When I worked on telephone exchanges in the 70's I learned that most, if not all, exchanges had a so called Trunk Offering Circuit. The official explanation was that it enabled a remote operator to intrude on a local call to inform one of the callers of an incoming trunk call - a hangover from the days when operator connected calls were the norm. But unlike most operator intrusions there was no "intrusion tone". In truth in allowed GCHQ to listen in on just about any phone call they fancied.
I spent a lot of time in SystemX exchanges and in some, near "important" sites there was always a set of markers on the frame for "private circuits". When I asked what they were for, I was told in no uncertain terms that I shouldn't ask too many questions. One exchange was near a nuclear research facility and had a large number of these circuits.
@@edwardbyard6540 I worked mainly on commisioning TXE 2 and TXE 4 "PENTEX" systems at the Plessey factory in Nottingham. System X was just coming in when I changed jobs.
Ex system X programer here. The X phone overlay allowed hook bypass to be enacted from exchange office to several hundred important desks in central London. No need to run a bug, they could hear you anyway.
As you are referring to microwave links I am reminded of 40 years ago when I worked in Saudi Arabia on the TEP4 contract. One of the longest microwave hops in the world was between a mast in the grounds of Dr Kayals summer villa in Taif (2000m amsl) to a mast in Sudan. I used to climb the towers for fun!
Yes, I agree and came here to make the same comment. A huge amount of your time must go into them, and I'm sure all viewers are very grateful even though a lot of us can't afford to show our appreciation financially! Just waiting for my big lottery win!
Talking of blowing things up in Radio. In 1984 there was a radio station called Radio Lazer broacasting from the North sea off Essex. After complaints which fell on deaf ears at the time about Lazer taking listeners away from the BBC and Independent Local Stations, one board member of BBC Radio Essex threatened to go out and blow the ship (Communicator) up and put Lazer off the air. We know this because someone had palced a radio bug in the offcies of BBC Radio Essex, and this individual was heard on the tape recording saying that he would authorize the deed.
There was an actual attack on one of the offshore broadcasters in the early '70s, Radio North Sea got firebombed off the Dutch coast, but that was down to a feud between rival Dutch broadcasters.
I have foggy memories of listening to a radio station in East Anglia in the mid '80s, "Laser, 558"? If I recall correctly, it was one broadcaster that wasn't squeamish about playing Frankie's "Relax".
It's interesting that Ted Albeury (prolific, top spy story author ) started off in counter-intelligence in the cold war, and moved on to man a pirate radio station ship in the English Channel.
In the early 80’s I was a student engineer at Pye Telecom. During one of my periods of work experience, I got the job of digitising points on paper strips taken from OS maps using a puck (sort of an early mouse with a pointer) into a VAX11 computer which then plotted a diagram to see if two antenna sites were in sight of each other taking into account of the curvature of the earth. I was told that this was for Project Mold and all the radio kit was modified to be EMP-proof. So it was interesting to see this project mentioned in this film.
the only mast-fellings I know are the commercial mast that the gb3pa paisley repeater was originally on having its guys chopped & falling down due to "taxi wars" & the Peterborough tv mast getting destroyed by fire (that they think may have been caused by a fireworks rocket getting caught in a vertical cable riser & setting the plastic insulation on fire). Bullet holes or shotgun peppering of dishes are a constant problem in the sporting areas of Scotland.
Not just Scotland, had some feeders and waveguide shot up at a site near Daventry. And have lost count of the amount of sites where the lightning tape was nicked....
@RingwayManchester The PA mast at the time also hosted the Police, ambulance and Fire service Coms not just the Taxis, there was even talk it was a local cber who was after the coax.
That's nice to see both cities from one location. I always like going up Bear Mountain in Harriman State Park, NY, at 1200 feet asl, plus a 100 foot tower to climb. The view of the New York City skyline to the south, about 40 miles away is great, near the Hudson River, off the Palisades Partkway, below the USMA, West Point, NY, where I worked as a Civilian Employee some years ago. You can reach many repeaters and simplex from there. I used to go up there to operate 6 and 2 M SSB, portable years ago, especially during contests. Our.club, of which my wife and I are Charter Member around 2000, W2NYW, operated our June ARRL Field Day operation there for a few years too. 73 de Ray W2CH NH.😊
I remember visiting Perkins Memorial Tower in the spring of 2016. I appreciated the markers in the tower for the landmarks and they were difficult to make out due to haze that day
In the early 1970s we had a shared line you would be on a conversation with your girlfriend and some old woman would come on and start telling her pal about her bunions 😂my mate worked at a local telephone exchange so he managed to get me a private line he also told me they could listen into everyone’s conversations he said if they were bored on the night shift they would listen into peoples conversations and interrupt their conversation for a laugh changed days 😂
At the risk of stating the obvious, if the tower was monitoring phone calls between the British mainland and the Irish Republic, could the attack have been related to the Troubles in Northern Ireland?
Ahh, Old Pale Hill! Delamere is a favourite of mine to walk around. I find something strange there on my AOR AR8200 mk3. I can receive BBC Radio 1 on around 3MHz or so when in close proximity of the transmitter site. It's very wideband, too. Possibly some weird intermodulation or nearfield RF effect. Hope you had a good walk there. It is a nice area.
Tower opposition is extreme in Australia where greenies want free power yet oppose windmills and solar. Then comms well we are back to strings between cups.
British Gas (North West Gas) had a network of microwave links primarily for grid control (sending high pressure gas where it was required according to demand) radio comms and data on large towers throughout the country, generally in larger area depot sites. Not missing out on various other users paying for the privilege they rented space to BT, HM Gov, Military and other telecoms and radio users. The ones I'm aware of were Altrincham (NW HQ), Gould Street Manchester, Stretford, Hattersley, Hartford Manor Cheshire, Partington, Frodsham, Chester, Warrington, St Helens, Wavertree Liverpool, Bootle, Birkenhead, Bolton, Preston, Blackburn, Blackpool, Morecambe - there may have been other sites I forgot or never visited as part of my job at the time.
