Jersey Blockade

[James Martin]

It's the French. They'll have surrendered by tomorrow morning. :lol:

[mod]Understand this is meant as a throwaway post made in jest but let's just be a little bit careful with comments like this please.[/mod]

[Rob]

Please stick to presentation discussion of this news event, and leave the politics to Metropol.

Thank you.

[Steve in Pudsey]

Fremont will have generator facilities. It appears that the main station on Guernsey is now fibre fed and Alderney is SHF fed - probably from Fremont.

The bigger problem may be fuel supplies to run the generators at the TX and studio sites of the ports are blockaded.

[James Martin]

Fremont will have generator facilities. It appears that the main station on Guernsey is now fibre fed and Alderney is SHF fed - probably from Fremont.

The bigger problem may be fuel supplies to run the generators at the TX and studio sites of the ports are blockaded.

Is Channel played out from Chiswick these days? I assume the days of dirty Meridian feeds are long gone.

Worst case scenario if links from the mainland failed is an RBS of another region from DSAT possible? If it's originating at Chiswick anyway, Channel itself could be used? But, again, if nobody can watch it anyway, it would be a moot point.

[Inspector Sands]

Then there was this gem from Inspector Sands!

What can I say, I am the anti-BM11, always being positive

[Inspector Sands]

Is Channel played out from Chiswick these days? I assume the days of dirty Meridian feeds are long gone.

Worst case scenario if links from the mainland failed is an RBS of another region from DSAT possible? If it's originating at Chiswick anyway, Channel itself could be used? But, again, if nobody can watch it anyway, it would be a moot point.

Yes if there was a power issue getting feeds of TV and radio channels from the UK probably won't be an issue, but that depends how much power is required to run the kit at one end of an undersea fibre, possibly not much compared with transmitting it to the islanders

If it did fail, DSAT was OK for a backup for analogue but nowadays it's no good unless there's facilities to re-encode the whole lot for DTT. I'm not sure what backup arrangements Arqiva use for ITV/C4, other MUXs are available on satellite for that reason.

But as you say they can have all the content they want on the island but if the transmitters aren't powered (Fremont will have a generator) and peoples TVs don't have power either then what's the point?

[Inspector Sands]

Broadening this topic out.... how would we all cope with a major power disruption? Obviously we'd have bigger issues than TV and radio but in terms of getting information how would we cope with knowing what was happening. I don't mean the broadcasters but us at our homes.

It is a very unlikely scenario but it has happened elsewhere - this past winter in Texas is a good example - although our electricity infrastructure in the UK doesn't have the many flaws that were shown up in their grid then. But who knows what could happen for whatever combination of events.

Imagine this scenario - all or large parts of the country are without power, including your town/city. and it's going to be out for a few days, hopefully!

So immediately you've no Internet - your phone exchange is probably working but your modem isn't. Your only phone is DECT and so requires power (
the regs used to say you must have a non powered phone for this reason) Your nearest mobile phone mast has no power, but anyway your phone battery doesn't last a day.

There might still be a TV signal depending on where you live (if you're served by a relay then that's not got backup power) and there'll still be a satellite signal but your TV is mains powered.

One thing you will probably have is radio. There are very few stand-alone radio stations around these days - your local Badger FM has long been fed from a computer in London but it might still be working. Those local ones that are left might have backup power at studio and TX site, although I imagine no community stations will.

However the BBC are obliged to stay on air whatever happens so should be on air in some form.

So that could be your only source of information and you'd listen using your battery powered FM radio that you keep with the stash of batteries in the cupboard under the stairs. You do have that don't you?

[AndrewP]

Worst case scenario if links from the mainland failed is an RBS of another region from DSAT possible? If it's originating at Chiswick anyway, Channel itself could be used? But, again, if nobody can watch it anyway, it would be a moot point.

What is RBS? I've tried searching for it but of the definitions I could find, one is a Brazilian television station and the other is outside the remit of this forum.

[AndrewP]

Broadening this topic out.... how would we all cope with a major power disruption? I don't mean the broadcasters but us at our homes

It is a very unlikely scenario but it has happened elsewhere - this past winter in Texas is a good example - although our electricity infrastructure in the UK doesn't have the many flaws that were shown up in their grid then. But who knows what could happen for whatever combination of events.

Imagine this scenario - all or large parts of the country are without power, including your town/city.

