RTS, is long wave still transmitting?

JohnSwift10

I don't have a radio with long wave so I was wondering if the BBC are still transmitting radio four on its long wave frequency?

Ildhund

It's almost 1 AM BST on 3 July 2025, and I just discovered (prompted by your question) that my rarely-used radio set in the corner has long wave. I'm currently listening to an historian on the 1514 m band, but reception is very poor. I can hear enough, though, to match the broadcast - with a delay of several seconds - to Radio 4 from BBC Sounds on my Amazon Echo. I'm not sure what I'd have to do to improve the quality. 

[EDIT a few minutes later: I'm now transported several decades into the past, hearing Binge's Sailing by telling me to stand by for the Shipping Forecast.]

WiserMiser

Ildhund said:

I'm not sure what I'd have to do to improve the quality. 

Turn off the LED lights, rotate the radio and/or move it next to a window (assuming it has an internal  ferrite rod or frame aerial.

On-the-coast

BBC radio 4 long wave.  

Yes but maybe not for much longer. 

It’s all “up in the air” right now. 

See here for a pressure group that wants to keep it. 

https://keeplongwave.co.uk/2025/06/16/radio-4-longwave-will-not-go-quiet-at-the-end-of-june-bbc-suggests/

Ildhund

WiserMiser said:
Turn off the LED lights, rotate the radio and/or move it next to a window (assuming it has an internal  ferrite rod or frame aerial.

Thanks for the tips. I'm not going grovelling behind the bookcase where this 20th century Chinese marvel of a radiogram has lived untouched for the past many years to get its LW bit working just so I can tell when the transmitter stops ... 

For those who think they could knock up one of the 500 kW valves in their garden shed, here's another photo of one of them, here being wheeled into position: 
  
  

Note the shiny shoes, the immaculate trouser crease and the carefully-Brylcreemed coiffure. Those were the days ...

mmmmikey

I did try and make one in my garden shed, but to be honest it didn't go well....

QrizB

My son's currently working in Ireland. Listens to R4 LW in his work van. Reception varies depending on which van he's given, how the van is oriented, the weather and presumably the level of sunspot activity!

Spoonie_Turtle

Ildhund said:

For those who think they could knock up one of the 500 kW valves in their garden shed …

There's a post somewhere with something of a schematic for anyone who wanted to work out how difficult/expensive it'd be (but there's no way the BBC would buy it off them even if they did succeed.  I say 'it', didn't they need to be installed in pairs, so it would actually be 'they' and needing to knock up two at least … ).