Comments on: What was World Service beeping at?

Question: What was World Service beeping at?

samstarling — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:15:01 -0800

What did I hear on BBC World Service last night?

I go to bed listening to Radio 4, which after broadcasts end simulcasts BBC World Service. I woke up in the middle of the night (about 0230 GMT) to hear what sounded like intermittent dialup modem noises coming from my radio. These were definitely being broadcast by World Service as I could tune out and in - but does anyone have any idea what they were? It wasn't the 'pips' for the top of the hour.

By: dogsbody

dogsbody — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:33:43 -0800

Could it have been during 'Digital Planet'? On the listing it says it had a feature on playing a massively multiplayer online games via a dial-up, so it seems pretty likely...

Here's the podcast, if you want to check.

By: Mr_Crazyhorse

Mr_Crazyhorse — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:53:17 -0800

emergency broadcast service?

By: bonobo

bonobo — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:31:52 -0800

Did it sound like this? It's a SAME header.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 03:31:21 -0800

No idea what it was, but it woke me up too, and I recorded most of it.

It does indeed sound like the SAME header bonobo links to, but with more tones in-between the modem-sounding stuff.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 03:33:09 -0800

(Direct link to the MP3 file, in case anyone has trouble with the Flash player linked above.)

By: little apollo

little apollo — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:52:36 -0800

I've done a bit of asking around and come up with a possible answer.

I made the assumption that you were both listening to the World Service on Radio 4 FM and checked the R4 Record On Transmission (ROT) files for that night. I can't find the tones jack_mo recorded on there anywhere between 1.45 and 3.15am. That suggests that the noises were added somewhere downstream from the studio. I asked one of our studio managers who reckons it sounds like someone doing some tests. I certainly recognise the tone at the beginning of the recording as the tone we use to test lines. He thinks that since it doesn't appear on the ROTs, then the most likely place for it to have been added at the transmitter. Is it possible you were both in the same transmitter area?

Or maybe the extraterrestrials who watch our every move were just so impressed by World Business Report from Kazakstan that they decided to finally make contact.