Radiofax

Radiofax Programme M30: TV3 loses franchise - Satellite video rental - 3D TV - Phone renumbering - Space antennas fail - FM levels - Radio Free America

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Black Magic Woman by Fleetwood Mac
* Japanese research 3D TV - no special glasses - NHK Laboratories Kinuta - packets - Integrated Service Digital Broadcasting - HDTV since 1989 - flat plasma display - stereoscopic TV - Mike Galbraith, Asia Pacific Broadcasting
* Music: She's Gone by Daryl Hall & John Oates
* Radio Free America - 1973 - Rev Carl McIntire - Oceanic/Columbus radio ship 1160 - Cape May - licence revoked - 1953 Plymouth - Christian Admiral Hotel - restraining order - US registered ship - Al Weiner, Captain Radio, Radio Newyork International - MV Sarah - now Costa Rica
* London MW pirate 819kHz - The Edge - 10W VMOS FET - Walthamstow tower block - quarter wave aerial - Green Apple FM London reported overdeviating by Kevin Thorpe
* Letters from Daniel Busmann of Solothurn, Switzerland - Kenwood R5000 and M. Jones of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire - 6205 - 3910 better
* 813s wanted
* Music: Doctorin' the House by Coldcut
* Satellite video rental - Entertainment Made Convenient Amsterdam - compression/decompression chip - fractal geometry - 3MB/s - no digital VCR standard - Junko Yoshida, Electronics World News (Andy is sceptical)
* Music: Red Rain by Peter Gabriel
* In band digital audio broadcasting - FMers not wanting same quality for AM - 6 systems - Kintel Technologies - Digital Radio Acorn - Lincom Corp - Synetcom - American Digital Radio - Mercury Digital - Eureka 147 - Steve Crowley, Radio World
* Music: Woodchopper's Ball by Duke Ellington
* A Nation Renumbered - Oftel announce an extra digit at Easter 1994 - London changed last year - Ovum Consulting - unnecessary: Richard Cox, Mandarin Technology - David Harrington, Telecommunications Managers Association TMA - Ken Young, Communications Networks
* Music: The Prisoner (Free man mix featuring MC Number 6) by Barry Gray
* Station ID
* Passport To World Band Radio 1992 - Gulf War - crisis listening - step by step guide - every aspect - non technical person - new and exciting passtime - Knight Space Spanner - Lawrence Magne - ripped off - equipment reviews - authoritative - exhaustive - 80,000 copies - Frank Beacham, Radio World
* Music: Virgin of the World by Hawkwind
* Music: Angels of Death [Alternate Version] by Hawkwind
* Ireland's TV3 loses franchise - IRTC - consortium failed deadlines - Windmill Lane - nervousness - RTE capping - Neville Farmer, Pro Sound News
* TV AM Talkback In NICAM TIN - spare capacity - additional speech channel - reverse sound to outside broadcasts - UK Network, Hardware
* Letters from Jari Vanhatalo of Oulu in Finland - most live in the south - works in computers - age 30 - grandfather's radio - solar activity - geomagnetic fields; David Ansell of Hosham in Sussex and Peter Lloyd of Electricars -3910 great improvement at night
* Music: ABC by The Jackson 5
* Control and monitoring FM deviation - Eric Small, Modulation Sciences Inc - UK sparse packing - Optimod - graphs - sonic effects - interchannel interference - occupied bandwidth - peak deviation - commercial reality - Francis Rumsey, British Section 21st anniversary, Audio Engineering Society
* Music: You Take My Breath Away by Queen
* Antenna glitches - 7 faulty space antennas - Anik E2 - Galileo - Gamma Ray Observatory - Hubble - Magellan - Ulysses - Upper Atmosphere - jammed ribs - cable tangled - Michael Kachmar, Microwaves and RF
* DC777 Ad
* Music: Here Is the News by Electric Light Orchestra

Duration: 1h34m17, Originally broadcast: 20th January 1992

MP3 file size: 53.9 MB

Radiofax Programme M31: Boring, unambitious? - Spirits in the TV or strange weather - Chinese teletext - Niels Bohr - 20 bit audio - Rock concert safety - Radio 4 long wave

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Rockin' All Over the World by Status Quo
* Letter from Andrew Preece of Inverness - also strong in Glasgow on Ferguson 3T28 radio cassette - WMR - Dublin - Delta - Ozone - BRI - seeks from Ireland Never Mind the Zogabongs by Zig and Zag
* Minimally Audible Noise Shaping - quantisation noise white - dithered shaping - inverse of human ear - 20 bit detail in 16 bits - psychoacoustic - smoothing nonlinearities - University of Waterloo, Ontario, AES Journal
* Letter from Bruno Alcaraz of Belfort in France - ICF SW7600 telescopic - enjoyed music - listens every night
* Music: Driven Like the Snow by The Sisters of Mercy
* 813s wanted
* End of Europe short wave coverage from Radio Netherlands - possible medium wave - Jonathan Marks, Media Network
* Sponsor a Species - new species name auctions - conservation - 7 wasps $300,000 - Dr Ian Gold, Natural History Museum - Dr Steve Blackmore - taxonomist opposition - Observer
* Thanks to Jonathan Marks for posh Radio Netherlands Rembrandt card - saying good luck with Radiofax
* Music: My Baby Just Cares For Me by Nina Simone
* Letter from Alex Radlovic in Burton on Trent - 3910 best - congratulate everyone for very good features and excellent programme structure - keep up good work - wishes for 1992
* How I Long For the old Airwaves - FM darling band - 1500m permanently - knob fallen off - FM irritating - sent Henry Price, BBC - Marmaduke Hussey - Johnny Beerling - Dulwich radio blackspot - Beaulah Hill stronger than BBC Wrotham - persistent interference - ¾ radios below planning standards - LW easier - Atlantic 252 - end of simulcasting - rolling news - Jocelyn Hay, Voice of Viewer and Listener - government policy - Radio 4 most difficult - Maggie Brown, Independent - remember outcry when Radio 4 moved from MW to 'unsuitable' LW in 1978
* Music: It's Grim Up North by The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu
* Letter from Michael Raveneaux of northern France - good and clear - computing for rail company in Paris - Drake R4245
* Niels Bohr's Times by Abraham Pais - biography - textbook wrong - Ernest Rutherford - nucleus - quantised atom model - 1923 Nobel Prize - Shrödinger - Heisenburg - spin quantum numbers - David Pringle, Observer
* Sporadic E or Spirit World - beyond the grave - TVEVP - Luxembourg - evil people gone to heaven - life after death - cover up - Mr H Reeves - Technician - Timestream - PCM inventor Alec Reeves - long distance reception not thought of - regional ITV programme? - John de Rivas, Porthtowan, Cornwall, Electronics and Wireless World
* Music: Tuesday's Child by All About Eve
* Pop music loudness - new Code - concerts, clubs - 166 pages - indoor - outdoor - mean SPL - health warning - BS7443 - emergency PA - 104dBA LAEQ - 140dB peak - earplugs - 3m to loudspeakers - Travers Morgan, East Grinstead - hearing damage - Professor Evans, Keele University - Dan Houston, Sound and Communication Engineering
* Music: Easy Skanking by Bob Marley
* Letter from Franco Alladio of Collegno, Turin, Italy - Icom R71 - 35 years old - medical doctor - signal fantastic
* Microwave Radiation hurts the Eyes - mobiles - eye cataracts - NRPB - 2 hours - blood flow reduced - tranquilisers - Electronics Weekly
* Electronic Tags $1 - new chip bonding technique - ISD - baggage labels - 27MHz ISM - free from interference?! - 10 digits - inert bolus - cow stomach - Electronics Weekly
* Music: Lil' Devil by The Cult
* Philips cracks Chinese teletext - 20,000 ideograms - coded ROM - fax type process - coding compatibility - International Broadcasting
* Are you Boring and Unambitious? - must be an engineer - stereotype - poor social skills - accurate - Industry Ventures IVL survey - unattractive - engineers not top in UK companies - manufacturing complacent - Carl Schneider, Electronics Weekly
* Letter from Ruggero Massimo of Genoa, Italy - student - good and interesting informative content - very good music - true congratulations - my favourite Radiofax - Satellit 600 Professional
* Music: Streets of Your Town by The Go-Betweens
* Competition results - Leif Sandgren of Örebro, Sweden - RSR - WLR - dynamic range - Radio Listeners Guide - new year Austria concert - Tom Reed - George Williams, Redruth - Kevin Thorpe - Dave Smith, Llandrindod Wells
* Music: Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel
* Apple expands into digital consumer products - display telephones - multimedia players - John Scully - Personal Digital Assistants - telephones - CDROM Macintosh - Larry Black, Independent
* Sparks theme

Duration: 1h35m, Originally broadcast: 27th January 1992

MP3 file size: 54.3 MB

Radiofax Programme M32: Can vinyl survive - DCC delay - WARC spectrum allocation - Hold jocks - Backback fridge - Channel tunnel PA - Ovaltineys - CD-R

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Experiment IV by Kate Bush
* WARC92 - Torremolinos - largest since 1979 - 1 month - ITU - DAB - Phil Laven BBC - mobile LEO satellites - Motorola Iridium - Japan 25GHz HDTV - Electronics World News
* Music: Dance With Me (I'm Your Ecstasy) by Control
* Letter from Patrick Cody of Portroe in Co Tipperary, Ireland - enjoy listening - wish you every success - postcard of Nenagh
* BBC solar power CD player - Desert Island Discs - Boots - Woolworth - WH Smith - OurPrice - shellac 78 - wax cylinders - quality better on vinyl - richer - more faithful - analogue addicts - male - CD makers plot - Professor Jack Dinsdale - design turntables - Mechatronics - 9 of 10 choose vinyl - John Peel - life has surface noise and I like it - 12 inch LP cover - picture discs - colour discs - OFT - CD retail £12, cost £1 - Linn - Sarah Lonsdale, Observer
* Dr Peter Goldmark - Columbia Record Co - LP - 43 years ago - 30 minutes - banish antiquarianism - 78 extinct - new stylus - CD may be superseded - Benny Green, Observer
* Letter from W. Ashcroft - received Sparks competition prize - very grateful - 6205 excellent - Selina B215 telescopic - enjoy Archive, Sparks, not Country - live programmes? - when UK licence!
* Music: Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan
* Vaccines up the mountain - 22kg fridge backpack - kerosene - Cranfield Institute Technology - soot - flue blockage - wick hole - vapourise - better burn - ammonia/water - Nepal - Save The Children - aid workers - Engineer
* Michael Tuchee, Massachusetts, USA - sends stock reply from Kenneth Baker MP - Radio Authority - major expansion - new local services - compete with BBC - quickly as possible - national radio licences - enhance choice - Radiofax - short wave - no access - BBC only - great distances - enormous interference potential - adequate reception - highly congested - wider implications - R.L. Macey, Home Office
* Music: Heartbreaker by Led Zeppelin
* W.H. Smith - latest nail in coffin of LP - 8% sales - desperately mourning - CD bland - miss artwork - CD booklet - more pictures - dinosaur - Womans Hour
* Andy recalls working at Radio HMV in London - dust - rotary CD cleaner - every time played - circular scratches - caused errors - don't clean too much
* Letter from Roland Burkhard from Solothurn in Switzerland - your signals arrived here very well
* Music: Doctorin' The Tardis by The Timelords (The Jams)
* Channel Tunnel - ten years - public address install - 2 running tunnels - service tunnel - Voice Evacuation System - euphemism - nervousness - Eurotunnel - TML - safety - Racal Milgo - Whiteley Electronics, Mansfield - DNH loudspeakers - Sandy Brown Associates - hundreds of amps - 300 mic units - thousands of loudspeakers - Integrated Passenger Information System IPIS - 50 Volts - Kathleen White, Sound Communication Systems
* Music: Working Class Hero by Marianne Faithfull
* Channel Tunnel part 2 - reverberant - noisy - outdoors - cables - antennae - piston relief ducts - tunnels cross over - feedback - parametric EQ - frequency shifter - 90dBA - 4 control centres - 19kHz detect breaks - duplicate gear - reliablity primary - concrete lining - earth tremors - fire hazards - terrorism
* Virtual reality - designers together over network - NEC - 3D environment - gloves - 3D glasses - less than real time - software - work stations - Electronics World News
* Letter from Frank Pariso in Bagneux, 2km from Paris - 3910 - old listener since May 1991 of your nice radio - congratulations for the music
* Music: My Girl by Madness
* Old 78s into CDs - first CD recordable machines - £4,500 - 2 lasers - gold - not erasable - higher fidelity than original?! - DCC £13 - buy CD for that - Dan Houston, Independent
* Graham Stephenson, Dunblane, Perthshire - 6205 always perfect - Krissi - GemAM - old offshore tapes in my archive - seeks recordings from German occupied countries
* Telephone Hold Jockeys - Weybridge - hope someone listening - reroute long waits - queue news - ease frustration - David Wright - WordPerfect - Steve Watts, BBC Surrey
* Music: Me In Time by The Charlatans UK
* Luxembourg 1440 medium wave closes in 1992 - Infra-Draw - Keynsham - Stayblonde - Brunitex - Lord Haw Haw - Dipole, IEE News
* Music: Planet of Sound by Pixies
* Sparks theme

Duration: 1h33m54, Originally broadcast: 3rd February 1992

MP3 file size: 53.7 MB

Sparks Programme M33: Gene patenting - FM interference - BSKYB interference - Valves in HiFi - Dolby Cinema - BBC Berkshire starts

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Hit by The Sugarcubes
* Rock Radio Vietnam CD by K-TEL International - Dr Kim Andrew Elliott - original Saigon recordings - Media Network
* Russian Radio - Michael Care, Gwent - Radio Alla 684 & 1368 & SW - music of the bards - popularise - soothing - tranquility - increased productivity - sailors
* Tass Top Ten - Vasily Strelnikov - tapes distributed from Moscow - university stations
* Letter from Mike Evans of Buckhurst Hill in Essex - enjoy Archive - particularly Sparks - NRD505 receiver - makes MW loop aerials £32.15
* Music: Jamaican Lady by New Bohemians with Edie Brickel
* Recording of The Edge - 819kHz - MW pirate in London - spotted by Jodie - sloping aerial from Walthamstow tower block
* Sunrise Radio 1413kHz - Southall - Avtar Lit's licensed station - shockingly overmodulated - seriously breaking carrier on oscilloscope - NTL [subsequently London-wide 1458 ex BBC GLR]
* BSKYB Interference - patterning risk to Astra Comedy Channel TV - new Eutelsat transmissions - 60cm dish - legal action - planning permission - Richard Wilson, Electronics Weekly
* Letter from Colin Ferris of Kempston in Bedfordshire - 3910 - Sony 2001D - telescopic
* Music: Paint the Flowers All Black by Shallow Reign
* Gene patenting - Britain's Nematode Project - Cambridge - commercial operators - poaching scientists - human genetics - buyout - sequencing - ten times faster - distasteful - Robin McKie, Observer
* Music: Living Loving Maid [She's Just A Woman] by Led Zeppelin
* Dolby Cinema Sound - demonstrations - stymie Kodak's rival CDS - Optical Radiation Corporation - replace analogue track - 180 narrow tracks - single inventory - between sprockets - open screen curtains - Barry Fox, Studio Sound
* Letter from Walter Moeller from Turin, Italy - age 34 - car parts dealer - reception is easy - very interesting - old pirate stations - JRC525
* Radio Harmony - pirate news - new magazine - Free Radio Quarterly FRQ - recording of Andy Walker report on West North Kent Radio WNKR 6400kHz
* Music: Rhythm Is a Mystery [Non-Stop Edit] by K-Klass
* Valve Amplifier Lunacy - Japanese paying £30,000 - General Electric - GL211 - bright emitter triode of 1919 - Westrex - no feedback - Peter Watson, Selectron - Noel Keywood, HiFi World - Radiofax modulator - 805 triode - upgraded to 813 - filament 3 Amps 10 Volts - Class A
* Queen is FM - BBC Berkshire TX on Windsor Castle - very unhappy - embarrassing - blot out stations - BBC sort out interference problem - Ian Truman, Star - archaic DER distribution system
* Music: Like the Weather by 10,000 Maniacs
* Letters from Frank Schutig of Reichenbach in Germany - 6205 & 3910 good - ICF7600 and John Mathews of Talbot Woods in Bournemouth - NRD RX - like your style - interesting and varied - horologist
* Songs Should Sell Themselves - $1m promos - M.C. Hammer - enough of hype and naughty videos - formulaic - Charles Taylor, Radio World
* Music: Polegnala e Todora (Love Chant) by The Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir
* Slow Start for AM Stereo - Radio TV Hong Kong RTHK - third AM stereo broadcaster - CQUAM - slow - Sangean AM walkman - car radios - Sony - Peter Quinn, Asia Pacific Broadcasting
* Philips delay Digital Compact Cassette DCC launch - April - hitch for rival Sony's MiniDisc?
* Music: Breathing by Kate Bush
* Colin Campbell's Local Radio - extraordinary comedy about a local Scottish station - recording from Andrew Preece
* Robert Foot's particularly inventive answer wins an extra copy of 1992 Radio Listeners Guide in our quiz
* Sparks theme

Duration: 1h34m42, Originally broadcast: 10 February 1992

MP3 file size: 54.1 MB

Radiofax Programme M34: Gangsters' telephone profits - Radio 2 reforms - INR AM bids - Stephen Hawking profile - Dolby S and tape hiss - HDTV - Video modulator

A strange tape this, the only one with massive low frequency thumps at almost peak level. Near some magnet in the post? Transferred with LF filtering.