Thanks so much! I started a video on the British gas ones about 5 years ago and never finished it! I did altrincham, collyhurst, Partington and Stockport.
@@RingwayManchester Have you done anything on the NTL Microwave network (now Arqiva) There is a mast on Winter Hill from memory, But the part of the network I knew about is the tower at Great Offley in Hitchin (literally at the end of my dads back garden!), which linked into another tower on Dunstable Downs in Bedfordshire, which is on a back lane from the near the National Trust shop/Cafe to the village of Whipsnade (not far from the zoo). The network isn't easy to track as from the east of Great Offley the nearest NTL tower is near Haverhill in Suffolk. I do know that it was connected to the old Gas powered power station in Letchworth which was built by the CEGB and became part of N Power before it was demolished. A lot of people used to think the NTL mast carried phone signals and that it was linked to the BT tower at Zouches Farm on Blows Down near Luton but this was not the case. Although up until the late 80's NTL towers did have microwave horn antennas they were replaced like the BT Towers by drums made by the Andrew Microwave Corparation
@RingwayManchester national grid also have a network of towers i believe for a similar purpose. there is one in sheffield 53.406231, -1.430777. although i believe they are removing a lot of their microwaves now. the one in sheffield i believe only has telco but is still owned by national grid
When i stayed at RAF barkway, the MOLD equipment, (mostly PYE) had already been removed; the racks remain as the space is not needed. I used to have a rule of removing one old antenna every time I climbed he mast. I'd got nearly all of them before I left. PS my picture is DUGA. I wanted to climb DUGA on a trip to Chernobyl, but didn't have time because there was too much to explore. I was 15min late for the bus!
Funny you should mention "click bait" as I actually thought this video was about the "missing" AM radio tower in the U.S.A. Much to my surprise and delight - you made a legitimately interesting piece.
There is a fellow on YT that went to the tower site for the supposedly stolen tower, and it looks like it has been abandoned for many years. Rumor (and I stress just rumours) has it that it's some kind of scam. We'll see how it plays out.
In 1961 domestic terrorists blew up two AT&T Long Line microwave towers in Utah and Nevada in the US. Long Lines teams had temporary service restored in three days and permanent fixes within a month, iirc.
There is a rather large microwave tower on the final approach to Bristol, its that large its now considered something of a landmark. You can see it just before the off ramp down to Fishponds.
Some people just knocked a radio tower down here in Texas, and they stole the copper out of it. $600,000 worth of damage, for $600 worth of copper. Atleast that's the story we are being told.
I also wouldn't put it passed out own homegrown idiots... 😔 As I could _easily_ see this being folks still hellbent on the notion of 5G causing cancer, and deciding _"while we're at it, let's take all the wire make a few bucks";_ Occam's Razor, after all. (the simplest idea/answer likely being the correct one) But, since I don't know what said tower was used for, *_and_* given the current state of world affairs... we certainly can't discount that outside parties being involved as a possible answer, either.
@@trespireits more likely local people who did it. When my ex mother in laws trailer burnt down, someone broke in and tried to steal all the copper wiring from the sockets.
Have you heard of the antenna tower that was apparently stolen right out from under the noses of the radio station to whom it belonged. There’s a video on ytube about it. I forget the channel but it’s the RF /Tech channel and the host is interviewing his RF engineer Father about the heist.
WJLX tower in Alabama, USA. It was an 101.5 FM/1240 AM broadcast tower. Some one took the whole 200ft tower and most of the equipment in the broadcast building!!
It’s been mentioned before but if you want a definitive snapshot of the state of civil preparedness for WW3 in the early 80s - and with a thorough rundown of emergency comms - get hold of a copy of Duncan Campbell’s Attack Warning Red. Campbell was a thorn in the side of HMG at the time and is a most diligent researcher. Therefore his writing is always well worth your time (IMHO). Excellent work as always Lewis, thank you. 🙏🏻
Duncan Campbells book is called "War Plan UK". "Attack Warning Red" is the history of the Royal Observer Corps. "Beneath The City Streets" is another one worth reading.
@@dw7920 I understand perfectly how this happened - they are two 'must have' books on the topic of Cold War infrastructure and organisations. That's why I have them both (I'm on my second copy of War Plan UK!). You are forgiven buddy.
About a decade ago someone in Sydney, Australia, stole a military tank from a museum ( he had inside knowledge ) and tried to demolish a telecom ( cell phone) tower with it...
There was an entire 200ft radio station tower stolen just couple of weeks ago in Jasper, Alabama. Maybe the 'explosion' was an attempt at stealing scrap? The lightning conductor alone on a tall tower is worth tens of thousands. It wouldn't be the first time in the UK that large quantities of scrap has vanished in one go. In January 2003 almost two miles of railway line was stolen near Sunderland.
That tower was "discovered" to be stolen a couple of weeks ago. According to a UA-camr who filmed on-site, no one had been there for at least a year (based on corrosion of metal components left behind and dead weeds in front of the door).
@@cdorcey1735There are so many anomalies about the situation that the FCC and the local authorities are clearly obligated to do a thorough investigation.
what is likely to have happened is a contractor demolished and removed the wrong tower and wont own up to it. yes it could have been stolen for scrap but the infrastructure needed to demolish it and remove it would be huge
@@cdorcey1735 'according to a UA-camr who filmed on-site' ....that's got to be right then. Read the news reports. It was operational up to the theft, the station was actually forced off air for two weeks.
Did the UK develop the designs for the periscope horn antenna's? AT&T used the same design for the long-lines system in the US and I'm curious if there was any design sharing there.