So immediately you've no Internet - your phone exchange is probably working but your modem isn't. Your only phone is DECT and so requires power (something the regs used to have a thing about) Your nearest mobile phone mast has no power but anyway, your phone battery doesn't last a day.

There might still be a TV signal depending on where you live (if you're served by a relay then that's not got backup power) but your TV is mains powered.

One thing you will probably have is radio. There are very few stand-alone radio stations around these days - your local Badger FM has long been fed from a computer in London but it might still be working. Those that are left might have backup power at studio and TX site, although I imagine no community stations will. However the BBC are obliged to stay on air whatever happens so should be on air in some form

So that could be your only source of information and you'd listen using your battery powered FM radio that you keep with the stash of batteries in the cupboard under the stairs. You do have that don't you?

I think I would be rather OK only having the radio for entertainment and information - as a matter of fact I'm listening to Radio 4 right now! As long as I have access to the World Service and Radio 4, I wouldn't notice a thing - although if I am prohibited from listening to the cricket (if it lasts that long) that is a life not worth living.

[Brekkie]

A nice story for election day anyway when broadcasters have to be somewhat careful with what they report on.

[Inspector Sands]

Worst case scenario if links from the mainland failed is an RBS of another region from DSAT possible? If it's originating at Chiswick anyway, Channel itself could be used? But, again, if nobody can watch it anyway, it would be a moot point.

What is RBS? I've tried searching for it but of the definitions I could find, one is a Brazilian television station and the other is outside the remit of this forum.

Re-Broadcast Standby. Basically receiving the signal from another transmitter and rebroadcasting it.

In the analogue days it was the way that the main TV transmitters would get their channels if they lost the feed from the normal route. It's not a thing with digital TV or radio for various reasons

[James Martin]

Please stick to presentation discussion of this news event, and leave the politics to Metropol.

Thank you.

Apologies if my quip felt out of plaice.

[Inspector Sands]

I think I would be rather OK only having the radio for entertainment and information - as a matter of fact I'm listening to Radio 4 right now! As long as I have access to the World Service and Radio 4, I wouldn't notice a thing - although if I am prohibited from listening to the cricket (if it lasts that long) that is a life not worth living.

But do you have the means to listen to the radio in that scenario.

Personally I'd be raiding all the kids toys for as many AA batteries as I could find to shove in the bathroom radio!

[Inspector Sands]

A nice story for election day anyway when broadcasters have to be somewhat careful with what they report on.

True, especially as its taking place somewhere without any of the UK political parties and where isn't having elections

[James Martin]

Broadening this topic out.... how would we all cope with a major power disruption? Obviously we'd have bigger issues than TV and radio but in terms of getting information how would we cope with knowing what was happening. I don't mean the broadcasters but us at our homes.

It is a very unlikely scenario but it has happened elsewhere - this past winter in Texas is a good example - although our electricity infrastructure in the UK doesn't have the many flaws that were shown up in their grid then. But who knows what could happen for whatever combination of events.

Imagine this scenario - all or large parts of the country are without power, including your town/city. and it's going to be out for a few days, hopefully!

So immediately you've no Internet - your phone exchange is probably working but your modem isn't. Your only phone is DECT and so requires power (
the regs used to say you must have a non powered phone for this reason) Your nearest mobile phone mast has no power, but anyway your phone battery doesn't last a day.

There might still be a TV signal depending on where you live (if you're served by a relay then that's not got backup power) and there'll still be a satellite signal but your TV is mains powered.

One thing you will probably have is radio. There are very few stand-alone radio stations around these days - your local Badger FM has long been fed from a computer in London but it might still be working. Those local ones that are left might have backup power at studio and TX site, although I imagine no community stations will.

However the BBC are obliged to stay on air whatever happens so should be on air in some form.

So that could be your only source of information and you'd listen using your battery powered FM radio that you keep with the stash of batteries in the cupboard under the stairs. You do have that don't you?

Actually this is quite interesting. In December 1990 our village was effectively cut off for 3 days due to insanely bad snowfall that bought down a number of National Grid lines. This ran from late on Friday night until Monday evening.

We had reduced voltage for a bit (so the lights kind of worked at half brightness) before everything failed altogether by late morning Saturday. I do think our landlines continued to work - days before widespread mobiles of course. From what I remember, we listened to BBC Radio Leicester virtually the whole time, although where we got the stockpile of batteries to do so I've no idea!

For this very reason I still have a non-powered landline telephone as a last resort.