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix
* Lira 8m bill - car telephone - copying code - 900 MHz gang - copied numbers - Camorra gangsters - victims - contraband phones - Ed Vulliami, Guardian
* Alan Dean, Burnley, sends reception news - good to hear Radio North Sea featured - North Sea Goes DX - Kiss 100.5 - Toxteth CR 104 - Concept - Blackburn 100 & 101 - Dublin 6910 - WNKR - PFBS - Ridiculous - Freesound - Geronimo - Zenith - Australia time signal VNG 16,000 - Denmark 243 - Greece - RAI Italy - Syria Damascus - Moscow
* Music: Cloud Nine by The Temptations
* Robert Foot of Rowner in Hampshire - recent winner of Radio Listeners Guide - particularly enjoy Archive and Sparks - 6205 excellent - 3910 beautiful audio quality - 12,255 sporadic - telescopic - MW loop
* TV Modulator - mass produced modules - picture AM - sound FM - Andy Coe PACE, Shipley - only channel 30/40 - 21/69 - clear channel - quartz PLL - Adrian Macleod, New Electronics
* Wrecker or Redeemer - Frances Line - Radio 2 head - pillock brained git - new voices - music different - age 61 - widen constituency - 11m > 9.2m - extinction - Gillian Reynolds, Guardian
* Music: Grantchester Meadows by Pink Floyd
* HDTV in Russia - experimental network - before Barcelona Olympics - Tektronix generator - Junko Yoshida, Electronics World News
* Cosmonaught strike? - £4 per month
* HDTV Wide Eyed and Clueless - 16:9 / Cinevision - Thomson - Nokia - 625 to 1250 lines - flicker - 50 to 100Hz - progressive scan - digger cut cable - PalPlus - D2MAC - simulcast - EC Directive - Barry Fox, International Broadcasting
* Music: The Onion Song by Marvin Gaye
* Letter from Ulrich Beckman in Germany - works in photo shop - 3910 - and Ramunas Starter, Lithuania - 6205 - thank you
* All Over for Tape Hissss - Dolby S - Heathrow Penta - Hi Fi Show - DCC - MiniDisc - Viscount Suite - Arcam Delta 100 - British - cassette - 3 heads - dual capstans - Dolby SR - CD-R - Harman Kardon - Pioneer - John Baldy, Q - studio use - some artistes prefer Dolby SR to digital - sounds better
* Letter from V. Doidge, Gunnislake, Cornwall - congratulate - very interesting - 3910 strong - good audio - listen whenever possible
* Radiofax letter to Mr Mitchell, DTI - outlines how low power Radiofax can provide service - directed to country of origin - something fresh is needed
* Radiofax letter to Peter Lloyd, Home Office - continuing interest - since 1986 - Green Paper - submission 1989 - high frequency remains unaddressed - provision in radio regulations - increasingly moribund fixed bands - blind listeners - BBC out of band - wellwishers - Lord Thomson, Chair IBA - MPs - 3000 letters of support - Radio Listener's Guide: Best thing to happen to radio for 20 years - worthwhile - imaginative - refreshing - authorise transmission in this country - community of interest - await stock answer
* Music: Ground Control To Pilot by Robert Calvert
* INR2 joint bid - RTE - CLT - Capital - Virgin - David Jacobs - Atlantic 252 - Luxembourg - Radio Authority - Showtime fiasco - Sir Peter Parker - Emily Bell, Observer
* Radio audience - BARB - ghetto blasters - diaries - 3 months - several results - AIRC - JICRAR - BBC - different figures - Brian West: 'away from BBC' - Peter Fiddick, Guardian
* Letter from Mark Jones in Peterborough - DJ by trade - listening every week - good on 6205 - bouncing off ionosphere - selective fading - CNFM Cambridge - claim digital stereo
* Poland telecomms - $100m - World Bank - improve - 87 to 400 lines/1000 people - UK companies - contracts - acquisitions - wages 10% of UK
* Sony strongly denies rumours MiniDisc will only record once - hope replace compact cassette - rival - Philips - Digital Compact Cassette DCC
* BT national service - nuisance callers - counselling bureau - MCID trace - catch - digital exchanges - criminal enquiry - 2000 traces - Electroncs Weekly
* John Goodlife from Cheltenham - Strowger exchanges - superseded - System X - civil disturbance - disconnect public - flick of a switch - government unaffected
* Music: Im Nin' Alu (Yemenite Folk Song) by Ofra Haza
* Caged Mind that Roams the Cosmos - Stephen Hawking profile - most famous living scientist - 50th birthday - 2 biographies - film - praise - St Albans - CND - prosecution - jazz - Oxford scholarship - Physics First - slur - not pour wine - Motor Neurone Disease - Jane Wilde - married 1965 - 3 children - Fred Hoyle - black holes not black - big bang - model of universe - wheelchair - 1985 lost speech - Observer

Duration: 1h33m54, Originally broadcast: 17th February 1992

MP3 file size: 53.7 MB

Sparks Programme M35: BBC Select - Local radio troubles - Wear FM - Kodak CDS dying - Superconductivity - Channel 5 TV - Radio mics - BBC Derby

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long, Long Time) by Kate Bush
* Starlight Express sound - frequencies - radio mics wiped out - BBC links - VHF - UHF - sweat on mics - throwaway - Tim Smith, Line Up
* Look at 50 page WDXC magazine sent by Mike Barraclough in Letchworth, Hertfordshire, featuring radio in the 1920s - RadiOlympia 1936
* Music: Helter Skelter by The Beatles
* High Temperature Superconductivity Space Experiment - breakthroughs at 70 degrees Kelvin - Microwave Journal
* Derby MW aerial problems - moved for Toyota - Burnaston - detuning and tripping - weather? - starlings? - camera - Adrian Hartley, BBC Transmission
* Music: Hit by The Sugarcubes
* DC777 Ad
* Letters from Siegfried Hufig in Bremerhaven, Germany, and Dr Luke van der Stock, Belgium - surprised by Sparks - both 3910
* BBC Select - overnight - 2 dozen ad services - download to VCR - British Medical TV failed yet RTE plan soap for expats - Alexander Garrett, Independent
* Letter from Helmut Raitser Jr - Eddystone 7310A - very strong and postcards from Michael Linder in Triptis, both in Germany
* Music: Rumors by Club Nouveau
* ILR problems - Spectrum - Harmony - SIBC - incrementals bought up - KFM - Buzz - FTP - Centre Sound - WNK - LGR - Martin Rowe, Independent
* Wear FM in Sunderland - only incremental not (then) swallowed up by a larger station - 32% reach - PKE mixers - Kate White, Line Up
* Music: I'm Partial to Your Abracadabra by Ian Dury
* Postcards from Leonard Brown in Ashton on Mersey and report by Nick Smith, Victoria Park, of ATUs and Manchester pirates - Paradise - Energy 105.4 - Frontline
* Channel 5 difficulties - retune VCRs - David Mellor - repeats? - imports? - new aerials? - no South Coast - last terrestrial TV channel (analogue anyway) - Spectrum, ITC
* Channel 5 frequency allocatons Channels 35, 37 - UHF - Croydon [Beaulah Hill] not Crystal Palace
* Letters from David Andrew in Morecambe - Eddystone EA12 & FRG7 - enjoyed Radiofax - excellent audio on 3910 and 6205 and Jack Liddon near Bangor - 3910 & 6205 depending on time of day
* Kodak CDS Killed Off - digital cinema surround sound - Optical Radiation Corp pulls out - Dolby SRD wins - Television Buyer
* Music: This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) by Talking Heads
* Letters from Hadlow Gaido of Busto Garolfo in Italy and Hotl Roman in Tolyatti City, Russia - both on 3910

Duration: 1h33m58, Originally broadcast: 24th February 1992

MP3 file size: 53.7 MB

Sparks Programme M36: Vinyl in the 50s - First phasing disc - County Sound shakeup - Infra red camera - INR2 hopefuls - Kodak kills cinema sound

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Special Brew by Bad Manners
* New formats - recordable CD - Sony MiniDisc - Philips Digital Compact Cassette DCC - backwards compatibility - Leslie Cowen, Special Assignment, Radio 4
* Pirates from Russia - Belomorkanal - Syndicat - Agat - Orbit - Cardinal - System - 1605-1820 & 2000-2400 kHz - 48 metres - Radio World [also M38]
* Jimmy Hendrix sampled - backed by Hendrix estate - Duncan Kane - Luke Baldry - Beautiful People - Caroline Moss
* Radio in Belgium - French expand - Flemish contract - limit on syndicated programmes - Mark Mace, Pro Sound News Europe
* Music: Power to Love by Jimi Hendrix
* Letters from Enrique Rocha, Barcelona - enjoy - especially 70s - hundreds Italian FMs in summer and Edward Kuselik, Coaldale, Alberta, Canada - thrill to hear
* Infra red camera - for boats - prevent Marchioness disaster - GEC - Prometheus Programme - Nick Flaherty, Electronic Engineering
* Kodak slashes investment in CDS - cinema digital sound - praised for audio quality - 6 channels - purely digital
* Letters from Noel Carmody, Ballingarry, Co. Limerick and Gary Veraldy, Tara, Canada - trust legal authorities will be gentle
* Music: Sales Tax Blues by ???
* National radio franchise battle INR2 - Capital - David Jacobs - easy listening - Travis Baxter - Atlantic 252 - Nick Higham, World at One, Radio 4
* County Sound Shake Up - falling audience - restyled for younger - AM only - Premier, Delta go - Mercury on FM - Surrey Advertiser
* Letter from Daniel Hornington of Shallow Lake in Canada - 300ft antenna at 4am and Mark Palmer in Caversham, Reading
* Music: Big Fun by Gap Band
* Andrew Preece in Inverness reports on the RTE strike - engineers - internal post - no DJs - closing at midnight - 97FM heard in Glasgow
* 813s wanted
* FEM FM - Bristol - Womens Festival - £20,000 - seeking funding - hopes becomes annual
* Vinyl Collectors - phasing effect - first record 1959 - recording of Robbie Vincent, LBC Nightline
* Music: The Big Hurt by Miss Toni Fisher - claimed as the first disc using the phasing/flanging effect
* Vinyl Collectors part 2 - phasing by mistake - more level - 1959 - before hippy songs
* Compiling Rock 'N' Roll Graffiti - Halland Broadcast - 1200 songs - 50 CDs - studio masters - R-DAT dubs - azimuth errors - time alignment - Hank Landsberg, Radio World
* Music: Turning Off the Tide by Richard Thompson
* DC777 Ad
* INR2 bids - 1215 AM - Independent National Broadcasting INBC £4.01m - Independent Music Radio IMR £1.88m - Raymond Snoddy, Financial Times
* Poor Signal From Commercial Radio - 2% of ads - half of other countries - INR Showtime debacle - Capital not bidding - Independent
* Poor reception quality on 1215 and 1197 - worse in evenings - INR3 next on BBC Radio 1 AM freqs - Martin Linton, Guardian
* Letters from Christian Gilbardo of Nice, France, and Walter Schubert in Schonwald Germany - 3910 - not in WRTH
* Music: This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) by Talking Heads
* Letter from Mike Ashford of Sea Mills in Bristol - seeks career in radio; P.G. Hammond, Whitstaple, Kent and Sergei Magionev, Soviet Union - 3910
* BBC New Broadcasting House Southampton opened - bi-media centre in Havelock Road - ex South Western Hotel shut - geothermal - Pat Turner, BBC Engineering [also M37]
* Schoolchildren Phone Safety Fear - Solihull refusing PCN masts - 100 Watts - no risk - Directorate of Telecommunications, Home Office - Electronics Weekly
* Music: Martha My Dear by The Beatles
* Status of Engineers - Sony's Akio Morita - technical illiterate running UK - recipe for disaster - David Manners, Electronics Weekly

Duration: 1h33m50, Originally broadcast: 2nd March 1992

MP3 file size: 53.6 MB

Sparks Programme M37: Airport Information Radio closes - Cable TV - Programming videos - Cheap foreign calls - Solar cells - BBC Daventry shuts

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: All Day And All Of The Night by The Kinks
* BSkyB turnaround - profit this year - 50% Murdoch - UIP - old DMAC BSB kit for £50 - Stella Shamoon, Observer
* Installing cable TV - only country underground - costly - exciting industry - ⅓ takeup - Croydon's John Teret with Peter Saunders, BBC Radio Surrey
* Letters from Paul Endine in Brackley, Northants, and Michael Hanselman in Niederkrüchten, Germany
* Music: Now That We Found Love by Third World
* DC777 Ad
* Bypass BT - cheap overseas calls - via USA - International Discount Telecommications IDT ring you back - Oftel welcome - Sunday Times
* Carpet Master? Bin Buddy? - NSP Innovations catalogue seeks British inventors - Talking Interpreters - Richard Baum, Electronics Times
* Music: We'll Be Right Back [Club Edit] by Steinski / Mass Media
* Secret Signals Euronumbers Mystery by Simon Mason - Bulgarian Betty - Papa November - Swedish Rhapsody - book on numbers stations [More on M39]
* Letter from Paul Till - enjoys media news - Country and Western - Steve Conway - Caroline
* Remastering old recordings for digital - Serena Lovelace talks decibels - acetate - In Touch, Radio 4
* Digithurst and the MicroEye TV1 video card - key words - programmes videos automatically - Guardian [never caught on]
* Music: My Sharona by the Knack [a very crackly 45]
* Solar power - Sanyo - Kyocera - desert panels supply whole of world's energy? - solar 46.5MW in 1992 - David Thurber, Guardian
* Letter from Vic Maddocks - thanks for the good work - seeking Radio Caroline - airs every other Wednesday on Radiofax
* Andy Cadier writes to his MP Michael Howard - Radiofax is Citizens Band syndrome all over again - BBC monopoly - not difficult to licence
* Vladislav Kozhuck of Tolyatti in Russia - works on the Lada production line - listens on 12,255
* Music: Steal Away (The Night) by Ozzy Osbourne
* Airport Information Radio shuts - Cecil Parkinson MP - John Aumonier - Mercury - 1584kHz - Heathrow & Gatwick - David Miller, Horsham
* BBC Daventry radio station at Borough Hill closes - 66 years - old Roman site - planes crashed into wires - winter 1947 - Byron Rogers, Daily Telegraph
* BBC World Service comes to Woofferton - Voice of America short wave scaled down - Shropshire Star
* Concern about microwave radiation by analogue cellphone masts on schools
* Malcolm Cairns of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear - memories of Radio London - Caroline - chat between them Christmas 1971 - RNI - 270 - Veronica
* Music: Boops (Here to Go) by Sly & Robbie
* Call centres - call management systems - Dixons - waiting time - routing - Datapulse - Oftel - Sarah Johnston, Communicate
* Garrison Keillor's book A Radio Romance - WLT - WOWO - WLW - golden days before radio formatting - Kaleidoscope, Radio 4
* Letter from Bob Dobson of Sedburgh in Cumbria - listen over British Isles using DC777 - first class - Syd - CNBC - MP's letter - not much effort to licence
* BBC New Broadcasting House Southampton opened - bi-media centre in Havelock Road - ex South Western Hotel shut - geothermal - Pat Turner, BBC Engineering [also M36]
* Music: Shut 'Em Down by Public Enemy - for AIR's John Aumonier [Aumonier, Crawley, had served a court injunction on Radio Jackie, SW London, in 1984]

Duration: 1h34m15, Originally broadcast: 9th March 1992

MP3 file size: 53.9 MB

Sparks Programme M38: Classic FM tests - Humline - Compression and reverb on classical - PalPlus - County Sound complaints - Steer by wire - Sinking Venice

