On 14/04/2016 15:33, Tudor Hughes wrote:
On Thursday, 14 April 2016 13:41:27 UTC+1, Richard Dixon wrote:
Whitstable has awful digital reception (any idea you radio experts on how to complain about this?!) so I've gone back to good old standard radio signals.

One thing I'd forgotten that on a thundery day such as this how LW picks up lightning strikes. Something I remember spotting as a child which used to up the excitement. Can't remember what the range is for detection of strikes on LW but the storms of Suffolk/Cambridgeshire are coming through loud and clear...

Richard

Yes, LW is best sferics detector. I can remember trying to listen to the Shipping Forecast at 1155 pm on LW on 12/13 June 1964. A spectacular thunderstorm was in progress and the programme was almost completely inaudible against the continuous racket. This was local, of course but much more distant storms could be picked up.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.



LW will pick up anything and everything between the transmitter and
receiver if you are using a directional aerial. Otherwise, if you are
using a non-directional aerial, anything that produces a stronger signal
than the station you are tuned to, regardless of location, will be
picked up. I used to listen to 1500m with a vertical dipole
(non-directional) when I lived in Hampshire in the 1960's, and the
Vulcan bombers returning to Boscombe Down played havoc with reception
when they flew past.

The BBC 1500m transmitter was originally situated just outside Daventry
in Northamptonshire. This ceased transmission in 1934, and moved to a
site just north of Worcester at Droitwich, which is still in operation
today. For how much longer, nobody knows, because they can no longer get
spares (especially the valves) for it. It uses two. Apparently, they
only have 10 spares left!

jim, Northampton