Not a structural engineer, but the only things that a "surveryor" would be asked to examine due to "cracks" are the concrete pads. So if there were an explosion it was very poorley designed/executed. Wana take down the tower, attack the steel ! Not go boom sort of next to it,
Not true - I worked for a structural engineering company in the south of England in the late 80's and we had the contract to inspect the structural integrity of all government towers. Had to pass the amazingly titled 'Aerial Mast Erectors' course run by the RAF to do the job.
Not long ago just north of me in the boonies of Nebraska , a tower *tripod* was found downed. Evidence concluded guy wires cut. Now , this takes more than bolt cutters. Probably cordless grinder or saw. Dont know if anything came about from that.
Hi Lewis, I love your channel. After studying electronics at UMIST I moved to Macclesfield in 1984. I was always fascinated by the microwave tower on what I knew as Croker Hill. I walked up there once and was greeted by a guy with a shot gun! It also features in a book The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier by Duncan Campbell. I'd be really interested in you doing a reccy and a history.
I believe Llangollen linked to Colwyn Bay somehow. The exchange in Colwyn Bay had two big drum antennas and also connected to another exchange that hosted the undersea connection to Heysham. I always believed this was to provide a diverse circuit past Manchester.
There was a microwave tower near Loughborough. Not a mast, a sort of pylon shaped thing. You could see it from the M1. It blew down in a storm. Cant remember when. Maybe early 80s. Perhaps it wasn't felled by a storm after all?
Re link from Holyhead to Dublin, am pretty sure there was a MW link between a mast near Holyhead (close to South Stack Lighthouse?) and Three rock mountain in south Dublin. Certainly back in the day, Three rock had a MW dish pointing east across the Irish sea.
Looking at some of the almost empty towers, your club should ask the government to set up your repeaters on them. I also wonder if the tower explosion was a test for vulnerabilities of the equipment. Well I guess if I knew they would have to kill me…😂! or send me to the “island “ like Sir Patrick M. Have a great day!.
I love it when the pic is of a site with three 100ft high radio masts visible for miles around…….and it’s described as a secret site😂. In a bit like the MI6 building in London. Cracked up when the tour guide stopped narrating the ride the Thames, someone asked What’s that building? And the response was we’re not allowed to say. Obviously, if you don’t say its name, it doesn’t exist.
I do believe this tower was on an episode of Schofields (Phillips Schofield from CBBC’sBroom cupboard back in the day) quest and ITV program on Sunday evening, I believe it was, where he would investigate things, this would’ve been the mid 90s, This episode, if it can be tracked down may have more information for you, or is it happened to have Phillips Schofield’s telephone number?. does anyone else remember this episode of Scofield quest?
I never saw anyone try to knock down a radio tower, but I've seen plenty that have had CB antennas put on them, with coax discreetly coiled up just above head height.
What I find interesting is how similar the round towers are to the AT&T bunker system that was built in the 1960s onward for contiuty of government, I wonder if these sites had bunkers like the US ones that were used as emergency shelters including some that were used and still in use as the first presidential emergency shelters such as Ravenrock etc.. they seem like it was the same game plan but no mention of underground bunkers being in the UK ones.
Wouldn't surprise me. Although the oringinal ATT sites were quickly constructed and typically only had enough supplies for a couple of weeks. They were temp untill a more robust system could be build, which makes you wonder..... There are some exploration sites on ytube of guys nosing around these old cold war systems/caves/bunkers/tunnels. Amazing how much you can't see!
@@dananorth895I'd like to have seen the bunker that was apparently in my town, except there's now a Lidl, McDonald's and Travelodge built on top of it! I still wonder how much of it is left and how accessible it is...
I'm at the stage now. Where i watch ur uploads as much for the awesome video work as i do for the knowledge u provide. Either way. Bravo & kudos to u for what is always interesting & informative viewing. Gratitude!
Interesting! Too bad Amature radio operators don’t have access to these sites for repeaters. It would make for a really nice simulcast setup for both analog and digital repeaters.
If it's what I think you are looking at, suggest emergency generator exhausts and protection/divertor shield. Been on top of quite a few exchanges and other buildings with massive rusty exhausts. waiting...
Didn't there used to be a Nuclear Bunker in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, that had a lattice tower about half way along the Sutton Common to Heaton Park microwave link?
@@RingwayManchester Thanks! So the mast is still there. Is it the original one that was there when the bunker was there? Is it pure chance or deliberate that it is on the microwave link between Sutton Common and Heaton park?
It opened in I think 1952 so probably coincidental. It was taken out of its intended use by the late 1960’s so probably had no microwave links to anywhere. I’d suspect it had a phone line for comms, possibly VHF radio and the radio tower was probably added later
They did not want anyone to know what they were doing as they could not trust the PO / BT staff who would make the connections. It is quite possible that NO 10 did not know what they were up to. Additionally they would have required multiple warrants which were probably not available for monitoring a link anyway - warrants are designed for monitoring endpoints.
@@barrieshepherd7694 It was not unknown for security staff to make changes in exchanges, unknown to site staff. It's relatively easy to tap at source, much easier than to intercept on air.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the AT&T outage last week in the US. Military analists thought it was all about that Chinese balloon that the media seems to have forgotten about already.
Don’t forget that the Post Office Tower (BT tower) was bombed by the IRA in 1971, and if you are correct about the interception of traffic to the RoI, then it would suggest a more concerted effort to disrupt the intelligence gathering operations.
Electrical pylons and IIRC a radio mast were attacked by a terrorist group in Sweden called "vi som byggd sverige" (We who built Sweden) oh about 25-30 years ago. But I cannot find anything about it on the internet now, strangely. Anyone know any details?
The Backbone concrete towers were designed to survive atomic attack but the dishes would be destroyed so BT bought around 200 portable microwave links with 1m diameter dishes that after the attack they expected BT. Engineers to install and set up.
The location of these towers was a state secret and did not appear an any Ordinace Survey Maps. This included the famous "Post Office Tower" located in central London!
