BFBS

[Flt Lt Spry]

Just been looking at the BFBS website (great!) and they claim to broadcast in the UK. Where? I've never heard it...

[Sloppy Link]

Catterick Garrison and Salisbury Plain Area that I know of. I would be surprised if a big Garrison town in Essex didn't get it as well. As for you RAF types, if you want ot receive it, transfer (a bit drastic I know) or get posted to Leeming. I have not been on the site, is there not an enquiry link?

[ 22 December 2001: Message edited by: Sloppy Link ]</p>

[St Johns Wort]

N.I.

[MightyGem]

Anyone in 4 Regt might try the link for BFBS Germany, and see if they can spot a familiar face.
<img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0">

[MajorMadMax]

Geez, guys, you let a USAF major find it for ya? (an intel officer at that! <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0"> )

Here ya go...

<a href="http://www.ssvc.com/bfbs/index.htm" target="_blank">http://www.ssvc.com/bfbs/index.htm</a>

Cheers! Maj M2

[BEagle]

No, actually my fine Spam spook friend, that wasn't the question! The site might be easy to find, but the UK link gives no details of coverage or radio frequencies - which one needs to receive these BFBS broadcasts!

But, given the choice, unless the alternative is local radio and 'music' in another language, who on earth would want to listen to 'Bumbling, Fumbling Broadcasting System'? In the Gulf War in 1990/1, it took them months to get anything going in theatre and even that only had a range of 3-4 miles from KKIA! They used the pitiful excuse that 'if we were to broadcast in the Gulf, it would give away where our troops were' to explain their ineptitude. Their VHF-FM transmitter was set up in a corner of the terminal at King Khalid International Airport, on the Tx was a warning plaque saying "Switch equipment off if light illuminates" next to a bright red warning light (presumably some VSWR warning) which shone undisturbed for weeks........

But I suppose that BFBS is better than BennyFM in the Islas Malvinas............?? Not much though - at least you can have a good giggle at the latter's news stories!

[Talking Radalt]

...and adverts for "A landrover door, passenger side, no glass"
...not forgetting darts matches by radio.

[Vee2]

TR, come on dont be so harsh. What about the FIBS braodcasting a Mutton Chop Eating Competition from Stanley Town HAll!
Or what was the first TV prog braodcast on BFBS down South ?
BAywatch? Match of the Day? Nah!
Party Election Results courtesy of John Wossname and his swingometer!
Rivetting esp as we didnt have the chance to vote!

[Muff Coupling]

They also pound out the top 100 hits of Bollywwod for Nepalese rxiles in Shornecliffe!
Grab a sherpa for up to the minute translation!! :) :)

[MajorMadMax]

Well, I'm sitting in San Antonio, Texas and I'm listening to it right now!

However, I see your point. Freqs are only listed for the Balkans, Belize, Germany, Cyprus, the Falklands, Gibraltar, Kosovo, Canada, N. Ireland, and Macedonia; but not the UK. I'd expect a simple email to [email protected] will answer your question a lot quicker. <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

Or use other conventional means of commuication:

Tel: 00 44 1494 878703
Fax: 00 44 1494 870552
BFBS UK
Narcot Lane
Gerrards Cross
Buckinghamshire
SL9 8TN
or
BFPO 786


Cheers!

[MajorMadMax]

...and by the way, if you've every heard AFN/AFRTS (affectionately knows as A-FARTS) you'd be quite impressed by BFBS!

Cheers!

[Ralf Wiggum]

Major Mad Max, what a faux pas. You said Freqs listed for ..., N Ireland, ..., but not the UK. Where is NI? Tut-tut, geography lessons required.

[neilk]

As I am from the said bunch I will pipe up.
BFBS did broadcast in Catterick, Tidworth and had plans to broadcast in Aldershot And colchester and one or two other Raf and Navy places but The Army gave UK broadcasting to another commercial operation which leaves the station in NI as the only UK station. you can hear it on line via <a href="http://www.bfbs.com" target="_blank">www.bfbs.com</a> where there is live audio streaming, you can also put shouts out to those less fortunate and unable to dodge Xmas overseas with Razzle.
We are wholly funded by the MOD so unfortunatly you get what the Mod pays, in the gulf BFBS were on log wave right from the commencement of jiggery pokery over there but the issue of frequencies and local sensitivities to western culture make it very difficult to negotiate in all places and logistically it is akin sometimes to setting up radio One's broadcast coverage in a fortnight.
Remember also that sat in Thatchers folly and Tito's revenge right now are some bloody good broadcasters doing a lot with not a lot and living and working alongside the audience which has to be the best in the world, and they aren't doing it to get rich!.
I come from the other side so can really appreciate all the effort put in by the whole of SSVC inluding CSE to provide a service the US armed forces would love to have, support us as we support you

[MajorMadMax]

Chief Wiggy

You'll never believe what I got my undergrad degree in... <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0">

My bad, I know where NI is, and its status in respect to the UK:

...the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland; six northern Irish counties remained part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland and the current name of the country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927.

(source: <a href="http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html)" target="_blank">http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html)</a>

All I can say is it ain't Texas! <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

Cheers!

