Thousands Rely On These Antennas - But What Do They Do? - Buxton
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- Опубліковано 17 тра 2024
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Why Did This Antenna Appear On A Residential Street?!
• Why Did This Antenna A...
Transmitter Tours
• Transmitter Tours - Наука та технологія
Thanks
Thank you so so much
I'm in the USA and not even a ham radio operator but I know some and have gotten addicted to your videos talking about what all the things do on the towers. It's so interesting but now I find myself looking at the towers around me and identifying whats on them. Thanks.
More trains. More boats. More towers. More antennas.
I wanna see radical spinning antennas, certain RPM for diff purpose - better than specialized polarization. the receiving antenna needs to spin the exact same rpm
@@enigma51ted Radar?
That is a busy tower. Great job finding all that out.
We get the impression that radio is all but eliminated by the internet... this is proof positive that is NOT the case.
M7XJN 73's
I have become quite fascinated with your videos on the different antennas and their locations, but I am a huge rail buff from Canada and would love to see more trains, as well!
Another great informative video. I’m in the telecoms industry mainly planning microwave links and I know how difficult it can be to identify antennas on busy towers as sometimes even the site owners don’t know! It’s all down to accurate records, well done
It is a legal requirement for site operators to know what they have operating as they get called when there is a problem. Any loss of service causes a problem and interference is a legal issue. Everything is licenced and the operators and RA check regularly. They also do spot checks.
In the days of pagers around 94 i was at a hilltop site in Wales when the RA turned up to do field strength tests. A VHF pager was splattering and when i let them in the building they found the 10Watts from the TX was going via a 400Watt RF amp in to their own aerial on the mast - around 137MHz. They had the site owner and company rep there within 45mins and took the amp away. Had they not complied, the equipment was going to be switched off and removed.
The way the sites work is that you have a few wideband VHF and UHF aerials for general use. You can use your own or you can use a wideband RX one for VHF and another for UHF and TX through your own.
There are circulators fitted, but it depends what room is left. The old PMR repeaters would use a common receive aerial at the top of the masts and TX on their own. That's because the common aerial would be a 68-88MHz, 160-180MHz for example, or 440-460MHz, so never cut for one frequency, but good enough in that location.
That was only one part of the mast and buildings.
There were relays, links, commercial stations and 70cm / 2m repeaters in some. Now they have TETRA and Cellular.
Sites i went to were never alarmed either. It was just a case of being issued with keys. One site had about 8 padlocks all joined to each other and wrapped around a gate, you opened your own to get in!
Sadly, pirates would install equipment on some of them with 10GHz links, steal electric and splatter and interfere.
In the old Maplin catalogues (I'm thinking 90s) they used to list all the radio station transmitter sites around the country, with their location, polarisation and output power (if I remember correctly). I've just tried to find a scanned catalogue online, but no luck unfortunately. I will keep looking though.
Those old Maplin catalogues were brilliant
@@TheNewSchmoo I had a few. Wish I'd kept them. Packed with information, schematics and more.
I’m an anesthesiologist in the US who knows nothing about radios, but this is so interesting I can’t help but get sucked in and curious.
I like radio stuff but now I'm curious about anaesthesiology! Might see what's on YT, have a good day!
@@SmallPip-cn4os defensive much?
Thats enough to put you to sleep
Yes I'd like to see more as I'm a massive geek. I love trying to understand these things
Great video, Lewis! I loved the detail. And very nice videography. All the best, Rob in Switzerland
Nice tour of the mast! As for those mobile antennae, based on the look of the panels the top is MBNL (EE & 3) and the bottom is CTIL (O2 & Vodafone). The latter tend to use lower frequencies as their main coverage band, hence longer panels. Also the top panels aren't pointing in exactly matching directions (e.g. not 120 degrees between panels), which is something MBNL have done in other locations too.
Amazing all the informations you can figure out
I have ZERO interest in any of this, but I just can't put these videos down! I came for the numbers stations and have stayed for THIS type of content. Awesome.
I really enjoy all the drone shots.
More railway stuff for me ! I was driver for over 40 years and was based at Peak Forest, and it was nice to see the shots of Earles cement sidings in the last vlog. Good work, Sir!
Yes, more Trains! :) I enjoy all your output , especially the lora stuff.
Hello from Riverside, California USA
Those buildings at 2:20 are really vibing😂
Great video Lewis! 👍 I'm glad all those TV antennas are there to relay my favorite programs.
