Tune your set to the best wavelength …

The Home Service

is broadcast on several wavelengths, but make sure that you use the one that serves your district.
The list further down this page may help.

The Light Programme’s

main transmission is on long waves. In certain densely-populated areas where long-wave reception may be difficult, there is an auxiliary service on medium waves. If you live where fading and distortion occur after nightfall on 247 metres, you should tune to 1,500 metres when you want to hear the Light Programme.

The Third Programme.

Shortage of wavelengths still prevents this programme from reaching some parts of the United Kingdom. The main transmission is on 464 metres, but if you live in one of the towns listed further down this page, you will probably get better results on 194 metres.

Keep your receiver in condition

Your receiver is a scientific instrument.

It needs skilled attention from time to time to maintain its original performance, because it contains parts that wear out and adjustments that must be kept just right. The performance falls off very gradually, so that you don’t notice anything from day to day or even from week to week, but you would probably be astonished at the improvement if you had any weak valves replaced and the internal tuned circuits ‘realigned’.

At regular intervals

have your set examined by a radio serviceman who is expert in your particular make of receiver. Do not wait until an expensive breakdown occurs, but seek skilled advice when you notice anything unusual, such as a loud hum, stations tuning at the wrong position on the dial or insufficient volume with the volume control at the normal setting.

… and don’t forget the aerial

An aerial that needs overhauling can prevent any set from working well. The lead-in and the insulators are the weak points, and should be inspected if reception becomes weak or noisy.

A valuable service

available from reputable radio dealers in many parts of the country provides regular inspection and maintenance of your own receiver and aerial for a fixed annual subscription.

Use the best aerial you can

Your receiver depends solely on its aerial for ‘raw material’

and the more elaborate the receiver the better the aerial must be to do justice to it.

A good aerial is a high aerial.

In most places a vertical aerial gives the best results, especially if it is erected on the roof in an exposed position away from trees, drainpipes, etc. Semi-rigid, whip aerials are effective, convenient, and easily installed, and where electrical interference is severe, a length of special screened cable may be used for the connection to the receiver. An unobstructed, vertical aerial renders the receiver less susceptible to interference of all kinds.

Indoor aerials are seldom really satisfactory.

They exaggerate electrical interference and fading, and also cause weak and generally noisy reception.

When you are deciding

how much you can spend on a receiver, do not forget to reserve a reasonable sum to cover the cost of an effective aerial. Don’t leave the aerial to chance.

Interference

Interference

with broadcast reception can be caused by certain kinds of electrical machinery and appliances. It usually produces buzzing or clicking sounds. If your reception is spoilt by noises of this kind, and you are quite sure that your aerial is efficient and that your receiver is not at fault, the GENERAL POST OFFICE will help you to locate the cause and will suggest means of overcoming it. Too often the GPO is asked to help listeners who suffer interference because they haven’t put up effective aerials. Don’t give the GPO engineers unnecessary work, because in such cases they can only recommend your improving your aerial. This is specially important if you live rather far from the nearest BBC station. This advisory service, which is free of charge to wireless-licence holders, can be obtained by application at a main Post Office or to your local GPO Telephone Manager.

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The GPO

will also advise listeners whose reception is disturbed by private transmitting stations or by morse transmissions.

Home-Service wavelengths

WAVELENGTHFREQUENCYMAIN AREAS SERVEDTRANSMITTING STATIONS
434 metres692 kc/sLancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Flint, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, LincolnshireMoorside Edge
371 〃809 〃ScotlandWesterglen, Burghead, Redmoss
341 〃881 〃WalesWashford, Penmon, Wrexham
330 〃908 〃London, S.E. England, Home CountiesBrookmans Park
285 〃1052 〃Cornwall, S. Devon, Dorset, Isle of Wight, S. CoastStart Point
276 〃1088 〃Midland Counties and Norwich AreaDroitwich, Norwich
261 〃1151 〃(i) Northern IrelandLisnagarvey, Londonderry
  (ii) N.E. England, Scottish BorderStagshaw
206 〃1457 〃(i) Somerset, S. GloucestershireClevedon
  (ii) S. Hampshire, S. WiltshireBartley

Light-Programme wavelengths

THE MAIN TRANSMISSION COMES FROM A HIGH-POWER TRANSMITTER AT DROITWICH ON 1500 METRES (200 kc/s) AND IS AUDIBLE THROUGHOUT THE BRITISH ISLES.

In addition, there is an auxiliary service on 247 metres (1214 kc/s) having a restricted range, and serving:

Moray Firth area of Scotland
Aberdeen
Edinburgh and Glasgow
Parts of Northern Ireland
Tyneside
S. Lancashire and S.W. Yorkshire
London
Plymouth
Redruth, Cornwall

Third-Programme wavelengths

464 METRES(647 kc/s)(i) serving places up to about 100 miles from Daventry, Northamptonshire.
  (ii) local services in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Newcastle-on-Tyne.
194 〃(1546 〃)serving Belfast, Bournemouth, Brighton, Cardiff, Dundee, Exeter, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Portsmouth, Preston (Lancs.), Plymouth, Redruth, Sheffield, Southampton, and Stockton.

Two special cases

1. In certain districts where two of the programmes are very strong, a listener may sometimes notice a background of one of them when his receiver is tuned to the other. This is caused almost invariably by the effect of nearby domestic pipework, electric wiring, etc., on the aerial. The remedy is to provide a more efficient aerial erected well clear of such objects, preferably on a chimney stack.

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2. Listeners who live very close to a transmitting station may find it difficult to eliminate that particular transmission. This can in many cases be cured by realignment of the internal circuits of the receiver, which will restore its original selectivity, but when this is insufficient, a good aerial should be used, to provide strong signals of the desired programmes, and a tuned wave-filter used to eliminate the local transmission. The manufacturer of the receiver will in most cases be able to supply or specify a suitable wave-filter, which should be connected between the aerial downlead and the aerial terminal of the receiver.

Published by the British Broadcasting Corporation, 35 Marylebone High Street, London, W.1, and printed by The Broadwater Press Ltd, Welwyn Garden City, Herts.

[No. 2184/5]

1951 // THIS IS TRANSDIFFUSION