[Murphy]

FR DJ,

Thanks for the Email, and I still want my boots back!!! <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

[exrotarybooty]

MajorMadMax
When I was stationed in Malta with the Royal Marines in the 60's (ouch!) we used to tune in to Wheelers Air Force Base radio in Tripoli, and it was SO much better than Radio Malta! (Try waking up to Ave Maria every morning <img src="eek.gif" border="0"> )

[BEagle]

....but nothing could quite match the swinging sound of Radio Riyadh in '91! "Still up there at No.1 - it's 'Allahu akhbar' for the 25000th week in a row....."!!

[Flt Lt Spry]

Just a thought - BFBS weren't anything to do with the FM immunity lark were they?

[neilk]

No, Commercial frequencies are banded fairly closely together normally no higher that 102Mhz FM starting variously but normally around 86, it's why there is always rows about frequencies and high value placed on ownership, also spacing is quite huge compared to aviation, so can't see the prob. In the UK frequency allocations to Uk radio was an issue during the bandwidth discussions but I don't broadcast there now so don't know.

Regards to all and happy new year

[MightyGem]

DJ, you're a bit behind the times I think. There are many stations operating between 102 and 107Mhz these days. 3 in my area are Key 103, Wire FM 107.2 and Century 105.
<img src="wink.gif" border="0">
I've also had Radio 4 on 104 point something as well.

[ 08 January 2002: Message edited by: MightyGem ]</p>

[BEagle]

Before 1990, Band II VHF in the UK was restricted to 88-97.6 MHz. The upper part of the band was used by non-broadcast stations. In 1990 the broadcast band was extended to 102 MHz and later the whole of the band was released as had been agreed by the World Administrative Radio Conference in 1978. Due to its proximity to the aeronautical band above 108 MHz, the upper part of the VHF FM band initially had restrictions placed on transmitter siting and power output to avoid interference. However, these restrictions were always intended to be eased when the aeronautical band users had improved the interference rejection capabilities of their equipment, the timetable for which had already been promulgated. This 'FM immunity' requirement had been known about since 1978; nevertheless certain users still had not replaced thier non-immune equipment after the beginning of last year when FMI became mandatory in the UK and in many other European countries. This meant that ILS and VOR receivers were potentially at risk from interfeence from legitmate users of Band II, so many aircraft were restricted from reliance upon VHF radio navigation until their receivers had been replaced or modified.

This is not the same thing as 8.33 KHz channeling; this was an entirely separate issue intended to increase the number of VHF R/T channels available in Europe - despite the increase from 720 channels to 760 channels mandated in the mid 90s. But most users replaced 'old' non-FMI transceivers with sets which were both FM immune and had 8.33 KHz channelling.

Strangely enough, no particular difficulty has ever been reported in the US which has had the full VHF FM band available for years, although broadcasting stations over there use odd frequencies (eg 99.1 Mhz) rather than the whole band.

[ 08 January 2002: Message edited by: BEagle ]</p>

[TheNightOwl]

exrotarybooty: Would that have been WHEELUS Air Force Base in Libya? I agree with your comment re Radio Malta, it was grim! I don't know whether this was an apocryphal story but, while I was on detachment with 13Sqn, somewhere far fom home, "The Sound Of Music" was released and, I was assured, was censored by the MUFC, God only knows why, if true.

Kind regards,

TheNightOwl.

[Ralf Wiggum]

Quality service from the BFBS in the Falklands included live darts from a local bar (Thud...Thud...Thud..."Twenty six!"), sheep shearing competitions (Buzzzzz... Baa!) and a list of passengers on the local island hopper plane - including dogs!

[Wycombe]

Ralf,

Think you are thinking of FIBS (Falkland Islands Broadcasting) for the pax details on the FIGAS Islanders down in the Malvinas - local radio at it's most hilarious.

BFBS, however, could always be relied to upon to broadcast daily speculation as to when the next Tristar might arrive!! - and sounded very slick and professional by comparison (have to say that as I know one of the DJ's who was down there for a large part of 2000 when I made a couple of visits).

[ 08 January 2002: Message edited by: Wycombe ]</p>

[StopStart]

To be fair for a mo' the BFBS broadcasts I've listened to are, on the whole, pretty slick. Just compare them to your local radio station at home; we get G.W.ARS*! round these parts - the majority of whose DJs are, frankly, toe-curling bad.

FIBS on the other hand is just fantastic - I remember listening to an article about an overnight "crime spree" in Stanley - someone had knocked a wing mirror off a landrover and tipped over a bin. They grilled the local chief copper to find out what exactly he was going to do about it....


PS. What I especially like about BFBS is that there's Officers' radio on BFBS 2 and The Mens' radio on BFBS 1 :) :) Splendid.

[Muff Coupling]

Agreed, some of the BFBS DJs can get with the grooves! Some of the girlies were pretty presentable too...Michelle Horn springs to mind(Last heard down at Ocean FM).
Also some of the big names in Radio started life with BFBS, like,..er..and ...er.

[ 08 January 2002: Message edited by: Muff Coupling ]</p>

[Ralf Wiggum]

I stand corrected Wycombe!