@ronan4072 Some , along with earlier HO towers ,were recorded on OS maps but there was a clearing up when the maps went from 1 inch to the mile to metric. There is a tower near me, which is still there for all to see, not on the current map but clear on the old map. It was the same time as the town of Aldermaston and the establishments in the area were sanitised down to a 'village' and empty space. Peter Laurie's "Beneath the City Streets" has a lot of information about the communications for the cold war period. In more recent times, in my role a a radio systems engineer, I came across a 30 metre town angle ground down because the locals thought it was being used to coordinate police operations during the miners strike (it was not) and needles hammered into co-ax cables by residents who blamed a tower for jamming their TV (it was not). Then spending two days investigating residents TV interference "from your mast" which turned out to be an illegal VHF radio remote control device on one of the residents air conditioning controllers.
In my first job after leaving school (1984) I was working for Holyhead Shipping Agency, and in 1987 we had Cable & Wireless cable laying ship under our Agency working on the lines between Holyhead/Dublin and Colwyn/Heysham. On occasion I remember military personnel (that I assumed were from RAF Valley) present both on board and parking vehicles near to the (then brand new) Holyhead Coastguard Station..
I find the content very interesting although I have no interest in being a radio operator. So could someone tell me what TAP means, as it was mentioned at the beginning. Thanks
If this Tower was monitoring telephone communications between the UK and Ireland i would not be surprised if the IRA was behind attacking it. Especially since it was active during the troubles
The problem is, the enemy out there namely the SCO of Russia and China lead off the bat with EMP's before any terra firma invasion or attack and thus above ground comms is a weakness to rely upon. Also gains in the cable industry which transmit almost to the speed of light, above ground comms are pedestrian in comparison hence the drive to push military and establishment communications below earth, to withstand the EMP opener and remain secure even after a ground zero nuclear burst its likely the comms will still function. So in a way, these towers are kept alive to draw the teeth of the Russkies pretty much, they cannot ignore them so have to task to destroy them whilst the real military is operating under ground impervious to Russian onslaught.
When I worked on telephone exchanges in the 70's I learned that most, if not all, exchanges had a so called Trunk Offering Circuit. The official explanation was that it enabled a remote operator to intrude on a local call to inform one of the callers of an incoming trunk call - a hangover from the days when operator connected calls were the norm. But unlike most operator intrusions there was no "intrusion tone". In truth in allowed GCHQ to listen in on just about any phone call they fancied.
I spent a lot of time in SystemX exchanges and in some, near "important" sites there was always a set of markers on the frame for "private circuits". When I asked what they were for, I was told in no uncertain terms that I shouldn't ask too many questions. One exchange was near a nuclear research facility and had a large number of these circuits.
@@edwardbyard6540 I worked mainly on commisioning TXE 2 and TXE 4 "PENTEX" systems at the Plessey factory in Nottingham. System X was just coming in when I changed jobs.
Ex system X programer here. The X phone overlay allowed hook bypass to be enacted from exchange office to several hundred important desks in central London. No need to run a bug, they could hear you anyway.
@@philreeves7361 and they Still can. system x equipment is still used.
@@philreeves7361your right my mate worked in a telephone exchange and he said they could listen into any conversation 1974
As you are referring to microwave links I am reminded of 40 years ago when I worked in Saudi Arabia on the TEP4 contract. One of the longest microwave hops in the world was between a mast in the grounds of Dr Kayals summer villa in Taif (2000m amsl) to a mast in Sudan. I used to climb the towers for fun!
How was the temperature on top of those things? That’s a mean stretch of the earth.
Your video's, narration and editing and research are awesome, you should be on national tv 👍
Thanks so much!
Yes, I agree and came here to make the same comment. A huge amount of your time must go into them, and I'm sure all viewers are very grateful even though a lot of us can't afford to show our appreciation financially! Just waiting for my big lottery win!
Exactly what I was thinking!
I agree too !
Talking of blowing things up in Radio. In 1984 there was a radio station called Radio Lazer broacasting from the North sea off Essex. After complaints which fell on deaf ears at the time about Lazer taking listeners away from the BBC and Independent Local Stations, one board member of BBC Radio Essex threatened to go out and blow the ship (Communicator) up and put Lazer off the air. We know this because someone had palced a radio bug in the offcies of BBC Radio Essex, and this individual was heard on the tape recording saying that he would authorize the deed.
There was an actual attack on one of the offshore broadcasters in the early '70s, Radio North Sea got firebombed off the Dutch coast, but that was down to a feud between rival Dutch broadcasters.
I have foggy memories of listening to a radio station in East Anglia in the mid '80s, "Laser, 558"? If I recall correctly, it was one broadcaster that wasn't squeamish about playing Frankie's "Relax".
@@Dunbar0740 I heard Rosko play Max Romeo's "Wet Dream" on Radio Caroline just last year which is arguable even more risque.
@@Dunbar0740 you recall correctly, use to record them on tape, yep that old
It's interesting that Ted Albeury (prolific, top spy story author ) started off in counter-intelligence in the cold war, and moved on to man a pirate radio station ship in the English Channel.
Amazing video. Thanks for taking the time to create this.
Appreciate you as always my friend
In the early 80’s I was a student engineer at Pye Telecom. During one of my periods of work experience, I got the job of digitising points on paper strips taken from OS maps using a puck (sort of an early mouse with a pointer) into a VAX11 computer which then plotted a diagram to see if two antenna sites were in sight of each other taking into account of the curvature of the earth. I was told that this was for Project Mold and all the radio kit was modified to be EMP-proof. So it was interesting to see this project mentioned in this film.
Dang. Its like their own AT&T Long Lines
the only mast-fellings I know are the commercial mast that the gb3pa paisley repeater was originally on having its guys chopped & falling down due to "taxi wars" & the Peterborough tv mast getting destroyed by fire (that they think may have been caused by a fireworks rocket getting caught in a vertical cable riser & setting the plastic insulation on fire).