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Evangeline by Icicle Works
* Atlantic 252 - Charlie Wolf - Humline - hum song to Birmingham library - City of Music 1992 - background Radio 4 198 ionospheric intermod audible (Luxembourg effect) [Apps do this now]
* Letter to Michael Jopling MP from D.W.R. Dobson - admirer of BBC - private enterprise government - not another juke box - allow independent enterprise
* Letter from Professor John Campbell - keep on pushing - maybe quicker in Ireland - signal quality excellent - all the best
* Music: Maxwell's Silver Hammer by The Beatles
* UK Abandons PalPlus - side panels added - PAL 4:3 into 16:9 - receiver complexity - severe problems - not robust - letterbox - International Broadcasting
* Radio 101.6 FM - Classic FM low power tests - Your Classic Choice - Coventry, South Manchester, Durham, Bath, Edinburgh, Teddington - half an hour's transmission
* End of Radio 3 medium wave - cleared for IRN2 - Test Match Special on Radio 3 FM - frequency may lie idle - INBC plans May 1993 - Guardian
* Pirates from Russia - Belomorkanal - Syndicat - Agat - Orbit - Cardinal - System - 1605-1820 & 2000-2400 kHz - 48 metres - Radio World [also M36]
* Metropolitan Opera - Lincoln Center New York - Lexicon artificial reverb - more life - more detail - sounds better - J David Sachs
* Author Keith Townsend - legalising CB - DTI correspondence - convinced excellent case for licence - UK government cannot continue King Canute stance [but it did]
* Music: Marlene On the Wall by Suzanne Vega
* Classic FM may flop - like high-minded TVAM - according to advertisers - minority interest - inadequate research - Maggie Brown, Independent [a truly rubbish prediction]
* Steer by wire for cars - Saab - active steering - less stressful - assist driver - no steering wheel - joystick - Electronic World News
* Music: Innocence [Single Remix] by Kirsty MacColl
* Sinking Venice to be saved by Thames Barrier type gates - Mose Dykes - years of shelved plans - powerboats curtailed - Bruce Johnston, Daily Telegraph
* Silicon bipolar ICs hit 30GB per second - speed record - multiplexer and demux ICs - faster than GaAs - Ruhr University, Bochum - Electronic Design
* Letters from Alan Farmer of Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland and Peter Ruderink, Almere, Netherlands - 3910 best - Physics Phd - Shell labs Amsterdam
* Music: Never Gonna Be the Same by Danny Wilson
* George Williams of Redruth sends two stories: New station for Cornwall - Pirate FM - State House Hotel Lands End launch - Caradon Hill - Redruth
* Duncan Warren goes Pirate - leaves BBC Cornwall - most popular show - Pirate FM offer - wanted to say goodbye to listeners - The Packet
* DC777 Ad
* County Sound takeover by Mercury - complaints in Surrey Advertiser - Elizabeth Reece, Sutton - demise of independent station - non stop pop - contributors silenced; James Thompson, Sutton - Hasler's Hour stopped - ex listener; John Shorto, Guildford - alienated - cannot increase audience; Peter C Devall, Radio Critic of Times - foolish action - County Unsound; E. Castle, Guildford - thinking audience switch off - will lose; Margaret Key, Wonersh - disagree with Aumonier; Jack Malby, Guildford - offensive to Bob Symes
* Letters from Norbert Schiel in Berlin - 3910 night time good idea - enjoy documentaries, oldies, rock music and W. Black, St Blazey, Cornwall - just moved house
* Music: Time after Time by Cyndi Laupe
* NHK convinced HDTV will take off - set prices prohibitive - BS3b satellite - 14 inch plasma - flat screen long way off - Narrow MUSE - Paul Marks, International Broadcasting
* Early TV - Science Museum - tube like bottom of wine bottle - Baird system - Marconi EMI System - PYE vision only - pick up sound on radio - Martin Redfearn, BBC World Service
* Doubling number of lines vertically and horizontally - 4 times bandwidth - PAL - SECAM - DMAC - Ian Childs, BBC Research Department, Kingswood Warren, Surrey
* Letter from John Wilson - very interesting - DCC, Mini Disc, new TV systems - clear reception - hope you continue without a hitch
* DCC and MiniDisc - which format - standards war - DCC plays analogue cassettes - Simon Hind, Consumers Association - You and Yours, Radio 4
* Music: Running Out Of Time [Rave Mix Edit] by Digital Orgasm

Duration: 1h34m11, Originally broadcast: 16th March 1992

MP3 file size: 53.8 MB

Sparks Programme M39: Surround sound gimmickery - Numbers stations - Bank smart cards - WARC - SETI - Stations use ex-jamming sites - ICs from yeast

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Kennedy by The Wedding Present
* BBC World Service on Cathay Pacific airliners - SW and MW - auto tuning receivers - Asia Pacific Broadcasting
* Alan Howarth - sound design for feature films - Star Trek, Raiders, Gremlins, Poltergeist, Total Recall, Little Mermaid - Mel Lambert, Audio Media
* Soundbase 3D - apply to any signal path - out of speaker audio effect - all corners of the room - phase coherent response of low freqs - Advertisement
* 3D Sound on KISS FM - John Badini - binaural crosstalk cancellation - Haas effect - tricks brain - Christine Morgan, International Broadcasting
* Music: Dizzy by Throwing Muses
* DC777 Ad
* Letters from Mr H. E. Greenacre of Darley Abbey in Derby and Jimmmy Conway of Longbenton on Tyneside - enjoyed - good luck with DTI
* NASA starts search for extra terrestrial intelligence - SETI - 10 years - state of the art 1-10GHz receivers - Gerald Green, Microwave Journal
* ITU WARC92 - spectrum usage planned - mobile telephones - Iridium - FLMTS - satellite - TV - SSB for all SW broadcasts [never happened] - Electronics World News
* Music: Imagine by John Lennon
* Secret Signals the Euronumber Mystery - book by Simon Mason - recording of Linconshire Poacher (Cyprus) - other numbers stations and jammers
* Music: Living By Numbers by New Musik
* Letter from Alwyn Lewis in Ipswich - 3910 night - 6205 day - Sony ICF 7600D - enjoy Sparks - hoping for a licence
* Letter from Cyril MacDonald in Dijon, France, but from Canada - interested in several recent features - heard but not impressed by AM stereo
* Quantum Structures use Yeast - biosensors project - semiconductors from yeast - Advanced Biochemical Engineering, University College - Electronic World News
* D Art - synthesised grand piano created by Wersi in Germany - simplifying stored data - equal to real piano - Janice Matafis
* Letter from Mark Bothwick of Morebattle, Kelso, Scottish Borders who hears 12,255 - Panasonic RF 1105 - good station with information and good music programming - best wishes for 1992
* Music: Them Heavy People by Kate Bush
* BBC Charter renewal - competition - radio - orchestras - news network - Gulf FM - Radio 1,2 adverts? - damage ILR INR - Alasdair Milne, ex Director General
* Letter from Patrick O'Dogherty of Dromcolliher, Charleville, Co. Cork - enjoys Sparks - listens to Radio Alla from Russia
* Music: Lambada by Kaoma
* Banks plan IC cards = smart cards - 2m/year stolen - convert 200,000 machines - 8 bit microprocessor - 8 KB memory - Electronics Weekly
* Vasily Strelnikov reports on new Russian SW stations - Radio Space - 11,945 kHz - 20kW - former jamming site - Media Network
* Last Call - Radio 4 play - trawler Kingston Fury - heading for disaster - ship to shore radio messages - Portishead Radio near Weston-super-Mare [long since closed]
* Sparks theme

Duration: 1h34m12, Originally broadcast: 23rd March 1992

MP3 file size: 53.9 MB

Sparks Programme M40: Fast FM - FEM FM - DTI spectrum management - Clive Sinclair interview - Surplus PCs - Microwave drying - Water filters

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Stand By Jams by The KLF
* Radio Spectrum Management book by D. J. Withers - regulations - CCIR - progagation - radio astronomy - broadcasting - amateur - ITU - Michael Goddard, Radiocommunications Agency
* Who Owns the Radio Spectrum? - Motorola Iridium - bureaucrats - fudges - delay - auction - government pay for their own usage - Electronics Weekly
* Letter from Radiofax to Radio Moscow - 6145 spurii every 32kHz; 6209 -20dB - mixture product when 6145 & 6175 together [ceased after Trevor's letter to Moscow's Chief Engineeer]
* Letters from Mary McPhillips, Smithborough, Co Monaghan - listening 6 months - only found you were pirate from Short Wave Magazine - enjoy Sparks, Gold - long may you continue; George Williams - contact Labour spokesman - Broadcasting from the High Seas by Paul Harris - Annette Penhaligon, widow of Truro MP David, founding director of Pirate FM; Waldemar Melquist, Burtrask, Sweden - 500 metres longwire - signal very good - thank you for very good programmes and Mike Smith, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire - new and refreshingly different service - don't knock ILR
* Music: Strip Away by Kingmaker
* Fast FM - fasting for Ramadam - first religious festival station - Bradford RSL until Eid - Radio Lent next year? - Martin Wainright, Guardian
* HiFi emotionalism - warmer tape - loudspeaker latent aggression - resistor emotionally involving - digital control to perfection - Daedelus, New Scientist/Guardian
* FEM FM - 101 MHz in Bristol - ID jingles - giving women voice - not done before - Sarah Davies, Womans Hour, Radio 4 [predecessor of Viva Radio 963 London]
* LEDs in development for vehicles - Flexible Lamps - Hewlett Packard - amber - 590-620nm - working on green - Electronics Weekly
* 813s wanted
* Music: Firth of Fifth by Genesis
* Clive Sinclair On the Ropes - ideas didn't work - Sinclair TV - public as testbed - Zike - challenged about his failures by John Humphries, Radio 4
* Siliconix data book - Basic code - ten years ago - 1000s lines of code - Sinclair Timex ZX80 - simulate programmable logic
* Sun Microsystems hires Boris Babaian - Russian supercomputer designer - exports to Soviet Union restricted - Paul Swart, Electronic Times
* Radio Caroline - Where is it? - What happened? - How can you help? - 0836 404 576, for the full Ding Ding - an advert in Private Eye
* Radio Authority - consultatative document - readvertise all 140 commercial radio licences - Guardian
* Letters from Heinz Dirk Vollmer, Wellmersturm, Germany - very interesting programmes and Christian den Berg in central Belgium - Broadcasting Band Survey
* Music: Silver Machine by Hawkwind
* DC777 Ad
* New frequencies for radio microphones - Channel 69 - 5 fixed outdoors - extra fixed sites - 25kHz grid - Line Up, Institute of Broadcast Sound
* Microwave dielectric heating for drying in industry - food - plastics - rubber - wood - 896 & 2450 MHz - Powerpoint, for Seeboard Industrial Customers
* Drinking water concern - filtering - active carbon & silver - how they work - ion exchange resins - change cartridges - Ted Lister, Guardian
* Radio Dublin 'International' back on 6910 - Radio Alla 1386kHz - Wonderful Words of Life - Radio Caroline - Liberian flag? - Media Network
* Letters from M. Cox in Wigan, Lancashire - seems your programme is popular; David Underhill in Southport, Merseyside - likes Sparks - wants more programmes - WEFAX; James Brett of Tyldesley, Manchester - 6295 best day and 3910 night and James Walsh in Birkenhead, Merseyside - 12,255 occasionally - lists local FM and AM pirates - raids on TCR, Kiss FM and Mersey FM - Rock Radio 1611
* Music: Cardiac Arrest by Madness
* Schools Radio to end? - scrap BBC Radio 5? - 1996 Charter renewal - BBC future examined - Michael Checkland - John Birt - Kenneth Baker MP - Georgina Henry, Guardian
* Music: Waterfall by Stone Roses
* Want to buy a slightly dated PC? - Howard Strowman - PST - surplus - cheap - debadging - dissipating - bundling - Wordstar - Paul Fisher, Guardian
* RETE 105 in Milan - Italy's largest independent broadcaster - splitting and linking to 20+ stations - Optimod - Dario Calabrese, Radio World
* Hello to Gert-Jan van den Berg of Hooge Zwaluwe, Netherlands, and Goran Lundstedt, a journalist in Lund, Sweden

Duration: 1h35m25, Originally broadcast: 30th March 1992

MP3 file size: 54.6 MB

Sparks Programme M41: BBC make awful noises on FM - Envelopes - Chaos theory - Obscene computer discs - TV AM - Sunrise TV - Preserving flaky recording tape

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Everything Counts by Depeche Mode
* Mississipi postcard from Tommy Murphy (Country show) on holiday; Letters from Carlo Frazzoli, Agazzio, Italy - 3910 and Terry Leverett in Simfin Moor, Derby - pyrography artist - pictures and designs on wood with a soldering iron - listens to short wave 6 to 7 hours a day - 3910 - 6295 - 12,255
* Pump up mast - BBC landrover - auto search - buzz noise - 91.1 MHz - licence? - Chard - Lydmarsh field - Axminster - relay trials
* FM interference - radio microphone links - Home Office allocation - 10.7MHz above Radio 3 - simple receivers - Public Address, SCIF
* Police on FM - criminals followed to new freqs - scrambled - scanner in criminal's pocket - Bristol University - encryption - Joe McGuerin - You and Yours, radio 4
* Music: Sleep With Me by Birdland
* Chaos: Making a New Science - book by James Gleick - why relativity? - why turbulence? - fractals - Mandelbrot - Julian Schofield, Electronic Design News
* Obscene computer disc - first prosecution - 25% of software libraries - image quality breathtaking - children - password - genlock - Jeremy Vine, Today, Radio 4
* BBC Micro Computer versus Sinclair Spectrum - animated act - schoolday recollections from Andy
* Music: Satellite by The Hooters
* Roberts short wave sets Ad - RC818 - R808 - R801
* Letters from Anthony Mikol of Mansfield, Nottingham - thought found World Service - amazed - find every Sparks article interesting - works at Lowe receiver factory in Derbyshire - only UK manufacturer; Chris from Radio Geronimo - thanks for card and photos and Peter Schneider, Wurzburg, Germany - 3.30am - back from favourite bar - signal best ever heard - very interesting - professionally made - 3 local FM stations
* Andrew Preece reports - Paisley Weekend Radio PWR 100.5 stereo - Gnome FM 101.7 - franchise to Paisley Local Radio PLR - keep up good work with Sparks and Archive - Jodie good DJ - Radio 3 MW closed
* Problems at TV AM - John Humphries interviews the boss, Bruce Gyngell - big strike - lost franchise - outbid - surprise if Sunrise successful - On the Ropes
* Vox by Nicholson Baker - a book seeing the radio dial as an erotic city landscape - reviewer's strong dislike - James Walcott, Observer
* BT plans wide screen - digital TV over fibre - video codecs - Siemens - Philips - digital network - sports venues - Brands Hatch - Wimbledon - Electronics Weekly
* Home Office licensing 'masterpiece' via Andy Cadier (Caroline's Martin Kayne) - same excuses as used for medium wave
* Letters from D.S. Barnwell of Brixham, Devon - where all good fish come from and Salvatori Planachia Montenotti, Italy - astonished to get such good reception
* Britain's highest station - Lochaber - Nevis Community Radio - 2 month extension - permanent? - Fort William - Press and Journal, Aberdeen via Ewan Cathcart
* Music: Under Your Thumb by 10cc
* Old recording tapes failure - John McKnight - Magnetic Reference Laboratory - stickiness - moisture absorption - oxide shedding - Barry Fox, Studio Sound
* Saving valuable tape recordings - University North Carolina - archivists - baking tape - other techniques - D McVicar, Radio World
* Letter from Dick Gustavsson in Sweden - compliments on the Radiofax operation - favourite with Swedish listeners - friend Bob Tomalski - did shows on WABC in Donegal
* Letter from Nick Bentley of Sherbourne in Dorset - found us looking for a lower freq for BBC World Service
* Music: Right Here Right Now by Jesus Jones
* Sunrise TV becomes GMTV - replaces TV AM January 1993 - bid won franchise - ran restaurant and post office - Border - Sky - Director of Programmes Lis Howell, Womans Hour
* DC777 Ad
* Fascinating facts about envelopes - weak manilla envelopes - bend - break - tape edges - Scotch tape - white untearable - Dipole, IEE News
* Letters from Marcel Dos Annos - chemical engineer - friends Carlos & Philippe wrote last year and Simon Wood, Ashburton, Newton Abbot, Devon - 3910 - WRTH not listing
* BBC may cut 10,000 jobs - confidential report - before Charter renewal - every aspect of BBC role - producer choice - remain producer - Raymond Snoddy, Financial Times
* Recording of receiver tuned from Radiofax 3910 Solid Gold Sunday up to regular Sunday station WNKR on 3945 with Oxygène by Jean Michel Jarre
* Music: First and Second Rendez Vous by Jean Michel Jarre
* Sparks theme Tender Force

