Two rare tungsten-centered, handmade cooled anodem modulators (CAM) are needed to maintain the signal, and while the BBC has bought the global stock of them, they get up. The service is apparently on the last two valves and has been telling the audience for almost 15 years about the end of Long Wave Radio. Trying to restore the valves is dangerous because any errors can cause a catastrophic malfunction in the channels.
BBC Radio 4s 198 KHz sends towers at Droitwich.
BBC Radio 4s 198 KHz sends towers at Droitwich.
Credit: Bob Nienhuis (Public Domain)
Re-building the channel, or moving to different, higher frequencies, is not feasible for the few houses that cannot get other types of lower radio radio or internet versions, the BBC told The Guardian in 2011. A little more than most BBC transmissions more than most other BBC transmissions can achieve.
From January 2025, around 600,000 British customers still use RTS meters to manage their power circuit, after 300,000 were switched away in 2024. Utilities and the BBC have agreed that the service will stop working on June 30, 2025 and forced to upgrade RTS customers to smart meters.
In a combination of sad reality and rich irony, more than 4 million smart meters in the UK do not work well. Some have delivered striking costs to their customers, based on estimated accounts instead of real measurements, such as the 39,000 pounds of Sir Grayson Perry at 15 simultaneous accounts. But many have failed because, like other countries, the VK slaughter the 2G and 3G networks older meters without coordinated transitional efforts.