Bullet holes or shotgun peppering of dishes are a constant problem in the sporting areas of Scotland.
Wow didn’t know about about PA! Interesting
Not just Scotland, had some feeders and waveguide shot up at a site near Daventry. And have lost count of the amount of sites where the lightning tape was nicked....
@RingwayManchester The PA mast at the time also hosted the Police, ambulance and Fire service Coms not just the Taxis, there was even talk it was a local cber who was after the coax.
That's nice to see both cities from
one location.
I always like going up Bear Mountain
in Harriman State Park, NY, at 1200
feet asl, plus a 100 foot tower to climb.
The view of the New York City skyline
to the south, about 40 miles away is
great, near the Hudson River, off the
Palisades Partkway, below the USMA,
West Point, NY, where I worked as a
Civilian Employee some years ago.
You can reach many repeaters and
simplex from there.
I used to go up there to operate 6
and 2 M SSB, portable years ago,
especially during contests.
Our.club, of which my wife and I are
Charter Member around 2000,
W2NYW, operated our June ARRL
Field Day operation there for a few
years too. 73 de Ray W2CH NH.😊
I remember visiting Perkins Memorial Tower in the spring of 2016. I appreciated the markers in the tower for the landmarks and they were difficult to make out due to haze that day
@@DanielleWhite 😊 Thanks. That's correct.
In the early 1970s we had a shared line you would be on a conversation with your girlfriend and some old woman would come on and start telling her pal about her bunions 😂my mate worked at a local telephone exchange so he managed to get me a private line he also told me they could listen into everyone’s conversations he said if they were bored on the night shift they would listen into peoples conversations and interrupt their conversation for a laugh changed days 😂
This reminds me of the at&t long lines in the u.s. that was a crazy awesome system. Thanks for the video
At the risk of stating the obvious, if the tower was monitoring phone calls between the British mainland and the Irish Republic, could the attack have been related to the Troubles in Northern Ireland?
Most likely I would have thought.
That was my first inkling.
Ahh, Old Pale Hill! Delamere is a favourite of mine to walk around. I find something strange there on my AOR AR8200 mk3. I can receive BBC Radio 1 on around 3MHz or so when in close proximity of the transmitter site. It's very wideband, too. Possibly some weird intermodulation or nearfield RF effect. Hope you had a good walk there. It is a nice area.
“Don’t worry, I’ve not resorted to click-baiting….yet….” 😂
Tower opposition is extreme in Australia where greenies want free power yet oppose windmills and solar. Then comms well we are back to strings between cups.
I live within 3 miles of the Gwaenysgor towers - Fascinating insight!
Thank you.
I can see Gwaenysgor from my radio room window in Abergele.
British Gas (North West Gas) had a network of microwave links primarily for grid control (sending high pressure gas where it was required according to demand) radio comms and data on large towers throughout the country, generally in larger area depot sites. Not missing out on various other users paying for the privilege they rented space to BT, HM Gov, Military and other telecoms and radio users. The ones I'm aware of were Altrincham (NW HQ), Gould Street Manchester, Stretford, Hattersley, Hartford Manor Cheshire, Partington, Frodsham, Chester, Warrington, St Helens, Wavertree Liverpool, Bootle, Birkenhead, Bolton, Preston, Blackburn, Blackpool, Morecambe - there may have been other sites I forgot or never visited as part of my job at the time.
Thanks so much! I started a video on the British gas ones about 5 years ago and never finished it! I did altrincham, collyhurst, Partington and Stockport.
Could you drop me an email I’d like to ask you a couple of bits. RingwayManchester@mail.com
@@RingwayManchester Have you done anything on the NTL Microwave network (now Arqiva) There is a mast on Winter Hill from memory, But the part of the network I knew about is the tower at Great Offley in Hitchin (literally at the end of my dads back garden!), which linked into another tower on Dunstable Downs in Bedfordshire, which is on a back lane from the near the National Trust shop/Cafe to the village of Whipsnade (not far from the zoo). The network isn't easy to track as from the east of Great Offley the nearest NTL tower is near Haverhill in Suffolk. I do know that it was connected to the old Gas powered power station in Letchworth which was built by the CEGB and became part of N Power before it was demolished. A lot of people used to think the NTL mast carried phone signals and that it was linked to the BT tower at Zouches Farm on Blows Down near Luton but this was not the case. Although up until the late 80's NTL towers did have microwave horn antennas they were replaced like the BT Towers by drums made by the Andrew Microwave Corparation
@RingwayManchester national grid also have a network of towers i believe for a similar purpose. there is one in sheffield 53.406231, -1.430777. although i believe they are removing a lot of their microwaves now. the one in sheffield i believe only has telco but is still owned by national grid
@@RingwayManchester I did reply via email but have not heard from you.
When i stayed at RAF barkway, the MOLD equipment, (mostly PYE) had already been removed; the racks remain as the space is not needed.
I used to have a rule of removing one old antenna every time I climbed he mast. I'd got nearly all of them before I left. PS my picture is DUGA.
I wanted to climb DUGA on a trip to Chernobyl, but didn't have time because there was too much to explore. I was 15min late for the bus!
Funny you should mention "click bait" as I actually thought this video was about the "missing" AM radio tower in the U.S.A. Much to my surprise and delight - you made a legitimately interesting piece.
There is a fellow on YT that went to the tower site for the supposedly stolen tower, and it looks like it has been abandoned for many years.
Rumor (and I stress just rumours) has it that it's some kind of scam.
We'll see how it plays out.
In 1961 domestic terrorists blew up two AT&T Long Line microwave towers in Utah and Nevada in the US. Long Lines teams had temporary service restored in three days and permanent fixes within a month, iirc.
Great stuff Lewis, one of your best info videos, must have taken a while to research and ages to edit. Many thanks.
