France Inter Longwave 162 kHz Final Sign-off: December 31, 2016

Live off-air recording of the last hour of programming from Radio France station France Inter Grandes Ondes (Longwave) on 31 December 2016 beginning just before 22:00 UTC on the longwave frequency of 162 kHz. The signal originated from the TDF (formerly known as Télédiffusion de France) 2000 kW transmitter (reportedly reduced to 1000 kW during the hours of darkness) at Allouis, near Bourges, France.

Following the time signal tones for 23:00 CET, the news bulletin, "Le Journal de 23h," is presented followed by the first hour of a special end-of-year episode of the music and chat program "Back to Back des voix de France Inter." At about the 51m:35s point in the recording is an announcement of the ending of France Inter's use of longwave. The "Back to Back" program resumes and the first hour ends with a countdown to midnight and the time signal tones for 00:00 CET and just as the presenter wishes Happy New Year, the audio feed to the transmitter is cut. However, the carrier remains on the air as it will continue to be used for the LTE-SYRTYE (Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais - Système de Références Temps-Espace) carrier-phase-modulated time code, widely used in France for clock synchronization. The recording continues for about one minute after the France Inter audio is cut. What can be heard weakly is the audio of two other powerful longwave stations on quite different frequencies, both in French: RTL (formerly Radio Luxembourg) on 234 kHz with a reported power of 1500 kW and Europe 1 on 183 kHz with a reported power of 2000 kW. These stations cross-modulate the 162 kHz TDF carrier in the ionosphere and the phenomenon is know as the Luxembourg effect as it was first noticed in the 1930s when the powerful Radio Luxembourg transmitter would interfere with the reception of other stations.

The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in AM mode with 9.00 kHz RF filtering.

France Info Lille 1377 kHz Final Sign-off: December 31, 2015

Live off-air recording of the last two and three-quarter hours of programming from Radio France station France Info Lille on 31 December 2015 beginning at about 21:25 UTC on the medium-wave frequency of 1377 kHz. The signal originated from a 300 kW transmitter just outside Camphin-en-Carembault (near Lille).

The recording consists of the network-produced special New Year's Eve programming of talk, news, weather, and interviews. The midnight (Central European Time) countdown, live from Les Champs-Elysées, is just before 1:34:30 in the recording. The programming is interrupted in the middle of a tune with the transmitter switch-off at about 00:14 UTC on 1 January 2016 with no closing announcement. The switch-off was coincident with that of many medium-wave transmitters in France, Luxembourg, and Germany on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.

The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in AM mode with 8.09 kHz RF filtering.

France Bleu Alsace 1278 kHz Final Sign-off: December 31, 2015

Live off-air recording of the last two and three-quarter hours of programming from the Radio France station France Bleu Alsace on 31 December 2015 beginning at about 21:25 UTC on the medium-wave frequency of 1278 kHz. The signal originated from a 300 kW transmitter just outside Sélestat (near Strasbourg).

The recording consists of the network-produced "Special Réveillon" New Year's Eve programming of talk, interviews, and pop music. The midnight (Central European Time) countdown is just before 1:34:00 in the recording. The programming is interrupted in mid-song with the transmitter switch-off at about 00:12 UTC on 1 January 2016 with no closing announcement. The switch-off was coincident with that of many medium-wave transmitters in France, Luxembourg, and Germany on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.

France Bleu Alsace, also known as France Bleu Elsass, transmits programming at times in Alsatian as well as French but the network-produced New Year's Eve broadcast was solely in French.

The broadcast was received by the Web-interface wideband software-defined radio at the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands, with a "Mini-Whip" antenna in AM mode with 8.09 kHz RF filtering. There is some weak co-channel interference during the first part of the recording.