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operation of the new stations in Hong Kong, Seychelles, and Orfordness (UK). However with increasing use being made of the short wave bands and higher powered transmitters being used by the BBC's competitors, new improvements must be made if the BBC's broadcasting position is not to be lost.
4.
Matching the BBC's proposals to both FCO interests in audibility improvements and FCO broadcasting priorities (see discussion paper I), the following future new capital development proposals appear to us to have most merit:
1
5.
satelllite feed to the Lesotho relay (to improve signal to South Africa)
2 additional transmitters in Seychelles (to maintain and/or improve reception in Central/Southern Africa).
replacement of 100 kW transmitters in Singapore (to maintain improve audibility in the sub-continent)
replacement of 100 kW transmitters in Daventry (to maintain improve coverage into the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe).
replacement of 250 kW transmitters in Ascension which are currently running 23 hours per day (to maintain coverage of West, Central and Southern Africa and the Americas)
Proposals which have not been identified by the BBC but which
we think they should consider, include:
6.
replacement of the 4 x 100 kW (1964 vintage) short wave transmitters with 250 kW transmitters in Cyprus (carrying Russian, World Service, Arabic and East European languages)
replacement of 2 x 100 kW medium wave transmitters in Cyprus, which are pre-1964 vintage (carrying World Service to the Near East).
Proposals which the BBC have put forward which we convinced about include:
are not
a medium wave transmitter in Hong Kong (a very speculative proposal because of the topography of the site, the difficulty of obtaining a frequency, and the limited area of coverage).
a medium wave transmitter in Singapore (also very speculative because of problems of site, frequency, permission; but audibility of Malay service would be improved).
a full replacement programme of Skelton A (Cumbria) (unless it can be targetted to improve audibility in areas of higher priority to the FCO)
a medium wave facility on Gibraltar to give a better signal in Arabic and French for Africa on the Northern parts of Morocco and Algeria (unless the likely coverage of this facility could be extended to give good reception in the Maghreb capitals)
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