This month, for the first time in its history, University Radio Falmer (URF) began broadcasting over the entire Sussex campus. Despite it being one of the oldest student radio stations in Britain, huge swathes of campus had been unable to receive URF at all.

However, the construction of an AM transmitter on the fields behind Norwich House means the patchy reception that has plagued URF should become a thing of the past. Jonathan Pascoe, station manager, is clearly excited by the new transmitter's switch-on: "There's a real buzz in URF now because finally, after years of groundwork, we can actually get on with the job of broadcasting a great radio station."

The method of transmission had been an ongoing problem for URF throughout its 25-year history. The station has, until now, broadcast through wires sunk into the ground, similar to an induction loop. Jonathan explains the drawbacks to this: "The loop only connected up York and Norwich House, East Slope and parts of Park Village. None of the newer residences on campus or other blocks could pick us up."

After years of neglect, even this system was deteriorating rapidly and before long would have been inoperable. At times the state of the loop was so poor that Jonathan estimates only 100 people could tune into URF.

Then, in 2000, their Norwich House studios were broken into and thousands of pounds worth of equipment stolen. The end result was that for the last few years URF has concentrated on re-equipping the station rather than broadcasting.

With the new transmitter, however, URF can broadcast all over Falmer and beyond to a potential audience of up to 9,000 people. The station hopes to sign a contract soon with Juice 107.2 to take over its advertising, and has already been nominated in the Student Radio Association awards.

Getting to this point has been a hard slog for Jonathan and his team. Rich Rust, URF chair, comments, "It's been like a full-time job. First we had to raise all the money for the transmitter, from the University and others, and then we had to get it all up and running in the space of a week. It's all been worth it, though!"

For the first URF meeting of the year, over 70 people turned up to try their hand in front or behind the mike. Jonathan has high hopes for the new recruits and for a stronger news and music output: "We really think that URF will finally achieve what it was always supposed to do - to build a real community on campus and be the best station in Britain."

• To listen to URF, tune in to 1431 AM or for programme details go to www.urfonline.com.