Monday 24 October 2011

Radio Meteors - Ostrava R1 Gone?

Sorry it has been a while since my last post, lots of stuff going on, not much of it worth blogging about!

However, I am moved once again to note the possible loss of my present (up until now, at any rate) source of Radio Metor Reflections, the TV Transmitter serving Ostrava in the Czech Republic on channel R1. (49.76MHz).

I tried to tune in over the weekend to pick up any Orionid meteors, only to be met with wall-to-wall white noise.

It's an even greater pity, as this is (or was) the last broadcast TV source I could receive on Band I.

I had reported previously that this transmitter was due to close in November, but either this has happened early, or the transmitter is off due to a fault or maintenance.   If I were in charge of a transmitter which is just about to close down, I don't think I'd spend too much effort on maintenance, but you never know!

As of the time of writing this entry, I haven't been able to verify what has happened, all I know is, I have no Orionid trails on my PC!

Interestingly I found a web site by Czech radio amateur Ivan OK2BMU who is waiting patiently for that same transmitter to close down so that he can get cracking on the amateur 6m (50MHz) band!  Every cloud has a silver lining, as they say ...

3 comments:

  1. Hey, R1 from Ostrava is still up, but is scheduled to be switch down... today. I'm having it tuned right now (tropospheric enhancement 300km) for the last glympses and I'm waiting for the moment it's killed.
    The murder on this DX-transmitter will be reported on my blog radiacja.blogspot.com

    Cheers & 73s from Poland,
    Maciek

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  2. Ostrava switched off today, 1 minute after midnight.
    here:
    http://radiacja.blogspot.com/2011/11/bye-bye-ostrava.html

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    Replies
    1. Sorry for the late reply, Maciek, but thanks for your note!

      The "digital dividend" here in the UK is a strange one - now that we have lost European Band I TV, we now all tune to a French "radar" transmitter (GRAVES) on 143.05MHz to see our meteor reflections.

      I must write about it in my blog - hi!

      73 & good DX from NW England

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