Duration: 1h34m11, Originally broadcast: 6th April 1992

MP3 file size: 53.8 MB

Sparks Programme M43: Caroline in Dover - BBC Radiophonic Workshop - Digital to beat FM - Yagis - HDTV - Trainspotter's telephones - Radiosat - Copy protection

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top
* Radio Caroline legal for first time - Dover 101.8 - 28 day RSL licence - Chatham - Chris Kennedy, Neil Gates, Tony Kirk - BBC South East
* I spy for the DTI photocopy from Johan Munstra, Groningen, Netherlands - works in car registration office - listens to Radiofax more than others - all 3 freqs - 3910 Numbers
* Daniel Drysdale of West Hampstead, London is 12 and blind - reports on pirate stations audible - 6239 Merlin - 94.1 Touchdown - 6275 6400 WNKR - Hardcore 88 - Green Apple 100.5
* How it's done - Richard Baker visits Elizabeth Parker and Peter Howell at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in Maida Vale
* Music: Is It Too Late? [Peter Lorimer Mix] by World Party
* 813 valves needed
* US AM in shreds - Satellite CD Radio direct to car - FM stations could be bankrupted - DAB S Band - IBOC - Phil Kierstead, International Broacasting
* Music: Night in the City by Electric Light Orchestra
* British Rail Telecommunications BRT enters the communications market - Band III radio - leased circuits - mobile data - 'shoebox' on chimneys - Peter Firth, Electronics Weekly
* Letter from Bill Richards in Windsor - if all programmes were standard of Sparks independent SW would be readily accepted - please keep fighting for a licence
* Hard to break away from the station says Mr M Hurley - finds Radiofax compelling listening
* DC777 Ad
* Development of the Yagi antenna - 1926 onwards - Yagi Uda - monopole MW arrays - radar - Pat Hawker, Electronics and Wireless World
* Music: Here Comes The Flood by Peter Gabriel
* Radiosat - MSAT - communications for consumers - voice - navigation - DAB - travel - sport - replace car radio - DGPS - Garry Noreen, Microwave Journal
* ESD Distribution, previously STC Electronics, Cross Reference Guide - RS order code to ESD stock code - court injunction issued by RS Components (also Farnell cross reference in A20)(we had one of these documents)
* BBC Radio WM spike a news story - Manager Tony Inchley stopped by police - on way to studio for talk show - subject: reckless driving - Media News, Private Eye
* Music: She's Gone by Bob Marley & the Wailers
* Shooting HD TV - unique problems - replace cheap costumes - side panels - no patterning... till downconverted - Mike Feazel, Asia Pacific Broadcasting
* Music: Shall We Take a Trip? by Northside
* Letters from Mr D. Spencer of Sutton, Surrey; Terence Parry in Liverpool - good luck - sends Scottish £1 note and Damian Newrick, Cheltenham - run more power!
* TCD Stripper - £149 - SCMS copy prohibit code - recording studios using CD and DAT need copyright strippers - Dave Lockwood, Audio Media
* Letter from Andrew Neville, New Rossington, Doncaster in South Yorkshire - saw a two page magazine article [Radio Active] about Radiofax
* Sparks theme

Duration: 1h34m12, Originally broadcast: 20th April 1992

MP3 file size: 54.4 MB

Sparks Programme M45: DTI illegal radio mic clampdown - Luxembourg history - Digital UHF TV - LBC - Flash memory - Offline video editing - AM in USA

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: (Don't Fear) The Reaper by Blue Öyster Cult
* DC777 Ad
* Radio Luxembourg closes 1440 - 208 metres - Noel Edmonds - Radio City 197m - Infra-Draw - Keynsham - Ovaltineys - gong - Forty Minutes, BBC2 - Trevor remembers 38 Hertford Street studio with Neve desk
* Intel 20MB flash memory - Intel - PCMCIA - replace discs - battery life increased - weight down - chip cards - David Manners, Electronics Weekly
* DTI clampdown - non-approved radio mics - car alarms - penalties - Sennheiser - Channel 69 - 855/862 MHz - 35 for Channel 5 - Audio Media
* Music: Neat Neat Neat by The Damned
* Letter in Sunday Independent, Ireland - only country without short wave - more exiles than natives - programmes from home - tourism gain - singers - forum
* Des Walsh, Ballinhassig, Co Cork - corresponded with Dublin for years - no freq available - no funds available - same old excuses - willing to campaign for Radiofax - travel round country - high time got few kW on air - 13,666 Voice of Europe - presume Italy - best wishes
* Letter from Stephen Mitchell in Luton - hears 6295 day and 3910 night - broadcast from Cranleigh? - went to St Dominic's School in Hambledon - keep up the good work
* LBC and IRN - jobs cut - Crown - close to destruction - 20m listeners - disastrous freq split - rip and read - ITN Radio News - Andrew Culp, Media Guardian
* Music: She Comes in the Fall by Inspiral Carpets
* All sports radio - get young males listening to AM - WFAN first in 1987 - good sales - idea copied - WSCR - Charles Taylor, Radio World
* Non linear editing at the BBC - non tape - random access - end real time - mixer - DVE - timecode - offline - VITC - Ron Bowman, Television Buyer
* Music: Yahoo! by Erasure
* Interview with Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Malcolm McLaren, Siouxsie and the Banshees, etc. - producer Stephen Hague - Audio Media
* Music: West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys
* Radio Car Boot Sale - Stockwood Park, Luton - 17 May - Sparks Stand - the phrase that pays - free electronic components
* More Sex Please, We're British - Adult Channel - After 12 - decoder boxes outlawed - Filmnet - acceptable - ITV? - Camomile Lawn - Emily Bell, Observer
* Letters from Martin Scotch, Messberg, East Germany - 3910 good - programming excellent - cover huge range of interests and Herman Shumacher, Veldhoven near Eindhoven, Netherlands - Sparks up to date - well explained - thank you very much for Caroline relays - offshore history programmes excellent - developing colour TV with LCD displays at Philips
* Heard around London by Andy - Bank Holiday Easter weekend 89.4 - 90.1 - 94.1 dance - 101.2 XFM - 90.6 Pulse - 91.0 Lightning
* Music: The Myth of Trust by Billy Bragg
* Music: Dark Side of the Moon, Brain Damage, Eclipse by Pink Floyd
* Free access to BBC archives - collect all recordings - 20,000/year - National Discography - 1890s onwards - Playback, National Sound Archive

Duration: 1h34m09, Originally broadcast: 4th May 1992

MP3 file size: 53.8 MB

Sparks Programme M46: New magazine the Wave - London AM pirate - Venus probe - RBL tape - Sound insulation - BBC cuts - CD prices

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Five Get Over Excited by The Housemartins
* Sky At Night - 35 years - Patrick Moore - Deep Space Network DSN - Venus - no water - hot - Venera - Magellan -
* Wall Up Your Neighbours - noise insulation - through sockets - along cavity - BRE - across loft - acoustic blanket - Jonathan Futchel, Daily Telegraph
* Radio Netherlands - Media Network - back in Europe by popular demand - 9855 - publication, On Target
* Letters from Clive Collier, Market Harborough, Leicesteshire - Sparks is an excellent programme and from a Dublin listener involved in radio - one of very few sources of solid information - Dublin radio slow and boring since demise of late 80s superpirates - bland back to back music format - keep up the excellent work - hope to hear a lot more of it
* DC777 Ad
* Music: Dance Of The Mad Bastards by Pop Will Eat Itself
* Recording: Veronica AM - 1395 kHz - north London - 081 443 1191
* London Transport passenger information - 50 bus stops - microwave 23GHz beacons - radio links - central computer - leased phone lines - Electronics Weekly
* Apple window, mouse, icons - copyright in court - HP - Microsoft - Macintosh - Windows - New Wave - trash can
* BBC Charter - Lucknam Park conference - multi channel future - David Mellor MP - Michael Checkland - licence fee - subscription - Raymond Snoddy, Financial Times
* Music: Verkhovyna by The Wedding Present - Ukrainian folk song about Carpathian mountains - described by Andy
* Played for listener Leonid Desinov in Kiev 22 - 'the Ukraine' incorrect - like 'the England' - good transmitting
* Letter from David Tyler in eastern Bristol - blind - self employed piano tuner - without access to printed word Sparks of particular interest - just acquired talking word processor - look forward to you becoming legally authorised broadcaster
* Letter from M.B. Evans of Loughton Way in Essex: thanks for the plug - 18 enquiries about the MW loops he makes after a mention on Sparks - KISS 1008
* Compact Disc prices - EEC ruling - letters to Independent: C. Burton Leicester - OFT finding - 50% more than LPs or cassettes - unfair; L.D. Johnston in Powys, Wales - fraction of the price in USA - yet still made in Europe - customers ripped off; Klaus Bogstad, Richmond, Surrey - 50 minutes glitch free music - usual anti technology reactions - little vinylists - record cleaners - welcome CD quality and Preston Capes, Clipstone, Leicestershire - short search period - LP lower price - more specialised shops
* Music: More Than a Feeling by Boston
* Radio Tape 4 - Radio Broadcast Library RBL - Solar Radio - promoted SW pirate - licence suspended - Caroline on satellite Quality Europe FM QEFM - Quality Bay 603 - 1kW - Barrow in Furness - Radiofax interview - Nigel Harris/Stuart Russell interview - Mi Amigo - Martin Kayne - 60s - Essex - Radio 227 - Radio 355 - satellite radio - sell gadget to decode second satellite sound subcarrier
* Inferno Hotline - news - produced by Radio Caroline staff - on board Ross Revenge - 0836 404 575
* From A Glittering Haze - book by Winston Fletcher - 96% of advertising wasted - target markets fragmented - 400 brands/year - 9,500 advertised - still cost effective
* Music: I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down by Elvis Costello
* Test transmission from Pirate FM 102 - Cornwall Independent Radio Ltd - start 3 April 1992 - 102.8 west - 102.2 east - ID jingle - programme controller Roger Day - first programme
* Pirate FM free newspaper - operations controller Richard Lawley - ex County Sound - Bob Symes Classic programme returns - dumped by County Sound
* Pirate FM items sent by George Williams from Redruth - no tapes or records - Kerrier Council Beehive unit - hopeful Mark Fisher MP would listen - no one has fought for Caroline more than I have
* New underground magazine - The Wave - Legend limps on - Caroline transmissions in Dover - encoder mod - made up letter from Eric Gotts - appreciated since end of Anoraks UK
* Letter from Mr Marker, Priestwood, Bracknell - Andy recently at Hewlett Packard buildings there - like your programme - offers construction details for aerial tuning unit and Phil Bond, Beverley, East Yorkshire - very impressed with content - liked DAT tape and copy code story - remember sticker 'Home Taping is Killing Music' - Trevor saw 'Home Taping is Skill in Music'
* Music: C'mon and Get My Love [Dance Hall Mix] by Cathy Dennis
* Thanks for Journal of Association of Italian Amateur Sound Recordists; Martin D does Friday evening programmes and sends Stour Valley Hospital Radio magazine with photo
* World market for terrestrial broadcast systems - 216 pages - £1,500 - Hilltech Ltd - manufacturers - LW&HF may decline - FM expand - Lawrence Hallett, Phoenix Communications
* Radio Car Boot Sale - Stockwood Park, Luton - 17 May - visit the Sparks Stand - free electronic components

Duration: 1h34m28, Originally broadcast: 11th May 1992

MP3 file size: 54 MB

Sparks Programme M47: Sony ICF2001 guides - Pirate play - Digital broadcasting - Channel 5 bids - Wireless data - Titanic story - Autocues - Home Office letter

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Love Is a Battlefield by Pat Benatar
* Pirate radio redeems mixed up son - CB - daughter pregnant - mother at Greenham Common - son 'Garth Grosvenor' runs pirate - psychiatrist - Radio 4 play Sunshine
* Get the Best from your Sony ICF2001D - 28 pages by Steve Whitt - mods - batteries - filters - tune range - IMD - S Meter - sensitivity - audio output
* Get Even More from your ICF2001D/ICF2010 - 8 pages - extra circuits - binaural - special offer of both booklets for £5 to Radiofax listeners
* Letters from Abdul Hamid in Glasgow - enjoy very much - keep up the good work; Albert Moulder, Rainham, Essex - liked Atlantis and mind probe chips and Ian Macrae, Moonachie, Angus - 3910 - also like Atlantis article - first free radio heard - more please - Sparks really interesting - oil rig standby ship Grampian Sabre - SW great boon while on oil rig for a month
* Channel 5 bids invited - ¾ country - David Glencross, ITC - not impossible - Silvio Berlusconi - Phil Redmond - Conrad Black - mass video retuning - heavy interference - Michael Leapman, Independent
* Digital Broadcasting - before HDTV - huge market - excellent reception - comparable to CD - Channel 12 - 7MHz - 4 stations - Eureka - EBU - JESSI - Simon Lowe, Electronics World News
* Music: Can't Happen Here by Rainbow
* DC777 Ad
* Future of BBC Radio - Gillian Reynolds - not commercially feasible - only by BBC - David Mellor - safeguard terrific services - loyal - LBC decline - Melvyn Bragg, Start the Week, Radio 4
* Positive image of Engineers - like doctors, lawyers - Engineering Council - Neighbourhood Engineers Scheme NES - applications up - Electronics Weekly
* Autocues - 40 years - essential - high brightness & contrast - location work - first in 50s BBC Sportsview - The Mangle - QTV - Mick Gould, Hardware
* Artificial retina - optically active chemical - bacteria - Fuji Kanagawa - pigmentation protein - 64 pixel sensor - Electronics World News
* Letters from David Childs, Highfield, Southmapton - Radiofax the best - enjoy - Lowe HF225; Ken Hortin, Chipping Norton - really enjoyed piece on Radio Caroline - highest point in Oxfordshire helps; Mr A. Robinson, Crook, Co. Durham - 6205 clear and distinct
* Music: Groove Is In the Heart by Deee-Lite
* Titanic Tales of Terror - Bruce Ismay - Marconi telegram - deeply regret to advise - Carpathia - 2 day delay - 448 signals - C&W - salvaged - Alexander Garrett, Financial Times
* Signals of Disaster - Titanic Story - passengers and crew - telegram signals exhibition - Deep Sea Adventure - Old Harbour, Weymouth, Dorset
* Spiralling cable telephone - 10,000 subscribers per month - Alan Hindley - Windsor Cable - Mercury Communications - trunk network
* Letter to Radiofax from Department of National Heritage c/o Home Office - delay oversight [4 months] - complex issues - authorisation unlikely - Claire Craig, T1 Division
* Music: Tiny Machine by The Darling Buds
* Wireless networks - portable computers - slower than wire - line of sight - freqs - standards - WLAN - spread spectrum - Motorola Altair - Electronic Design
* Music: When Your Heart Is Weak by Cock Robin
* Letters from Mr J. Southern, Worthing - tuned in many times - courage to write in - taped your tips and news - realised awful truth unlicensed - how come? - by far beats licensed - favourite Sparks and music and Chris Raper from Londonderry - article in Short Wave Magazine - interested in air band - Shanwick
* Sparks approaching one year old - competition - first date Sparks was heard in 1991? - prizes - 4 New Scientist History Of Computing posters
* Letter from Dave Friends, Milwaukee, Wisconsin - read so much about your station - real treat to hear - change transmitter sites - 6205 signal in the clear - listen along with wife and children
* Compact Card optical memory - high speed static RAM - replace CD, hard drives - movie on a credit card - laser beams - secret technology - Electronics Weekly
* Music: Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles

Duration: 1h34m16s, Originally broadcast: 18th May 1992

MP3 file size: 53.9 MB

Sparks Programme M48: Video compression - Leaky feeder radio - Credit card PC - Daventry history - Tech at McLaren F1 - CD Secure - Darwin biography

