Fire at Bilsdale TV/Radio Mast

[IanJRedman]

It seems the temporary Bilsdale mast had an outage earlier this afternoon, now restored.

[Inspector Sands]

High level of reflected power tripped out the transmitters:

https://www.bilsdalemast.co.uk/latest-ne...qyyEBJMNvk

[Markymark]

Plans for a 300m mast now on the local council website

NYM/2021/1004/EIA

http://planning.northyorkmoors.org.uk/no...DC_PLANAPP

[Inspector Sands]

Interesting to see what else used/will use the mast - VHF dipoles for the council, things for air traffic control, smart metering and air sampling equipment for the University of Bristol of all places.

It'll make the MB21 page for the newast very easy to write

[commseng]

Yes interesting stuff.
I see that they will need to demolish some existing buildings around the mast base to enable the construction to happen.
I do hope that the 4 tiers of crossed dipole antennas are for "Radio Tees - TFM" as they are at a height of 257m.....

[Markymark]

Yes interesting stuff.
I see that they will need to demolish some existing buildings around the mast base to enable the construction to happen.
I do hope that the 4 tiers of crossed dipole antennas are for "Radio Tees - TFM" as they are at a height of 257m.....

Ha, very good !

I wonder if they will tidy up the old FM arrangement. No reason why BBC Tees, TFM, Capital, and Heart couldn't all share the stack proposed at 257m. The old mast had a dog's breakfast that evolved over the years. The two cross bows at 292m might be reserve FM antennas (as the ones at the same height on the old mast seem to have been)

[commseng]

It would seem unusual to have the reserve antennas higher than the main ones.
No reason why not I suppose.
The original height of the TFM one was 653m aod. With the site height at 379m, I make that 274m on the old mast, so a slight reduction for the new one.

[Markymark]

It would seem unusual to have the reserve antennas higher than the main ones.

Yes, but the vertical beam aperture of those Sira crossbows is far wider than a four tier stack, so the ERP towards the horizon will be a lot less) All else being equal.

[Si-Co]

The 80m/262ft mast is due to go live this week. This video also mentions that the new one 1000ft mast should be erected and in service by the end of Spring next year.

https://youtu.be/7TgvBgwCsDc

[Steve in Pudsey]

This new 80m temporary mast is required because the first temporary mast at Bilsdale Quarry wasn't designed to withstand the winter, but it seems to have coped pretty well with what has been thrown at it by the various storms so far. You kind of wonder if redirecting all those aerials to Pontop was worth the effort.

[Brekkie]

Yes, planning permission has been given but with a view it'll only be needed for a maximum of 30 years.

https://rxtvinfo.com/2022/new-bilsdale-m...permission

[Markymark]

Yes, planning permission has been given but with a view it'll only be needed for a maximum of 30 years.

Probably 15 years longer than it's going to be required for.

I'm still surprised they are rebuilding (in effect) the 1000ft mast. Almost seven months on, and with a smattering of extra relays, others pimped up to higher power etc, aerials redirected to Pontop and Emley, others equipped with Freesat and Firesticks, I wonder at this point how many are still without service?

[IanJRedman]

This new 80m temporary mast is required because the first temporary mast at Bilsdale Quarry wasn't designed to withstand the winter, but it seems to have coped pretty well with what has been thrown at it by the various storms so far. You kind of wonder if redirecting all those aerials to Pontop was worth the effort.

Is there a reason why they built a temporary mast which then needed replacing, rather than simply building this 'new' temporary mast to begin with?

[Markymark]

This new 80m temporary mast is required because the first temporary mast at Bilsdale Quarry wasn't designed to withstand the winter, but it seems to have coped pretty well with what has been thrown at it by the various storms so far. You kind of wonder if redirecting all those aerials to Pontop was worth the effort.

This is probably a naive question, but is there a reason why they built a temporary mast which then needed replacing, rather than simply building this 'new' temporary mast to begin with?

The first temporary mast had to be built outside of the original(damaged) mast's exclusion zone. That mast was demolished on Oct 6th I think. Temp Mast number 1 came on air a week later. In the mean time Arqiva had to apply for planning permission for the temp tower (that has come on line today). The first temp mast wasn't thought to be sturdy enough to survive the winter (but in the end it did !) ,

[Si-Co]

Yes, planning permission has been given but with a view it'll only be needed for a maximum of 30 years.

Probably 15 years longer than it's going to be required for.

I'm still surprised they are rebuilding (in effect) the 1000ft mast. Almost seven months on, and with a smattering of extra relays, others pimped up to higher power etc, aerials redirected to Pontop and Emley, others equipped with Freesat and Firesticks, I wonder at this point how many are still without service?

This is certainly less of an issue than it would have been 30 or so years ago, when Pontop and Bilsdale received different news programmes, and Emley Moor transmitted programmes from a “competitor” (ie. YTV not TTT). Those who have had their aerials re-directed at Emley may consider themselves to be receiving the wrong news region on both BBC and ITV, but - similar to your question- how few homes in the former Bilsdale footprint does this affect?