There are Two Ways to Listen to Gtfm
1. ON THE RADIO - Find us on 107.9fm in Pontypridd, the southern part of Rhondda Cynon Taf and surrounding areas. Since summer 2007 Gtfm's 107.9 transmitter has been providing a stronger signal than had previously been possible (on 106.9) in Pontypridd itself and particularly the communities to the north of it, including Glyncoch, Ynysybwl, Cilfynydd and Abercynon - as well as westward to Porth, Tonypandy and into the Rhondda Valleys. Good reception is also maintained southward via Taff’s Well to M4 Junction 32 and most of Radyr, as well as westward along the M4 between junction 33 and the Bridgend/Pyle turn-offs. Favourable reception reports have also been received from central and western Cardiff, Cardiff Bay, the Vale of Glamorgan, Mountain Ash and Aberdare, though the signal is more patchy in these areas because of the shadows cast by local hills and/or interference from other stations.
2. ON YOUR COMPUTER OR OTHER INTERNET DEVICE - Gtfm streams its sound 'live' on the internet via this website in two formats, courtesy of the University of Glamorgan. Click the links (top right of the home page) to listen either to a stereo Mp3 webstream (which can be heard via mp3 media players including i-Tunes, Windows Media Player and Winamp) or a QuickTime high-quality mono webstream (for which you'll need to install a 'QuickTime' player from Apple, or use any other player capable of decoding AAC/Mpeg 4, such as Real Player SP). Please note that Gtfm's QuickTime mono stream will be off-line from around July 30th to the middle of August. This is because of building work at the University of Glamorgan. If you are a QuickTime listener, either adjust your media player to receive the mp3 version of Gtfm or download another one, the basic ones are all free. When you do you'll find the mp3 has stereo sound!
FM Reception Advice
Weather Effects
If you listen to us on 107.9fm some way from our Pontypridd transmitter, you may experience more background hiss and interference than usual during what the boffins call 'signal lift conditions'. These can occur during settled spells of dry weather caused by high air pressure conditions (shown as a big 'H' on TV weather maps). Lift conditions cause radio and TV signals to travel further than usual, making distant stations which share our frequency stronger enough to cause interference. If its any consolation, we will probably be doing the same to them! The problem gets washed away when the rainy weather returns.
A dramatic example of 'lift' conditions occurred recently when the whole FM band in South Wales was full of exciteable Italian voices one morning. Someone even rang us up to ask if our presenter was speaking Italian!
Out of Area FM Reception
As a result of providing stronger signals to the Pontypridd/Lower Valleys area, reception on 107.9 is generally not
as good as it was up to summer 2007 on 106.9 towards the Bristol Channel coast including
parts of Cardiff, plus Caerphilly and everywhere to the east of both
places. This is partly because more hills lie between our new transmitter
and listeners in these areas and partly because of interference on
our new frequency from Bath FM, plus ‘adjacent channel’
interference from Star Radio (in Weston-Super-Mare) on 107.7.
If you are experiencing poor off-air reception on 107.9, there are
two things you can do:
A. Listen on-line via this website;
B. Consider investing in a directional FM aerial pointed at
Pontypridd with its rods mounted upright – i.e. in the
vertical plane, unless you live to the west of the town (eg in the
Rhondda or Cynon Valleys), where horizontal may work better. But
you should only consider this (potentially expensive) option if you
have a suitable FM ‘tuner’ or radio with an external aerial
socket and can already hear some sort of signal from Gtfm already on
107.9 - even if it is accompanied by interference from one or both
of the radio stations named above. In that situation a directional
FM aerial should do a good job of focussing our signal and reducing
the effect of the other stations as they lie in the opposite direction.
Technical Issues Update
If you have any reports, comments or suggestions please email: terry@gtfm.co.uk
Please note that Gtfm's QuickTime mono stream will be off-line from around 30th July until the middle of August. This is because of building work at the University of Glamorgan. If you are a QuickTime listener, either adjust your media player to receive the mp3 version of Gtfm or download another one, the basic ones are all free. When you do you'll find the mp3 has stereo sound.