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Let My People Go-Go by The Rainmakers
* CD Secure - Nimbus Information Systems - C-Dilla Associates - encryption of data on CDs - try and buy - unlock program - Carl Snape, Pro Sound News
* Leaky Cables keep Tubes in Touch - leaky feeder - radio communication and paging for London Underground - £100m - Peter Firth, Electronics Times
* Letters from David Nairn of Christchurch in New Zealand - 12,255 - Sony ICF6800W and Manuel Carillo, Madrid, Spain - Kenwood R600
* P.J. Cowley in London lives most of the year near the Czech border - sends details of what can be heard there on MW and SW
* DC777 Ad
* Music: Say A Little Prayer by Bomb the Bass
* Millimetric lasers - microwave power transistors - mode blocking - several watts at 10GHz - Richard Compton, Cornell University - collision radar - Electronics & Wireless World
* Credit card size PC - Gold Card AT GCAT - £475 - single chip PC - Chips and Technologies - DSP Design - Electronics World News
* Music: Drop the Pilot by Joan Armatrading
* Closure of Daventry - LW 5XX - MW 5GB - built by BBC - Empire Service - female staff - Radio 3 - radar - beacon - maintenance base - tape reclamation - Claire Barratt, Ariel
* Postal strike causing us some problems - apology for any missed programmes
* ITC choose Teletext UK - Oracle - Philips - Media Ventures International - Associated Newspapers -£8.2m bid - tech to speed up service
* Letters from Howard Stannion, Market Harborough - TV and video repairer - good programming - several friends already listen and Torbjörn Tyler, Lund, Sweden - 3910 - very good indeed - Lowe HF225
* Virtual world for developing lighting in buildings - realistic - intensity - location - move sources - Queen Mary and Westfield College - Electronics Weekly
* Digital terrestrial TV DTTV - new modulation techniques - more channels - coexist with analogue - OFDM - ITC - Simon Lowe, Electronics World News
* Music: Tumblin' Down by Ziggy Marley
* Formula One Electronics - remote data collection - remote control - McLaren Honda fightback - road car - TAG - John Griffiths, Financial Times
* Music: Shiny Happy People by R.E.M.
* Fantasia - rerelease - first stereo - 8 optical tracks - no Dolby - Tone Operated Gain Adjusting Device TOGAD - 60 speakers - Barry Fox, Studio Sound
* Video Data Reduction - VLSI - Reed-Solomon - DVTR - recording density - extended definition - aspect ratio - Kell factor - HDTV - MAC - John Watkinson, International Broadcast Engineer
* Music: A Trick of the Light by The Triffids
* Video Data Reduction part 2 - CRT colour mask limits definition - Winchester drive - computer/TV/VCR - one box - digital landlines - MPEG
* Music: Paradox [Live At Edmonton Sundown] by Hawkwind
* Sparks nearly a year old - competition - New Scientist History of Computing posters - cartoon style - Egypt to present day
* Descended from apes biography - Charles Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist by Desmond & Moore - compellingly readable - disabling illness - A.C. Grayling, Financial Times

Duration: 1h34m13, Originally broadcast: 25th May 1992

MP3 file size: MB

Sparks Programme M49: Phone freaks - SW fadeout - Sinclair Zike - CB abuse - BBC cutbacks - Electronic tags - BSkyB nearly bust - Crop circles - Eclipse

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Walking Down Madison by Kirsty MacColl
* Piracy on the CB band - breakers - music - squeakers - keying mic - hooligans - Barry Maxwell - RIS-DTI and all that - Punters, Radio 4
* AEG tags - cannot be erased - passive transponder - farming - stock control - vehicle use - 200 motorbikes/day stolen - 10 digit code - Sue Baker, Observer
* Letter from Chris Cortez of Cherry Hinton, Cambridge - severe solar fadeout and aurora of 10 May - shame day chosen for repeat of the excellent Jill Moss Caroline Into the 90s documentary - upset Radio Caroline thrown in free radio towel - hope Caroline rediscovers backbone - keep up good work with Radiofax - long list of reasons why Broadcasting Act will never be used against Caroline - why don't Richards Butler solicitors produce such information for the £26,000 of anoraks cash?
* Media Network report on shortwave fadeout - conditions atrocious - Mike Bird, IPS, Melbourne - sunspot 7154 flare - so bad MUF affected tropical bands - tremendous aurora
* Peter Robinson in Preston, Lancashire - editor WDXC Contact Radio Review column - Natracalm - Atlantis 1197 and Merseywaves both gone - Radio Dublin 6911
* Music: Fashion by David Bowie
* Millions lost in telephone theft - hacking - landlines - chipping - cloning - analogue mobiles - bill to big customer - BT - Hugo Cornwall - Peter Day, In Business, Radio 4
* Stockwood Park boot sale, Luton - hello to everyone Andy met - Green Apple Radio engineer - Lighting - Tim Hunkin - Rudiments of Wisdom - Secret Life of Machines - Automata - Clocks
* Andy Cadier - Short Wave Magazine column reports on Radiofax - continued to make representations to Home Office and DTI - Caroline relays - ex-Soviet states rent airtime
* Fax from Euronet Radio Sales - broadcast satellite airtime - 36m people - carry your broadcasts - launch Thursday 14th May 1992 - Sky Sports - subcarrier 7.56 MHz - Andrew Yeates
* MTV changed transponder - Astra 1A to Astra 1B - no backup transponder - gossip
* BBC cuts: Design and Equipment Department closing - 40% cut - Development co-locate with Research at Kingswood Warren [Kingswood shut in 2010, sold for housing]
* BSKYB near liquidation last year - 5 months after BSB merger - bank refused funding - Rupert Murdoch - £200m - profit by 1993 - Raymond Snoddy, Financial Times
* Music: Hearts and Minds by Nitzer Ebb
* NEDC - Professor Bernard Cohen - upend electronics and technology teaching - start with systems - maths and physics later - Karl Schneider, Electronics Weekly
* Mysterious reception - 3945 - WNKR - 6400 KHz - professional - Wuppertal - music good - Media Network, Radio Netherlands - Andy a regular listener
* Music: Experiment IV by Kate Bush
* Northampton Radio Club - Radio, Electronics and Computer Car Boot Fair - 7th June - Red Lion
* Sinclair Zike - Clive Sinclair - never live down C5 - £499 electric bicycle - like Bickerton with batteries - review by Nick Bergs, Auto Express (not impressed)
* Booster Bike - add on power unit - fits on front wheel - battery pannier - Bob Shaw - Henry Collier - Engineered Products & Design, Bath (more impressed)
* Andrew Preece sends Glasgow area news - Mayfest FM - 101.8 RSL - Glasgow Radio Productions - PWR - Chaos - Gnome - 101 - CB Channel 6
* Andrew Preece, Inverness, reports British Rail Radio Electronic Token Block System RFTB - 101.05 MHz - driver - controller - Wick Thurso line - Wales - Band III
* Music: Space by New Model Army
* First Crop Circle Competition - TM, Koestler Foundation, Guardian - £3000 - hoaxes - some or all? - 1000 in 1990 - fractal pattern Cambridge - Rupert Sheldrake
* DC777 Ad
* Brighton Festival Radio - third year - Radio Authority - Home Office - Saints and Sinners - 100.4 MHz - 28 days - Kaleidoscope, Radio 4
* £200m startup costs for Channel 5 - ITC suggests grand alliance for bids - 1994 - duty to retune video recorders - BT - Sunday Times
* BBC Threat to Commercial Radio - Independent letter from Travis Baxter - Long Wave Radio Atlantic 252 - national type commercial - 5m listeners - largest
* Radio telescope observations - solar eclipse - Caltech - Hawaii - chromosphere - solar wind - sunspots - 22 years - 17th century ice age - prominence - Horizon, BBC2
* Music: Every Breath You Take by The Police

Duration: 1h33m40, Originally broadcast: 1st June 1992

MP3 file size: 53.5 MB

Sparks Programme M50: Gigawatt microwave - John Tusa BBC WS interview - Ada Byron computing pioneer - DTI tough on radio mics - Synch detection - Sleep

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: The Perfect Kiss by New Order
* DC777 Ad
* Sleep and how much do we really need? - Professor James Horne, Loughborough Uni - world record - Randy Gardner - 11 days - adapt to 6 hours - Dr John Collee - Observer
* Paul Ewers, Brill, Bucks sends Popular Communications - synchronous detection operation - selective fading - ECSS - drift - PLL - lock - Harry Helms
* Letter from M.L. Merrett of Altrincham, Cheshire - less music - lots more Sparks please
* Russell Twisk meets head of 60 year old BBC World Service John Tusa - Newsnight - standing ovation - Bush House - testimonials - Foreign Office - restrictions
* BBC Question Time - future of BBC - World Service mention - better than American ones - Peter Sissons
* Music: Popscene by Blur
* Andy heard 3930 Radio Bangkok 95.5 from Thailand - presenter sounding like Laser's Jessie Brandon - playing Brit awards music - Lisa Stansfield
* Programme Controller Michael Bukht - BBC2 Food and Drink - plans for Classic FM - accessibility - hi brow & middle brow - launching in autumn - Broadcast & Campaign
* 6210 Radio Croatia with news in English - 6205 fault [off air for two days]
* World Future Society - forecasts - weather radar - postage stamp cameras - artificial intelligence - robots - CAD - Microwave Journal
* Music: High by The Cure
* Interactive trackball - replaces mouse - Institute for Perception Research, Eindhoven - trackball with feedback - Philips - car radio - John Gosht, Electronics Design
* Letter to World Radio Network suggesting they carry Radiofax from Francis Borg, Priorslee, Telford - Sparks very informative - QEFM - Ronan O'Rahilly - satellite radio
* James Robinson of Birkenhead - congratulations on Sparks - numbers station 6200 - pulsed tone - music box - Sunshine Radio Ludlow starts September - good luck with getting a licence - keep up the battle
* Euronumber Mystery - Tiare Publications - other number stations noted near Radiofax frequencies - 3,910 - 12,250 - German - Wednesday evenings
* Music: Modern Times by Latin Quarter
* Ada the Enchantress of Numbers - book by Betty A. Toole - Babbage - 1843 - first analytic engine/computer - Ada Byron/Lovelace - Penelope Fitzgerald
* Blue light laser discs - increased storage over red - Sanyo - second harmonic generation to get blue - Electronics Weekly
* Northampton Radio Club - Radio, Electronics and Computer Car Boot Fair - 7th June - Red Lion
* Apogee AD500 - audio compression comes back - stereo A/D convertor - soft limiting feature - unique - several dB more level
* Selling Radio 1 would destroy commercial radio - secret BBC report - ILR income back to 1987 level - David Mellor - Lucknam Park - Evening Standard
* Music: Accident Waiting to Happen [Red Star Version] by Billy Bragg
* Channel 69, 35, 37 - DTI - pirate broadcasters - moral legitimacy - radio microphone parallels - RIS - car alarms - getting users legal - Brian Copsey, ASP - Audio Media
* Music: Hello Earth by Kate Bush
* Japan plans unmanned aerial vehicle UAV - solar energy - microwave power from earth - telecommunications relay - Microwave Journal
* High power microwaves - generating over 100 megawatts - relativistic electron beams - TWT - BWO - crossed field amplifier - plasma - modifying ionosphere - Microwave Journal
* CQTV turn a microwave oven into a high power transmitter - CQ Television magazine
* Music: Wasted In America by Love/Hate
* Raves hit peaceful Chiltern Hills - mobile phones - Castlemorton - sound systems - Avon Free Festival - soap dodgers - John Sweeney, Observer
* Letter from George Williams of Redruth in Cornwall

Duration: 1h33m57, Originally broadcast: 8th June 1992

MP3 file size: 53.7 MB

Sparks Programme M51: Five super ILRs - BBC Glos off MW - MAC - Death of Dinosaurs - IMR tests on MW - Listen to Space Shuttle - DCC & MD

This cassette had many bad creases, as well as having snapped around the centre: 25m and 1h08m

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Speed King by Deep Purple
* Satellite TV reception possible without a dish - S Band - dual yagi and LNB beats 3.1m dish - Asia Pacific Broadcasting
* LBC owner Crown Communications to shed rock network RFM in France - half losses - £16m - Chris Chattaway - 5.1m liabilities - Simon Pinkham, Independent
* Tune in to Space Shuttle - monitor mission communications - SSB on HF - scanners - few minutes - freq list - EVA - Maplin magazine
* Letter from Philip Webster of Walton in Liverpool - generally on a par with BBC World Service - interesting - informative - refreshing
* Ron James of Wellington and a DX meeting at Shag Valley Sheep Station 50 miles north of Denedin, New Zealand - listening on 12,255
* Why Home Office will not licence SW broadcasting - Andy Cadier's July Off The Record column - Short Wave Magazine - contributions sought
* Music: Breath of Life by Erasure
* BBC Gloucestershire lost 603 MW and 35&37; of audience - Hitler never managed it - 603 commercial - leafleting - changing logos - tractor radios - Roy Preece, EIC
* Medium wave IMR to delay launch - ex Radio 3 - 1197 and 1215 - spring 1993 - TVAM - Virgin Radio - Michael Kavanagh, Broadcast
* One fifth of listeners still on medium wave - long running campaign - Radio 2 lost MW, 11m to 9m - Radio One controller Johnny Beerling
* Diamond storm ended dinosaurs - diamonds from outer space - 5 mile comet/asteroid hit Yukatan in Mexico - nitric acid - tidal wave - Nature/Guardian
* Mr C. Rowland of South Moulton in north Devon seeking World Radio Television Handbook
* Letters from Yara Sedlar of Brno in Czech Republic hearing 12,255 and E.J. Giles in Burford, Oxfordshire - hope you can stay on the air - heard 12,255 once - freak
* Music: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by The Beatles
* DC777 Ad
* Ceramic & polymer bond melt magnets - neodymium - boron - largest market - car loudspeakers - discs - tape - Dr George Tonka, Lancashire Polytechnic
* Music: Slash 'N' Burn by Manic Street Preachers
* EEC £590m for widescreen high definition TV - D2MAC or HDMAC - 30 16:9 channels by 1996 - UK say no - veto - absurd - Electronics Weekly
* Office of Fair Trading investigates Capital Radio advertising rates - discount for not advertising on other stations - Topaz Amoore, Independent
* Ross Coots in Milton Keynes with news from Paul Watt, Radio Merlin - raided 23rd December 1991 - new T shirt - DTI throwing book at them - 'MoD freqs'
* Newbury Amateur Radio Society radio boot sale at Cold Ash off the M4 on Sunday 21st June
* Kodak CD launch - stores 100 35mm photographs digitally - Photo CD standard - licensing - £4.99 - 100 photos - film unaffected - Andrew Baxter, Financial Times
* Polygram announce musicians for launch of DCC - 500 titles - battle with Sony MiniDisc - repeat Walkman success? - record & play - Financial Times
* Radio Authority announces five new regional radio licences - if they get frequency clearance - different format - autumn 1993 - Matt Baker, Broadcast
* Crop Circle Competition by Cereologist magazine, editor Richard Adams is offering cash prizes
* Music: Bike by Pink Floyd
* Presenter Dave Asher talks about Euronet - Astra 1B - lots of Caroline people playing rock and roll - 8 hour tape rewinds - dispute - Jonathan Marks, Media Network
* First all-tennis station Radio Wimbledon - 101.6 FM - up to 4 miles - every year if successful - special headphones - Paul Chesterton, Evening Standard
* Letter from Alexi Osipov - president of St Petersburg DX Club - making radio programmes - looking at free radio - Radio Polis - MW and SW
* Music: Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin
* Appeal for information about Daventry - Gee navigation station during the war - 75MHz - RAF Station 7111 - master station eastern chain - Ariel, BBC
* Letter from Tim Bucknall, Congleton, Cheshire - 12,255 during afternoons - Kiss 100 - North Coast 1296 - Concept 6232 - Energy 105.35 - 101.2 - IVC 104.4 - Naff 6260+100.7
* Number stations - 3230, 3370 German - 3910 English - 4010, 5012, 5015, 5370, 6235 German - 6270 English - 6507, 6911, 6933, 7375 7404, 7584, 11415, 3149.7

Duration: 1h33m55, Originally broadcast: 15th June 1992

MP3 file size: 53.7 MB

Sparks Programme M52: Amberley Chalk Pit Museum - College Radio in the US - Final Free Radio Quarterly - How FM is allocated - Digital cinema sound