There is a rather large microwave tower on the final approach to Bristol, its that large its now considered something of a landmark. You can see it just before the off ramp down to Fishponds.
Some people just knocked a radio tower down here in Texas, and they stole the copper out of it. $600,000 worth of damage, for $600 worth of copper. Atleast that's the story we are being told.
Wouldn't put it past nafarious players for some faraway land.
I also wouldn't put it passed out own homegrown idiots... 😔
As I could _easily_ see this being folks still hellbent on the notion of 5G causing cancer, and deciding _"while we're at it, let's take all the wire make a few bucks";_
Occam's Razor, after all. (the simplest idea/answer likely being the correct one)
But, since I don't know what said tower was used for, *_and_* given the current state of world affairs... we certainly can't discount that outside parties being involved as a possible answer, either.
The Texas thieves were apparently caught when selling the copper/ Another tower in Alabama was felled for scrap in February.
Where at in texas?
@@trespireits more likely local people who did it. When my ex mother in laws trailer burnt down, someone broke in and tried to steal all the copper wiring from the sockets.
This is such a good channel! Im not a ham or even enthusiast really, but i enjoy the videos immensely.
Is it just my hearing or did you say they were receiving television and *radar* signals around 7:56? Was that for air-traffic control?
Yeah radar feed from multiple sites for atc and mil
Have you heard of the antenna tower that was apparently stolen right out from under the noses of the radio station to whom it belonged. There’s a video on ytube about it. I forget the channel but it’s the RF /Tech channel and the host is interviewing his RF engineer Father about the heist.
Geerling Engineering!
Turns out it's a hoax. The tower, whatever became of it, was brought down at least a year ago.
WJLX tower in Alabama, USA. It was an 101.5 FM/1240 AM broadcast tower. Some one took the whole 200ft tower and most of the equipment in the broadcast building!!
@@luisderivas6005 The tower has been gone at least a year, from Google Earth pictures...
It’s been mentioned before but if you want a definitive snapshot of the state of civil preparedness for WW3 in the early 80s - and with a thorough rundown of emergency comms - get hold of a copy of Duncan Campbell’s Attack Warning Red. Campbell was a thorn in the side of HMG at the time and is a most diligent researcher. Therefore his writing is always well worth your time (IMHO). Excellent work as always Lewis, thank you. 🙏🏻
Duncan Campbells book is called "War Plan UK". "Attack Warning Red" is the history of the Royal Observer Corps. "Beneath The City Streets" is another one worth reading.
@@paulcharlton4788 Ah, sorry, my mistake. I have known and owned both very well and that’s a complete brain fart on my part. 🤬
I’m impressed to find someone who has even heard of either book! :-)
Ha. Cheers Paul. I’m still utterly ashamed at mixing the two up! I must have had the ROC on the brain at the time.. 😅
@@dw7920 I understand perfectly how this happened - they are two 'must have' books on the topic of Cold War infrastructure and organisations. That's why I have them both (I'm on my second copy of War Plan UK!). You are forgiven buddy.
Fantastic insight and information on radio masts and communication towers. 👍👍
@6:55 "Yes sir we have done all the math and the tower definitely needs 2 protruding mounds in order to work" What a legend.
They're rotatable mounts for microwave horns😂
About a decade ago someone in Sydney, Australia, stole a military tank from a museum ( he had inside knowledge ) and tried to demolish a telecom ( cell phone) tower with it...
Err… are the drone shots of Menwith Hill yours…? In my experiences the MoD Bobbies get an upset about that sort of thing..😂
Remember the hot air balloon tour of Menwith Hill 😊
I am missing the castles already. Well done on pronouncing Fazakerley correctly.
However langolen wants a word……
@ran….
However langolen wants a word……
It (Llangollen) probably is also wondering where it’s 3rd and 4th letter L’s have gone? 🤔🤔🤔
There was an entire 200ft radio station tower stolen just couple of weeks ago in Jasper, Alabama. Maybe the 'explosion' was an attempt at stealing scrap? The lightning conductor alone on a tall tower is worth tens of thousands. It wouldn't be the first time in the UK that large quantities of scrap has vanished in one go. In January 2003 almost two miles of railway line was stolen near Sunderland.
That tower was "discovered" to be stolen a couple of weeks ago. According to a UA-camr who filmed on-site, no one had been there for at least a year (based on corrosion of metal components left behind and dead weeds in front of the door).
@@cdorcey1735There are so many anomalies about the situation that the FCC and the local authorities are clearly obligated to do a thorough investigation.
Had the mains cable nicked from my block of flats when the block was being rewired.
what is likely to have happened is a contractor demolished and removed the wrong tower and wont own up to it. yes it could have been stolen for scrap but the infrastructure needed to demolish it and remove it would be huge
@@cdorcey1735 'according to a UA-camr who filmed on-site' ....that's got to be right then. Read the news reports. It was operational up to the theft, the station was actually forced off air for two weeks.
Did the UK develop the designs for the periscope horn antenna's? AT&T used the same design for the long-lines system in the US and I'm curious if there was any design sharing there.
Without a doubt, same thing happened with nukes, suddenly every powerful country has them.
Not a structural engineer, but the only things that a "surveryor" would be asked to examine due to "cracks" are the concrete pads.
So if there were an explosion it was very poorley designed/executed.
Wana take down the tower, attack the steel !
Not go boom sort of next to it,
Not true - I worked for a structural engineering company in the south of England in the late 80's and we had the contract to inspect the structural integrity of all government towers. Had to pass the amazingly titled 'Aerial Mast Erectors' course run by the RAF to do the job.
Amazing research and history! Great video.
Not long ago just north of me in the boonies of Nebraska , a tower *tripod* was found downed. Evidence concluded guy wires cut. Now , this takes more than bolt cutters. Probably cordless grinder or saw. Dont know if anything came about from that.
