Fire at Bilsdale TV/Radio Mast

[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?

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?

In the case of areas in the south of North Yorkshire, any legacy use of Bilsdale, will have been primarily because it provided a better signal than Emley, not because of any great desire to have NE based news.

There have been comments from places such as Leyburn, Rippon and Masham (where temporary relays have been provided) that they'd much rather have BBC/ITV Leeds than Newcastle

[CameronYoung]

Calendar are reporting the fire was linked to a water leak:
https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2022-0...e-revealed

[valley]

Calendar are reporting the fire was linked to a water leak:
https://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2022-0...e-revealed

And from Arqiva themselves:

"Arqiva has been informed that its insurers have now concluded their investigations and whilst the precise findings have not been shared, Arqiva understands that the root cause of the fire has been attributed to water ingress to an electrical component connected to third-party equipment."

[Inspector Sands]

Ofcom's report into Bilsdale and subsequent events:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/p...tement.pdf

[Markymark]

Ofcom's report into Bilsdale and subsequent events:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/p...tement.pdf

There's another report, regarding the demographics of people in the area reliant on just Freeview

Linked here
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/p...h-2022.pdf

[Steve in Pudsey]

I'm on holiday in the Canaries at the moment and just put two and two together as to why the hotel TV is showing BBC One North East.

Have there been any occasions where relay transmitters in other regions have switched to the satellite back up and put out Look North (Newcastle) since it was switched over?

[Markymark]

I'm on holiday in the Canaries at the moment and just put two and two together as to why the hotel TV is showing BBC One North East.

Ha, using 27.5 W and a hooky BISS decoder. With all that effort why not provide BBC 1 HD !

Have there been any occasions where relay transmitters in other regions have switched to the satellite back up and put out Look North (Newcastle) since it was switched over?

Hard to tell, but quite a few (that are so equipped) will jump to 27.5 if the RBL link drops out (which is quite common this time of year with lift conditions)

[James2001]

I'm on holiday in the Canaries at the moment and just put two and two together as to why the hotel TV is showing BBC One North East.

Have there been any occasions where relay transmitters in other regions have switched to the satellite back up and put out Look North (Newcastle) since it was switched over?

Heh, I'm in the canaries too, wonder if it's the same hotel! Not sure if it's the north east version we're getting though as I haven't had the TV on much, or while the news has been on.

Noticed in this hotel as well that all the Russian channels are turned off- still on the system, even after a rescan, but all blank with no EPG data. I'm sure there's still satellites that can be received here that broadcast the channels, so I assume the removal is Ukraine war related (and with the stuff Russian TV's been broadcasting, it's easy to understand why the hotel wouldn't want them on their system). There's Ukranian flags in virtually every tourist spot too.

[Roger Darthwell]

I'm on holiday in the Canaries at the moment and just put two and two together as to why the hotel TV is showing BBC One North East.

Have there been any occasions where relay transmitters in other regions have switched to the satellite back up and put out Look North (Newcastle) since it was switched over?

Can I ask how on Earth are you getting BBC One North East in the Canary Islands? I had no idea that the signal on Astra extends as far south as the Canaries!

[technologist]

I'm on holiday in the Canaries at the moment and just put two and two together as to why the hotel TV is showing BBC One North East.

Have there been any occasions where relay transmitters in other regions have switched to the satellite back up and put out Look North (Newcastle) since it was switched over?

Can I ask how on Earth are you getting BBC One North East in the Canary Islands? I had no idea that the signal on Astra extends as far south as the Canaries!

As observed a few posts before …. It the Intelsat 901 at 27.5W back up,
https://en.kingofsat.net/pos-27.5W.php
All BBC main sites have dual fibre (microwave in a few cases) feeds and a third route by satellite .
This is also used as the alternative feed by some relays as Which have less than reliable Rebroadcast links RBL
But it carries sort if vanilla services ..so only one BBC England feed
.

[Markymark]

I'm on holiday in the Canaries at the moment and just put two and two together as to why the hotel TV is showing BBC One North East.

Have there been any occasions where relay transmitters in other regions have switched to the satellite back up and put out Look North (Newcastle) since it was switched over?

Can I ask how on Earth are you getting BBC One North East in the Canary Islands? I had no idea that the signal on Astra extends as far south as the Canaries!

As Mr T has explained, nothing to do with Astra in this case. However, with a large enough dish (and we're talking 2 or 3 metres) you can receive Astra down there.
We were on Tenerife on holiday in 2006. There was just enough signal, except for the day it pissed down with rain, which was exactly when you wanted to have some telly to watch

[Roger Darthwell]

Thank you all so much for answering my question, so these backup BBC channels on Intelsat 901, are they free to air?

[Markymark]

Thank you all so much for answering my question, so these backup BBC channels on Intelsat 901, are they free to air?

No, they are BISS encrypted, any further discussion on how to decode them is out of bounds for this forum...

[Roger Darthwell]

Thank you all so much for answering my question, so these backup BBC channels on Intelsat 901, are they free to air?

No, they are BISS encrypted, any further discussion on how to decode them is out of bounds for this forum...

Oh all right thank you

[Steve in Pudsey]

The missing bit of the Jigsaw is that because many of the relays in Bilsdaleland are using the satellite feed, BBC One SD was switched to the NE feed.