Presented by Andy Burnham, Ruth Phillips and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Paranoid by Black Sabbath
* Andy and Ruth visit Amberley Chalk Pit Museum - steam train - buses - tram shelter - amateur radio - A&B button telephone - maintain uniselectors - charging meters
* Music: America: What Time Is Love? by The KLF
* Amberley part 2 - gypsy caravan - 1927 Albion bus - tractor - baker - James Bond View to a Kill - Leyden jar - crystal set - 813 - GB2CPM - Leak - Sinclair IC10 - 1920s kitchen - Raplin ice maker - bus hand crank start - medical generator - nervous diseases - Violet Ray apparatus 1925 - high freq current - sparks to skin - lime kiln - concrete exhibition - Sydney Opera House - stationary engine
* Music: A Hard Days Night by The Beatles
* Radio 1 adverts? - Atlantic 252 - horrified - Travis Baxter - swamp commercial stations - justify licence - Johnny Beerling - Radios 3&5 - Torin Douglas, Today
* Fostex lend equipment to XFM - indie music station - 4 weeks - 101.2 - north London - NME - Sammy Jacob - long needed - permanent licence hope - Audio Media
* Q sound - Roland - rival - OM 3D sound processor - Perfect Pitch Music - outside area of 2 loudspeakers - Ronnie Scott Club - 3D stereo FM - psychology - Richard Brice - Audio Media
* Dolby SRD sound - cinemas equipped - 6 digital channels - between sprockets - analogue unaffected - print duplication - Keith Spencer Allen, Pro Sound News
* Music: Pure Pleasure [Rave Mix] by Digital Excitation
* Why American students know Manchester's Stone Roses and other British bands - Daytona beach - MTV Roadshow - college FM radio- Princeton - WPRB 103.3 - promotional tampons - Bright FM - WHRB - WERS - WFMU - Nirvanah - Never Mind - free form programming - voted best radio station - rivals seek half TX wattage - Joseph Gallivan, Independent - UK students on FM?
* Sky Movies without paying? - bizarre mailshot from Nottingham asking for £15 - difficult to advertise - forward to neighbour - 'strictly no callers' - The Hole in the System - Save Money
* William Shimmin - Greek island Skopelos - 12,255 1,600 miles away - Luxembourg strong satellite relay 15,350 - Much Wenlock - Psion 3 - hope Caroline provide something new
* Music: Good Times Bad Times by Led Zeppelin
* Allocating the FM band - forthcoming Classic FM - 85% population - 54dBμV/m - CCIR - double distance = 100 x power - protection - intermodulation - Lawrence Hallett, Radio World
* Test Match Special - why cricket on Radio 3 - Radio 1 FM & AM - more listeners - saves £900,000 - TMS before all-day Radio 3 - David Hatch - Chris Dunkley, Feedback
* Sad look at Free Radio Quarterly FRQ - Live Wire Radio - INR2 - Steve Conway - Steve Midnight - public sold short - ATU - Anorak Almanac - Free Radio Directory - Adrian Cooke ends publication
* Ewan Cathcart sends article on East Sound in Glenrothes - Fife's first station - Forth FM - Max AM - Radio Tay - Saltire Park - 1993 - TX East Lomond - Kircaldy - Dundee Courier
* Music: Cloudbusting by Kate Bush
* ITN bespoke TV - satellites for corporate TV - ultimate status symbol for companies - £1,500/hour - production facilities - Jonathan Miller, Sunday Times
* Thorn EMI - Moses Znaimer - Radio Rentals - Rumbelows - consortium bid for Channel 5 TV - Thames TV - Matthew Lynn, Sunday Times
* Sparks theme

Duration: 1h33m58, Originally broadcast: 22nd June 1992

MP3 file size: 53.7 MB

Sparks Programme M54: Kew Steam Museum - Pirates around the world - DCC vs CD quality - Radio Wimbledon - ITV programme quality - Radio audiences

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Yeke Yeke by Mory Kanté
* Andy visits Kew Bridge Steam Museum - west London - water pumping station - Maudslay - 1838 - 136 gallons - 198ft tower - 270 steps - randomly encounters Radiofax's Dave Johns
* Visit to nearby Kew Musical Museum - hand held - Wurlitzer - pianolas - barrel organ
* DTI's RIS Fraser Murray writes to Dick Ganderton, Editor, Short Wave Magazine - irresponsible - threatens On The Record - offence - unlimited fine - non-British mag - Radiofax response - carefully worded - two things - factual information - publicising - reply robustly to DTI - threatening/acting - cause celèbre - powerful friends - not pirate till found to be so in court
* Music: Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel
* Macrovision copy protection - massive illegal copying claim - 20% VCR owners copied material - movies - cartoons - music - sport - exercise - One to One
* FRS Goes DX magazine - Digital Music Express DMX - 30 channels - KRAS 105 Gijón, Spain - human rights - US free radio - Andrew Yoder - amateur TXs - Heathkit - Johnson - 3885 - freqs
* Mastering for new DCC format - sound quality - limited storage - PASC coding discards some linear PCM information on CDs - Polygram, Amersfoort - hear difference - Carl Snape, One to One
* Letter from Peter Verbruggen, FRS - great enthusiasm - habit to listen before going to sleep - Sparks one of favourites - FRS test 3910 September 1991
* Music: The Life of Riley by The Lightning Seeds
* DC777 Ad
* C5 Chariot takes U Turn - Channel 5 may not be licensed - VCR retuning - digital TV - 1992 Fleming Lecture RTS - black out TV - 2.5m on Channel 36 - Richard Dean, World Broadcast News
* Radio Wimbledon - 101.6 FM - 1992 tennis tournament - first year - recorded five miles away by Andy - no portable phones - keep volume down - radios sold at Octagon on site - £10
* Music on Radio Wimbledon: Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac - news intro
* DTI steps up publicity - illegal radio mics still using Channel 35 - Brian Copsey, ASP - Ray Withers, Racom - changing freqs - pulling hair out - different every country - Simon Croft, Pro Sound News
* James Robinson, Birkenhead hears Classic FM Wrotham in Hereford - test tones - bird noises plus hens, sheep, dog, fox, aeroplane, cars, doors, woman saying stop it
* Ralph Bradley, South Gosforth, Newcastle with SW freqs for Radio Japan - 9695 - 9770 - 9670 - 6025 - 6160 - Skelton
* Recording of Classic FM bird song test transmissions - eleven transmitter sites 99.9 - 101.9 FM - not high volume - freqs - National Grid References
* RTE's London correspondent Brian O'Connell stopped in Yorkshire by police - suspected terrorist - tailed - stopped - released - Andrew Moncur, Guardian Diary
* Letter to 'Sparky' - Highland homestead drawing - thatched roof - aerial - 'Readers Digest' of tech talk is excellent - keep it up - Hilton of Fern, Brechin, Angus, Tayside
* Letter from John Yves Camus in Vincennes, Paris - signal good - very interesting for technically minded - shall stay tuned - most enjoyable - translating DC777 into French
* Complaints to Radio Authority about birdsong wiping out KISS 100 - only within M25 - Quentin Howard - recorded at bedroom window - bird anoraks happy - Richard Brooks, Observer
* Music: Don't Let Me Down, Gently by The Wonder Stuff
* Future of ITV - Lis Howell - TVAM - GMTV - populist - more commercial - high ratings needed - This Week disappears - audience losing - Torin Douglas, World At One, Radio 4
* Radio Dublin 101 - Inchicore - Captain Eamonn Cook - 18 pirates - refuse to walk the plank - SW makes them voice of Ireland - Joe Doyle - DLR 6220 - KLAS - Star Country - Riverside - North Atlantic - Kim Bielenberg, Irish Independent
* 30 illegal London stations - dance music for the young - Touchdown - Deflection - Pulse - raves - 250 raids - no London licences - Station FM - Paul Charman, Evening Standard
* London listening - Capital 32%, Radio 1 29%, Radio 2 22%, Radio 3 9%, Radio 4 26%, Radio 5 8%, GLR 10%, JazzFM 6%, KissFM 11%, LBC 13%, Melody 14%, Luxembourg 1%
* Fax from Goldcrest Broadcasting - Howard Rose - launching new magazine - Radio Magazine - every week - £60/year
* Andrew Preece sends report from the Glaswegian - central Scotland licence - compete with Radio Clyde - Radio Forth - different to existing - Paisley Local Radio now 096 FM

Duration: 1h34m, Originally broadcast: 13th July 1992

MP3 file size: 53.7 MB

Sparks Programme M56: Caroline's Galaxy - ILRs in the red - The Wave - Control room acoustics - British Rail DJ on Caroline - Cellphones hit the high street

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Childhood's End? by Marillion
* Chiltern Radio in the red - £179,000 - Galaxy - Severn Sound - buy another licence - Financial Times
* Mike Powell & Tristar win Slough and Maidenhead licence - Star FM - most hotly contested - 18 other applicants - WSM Radio closes - Michael Cavanagh, Broadcast
* Crown Communications & LBC further loss - £5.6m - Chris Chattaway - RFM France had shown promise - sell RFM? - Marcher, Allied, Midlands, Radio Trust - Robert Cole, Independent
* Letters from Anne Faust in Berlin - collects QSL cards - sends along some British stamps bought on British trip and Dennis Callagher in Middleton, Co Cork - heard all 3 freqs
* Southend Radio Rally - Sparks stand - Sunday 16 August - Rocheway Centre, Rochford, Essex
* John D Newnham of Jarrow, Tyne and Wear - thanks for interesting programmes - sends British Rail News - Ross Revenge Radio Caroline feature - Dover - Chris Watford - safety DJ - 275,000 audience - Peter Moore - 28th birthday - Churchdown, Glos - QEFM - Spain cable TV - FM in Holland - Lights Out - Ely lamplighter Frank Groom - lit his last lamp - guess audience
* Music: X Offender by Blondie
* Cellnet plan mobiles you can buy in a shop - costs cut in half - £30/month - consumer item for 1990s - rival PCNs - Heather Connon, Independent
* Ron Prosser sends a story about Grundig - 3000 job losses - overseas competition - TV factory - Nuremburg - Portugal - Malaysia - pay lower - Financial Times
* Controlled reflection zones - acoustic design - 400ms - stereo control rooms - cut reflections - oppressive - image stability - B12, 13, 14 cubicles - Bob Walker, BBC Research Department
* Music: In A Broken Dream by Rod Stewart
* Wave No.2 - Euronet - Christopher England - Caroline split - Nova - Off the Record sunk by DTI - Channel 5 farce - pirate TV - ghosting - radar notch filters - BSB RX mod for D2MAC
* BBC Radio 3 ditches flagship show - Music Weekly - move downmarket - compete Classic FM - Nicholas Kenyon - John Drummond infuriated - many changes - John Julius Norwich - Yehudi Menuhin - Charles Mackerras - debase itself - ⅓ announcers redundant - shorter music sequences - Joanna MacGregor - needs shake up - lot of complaints - Paul Donovan, Sunday Times
* Batman Returns - first Dolby digital film - 35mm - 6 heads - dual inventory - between sprocket holes - black squares - 320kbps - compression - Leicester Square only - Steve Homer, Financial Times
* Letters from James Robinson in Birkenhead - piano tuner; Phil Muir, Shaftesbury and Russell King, Stanstead Abbotts, Ware, Hertfordshire - discovered us looking for BBC WS Waveguide - TV documentary - Caroline ship - beached - estuary in Africa - temporary transmitters till local government transmitter ready [meaning RNI off Libya?]
* Music: Deeper Shade Of Soul by Urban Dance Squad
* Culling of the Sacred Cows - ITV arts and documentaries under threat - ITV factual commissioner - World in Action - new commissions - price & merit - Barry Cox, LWT, Media Guardian
* DC777 Ad
* Caroline Movement plans offshore Project Galaxy - 14/16 August 1992 - waterfront MEBO anniversary convention - 25th anniversary - broke BBC monopoly - relive excitement - tender from land - visit ship - Walton on the Naze
* Famous Pirate Ship Gets Licence - back in April - 1964 - various ships - silenced - storm - Goodwin Sands - rescue - salvaged - Dover Harbour - Radio Authority - tourists - third world licence - RSL - 25 watts - 4 weeks - split - satellite - back to sea - high power AM - sorry state - 20 years ago - millions of listeners - Paul Rusling, World Broadcast News
* Ron Prosser sends Communication, British DX Club magazine - 40 pages - FM DX - opening 10/14 June - null position - DX programme list - Radiofax included - Radio Bosnia Herzegovina 612 - Lithuania Weekly - 24 hour English - UK Iconi Radio - Paul Rusling - 200kW install claim - Baltic Radio International, Palanga, Klaipéda - Radio Free China - student plan - Hungary - US assistance
* Radio Japan - Skelton freqs - Ralph Bradley, South Gosforth, Tyne and Wear - recordings - Gabon 11,735 - Skelton 6160 - all Radio Moscow World Service freqs - Gospel of the Kingdom - Japan address - Radio Moscow short of money - Dunlaoghaire Local Radio DLR 106 FM 250W, 6220 120W, plan 9900 350W - Radio Dublin 6911 250W plan 1kW - free radio & anorak programmes
* Euro DX magazine - European DX Council - 7 pages
* Ireland Communications minister - Máire Geoghegan-Quinn - independent radio sales launch - review Broadcast Act - autumn - submissions
* Music: Pyjama Girl by Kingmaker
* DCC and Mini Disc - computer industry interest - Sanyo - Apple - 220MB MD - toy companies - thin film heads - laser - polarised beam splitter - Marantz - Electronic World News
* Video conferencing - loudspeaking telephones - rapid growth - PictureTel - VLSI codecs - dial up digital - 128kbps - travel cost - echo cancel - telephone broadcasting - Paul Taylor, Financial Times
* Thanks to Ross Coots for a couple of 813 valves - now in operation

Duration: 1h33m51, Originally broadcast: 20th July 1992

MP3 file size: 53.7 MB

Sparks Programme M57: Toshiba ditches audio - Radon gas - ITN at 25 - Loony loudspeakers - 2 stroke cars - Arts into BBC engineering - Caroline news

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Lucretia My Reflection by The Sisters of Mercy
* Southend Radio Rally - Sparks stand - Sunday 16 August - Rocheway Centre, Rochford, Essex
* Radon - naturally occurring - half of radiation - cancer - buildings harmful - particles - lungs - NRPB free measurement - detectors - county map - Devon, Cornwall 3% - fan - negative pressure - Which, Consumers Association
* Toshiba - new president - radio cassettes & CD players ended - recession - 1MB DRAM - 1980s laptop - multi media - colour LCD - flash memory - Stefan Wagstyl, Financial Times
* Letters from Mark Palmer G0OIW, GB7VMR, Reading - cat photo made into postcard by Post Office - love ethnic music - enjoy Country - ELP - PFM - YBO - packet radio - RCA prohibitions - and Darren Whitt, Wollaton, Nottingham - listening since 20 April 1991 - high mod - good bass & treble - Sparks best speech programme ever heard - ILR bland - depressing - nothing till Radiofax - Caroline great - Archive and Caroline recorded - Spectrum fiasco - 558 - 819 - fibreglass mast (Valcom) - Horizon 100 - Heatwave 100.5 - Globe 101 - Classic FM - new freqs - Touch 107.3 - Teeside IT degree - IBM Brussels - Sparks fascinating listening - luck with licence - need it - DTI makes you laugh - pathetic responses - many thanks for hard work making a great and, importantly, most interesting station currently on the dial
* Music: Going For The One by Yes
* 25 years of ITN - Andrew Gardner - 3 July 1967 - 30 minutes - bored stiff - Kingsway - blandness - saturated - Thames > Carlton viewer loses - Roz Morris, Media Guardian
* Six companies ordered DCC - lead over Sony MiniDisc - replace analogue cassette - Philips claim - fixed car DCC head - top secret - jolting - vibration - rotates digital/analogue
* JVC - over 500 DCC titles - by end of 1992 - over 80% in Japanese - with Japanese music
* Pioneer PAL video recorder - dual head - rewritable - magneto optical - 30cm disc - 48,000 video frames - 32 minutes - time compressed analogue - 1m re-recordings
* Recordable CD player - consumer £800 - scupper MiniDisc - make DCC success - write once - like CD-R - dye layer darkens - laser beam - not tolerate write once only say Sony
* Music: Stingray Theme The Stingray Megamix featuring Aqua Marina from Power Themes 90
* DC777 Ad
* Two stroke Ford Fiesta - electric - near production - 3 cylinder - orbital engine - catalyst - noise - match 4 stroke 6 cyl - Dugald Clerk - 1880 - Jaguar - Trabant - Sue Baker, Observer
* Letters from Alexei Galevski, Timoshenko, Ukraine - near Azov Sea - hunting hobby - economy difficult - 1kg meat = week wages - VCR 35,000 Roubles - 12,255; George Williams in Cornwall - reply from DNH - apply to Radio Authority - short wave - no access to any frequencies - BBC World Service - complex issues - well beyond responsibilities of this department - R.L. Macey - Radio Harmony - Paul Graham (Radio Caroline); Stephen Tipanza of Great Yarmouth - listened in Dewsbury - radio on radiator - consider Astra; Michelle Goodman of Newton Mearns in Glasgow - please send more information and Dave Preston, Leicester - blind - free radio from RNIB - Roberts - 49/25 metre bands - enjoys Sparks - Caroline
* Music: Violently (Your Words Hit Me) by Hue & Cry
* How I Engineered a Change of Direction - Sarah Brookes - English - BBC engineer - training - Wood Norton - Broadcasting House - TV Centre - Spur CAR - Independent
* Music: Fugazi by Marillion
* Audio power amplifiers - not all sound same - why? - class AB - THD - IMD - impulse response - DSP software - 8 Ohm + Z - 12MHz modulator - power supplies - Ben Duncan, Line Up
* Carlton Cabletime interactive game - Action Time - switched star network - high value prizes - quiz - local street switch - play with TV handset - World Broadcast News
* Letters from Peter Grenfell of Western Oamaru, New Zealand - trust accounting, retired - 12,255 - best wishes and Jurgen Bloom in Dusseldorf - 12,255 best signal - very often listen - hope Irish PTT cannot find your location - - professional programme structure - highly appreciated not just by myself - visits Cork, Kenmare, Killarney - good place to relax - Paddy, Jameson, Bushmills
* Music: Only When You Leave by Spandau Ballet
* Mike Barraclough in Letchworth reports on Radio Caroline - Ireland - 6305 - 1kW - tapes delayed - weekends only - land based offshore - Media Network
* Spotted by Jodie in Media Guardian - Radio Caroline Requires - Experienced AOR Programme Controller - satellite launch - in confidence - Linda Hayward - Regent Street
* Joe Meek Museum - multi tracking - phasing - BBC2 documentary - rich benefactor required - advert in Private Eye
* Loudspeakers - giant snails - £10,000 - Steve Moore - Cornflake Shop - Brinkman - urn - Endymion - Richard Thomas Davis - filled with water - Ideal Home Show - ceramic not wood - 360 degree sound - Berlin - MBL 101 - Teutonic Tangerine - £5,800 - rest next week [M58]
* Sparks theme