Hi Lewis, I love your channel. After studying electronics at UMIST I moved to Macclesfield in 1984. I was always fascinated by the microwave tower on what I knew as Croker Hill. I walked up there once and was greeted by a guy with a shot gun! It also features in a book The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier by Duncan Campbell. I'd be really interested in you doing a reccy and a history.
Hey) leave it with me! Have you seen my umist videos?
@@RingwayManchester No! I'll have a look now.
Were they about the nuclear power plant?
@@RingwayManchester the ones about the radio society on the roff. I have yes. Great memories.
I believe Llangollen linked to Colwyn Bay somehow. The exchange in Colwyn Bay had two big drum antennas and also connected to another exchange that hosted the undersea connection to Heysham. I always believed this was to provide a diverse circuit past Manchester.
Interesting Sir..! I have posted previously regarding "Train Stop" within Delamere at this time period. In connection with video Capenhurst Tower.
I will check it out
Just saw! Tell us more :)
There was a microwave tower near Loughborough. Not a mast, a sort of pylon shaped thing. You could see it from the M1. It blew down in a storm. Cant remember when. Maybe early 80s. Perhaps it wasn't felled by a storm after all?
It's still there
Stunning landscapes...😊😊😊
Re link from Holyhead to Dublin, am pretty sure there was a MW link between a mast near Holyhead (close to South Stack Lighthouse?) and Three rock mountain in south Dublin. Certainly back in the day, Three rock had a MW dish pointing east across the Irish sea.
Looking at some of the almost empty towers, your club should ask the government to set up your repeaters on them. I also wonder if the tower explosion was a test for vulnerabilities of the equipment. Well I guess if I knew they would have to kill me…😂! or send me to the “island “ like Sir Patrick M.
Have a great day!.
I love it when the pic is of a site with three 100ft high radio masts visible for miles around…….and it’s described as a secret site😂. In a bit like the MI6 building in London. Cracked up when the tour guide stopped narrating the ride the Thames, someone asked What’s that building? And the response was we’re not allowed to say. Obviously, if you don’t say its name, it doesn’t exist.
Llangollen seemed to repeat traffic between Pale Heights and Albrighton and further south towards Birmingham. Call it diverse routing.
I do believe this tower was on an episode of Schofields (Phillips Schofield from CBBC’sBroom cupboard back in the day) quest and ITV program on Sunday evening, I believe it was, where he would investigate things, this would’ve been the mid 90s, This episode, if it can be tracked down may have more information for you, or is it happened to have Phillips Schofield’s telephone number?. does anyone else remember this episode of Scofield quest?
Those horn antenna uW sites look a lot like the Bell System Long Lines network
Craig-Y-Ddualt-Army Radio Station-Nr. Llangollen, is that what you were after ?
Found in a parliamentary answer in Hansard.
I never saw anyone try to knock down a radio tower, but I've seen plenty that have had CB antennas put on them, with coax discreetly coiled up just above head height.
What I find interesting is how similar the round towers are to the AT&T bunker system that was built in the 1960s onward for contiuty of government, I wonder if these sites had bunkers like the US ones that were used as emergency shelters including some that were used and still in use as the first presidential emergency shelters such as Ravenrock etc.. they seem like it was the same game plan but no mention of underground bunkers being in the UK ones.
Wouldn't surprise me. Although the oringinal ATT sites were quickly constructed and typically only had enough supplies for a couple of weeks.
They were temp untill a more robust system could be build, which makes you wonder.....
There are some exploration sites on ytube of guys nosing around these old cold war systems/caves/bunkers/tunnels. Amazing how much you can't see!
@@dananorth895I'd like to have seen the bunker that was apparently in my town, except there's now a Lidl, McDonald's and Travelodge built on top of it!
I still wonder how much of it is left and how accessible it is...
They did.
I'm at the stage now. Where i watch ur uploads as much for the awesome video work as i do for the knowledge u provide. Either way. Bravo & kudos to u for what is always interesting & informative viewing. Gratitude!
Just think what you could do if you were allowed to put Meshtastic devices up on the unused towers!
Interesting! Too bad Amature radio operators don’t have access to these sites for repeaters. It would make for a really nice simulcast setup for both analog and digital repeaters.
Would be great to get a peek inside some of the transmitter buildings if you ever get the chance 👍
Time 508 What are the copper looking pipes ( coax ? ) and curved wall at the end for? Part of an abandoned tower feed?
If it's what I think you are looking at, suggest emergency generator exhausts and protection/divertor shield. Been on top of quite a few exchanges and other buildings with massive rusty exhausts. waiting...
Didn't there used to be a Nuclear Bunker in Cheadle, Greater Manchester, that had a lattice tower about half way along the Sutton Common to Heaton Park microwave link?
This is the one
ua-cam.com/video/6cOieO05L-I/v-deo.htmlsi=aN5gpYhS3eLgg9-1
@@RingwayManchester Thanks! So the mast is still there. Is it the original one that was there when the bunker was there? Is it pure chance or deliberate that it is on the microwave link between Sutton Common and Heaton park?
It opened in I think 1952 so probably coincidental. It was taken out of its intended use by the late 1960’s so probably had no microwave links to anywhere. I’d suspect it had a phone line for comms, possibly VHF radio and the radio tower was probably added later
@@RingwayManchester Thanks for that. Great info!
So what do they use now? Is it all satellite and Airborne? We have things like the the E-3 surveillance planes.
Why would the security services have needed to intercept microwave signals when they could have official access to the telecoms network?
They did not want anyone to know what they were doing as they could not trust the PO / BT staff who would make the connections. It is quite possible that NO 10 did not know what they were up to. Additionally they would have required multiple warrants which were probably not available for monitoring a link anyway - warrants are designed for monitoring endpoints.
@@barrieshepherd7694 It was not unknown for security staff to make changes in exchanges, unknown to site staff. It's relatively easy to tap at source, much easier than to intercept on air.
