually kept well apart.  A big studio complex will have high-end comms, these days almost certainly packet-switched fibre, but possibly microwave, or copper in an older installation.   Not unusual though for the ‘studio’ to be in an ordinary home, using rather ordinary consumer audio equipment and an internet connection.

The system is not straightforward or 100% available.  Being a complex mesh of interconnections, it’s more likely than not that something will be poorly.  And although the network provides redundancy, it doesn’t always self correct in the blink of an eye.

My guess is Nigel is listening to R4 FM being roadcast by a small repeater somewhere in Dorset that doesn’t have millions of listeners.  As a low priority service, it’s power supply might be iffy, the equipment approaching end-of-life, and the data feed vulnerable.

Today, the UK is blanketed in fog, so if Nigel’s local transmitter has a microwave feed,  then it might be struggling.  Those who live in a large conurbation get a better service, though we might recall BBC 2 TV’s disastrous opening night, where Battersea Power Station blew a fuse, the grid failed to cope, and the BBC’s launch studio went dark.  So rather than a well-rehearsed live launch, the BBC had to transfer to a poorly staffed underprepared back-up team in Alexandra Palace, only there to cover a short break.   This was a long break, and chaos ensued!

Another possibility today is the sunspot cycle.  This morning the HF bands are open.  This is due to the sun putting more energy than usual into ionising the upper atmosphere, causing radio signals to bounce or be absorbed anomalously.   This can affect microwave and other links, and a really bad solar storm can flip out a 50 or 60Hz power grid.

I also live in the country, and notice occasional issues.  My signals come from the Mendip transmitter near Wells, normally very reliable, but I live in a shadowed valley and notice when power is reduced due to high-winds, thunder-storms, and maintenance work.

There are dozens of reasons Nigel might experience short breaks, and it’s very unlikely “Broadcasting House” will interrupt R4 programmes to apologise for a 10 minute outage in darkest Dorset.  Or when it happens in my little part of Zummerzet.

Dave

I can see my local transmitter from my house, it is 25 miles away and I have had issues as described on the news and by the OP. It’s a weather problem affecting the broadcast signal. There is a Freeview item regarding this and it was mentioned in the national news.

Bad weather is affecting my TV signal

Certain weather conditions, including high pressure (which generally brings fine weather or morning fog), may sometimes affect your Freeview reception.

Interference caused by atmospheric conditions is temporary and should clear once the weather changes.

If you suspect that your signal is being affected by weather please don’t retune your TV or box. If you have already retuned it, you’ll have to retune again once the weather has cleared.

Martin C

Dave, it’s not important, but you like to give long posts with an authorative air and extra extraneous info – so it should be checked and correct. BTW, Daventry is not in Worcestershire, but in Northamptonshire.

On 28 December 2024 at 15:38 john halfpenny Said:

Dave, it’s not important, but you like to give long posts with an authorative air and extra extraneous info – so it should be checked and correct. BTW, Daventry is not in Worcestershire, but in Northamptonshire.

Seems important to you John!   You are after all a well-known Duffer basher!  (It’s allowed.)

In a post explaining why R4 might be misbehaving in Dorset, I’m not too worried about confusing the radio station near Droitwich with the other ex-Long Wave station near Daventry.   The location of the 198kHz transmitter makes no difference to Nigel’s problem.

I reject the notion the post contained extra extraneous info – Nigel didn’t say how he receives R4 so I covered all the main possibilities, plus the distribution network.  If John can show which parts of the post were extraneous, I’ll apologise.  But I’m confident he can’t.  Him not being interested in the big picture isn’t my problem!

Sorry if anyone doesn’t like long posts, but they don’t have to be read.  Worth a try though, might learn something!  This includes explaining how economic factors often influence technology.  Again, some dislike this, but like it or not, engineering doesn’t exist in a vacuum.  Many technical decisions only make sense if the history and economics are laid out.   Can’t help those who prefer not to know, or find the information upsets their belief system.

Hope everyone has noticed that the style of my posts varies to show how much I know about the subject.   Happens I know a fair bit about Radio Engineering, so this one was written positively, authoritative if anyone wants to throw rocks.   The tone just means I’m confident it’s mostly correct, though I’m always open to factual corrections.   When not sure, my posts contain hints like “I think”, “I believe”, “I suggest”, “probably”, “likely” , “hope an expert will comment”, or “dunno”.   These phrases are clues that the post is not positive knowledge.

Dave

I have more than one button programmed to the stations I listen to a lot as signals seem to vary a lot. Though maybe it is not that often and it is just so attention grabbing when it does happen. I remember my father deftly band switching and turning the knob at certain times of day retuning BBC World Service as short wave is affected by the sun at dawn and dusk.

There is help available, Nigel:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/issues-with-analogue-radio/#/undefined

MichaelG.

The only problem I had with Radio Four was hearing the Shipping Forecast read in an American, or at least a mid-Atlantic accent, the other morning. I was appalled! A bulletin so quintessentially British, is nothing sacred? I have a good mind to write to the BBC.

Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells. (well, mid-Lincolnshire, actually!)

Copy and paste or screenshot and put in a folder. Like this only paste to a folder o r desktop.

I am learning a lot from the above exchange of views on redio transmission and would like to be able to extract certain posts, naming no names, to contacts of mine who are not members of the forum. How would i go about doing this?

Hi all. I’ve been reading the above with a lot of interest. Not suffered any abrupt outages, but my UHF TV is constantly “on the blink” The high sunspot count at present is currently a factor, UHF signals are, as previously noted a short range service, but when the sun is very active (like now) that range is increased so you get signals from distant transmitters you were never meant to get interacting with those you were. For the last few weeks I’ve never had the full range of Freeview channels all working at once. Re-tuning sometimes helps, 2-3 times per week is the norm.

Bob

Local farmer here had a different approach – collided with an 11kV o/h pole in the middle of his wheatfield, brought it down, shorted and set the straw alight.