Duration: 1h34m11, Originally broadcast: 27th July 1992

MP3 file size: 53.8 MB

Sparks Programme M58: Northsea Holland - Audience measurement - Human DNA - Squarial - Product churning - Save Bletchley Park - SW transmitters - Caroline scam

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Tuesday's Child by All About Eve
* Loudspeakers continued from M57 - B&W Nautilus - Lawrence Dickie - £10,000 - no corners - giant snail - cannot put flowerpot on top - Mathew Gwyther, Independent
* Eduard Rhein Foundation - Technology Prize 1992 - £70,000 - Kodak - analogue film images stored in digital - Philips - PASC digital audio coding
* Advert last week - Radio Caroline programme controller - phone number to call - bogus - premium number - Peter Moore outraged - investigating
* DNA - important word is acid - book of life - Human Genome Organisation HUGO - gene therapy - decode by 2007 - eugenic abuse - Dr John Colley, Observer
* Music: Epic by Faith No More
* DC777 Ad
* Propping Up The Propaganda - Soviet collapse - target - hundreds of SW senders - jammers dismantled - black market - radio budgets increased - VoA - RFI - Iran - 500kW - ABB - AEG - Continental - Thomson CSF - Marconi - RIZ - skilled staff dying breed - Harris DX - 1MW solid state - output combiner - air cooling - freq agile 300kW - Jim Wood, International Broadcasting
* Music: The Last Of The Famous International Playboys by Morrissey
* Letter from James Robinson of Oxton, Birkenhead, Merseyside - Sparks is excellent - thanks for Radio Tape - most interesting - sends along Hereford Times article - vintage car - marathon jigsaw puzzle - architect Michael Kelly, Broad Oak - Austin Heavy - 12.8HP York - 57 years old - rest of body in Dyfed - only 3 exist - vintage rally - located most parts - engine Pembroke farmer - Owen Stanthorpe
* Letter from David Ince of Woolton Hill, Newbury - smallest Roberts - model 101 - seeking better SW radio
* Preserve Bletchley Park - appeal launched in London - Ultra secret - Hut 6 - first computer - £7m - museum campus - Ted Enever - Turing - Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian [Enigma not mentioned then]
* RAJAR audience measurement - diary - 52,000/year - R2 Brian Hayes 2m - R5 Danny Baker 200,000 - R4 Today 2.5m - R1 Simon Bates 3m - Prom 250,000 - Feedback, Radio 4 - Radio Surveys of Great Britain RSGB booklet
* BBC Local Radio audience figures - Cornwall drop 38% to 29% since Pirate FM 29% - Shropshire - Derby - Northampton - Merseyside - WM - Cambridgeshire - Suffolk - GLR - Broadcast
* Music: Little Red Corvette by Chartmasters
* Automatic Call Distribution - DSS - improving communication - computer network - DLA - 120 trunk lines - agent positions - sequenced - 12,000/week - wall display - 1.35pm Neighbours - Communications Networks
* Milking Profits by Churning - facelifted products - novelty - squeeze competitors - rapid replacement - HP - Texas Instruments - Xerox - Philips - Christopher Lorenz, Financial Times
* Pay TV movie channel Filmnet - won first commercial licence in Holland - Richemont - M-NET - Chris Fuller, Variety - dodgy descramblers
* KUPD FM - double decker British bus - Bristol Lodekka - Phoenix - English music - red hot rock - red radio express - photo - 98 KUPD - Radio World
* Music: Transmission by Joy Division
* ITV satellite channels - BSkyB spoiler - Greg Dyke - Clive Leach YTV - like Thames' UK Gold - Lisa O'Carrol, Broadcast
* Radio North Sea National - bell tower - homestead - Naarden - national licence - Dutch music - satellite - cable - Jonathan Marks, Media Network
* Classic FM - Gallup - weekly CD chart - best sellers - downmarket? - large cross-section - not narrow elite - BBC review - Kaleidoscope, Radio 4
* BSkyB scupper local TV - Asian - Education - Parliament - Marco Polo satellite - special interest groups - token rental - sale planned - Richard Brooks, Observer
* Issue discussed on Sunrise Radio 1413 - Avtar Lit, Soapbox - Eutelsat - Sunrise TV - life changed by Sunrise - listen all day
* Squarial owners - refurbished Amstrad SRX2000 offer - up to date promised - 120,000 BSB customers - outraged - backtrack - Sky denial - ITC - car boot BSB RX
* KISS FM morning DJ - Steve Jackson - suspended - refused to play Too Funky by George Michael - Time Out - slide to MOR on incremental stations
* Pirate Chat - layout better - computers - glossy - 32 pages - lot of info - good to hear Radiofax is continuing - 12,255 amazing signal - Andy Walker
* Nuntii Latini - News in Latin - roaring success - most famous YLE Radio Finland programme - millions who understand - high brow listeners - 10-50 letters/week - Vatican
* Pirate List - bimonthly - all known addresses - short wave and medium wave - features - pirate listening - Stefan Prinz, Lund, Sweden
* Music: Nightclubbing by Grace Jones

Duration: 1h33m57, Originally broadcast: 3rd August 1992

MP3 file size: 53.7 MB

Radiofax Programme M64 OFF AIR: Pi in the sky - Hungarian Free Radio - Drug connection with London pirates - More washing machine repair tips - Computer viruses - New hope for acetate discs - Radiofax closing down soon

With just a few seconds missing at the end, this was recorded from 6205 off-air near Blackpool at DX Archive.

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Sparks Theme - introduction
* Music: Keep Your Eye On Me by Herb Alpert
* Analogue quality good - tinkered with - aural exciter - phase smearing - wow - flutter - modulation noise - cruchy 16 bit sound - Paul White, Audio Media
* Restoring acetate discs - 1928 tape recording - cigarette papers - metallic dust - patented - AEG production tape recorder - BASF - surprise Hitler speech - location known to be elsewhere - tonschreiber - radio amateur army officer - 1946 Nat Mills and Bobbie - only known recording - disc - Emile Berliner 1880s - Cecil Watts - shellac - lacquers - grooves cut - acetates - cellulose nitrate - unique - NSA has 8000 - decomposes - peels off - laser optic reading - loud roar - 124 micron fibre cable - fraction of stylus weight - replay broken 78s - Alan Ward, Playback
* History of pi - Archimedes - 480AD China - increasing accuracy - 1610 35 places - 1699 71 places - Carl Gauss - first payment for computer time - 2.16 billion - British Association Science Festival, Southampton - Tim Radford, Guardian
* Museum warehouse to be a showpiece - Science Museum - old RAF Wroughton - £2.7m Swindon - robotic computerised trolley - Suzanne Keene - replace Hayes - Director Dr Neil Cossons - conserve software - Simon Tate, Times
* £4.99 Dave Cash novel - Mike Terry Review - radio stations - Kenny Everett - IBA controls - finances - reality - readable - Communicate, BDXC
* Tom Read - chart of popular DX listening times - Sunday morning peak - Communicate, BDXC
* Austria - switch off 1476kHz - 600kW - announcements - most distant listener - Communicate, BDXC
* Russia - Radio Hope - 7280, 15,340 - Russion Womans' Union - family listening - Radio Alla (Wings) - 684, 1386, 1494 - evenings - Communicate, BDXC
* BDXC Radio Stations In The UK publication - QSL cards and logos wanted - copies to Dave Kenny
* Letters from A Stevens, Cardiff - FM pirates - Radiofax is right on SW - every success in the future and Derek Norrie - satellite radio - Astra receiver Birmingham rally £75 - Engineers Notebook - circuits - 700kHz AM transmitter - Tandy 2765105 £1.59
* Cowes Week - Brian Walton, 35, Washington, Tyne & Wear - washed overboard - drowned - yacht Mephisto - delay - emergency radio channel blocked - yachtsmen chit chat - gales - Shropshire Star [tragedy was 3 August 1992]
* Red-faced BBC Radio 3 In Tune presenter Natalie Wheen swore on air - so many complaints - evidence of audience increase - Shropshire Star
* Letter from Daniel Drysdale, Llannon, Llanelli, Dyfed - DX loggings - Call FM 94.5 - Touchdown FM 94.1 - Trans FM 105.4 - Destiny 99.5 - TST Rock Congleton - Legal - Kiss FM 100 - LBC Crown FM 97.3 - GLR 94.9 - time signal Canada - TARN Birmingham hardcore rave - blind - dictated to grandmother
* Letter from Mike Brown - Prospero magazine for retired BBC staff - missing colleagues - get in touch - articles and photographs wanted - 127 Birkbeck Road, Enfield, Middlesex EN2 0EE
* Intel overdrive - retaliation CPU retaliation AMD/Cyrix/Texas Instruments- replacement chips - 169 pins - £459 - 25MHz - overdrive socket - DX2 chip - Newsfile, Computer Shopper via Ralph Bradley
* Letters from Richard Henderson of Alness, Ross-shire, Scotland and Mike Pratt in Norton Saint Philip, Bath, Avon and Bob Baird, Edinburgh - in case you missed your letters I read on Friday ***IN F59 BROADCAST FRIDAY 4 September
* Music: Breath Of Life by Erasure
* Fibre Optic Thermometer to Replace Thermocouples - furnaces - Johnson Matthey - Vacuum and Semiconductor Processing Show - OFT Optical Fibre Thermometer - quartz/sapphire fibre light guide - platinum tip - thin film coating - 1,300 degC - accuracy 0.01 degree - drift - low thermal mass - plasma - Electronic Engineering
* Hello to everyone at Milton Keynes and District Amateur Radio Society Car Boot Sale - Paul Brickhill - stand - Morris Minor van - National Vintage Wireless and Television Museum, Dedham, Essex - moving to High Lighthouse Harwich October 1992 - vintage items - archive - Baird - satellite - offshore broadcasting - curator A.J. O'Neill - Offshore Radio 1584 - Walton-on-the-Naze
* Drugs Rings Muscle in on Pirate Radios - set up stations - illegal raves - £200,000 a night - criminals - violence - throw team from high rise roof - blocks of concrete - dance music - Detective Chief Inspector Alan Burrell - penalty £20,000 - Radio Investigation Service - deter enthusiast not criminals - interference - Kiss FM Head of Music Lindsay Wesker - tab of E - Technology Minister Edward Lee - not harmless fun - prosecution - 7,000 youngsters - £100/night - Touchdown Radio - DJ Space - love of music - save gear in raid - Steve Bogan, Independent on Sunday
* Do It Yourself, Switch Emphasis - household appliances - easily cured - blown fuse - service engineer - washing machine - refusal to drain - obstructions - heating element - fluff - replace filters - bearings - thermostat - fan belt - Gareth Parry, Guardian
* Music: Running Out Of Time (Rave Mix Edit) by Digital Orgasm
* This week on Sparks - Pi In The Sky - Hungarian Free Radio - Drug connection with London pirates - More washing machine repair tips - Computer viruses - New hope for acetate discs - Radiofax closing down soon 0483 272 888 - Radiofax T Shirt £9.99
* Plans for a Joe Meek Museum - author John Repsch - Holloway Road - suicide after murdering landlady - recorded Telstar - John Leighton's Johnny Remember Me - £230,000 - BBC documentary - recreate studio - vintage sound equipment - 081 878 6912 - Joe Hosken, Pro Sound News Europe
* Toe Rag Music, Shoreditch - vintage equipment - old mics - reverb plates - 1965 desk - EMI Red 17 - valve 2 track - Liam Watson - Josh Collins - Xenon Shoepe, Pro Sound News Europe
* Royal Ruler Gets Back in the Groove - Tony Prince, 48, Oldham - Luxembourg - Capital Gold - Stringfellows - Dave Berry, Cruisers - Cliff Bennett, Rebel Rousers - Brian Poole, Tremeloes - Mick Green, Pirates - Tornados - Vanity Fair - Dave Hill - Don Powell - Sleigh - Dave Cash - Paul Burnett - Screaming Lord Sutch - Stefan Dennis - Neighbours - Radio Caroline - Mix Mag magazine - children burn schools - on air marriage proposal - Tim Cooper, Evening Standard
* Computer Viruses - Edward Wilding - Virus Bulletin VB - similar to AIDS - contaminated diskette - 3 to 4 a day - not a single good thing - immense disruption - Dr Alan Solomon - 82 lorries stuck in port - panic - needle in haystack - damage - erased hard discs - desperation - doctors or quacks? - check anti-virus programs - Dr Simon Shepherd - University of Bradford - 2,000 viruses - some hopeless - 5 competent - Roisin McAuley - You and Yours, BBC Radio 4
* Music: Justice In Ontario by Steve Earl & The Dukes
* Riverbed Killer Identified - dinoflagellate algae - kills fish - discovered by chance - rising deaths - North Carolina State University - Raleigh - Pamlico River - Atlantic Menhaden Salmon - 1m deaths - Nick Nuttall, The Times
* Letter from Nick Smith, Rossendale, Lancashire - INR2 - second Independent National Radio - 1215kHz - started tests - Droitwich - 200kW - directional aerial - early 1993 - 90% UK population - 25 transmitters - 1197kHz - classic rock - 70s - 80s - albums - Independent Music Radio Ltd., Breakfast TV Centre, Hawley Crescent, London NW1 8EF - 071 288 4317 - Charles Leveson - QSL card - songs request - keep up good work - old TV Bands 1 & 3 - 49MHz baby alarms - car alarms - remote control garage doors - 50MHz 6 metre amateur band - 46MHz cordless phones - Band 3 - mobile radio - PMR trunking - huge chunks unallocated
* Letter from D Beecher, Crossford, Dunfermline, Fife - 6205 on Matsui MR4099 - wants simple radio circuit by Tony Rickson
* Letter from Ralph Bradley - sends recordings, hope to play next week - also wants MOSFET receiver circuit - stamped addressed envelope SAE
* Letter from Victor Best, Portadown, Northern Ireland
* Letter from James Robinson - laments Radiofax closure news
* Letter from James Bainbridge, Scarside Farm, Bampton, Penrith - Cumbria College of Art and Design - media student - Carlisle - like to hear news of TV & radio industry
* Letter from Philip J Catterall G4OBK, Bucknall, Stoke on Trent - discovered Radiofax in July 1991 - CR100 receiver - Leyland, Lancashire - Caroline North - packet radio - hundreds of hams - Yaesu FT990 - Racal RA1792 - 31 foot ground plane vertical - 3910 a must after dark - keep up the fight for free radio
* BBC Radio 6 News plan - replace Radio 4 long wave - besieged by complaints - my friend - Miss Macpherson - it's inaudible - what am I going to do? - in tears all morning - Louise Ogle-Rush of London - why oh why - only quality left - pearl of broadcasting - Michael Green - Controller Radio 4 - guilty of lowering standards - Justin Evens - Galway - absolutely shocked, horrified, disgusted, dismayed - dustbin - junk programmes - don't do this to me, BBC - consternation in Europe - much appreciated - Eurobrits - Tony Hall - news on LW - news quickly - Robert Maxwell overboard - bomb in Whitehall - Ceefax - continuous news - Feedback, Radio 4
* Music: Don't Give Up (featuring Kate Bush) by Peter Gabriel
* Radio Pirates band together - Hungary - 10 pirates - Radio 6, Budapest - Tiltott (Forbidden), Kaposvar - Subjectiv, Pécs - remain on air after new frequencies - non profit - youth outlet - voluntary donations - World Broadcast News

