Waving farewell

Not enough fuss has been made about the closing of the BBC World Service transmitter on 648 medium wave. It stopped on March 27th at midnight. The masts, at Orford Ness in Suffolk, point only eastward, giving best service to Europe, but it was possible to pick it up quite clearly in the UK. It used plenty of juice - 200000 watts - enough to keep a medium size town ticking over, so there's a genuine saving in power consumption. But it seems transmissions on 1296kHz, for people with Digital Radio Mondiale receivers, will continue. A medium-wave fan like me would turn the 648 masts round to point inland, and use them for 5Live - but that's not the mood music at the BBC, and needs another post another time.

Another historical note - 648 in kHz is 464 in the old "meters"; the frequency used to be home to The Third Programme. Here's the rather poignant switch-off moment (sadly, not referred to on air).



And here's an excellent film about working at Orford Ness.


Tribute to BBC 648 kHz Orfordness - The Enthusiast's Version from Jonathan Marks on Vimeo.