What’s the history and current use of the site at Simon’s lane frodsham?
ua-cam.com/video/xpmdUx9dM8A/v-deo.htmlsi=3Bfkkt2Det4QqDDl
ua-cam.com/video/xnNTjelkM4A/v-deo.htmlsi=eSV7LWAzVUQjY2xo
And to all the people that built these they are majestic
I wonder if it has anything to do with the AT&T outage last week in the US. Military analists thought it was all about that Chinese balloon that the media seems to have forgotten about already.
Still ongoing at a smaller scale as of today.
Don’t forget that the Post Office Tower (BT tower) was bombed by the IRA in 1971, and if you are correct about the interception of traffic to the RoI, then it would suggest a more concerted effort to disrupt the intelligence gathering operations.
Fascinating video Lewis, thanks for the insight and great drone footage.
Why can't some YT videos be added to "watch later"?
The largest explosion near a radio antenna was at the power station for the radio: Chernobyl.
There is no under ground cable to tree rock mountain, maybe microwave link
That viewing platform looks great for a bit of radio, and those towers would be great for repeaters.
M7TUD
Electrical pylons and IIRC a radio mast were attacked by a terrorist group in Sweden called "vi som byggd sverige" (We who built Sweden) oh about 25-30 years ago. But I cannot find anything about it on the internet now, strangely. Anyone know any details?
The Backbone concrete towers were designed to survive atomic attack but the dishes would be destroyed so BT bought around 200 portable microwave links with 1m diameter dishes that after the attack they expected BT. Engineers to install and set up.
The location of these towers was a state secret and did not appear an any Ordinace Survey Maps. This included the famous "Post Office Tower" located in central London!
@@davidcronan4072 They did feature on aviation maps though, of necessity.
@ronan4072 Some , along with earlier HO towers ,were recorded on OS maps but there was a clearing up when the maps went from 1 inch to the mile to metric. There is a tower near me, which is still there for all to see, not on the current map but clear on the old map. It was the same time as the town of Aldermaston and the establishments in the area were sanitised down to a 'village' and empty space.
Peter Laurie's "Beneath the City Streets" has a lot of information about the communications for the cold war period.
In more recent times, in my role a a radio systems engineer, I came across a 30 metre town angle ground down because the locals thought it was being used to coordinate police operations during the miners strike (it was not) and needles hammered into co-ax cables by residents who blamed a tower for jamming their TV (it was not). Then spending two days investigating residents TV interference "from your mast" which turned out to be an illegal VHF radio remote control device on one of the residents air conditioning controllers.
Mark Thomas did a thing about that tower, it was on a nuclear site so it was protected by offical secrets.
I really enjoy these videos
So.... Did you place a meshtastic node on that tower, or what? 😂
In my first job after leaving school (1984) I was working for Holyhead Shipping Agency, and in 1987 we had Cable & Wireless cable laying ship under our Agency working on the lines between Holyhead/Dublin and Colwyn/Heysham.
On occasion I remember military personnel (that I assumed were from RAF Valley) present both on board and parking vehicles near to the (then brand new) Holyhead Coastguard Station..
Does blowing up a radio tower constitute "criming the radio fans"?
Thanks RM. another Super Video****
Seen the tower at delemere when i visitied with my partner 110% could tell it was non standard mod operations
Picturesque pictures! - So who was eavesdropping on ireland?
Must of been Aliens 👽
I find the content very interesting although I have no interest in being a radio operator. So could someone tell me what TAP means, as it was mentioned at the beginning. Thanks
If this Tower was monitoring telephone communications between the UK and Ireland i would not be surprised if the IRA was behind attacking it. Especially since it was active during the troubles
Very possibly
In my childhood, Hunter’s Stones was a significant “obelisk..” on the horizon…
Used to work at Hunters Stones. Only site I knew with a warning to beware of snakes (adders) in the compound. It’s in a forest.
@@Wasdale7 I knew it (locally) as, “Norwood Edge “
When in the video do we get to the story?
Did you not listen to a word I said???
Brilliant research as usual Lewis. 👍 Alex M0UTA
BUUUUT YOU USE KM INSTEAD OF MILES LEWIS…. WAAAGGGHHHHH IM A MASSIVE PHANNY!
Now where’s me Splosion at? 🤘🏻🤣🇬🇧
@RingwayManchester >>> Great video...👍
Mint bit of drum & bass at the end 👌
Where can i find it?
Brilliant vid as always 😊👍
Great video - the amount of knowledge and research you must put in is immense - really interesting thanks!
The problem is, the enemy out there namely the SCO of Russia and China lead off the bat with EMP's before any terra firma invasion or attack and thus above ground comms is a weakness to rely upon. Also gains in the cable industry which transmit almost to the speed of light, above ground comms are pedestrian in comparison hence the drive to push military and establishment communications below earth, to withstand the EMP opener and remain secure even after a ground zero nuclear burst its likely the comms will still function. So in a way, these towers are kept alive to draw the teeth of the Russkies pretty much, they cannot ignore them so have to task to destroy them whilst the real military is operating under ground impervious to Russian onslaught.
ive rode down that hill so many times and YES its a bitch hill to walk back up
You could find russian trawlers in line with these radio links.."fishing"
Unreal 😂😂😂😂
Fascinating stuff...
Llangollen isn't a million miles away from Criggion. No idea if related.
Good timing. Started watching and it sounded like I was being dive bombed by a plane called DREAD66 ✈️
Dude, where you taking drone shots of this on Saturday?
No Monday
Ahh okay. was up there on Sat. Hill is a bit of a killer lol@@RingwayManchester
It is isn’t it! 😂
Excellent work and video 👍
No castles.... brilliant work!
😂👍🏻
lol :)@@RingwayManchester
‘Windy Hill’?
Yeah?
It wasn't me.