BBC Radio 4 LW could end in March, but Radio Teleswitch service extended until 2024 - Printable Version
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BBC Radio 4 LW could end in March, but Radio Teleswitch service extended until 2024 - Dadeki - 14-01-2023
Quoted from mediumwave.info:
"...The EDF website has been updated to show that the Radio Teleswitch Service will now be closing down on March 31st 2024 rather than this March as it had previously stated."
From the EDF website:
"The Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) is an industry-run service. It's used to support old versions of multi-rate, or other complex meter types with certain functions. This could be switching between peak and off-peak rates or turning on your heating or hot water, depending on the type of meter."
EDF: What you need to know about the planned RTS meter shutdown
There has been some discussion on there as to whether BBC Radio 4 would leave longwave and it would then be used for teleswitching only and whether the longwave opt-outs would end.
As to costs a long document Electric Heat Pathway SSEN published in 2020 said.
“The BBC have stated that they plan to cease long-wave radio transmission after 2021 and that if the service is required for RTS after that, industry will need to pay the whole costs of the infrastructure. The estimated charges to be levied by the BBC after 1st April this year go from under £1m, to over £1.5m and will increase again on 1st April 2021. The BBC have suggested they can keep transmission going until 31st March 2023 but after that, a complete overhaul will be needed.”
The cost will have increased greatly since then.
Mike Barraclough to bdxc-news via Mike Terry, Longwaveradiolistening iog (2023-01-10)"
So, the question is, will the BBC be ending its Radio 4 LW service come March as suggested in 2020, or has this too been quietly extended alongside the Teleswitching service? Presumably, the energy companies will not be wanting to pay the whole costs of infrastructure maintenance, especially with energy costs rapidly increasing as they are at present (I imagine that maintaining an ageing and power-hungry LW transmitter is not the cheapest either).
RE: BBC Radio 4 LW could end in March, but Radio Teleswitch service extended until 2024 - Steve in Pudsey - 15-01-2023
Aren't there some other data services on there? I think RATS - the BBC obit alarm - was activated through it originally but I imagine it's all in the newsroom systems now
RE: BBC Radio 4 LW could end in March, but Radio Teleswitch service extended until 2024 - Technologist - 15-01-2023
Flood alert came of it in the 1990s ….
Over to mobile data and then to mobile phone and I think the sirens have been decommissioned ….
As direct messaging to mobile phones is the current method.
But it is a very low bit rate service ..all be it with fairly secure wide coverage .
RE: BBC Radio 4 LW could end in March, but Radio Teleswitch service extended until 2024 - Stooky Bill - 15-01-2023
(15-01-2023, 04:04 AM)Steve in Pudsey Wrote: Aren't there some other data services on there? I think RATS - the BBC obit alarm - was activated through it originally but I imagine it's all in the newsroom systems nowRATS is still a thing, I don't know how much use it was or how well it worked the couple of times it was used in anger the last two years.
There's better ways to do it
RE: BBC Radio 4 LW could end in March, but Radio Teleswitch service extended until 2024 - Mike - 15-01-2023
It's used by nuclear subs too, even to this day, to determine if the UK exists still...
RE: BBC Radio 4 LW could end in March, but Radio Teleswitch service extended until 2024 - Neil Jones - 15-01-2023
(15-01-2023, 05:38 PM)Mike Wrote: It's used by nuclear subs too, even to this day, to determine if the UK exists still...
Yeah I think that might be a bit stretching the truth. I think one of the check is that Radio 4 is on air, not necessarily on long wave as traditional radio waves don't travel well in salt sea water. It's more likely to be a rebroadcast from other similar technologies.
But Radio 4 is not the only check in that regard, though it is probably the most well known. Its not a case of "OMG the Today programme isn't on, let's see if we can nuke somebody".
RE: BBC Radio 4 LW could end in March, but Radio Teleswitch service extended until 2024 - Dadeki - 20-02-2023
Quote:Sailors could be left all at sea if they can’t pick up the Shipping Forecast when the BBC switches off long wave transmissions, maritime bodies have warned.
The BBC, the Met Office and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency are preparing to launch a public information campaign to alert mariners that they need to have receivers able to pick up weather warnings from alternative sources when long wave is switched off, i understands.
Many amateur sailors still rely on the Shipping Forecast, broadcast on long wave, which can be received far from the British mainland.
The i
BBC Radio 4 LW to close in March 2024 - Roger Darthwell - 29-05-2023
The BBC has announced that the BBC Radio 4 frequency on 198 LW is to be shut down forever in March 2024
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/articles/2023/bbc-radio-4-long-wave-transition
RE: BBC Radio 4 LW could end in March, but Radio Teleswitch service extended until 2024 - Omnipresent - 29-05-2023
The press release only says that separate scheduling for Radio 4 LW will end in March 2024, not Radio 4 LW transmission - though it's obviously a precursor to the eventual closedown.
RE: BBC Radio 4 LW could end in March, but Radio Teleswitch service extended until 2024 - i.h - 29-05-2023
I'd be surprised if they don't decide that the publicity campaign has worked and that it'll close down then anyway (or not long afterwards)
March 2024 just "happens" to be the currently published date for the end of the electricity network's radio teleswitch service, so with the BBC having chosen the same date by total co-incidence...