GREECE see: <http://www.thegreekradio.com/node/3126>
After a meeting on February 17, the Administrative Board of the Greek Public
Broadcaster (ERT) ordered the switch-off of eleven medium wave transmitters
(MW) whereas only nine medium wave transmitters with their respective
programs of the Greek Public Radio will keep operating.
As it can been seen in the tables and the map below, in fact it is the
high-power transmitters that survive, most of which are located near the
border and had been used previously for the "International Network of ERA".
Additionally ERT retains the frequency of the "First Radio Service" (729
kHz) and "Filia" (666 kHz) from Attica, and also the one of ERA Sport (792
kHz) hosted by the former Voice of America transmitter that was re-installed
in 2002 at Malgara.
A relatively low power transmitter in Florina will also be retained,
probably because of its location being nearby to the FYROM. The switch-off
includes many historical transmitters; most of them have gracefully served
YENED [military radio] and [its successor] ERA since the '60s and hosted
initially the transmissions of all regional services of ERA, before FM
emerged as a technology.
Their FM network started being installed during the early '90s and will
remain as the only broadcasting medium for the regional stations that loose
their medium wave transmitters. Nevertheless, including the FM transmitters
installed after 2000, it seems to cover most of the regional stations' areas
of interest. Though, no survey suggesting statistics for the medium wave
listenership has seen the light.
Please note that due to the transmission mode, as opposed to that of FM,
medium wave propagates over long distances and can "overcome" great
obstacles, which is valuable in mountainous areas; but it is an old
technology with poor sound quality and tends to being abandoned. The
decision of the ERT has already started being implemented.
It has already been confirmed that the transmitter E.RA. Sports in Attica
(erstwhile YENED historical frequency), the transmitter of 9.58 of ERT3 at
Malgara (1179) and those of E.RA. Tripoli (1314) and Orestiada (1080) have
been already switched off.
With this decision, ERT revoked any previous decision concerning the closure
of AM transmitters. The official document was posted online and archived
under the topic "Culture and Leisure" (!)
In our future articles we plan to deal with any problems caused by the
switch-off. As the main reason given was to save energy, we should mention
that the switched off transmitters had a cumulative power of 500 kW, while
the ones which remain in operation consume about 760 kW. The tables and the
map indicate the stations that remain in operation according to the
announcement made by ERT, and the ones which cease operation as estimated by
subtraction. The last list contains probably two stations that seems to have
been out of operation in recent years, due to decommissioning of obsolete
equipment and lack of qualified personnel, without having been officially
dismissed (probably in Larissa and Heraklion).
13 stations to cease for ever:
Ioannina 765 kHz Larissa 945 kHz Heraklion 954 kHz
Attica 981 kHz Perea 1044 kHz Orestiada 1080 kHz
Malgara 1179 kHz Tripolis 1314 kHz Pyrgos 1350 kHz
Volos 1485 kHz Serres 1584 kHz Kavala and Kozani 1602 kHz
9 stations remain open:
Location Freq(kHz) PowerkW Emitted program
1 Boyati Attica 729 100 EPA 1 (NET 105.8)
2 Megara, Attica 666 100 FILIA
3 Malgara Thessaloniki 792 100 ERA SPORT
4 Corfu 1008 100 Local Progr and National Progr
5 Komotini, Rodopi 1404 100 Local Progr and National Progr
6 Chania 1512 100 Local Progr and National Progr
7 Rhodes, Dodecanese 1494 100 Local Progr and National Progr
8 Zante 927 50 Local Progr and National Progr
9 Florina 1278 10 Local Progr and National Progr
Interrupt function:
Location Freq(kHz) kW Year establ Emitted program
1 Ioannina 765 10 1968 Local Program
2 Larissa 945 5 1965 Local Program
3 Heraklion 954 10 1972 Local Program
4 Attica 981 200 1963 NRA Sports
5 Perea 1044 150 1947 102FM ERT3
6 Orestiada 1080 10 1970 Local Program
7 Malgara 1179 100 1997 958FM ERT3
8 Tripolis 1314 10 1968 Local Program
9 Pyrgos 1350 3 1959 Local Program
10 Volos 1485 1 1948 Local Program
11 Serres 1584 1 1959 Local Program
12 Kavala 1602 1 1967 Local Program
13 Kozani 1602 1 1967 Local Program
(radiofono.gr, Febr 27; via Felix Lechte-D, A-DX March 2)
---[Start Commercial]---------------------
Order your WRTH 2011:
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2011
---[End Commercial]-----------------------
________________________________________
Hard-Core-DX mailing list
Hard-Core-DX@hard-core-dx.com
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx
http://www.hard-core-dx.com/
_______________________________________________
THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed
and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License
published by Michael Stutz at
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/dsl.html