My comment, 6 yrs after the fact, is probably decidedly moot, but yours at least somewhat clarified the situation for me as I wasn't entirely clear whether the narrator was referring to '255 KW transmitters', or "Two 55KW transmitters"... One assumes that the pirates were making slightly inflated claims regarding their 'reach' and their power, and to a large degree, it was a bit if a pi55ing contest _anyway..._ And I believe there is more than one way of describing the power output of a transmitter anyway (one hears much talk of 'ERP' and so on). Of course, on SW one can theoretically talk to the world for less power than what you are using to see by, particularly if using old style 'incandescent' bulbs... and one could be pumping out a million watts on FM that will still struggle to get over the next hill, but as for AM/MW, a desert now, but the only game in town back then, I think the ships, forts, etc were being a little bit optimistic with their coverage claims, at least based on my experience (mostly as an enthusiast) of the pirate scene in Ireland in the early '80's. One could 'easily' pick up in London, a station in Glasgow putting out a 10, or even 5KW signal -- at _night..._ on a quiet wavelength, with a _good_ radio, if one is 'into' that sort of thing, willing to position your radio 'just _so',_ position _yourself_ with respect to the radio 'just _so',_ etc., etc. But even allowing that Long Wave is a bit of a different beast than Medium Wave, was it not the case that the BBC were shovelling 500KW into their centrally located Droitwich transmitter to effect national coverage? The Rep of Ireland for many years used 50 KW for their Athlone ie centrally located MW Tx, but Ireland is a significantly smaller island, and the signal was always poor in peripheral areas and it was found necessary to provide supplementary transmitters in the main cities of Dublin and Cork. I should say, as a rough rule of thumb, to provide the sort of sound that the 'everyday housewife' with *zero* interest in the technical side of radio using a 'bog standard' radio would find acceptable, or such that a lorry driver on the road could easily hear without being forced to constantly - and hazardously - 'fiddle with' his set, one would need 'juice' on the order of 5 - 10 KW to cover a metropolitan area; c. 50KW to cover an area the size of the Home Counties or Yorkshire as it was before 1973. You'd want _at least_ 50KW to cover Northern Ireland, probably closer to 100; and well in excess of that for any of the other constituent nations of the British Isles _on their own,_ let alone the UK or the British Isles× taken as a whole. I should probably say, I'm assuming omnidirectional propogation during the day. (Of course different results may obtain if the style of programming is in high demand with an audience that isn't generally catered to, eg pop in the 1960's; think the 'transistor under the bedclothes factor!') Sorry, I realize I've waffled on quite a bit. Does anybody care about my thoughts on the subject? Probably Not. Will anyone get to _read_ my thoughts on the subject? Not many, I expect... Never mind, keeps me out of the pubs! ×United Kingdom/British Isles: *Not* actually the same thing.
The so-called 55 kW transmitters never worked at anything like full power, and in practice were no more powerful than Radio London's 50 kW tx anyway.
My comment, 6 yrs after the fact, is probably decidedly moot, but yours at least somewhat clarified the situation for me as I wasn't entirely clear whether the narrator was referring to '255 KW transmitters', or "Two 55KW transmitters"...
One assumes that the pirates were making slightly inflated claims regarding their 'reach' and their power, and to a large degree, it was a bit if a pi55ing contest _anyway..._ And I believe there is more than one way of describing the power output of a transmitter anyway (one hears much talk of 'ERP' and so on). Of course, on SW one can theoretically talk to the world for less power than what you are using to see by, particularly if using old style 'incandescent' bulbs... and one could be pumping out a million watts on FM that will still struggle to get over the next hill, but as for AM/MW, a desert now, but the only game in town back then, I think the ships, forts, etc were being a little bit optimistic with their coverage claims, at least based on my experience (mostly as an enthusiast) of the pirate scene in Ireland in the early '80's.
One could 'easily' pick up in London, a station in Glasgow putting out a 10, or even 5KW signal -- at _night..._ on a quiet wavelength, with a _good_ radio, if one is 'into' that sort of thing, willing to position your radio 'just _so',_ position _yourself_ with respect to the radio 'just _so',_ etc., etc. But even allowing that Long Wave is a bit of a different beast than Medium Wave, was it not the case that the BBC were shovelling 500KW into their centrally located Droitwich transmitter to effect national coverage? The Rep of Ireland for many years used 50 KW for their Athlone ie centrally located MW Tx, but Ireland is a significantly smaller island, and the signal was always poor in peripheral areas and it was found necessary to provide supplementary transmitters in the main cities of Dublin and Cork.
I should say, as a rough rule of thumb, to provide the sort of sound that the 'everyday housewife' with *zero* interest in the technical side of radio using a 'bog standard' radio would find acceptable, or such that a lorry driver on the road could easily hear without being forced to constantly - and hazardously - 'fiddle with' his set, one would need 'juice' on the order of 5 - 10 KW to cover a metropolitan area; c. 50KW to cover an area the size of the Home Counties or Yorkshire as it was before 1973. You'd want _at least_ 50KW to cover Northern Ireland, probably closer to 100; and well in excess of that for any of the other constituent nations of the British Isles _on their own,_ let alone the UK or the British Isles× taken as a whole. I should probably say, I'm assuming omnidirectional propogation during the day. (Of course different results may obtain if the style of programming is in high demand with an audience that isn't generally catered to, eg pop in the 1960's; think the 'transistor under the bedclothes factor!')
Sorry, I realize I've waffled on quite a bit. Does anybody care about my thoughts on the subject? Probably Not. Will anyone get to _read_ my thoughts on the subject? Not many, I expect... Never mind, keeps me out of the pubs!
×United Kingdom/British Isles: *Not* actually the same thing.