Duration: 1h32m25, First broadcast: 14 September 1992

MP3 file size: 85MB

Sparks Programme M Standby: Chris Cary's HiTech Xtravision in court - Keeping contacts clean - Cancer from desk lights - Morse from Kraftwerk

There was always Standby programmes available at the transmitter site for use when there was a postal delay

Presented by Andy Burnham and Trevor Brook
* Introduction
* Music: Labelled With Love by Squeeze
* Hubble beaten - flawed optics - Virgo galaxy - Mauna Kea Hawaii - adaptive optical - age of universe - half distance - younger - Jeff Hecht, New Scientist
* Music: Get Up Offa That Thing / Release the Pressure by James Brown
* Encrypted programmes - copyright owner - BBC versus Hi-Tech Xtravision, Camberley - Space Communications Sat-Tel authorised - cheaper - injunction & costs - Law, Independent
* Music: Walking On Sunshine by Katrina & the Waves
* Hi-Tech Xtravision - relevance - Chris Cary - Managing Director Radio Nova - Dublin - Astra satellite - Radio Caroline
* Music: (What's Wrong With) Dreaming by River City People
* Fluids vanquish intermittents - contaminants - degrade connections - major cause of failure - corrosion - gold - Schottky diodes - Cramolin - Stabilant 22 - Stephen Leveson, Electronic Design News
* Music: Soul Man by Sam & Dave
* ID address
* Music: Ace Of Spades by Motörhead
* Music: Fire Brigade by The Move
* Tungsten halogen desklight cancer risk - ultra violet - 50W = midday sun - efficient - shorter wavelength - Leigh Dayton, New Scientist
* Music: I'm Free by The Soup Dragons
* Music: Geiger Counter Geigenzähler by Kraftwerk
* Music: Radioactivity Radioaktivität by Kraftwerk - features morse code and short wave noises
* Music: Good Year for the Roses by Elvis Costello
* Introduction to Radio DXing by Robert Penfold - MW - domestic - darkness - close down - frame/loop aerial - coupling - radio inside frame - tuned - image improved - 500pF
* Music: Facts and Figures by Hugh Cornwell
* Introduction to Radio DXing part 2 - tropical bands 120, 90, 60 - thunderstorms on MW - 75m - popular 49, 41, 31 - 25m - true HF 19, 16, 13 - 11 metre bands
* Music: Pull Up To The Bumper by Grace Jones
* ID address
* Music: Rhythm Of Life by Hugh Harris

Duration: 1h33m25, Recorded 17th June 1991, Originally broadcast: Unknown

MP3 file size: 53.4 MB

Radiofax Programme Final 30 September 1992: You can't get a licence whatever you do - Thanks to helpers - Listener phone calls and letters - as many as would fit in

The special Opinion Line number we set up showed widespread cynicism amongst listeners in 1992 about politicians and authorities ever responding to reasonable proposals (starts at 15 minutes). Completely true of course.

Further Opinion Line comments appeared in programmes W76, W77, W78, TH10, TH11, TH12, F59, F60, F61, SAT4, SAT6, SAT7.

In those days, the border crossings between the Republic and Northern Ireland which were still open all had massive army checkpoint installations.

Presented by Trevor Brook
* Radiofax at September 1992 - story over the years - you can't get a licence - nothing at all positive done by government - Transcript here
* John Franklin, Ripley, Derbyshire - Sparks excellent - Jodie's Rock Show broadened my musical horizons, wonderfully unpretentious - most interesting and innovative station ever
* Peter Kirsop, Lymm, Cheshire - how sad - particularly Sparks - absolutely unique - thank you for excellent service - letter to Dublin
* Keith from Ruislip - sad saying goodbye so soon - Andy Walker Radiodaze - speech very innovative - hello BDXC friends - bye
* Fred Farnish, Munich, Bavaria - congratulate you - thought was BBC - must continue - good luck
* Dave Preston, Leicester - long term listener - blind - Sparks covers more than my reader can get through - very sorry closing
* Paul Cummings Farnborough, Hampshire - should stay on - stick to it
* David Ashe, Carshalton - shattered to hear closing - so much good work - sadly missed - thank you
* Rex Jarvis, Westfield near Hastings - avid SW listener - more power to your elbow
* M.E. Terry letter to Dublin - sadness to hear closing - audience worldwide - generated goodwill for Republic
* Bob Dobson to Dublin - ask your government - demonstrated a definite audience - their kind of radio - show democracy really works - seriously consider licence
* Pete Cook, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire - every day - very professional - very interesting - Andy Walker Radiodaze - wish you all well - missed by me
* Martin James, Andromeda Independent Radio, Manchester - devastated - hope there is some way - just what are they frightened of?
* Patrick Palmer, East Sussex - shall miss programmes - particularly miss Sparks - offshore programmes
* Tim Bucknall, Radio Recharge - shame going off the air - enjoy it a lot - written to Dublin
* Simon Parton, 23 Kingsland, Wellington, Telford, Shropshire - very sad - become regular listener - do whatever I can - thanks a lot for entertaining and informing
* John Sketchley, Leicester - just heard news - not good at all - disappointed - well presented
* Brian Sawtell in Bristol - sorry to hear closing - well presented programmes - in name of good radio should get licence
* Mario, Den Haag, Netherlands - listening a long time - one of reasons bought new SW radio... throw it away now - thanks for Caroline
* T Shirt Ad
* Letter Albert Stevens, Cardiff - enjoyed Falcon programme - Galaxy project - Scotland - looking forward to SW licensing - thank Andy Walker
* Michael Devine, Eglinton, Co Londonderry - across the water from us - ordering a T shirt
* Henry Schubert in East Germany listens to 3910 on a Spidola 240 with just its telescopic antenna
* Presenter Tommy Murphy is now on MWR FM on Saturday evenings in Co Mayo
* ???, Ayrshire, Scotland - nice change from other stations - good luck - professional job
* Mike in Wolverhampton - really unhappy - regular listener - all I normally listen to - wish you well
* Kees de Vries, north Germany - come home from work and listen evenings - poor you have to close - all the best - keep on fighting
* Anders Junemark, Oslo, Norway - long time listener - appreciate your programmes - new standard of quality - should have life after closedown
* Andrew Barker, Huddersfield - really enjoyed Sparks last months - should have licence - miss it very much - thank you very much
* John Bell, Middlesborough, Cleveland - really enjoyed programmes - don't understand why they want to go off - wish could continue
* John Macullen from Newcastle - myself and many other amateur listeners going to miss you
* Geoff Holden, Penrith, Cumbria - myself, wife and family - first class - high quality programmes - will be missed - hope get permanent licence
* David Croxford in Northampton - sad favourite Sparks going off air - congratulations on high quality - Europe's best - writing to MP
* ID and letter Martin Cohen, Kirby Steven, Cumbria - shocked at announcement - hope Radiofax gets licence - written to MP
* Karsten Polgard, Solvberg, Denmark - listened many times - very sorry you must close
* Letter: Phil Perkins, High Wycombe - you'll know we have been dealing with these politicians for years - but to no avail
* Letter: Terry Star, Whitchurch, Bristol - saddened - Falcon programme - real classic great listening - thanks - interesting and enjoyable
* Letter: Martin Doig, Denbigh, Clwyd - listening since 1988 - quite unique - very best of good luck in fight for licence - 3910 really strong - amazing
* Letter: David Knight, Tingley, Wakefield - thank you for excellent service you have provided - many hours of enjoyment - hope licence soon
* Victor Miller, Larne, Co Antrim - sorry closing down - listening since 1988 - excellent - certainly not an embarrassment to Ireland
* Bob Dobson, Dent, Cumbria - shall miss you - enjoyed everything you have done - do hope you will be able to continue - writing in support
* John Arrey from Manchester - hope you can stay on the air
* William Shimmin, Much Wenlock, Shropshire - really sorry - listened since 1988 - clearly demonstrated viability independent SW - no excuse - shown the way forward thanks a lot - I'm going to miss Radiofax
* Gerald Grey, Sevenoaks - shattered - very sad - since 1988 - programmes superb - not background - listening every word - much appreciated - sent letter
* Rober Manier, Offshore Echos editor, Calais, France - keen listener - sorry - we support you - wish you the best
* Paul Watts, Radio Merlin, Chelmsford, Essex - hope fight not in vain - just censorship - take care - written to MP
* Clive Barwood, Humberside - listening some time - sorry - height of hypocrisy - Radio Tara 252 project wasted resources - hang on - stick it out - don't give in
* Letter Neil Sweeney, Portstewart, Co. Londonderry - sad - what were you doing wrong? - look forward to licence - bigger and better than before
* Letter Disque Pars rare and unusual records - listening 6205 (onetime RNI) - good on 12,255
* J.T.W. Anderton's MP Malcolm Bruce writes to minister David Mellor DNH - useful service - what authority British government has to try close station in Irish Republic?
* J.T.W. Anderton, Castle Park, Ellen, Aberdeenshire - number of requests - turned down - not covered by regulations - BBC only permitted - enjoyed by significant number of listeners
* Simon Maher, Dublin - dismay and disgust that you are closing down
* Graham Foy, Horley, Sussex - very sad - try eastern Europe? - listen in mornings before going to work and then evenings - shame if no longer there - writing letters
* Lars Waders, eastern Germany - very bad Radiofax closing - independent stations the best
* Mark Andrews, Bath - doesn't seem fair - what embarrassment? - MP useless - thanks for the entertainment - why don't they give you a licence? - all the best
* Bill from Magherafelt, Co. Londonderry - rename as Radio Caroline
* Paul from north Holland - best thing since March 1964 - good luck - all the best for the future - shame - enjoyed your programmes
* John Williams, Cirencester, Gloucestershire - not closing voluntarily but being closed down - many thanks
* Andrew Howlett, Dukinfield, Cheshire - scandalous asked to close - life won't be the same without Sparks - big hole in my SW dial - thanks for all - long live the fight
* Station ID
* The following have broadcast on Radiofax [with some audio cuts]: Mike Allen, Paul Bentley (Classic Gold), Andy Bradgate, Trevor Brook, Andy Burnham (Sparks), Eddie Caffrey (Eddiefax Million Selling Singles), Krissi Carpenter, Steve Conway, Martin Deeley, Henry Dulat, Jodie (Rock Show), Dave Johns, Ricky Jones, Paul Maclaren (Thursdays), Juliet Masters, Bob Mathews, Peter Moore, Jill Moss, Keith Moss, Tommy Murphy (Country Show), Ruth Phillips, Johnny Reece, Holly Robson, Nick Saloman, Red Sands/Bob Le Roi, Andy Sherwood, Helen Songest, Garry Stevens (Eurobeat), Maggie Stevenson, Kevin Thorne, Bob Tomalski, Andy Walker (Radiodaze), Colin Ward, Chris Watford
* Graham Page from Preston - enjoyed particularly Sparks and archive material - blind - gave access to articles unobtainable otherwise
* Jimmy Longden in Newcastle - enjoyed your programmes - hope you continue - good luck - best wishes
* Alex in Bolton - cannot believe best interests served by closing - good luck - 3910 & 6205 - love Sparks and Sundays - writing to Dublin
* Tim Rochford, Kidderminster - sorry to hear - not on air keep up support - closing not good idea - short memories - writing to Dublin
* Jenny from London - really sorry Radiofax closing down - particularly like Sparks - really interesting - hope continues
* Paul Walker, Poulton in Avon - Sparks regular favourite - format excellent - always interesting - best of luck in the future
* Joe Doyle, Radio Dublin - stupid nonsense - amazed by what's happening - provide the service - obviously it's annoying somebody
* Station ID
* Letter to Dublin by Gerald Gray, Sevenoaks - wide variety information - telecomms professional - impossible otherwise - invaluable - highly professional - totally inoffensive - deserves it's place on SW - pioneering - licence it not destroy it
* Gerald Gray letter to MP - amazingly your free enterprise, freedom of choice government still allows the BBC total monopoly on SW
* Letter to Dublin by Geoffrey Holden, Penrith, Cumbria - high quality - intelligent - unmatched by any other station - insight into technology - country music show excellent entertainment - gratitude of many people - asset to host country
* Lorna from Portsmouth - listen every Sunday - really enjoy broadcasts - hope you get licence - written to Dublin
* Mark Cartledge in Dublin - terrible shame being forced off - try do what I can with Minister here but don't expect anything
* Terry Cooper G4CBY, Scunthorpe - very disheartened have to stop broadcasting - DTI getting rid - not care about us disabled & blind who cannot read - enjoyed articles - hope you find a way
* Rory Hinchy EI4DJB in Dublin - Sparks would be ideal as a media technology review on Radio 4 - pity Chris Cary didn't get national radio licence
* Tony from Clanfield, Hampshire - sorry going off the air - good die young - Radiofax very good - good luck - know what politicians are like - written to Dublin
* Roger Parsons, Hinckley, Leicestershire - add my voice to commiserations - miss you when gone - abysmal shame - disgusting - people should come first - best of luck
* Tony Palmer, Radio Caroline - very sorry to hear going off air soon - hope you come back soon - best wishes and bye for now
* Albert Stevens, Cardiff, South Wales - enjoyed very much - should have a licence - has put life back into short wave - thank you very much
* Station ID. What have you done about it? Thanks
* Thanks to some behind the scenes: Jim (putting up with all of this), Peter (engineering effort), Dawn (return loss bridge on car roof), Friend over the mountain (lots of running around & antenna work), Mary over the border (helping us defeat 3 month postal strike), James (an 813 and cross-border expeditions) and all the people of Donegal
* Connor Forster, Isle of Lewis, Hebrides - worst thing since 14 August 1967 - enjoyed programmes very much indeed - number one station on short wave - written to MP
* Graham Stephenson, Dunblane - disappointed - enjoyed station - particularly Sparks, Archive, Paul Bentley's Clasic Gold - hoping get independent SW licence
* Pirate Chat Editor - rather a shame - pretty good programmes for quite some time - Sparks particularly - hope you get licence
* Mike Tamworth, Tring, Herts - anything enjoyable put off by government - particularly enjoy Sparks - Radiodaze - all programmes - good luck
* Gerry in Newport, Wales, on a payphone - we listen all the time - very sorry closing - especially Sparks - Tommy Murphy Country show
* Malcom Cairns, Fieldhouse Road, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear - shocked and saddened - cannot think of single station given so much listening pleasure - letter to MP
* Dave Birch, Broadstairs Kent - very sad - much needed breath of fresh air to broadcasting - hope someone with influence realises service very much wanted - best of luck
* Paul Woods, Chessington, Surrey - very sad to see you go - same as 60s - like Sparks most - no similar station - keep up the good work
* Sean Moyses in Norwich - listening over a year - stay on if you can - BBC SW monopoly - enjoyed programmes
* Presenter Bob Mathews - proud to have been involved - closed down by authorities scared stiff of something they cannot control
* Station ID
* Carl Callaghan in Dublin city - think Radiofax should stay on
* Dave Smith, Llandrindod Wells, Powys - listened for a year - hope licence successful - take receiver to work - good luck - writing to Dublin and MP
* Dave Hall, Lyndhurst, Hampshire - enjoyed - do anything I can - lost stations before - thanks for everything - won't take any notice but writing to Dublin
* John Adamson, Saxlingham Nethergate, Norfolk - how very sad I am - unlike anything before - shown demand - responsible manner - letter to MP and Dublin
* Phil Muir, Gillngham, Dorset - piano tuner - blind - really value Radiofax - valuable service - thanks for technical information
* Bob Croft from Gateshead - really good job - very informative especially Sparks and Jodie - great miss - come back if no licence - letter to MP
* Mike from Stomp FM in Manchester - sorry to hear you going - really enjoyed listening - hope you get back on somehow
* Ron Prosser in Hockley, Essex - very sorry has to close down - thanks to all
* T Shirt Ad
* Presenter Red Sands/Bob Le Roi - popular - bolder - more exciting - progressive - entertaining - victim of its own success
* Station ID. How you can't get a licence whatever you do follows
* Music: Balindore by Capercaillie

Duration: 1h33m18, Originally broadcast: 30th September 1992

MP3 file size: 53.3 MB