That way, I get to watch Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bouquet!) and here candlelight suppers!
i like trains :)
Wow
I like shemales😍😍
I like Turtles :D
Awesome video
Good stuff as always. Thank you Lewis. 73 my friend.
I love your geekery😊
One of the white sticks is not a police one, but a smart metering one
Didn't know smart meters didn't just run on normal Cellular service.
@@SimonLant they do in Midlands and South of UK, but in North its run by another, hmm, company I know, hmm very well 😉 know the site damn well
Still a pretty densely populated mast.
Be great if you cloud get a tour of the gear hut
It's actually quite boring inside them! A few racks with equipment in plain cases, a few power supplies, a backup system with batteries...trays with coax and a few circulators and diplexers, it's a right let-down. The newer ones might have computers or a phone. One in Wales had it's own BT phone inside, but it sounded like the person using it was in a cave due to the brick and concrete building.
The most exciting thing i found in one was a 15year old chicken pot noodle, a screwdriver and wire cutters.
The Home Office ones were more secure with electric fences, some not even switched on, cctv and alarms hooked up to BT RedCare. One used for police had ANPR cameras!
Not that exciting inside really, i am not sure what people expect.
Your level of research never ceases to amaze.
How on earth you manage to gather this Intel is a mystery akin to everything on the Conet Project!!!
Hows the Spanish Lady doing these days? I heard she ran away with the Lincolnshire Poacher and moved to North Korea!!
Brilliant Content Lewis!
👍
mb21 and the RA has a list of who uses which site
Thank you for putting this video together!
Thanks for the video.
Thanks for this Lewis. A great insight!
Definitely more antenna videos and explanations. Thank you! 73
Great video the amount of information you find is amazing.
Another stellar video. Hope ur haven a great day. 👍
Another enjoyable and interesting video. Keep up the good work and thanks!
Great video, cheers!
great work mate and very interesting :D
The best thing about these videos is the hilarious British place names.
I’m working on 2 videos you’re gonna love then 🤣
@@RingwayManchester Hope you made it to Scunthorpe then Lewis!
Top cellular antennas are Three/EE share (Mobile Broadband Network limited - MBNL) broadcasting on:
Three - B3 1800MHz @ 15MHz,
EE - B3 1800MHz @ 20MHz.
Bottom set of cellular antennas are O2/Vodafone share (Cornerstone Networks Ltd - CTIL) broadcasting on:
O2 - B1 2100MHz @ 10MHz, B8 900MHz @ 10MHz, B20 800MHz @ 10 MHz.
Vodafone - B1 2100MHz @ 15MHz, B20 800MHz @ 10MHz.
Thank you again for delivering another detailed tour of a UK mast & the antennas it holds. I’m fascinated to know where you get this information from.
Great video as always Lewis, 🙂👍
Love the transmitter site tours and assorted geekery! Keep up the great work.
Next time you're in Derbyshire it would be great if you could do a tour of Alport Heights. It always fascinated me when I lived over there and had no idea what they were all for. Great work 👍🏻
I love these. I started watching radio related content when I was looking into what kind of radio I would need for communications on coastal waterways, and how to work them. The boat turned out to be too expensive and there was little interest among friends and family for such a thing, but the radio stuff holds my interest still. Please keep it up!
100% more geekery!👍😁
HOW DO YOU KNOW???
you are a very knowledgeable man Lewis 😉
Hope to meet you one day
73
not from uk so idk any sites, but loving this vein of content
Hi Lewis, the phased Kathrein X-pol antenna array is actually more of an elliptically polarised sytem, rather than a circular one... One might claim that it's just a matter of terminology or semantics but it's not really that simple :-)
Any chance of looking at Skelton, Caldbeck, Sandale etc? As 2 of these are the tallest and 3rd tallest structures in the UK, it would very interesting
Nunca veré las torres de forma diferente después de ver tu video. 73 . Bogotá Colombia
I know of at least half a dozen antenna towers I pass on my various regular travels around north Essex, Suffolk and west Hertfordshire, all very similar with similar equipment mounted in them. I’m fairly certain that if I plotted them on a map they all have line of sight to each other. I often wonder what they do and whether I’m right. One of them is on top of the former “Secret” Nuclear Bunker at Kelvedon. Anyway, fascinating .
EE/Three is the uppermost cellular and O2/Vodafone is the one lower on the mast.
Soo interesting!
And yes of course I'll be happy yo learn about trains.
You have a great way relaying this information
I wonder how you can figure out the specifics of each individual antenna
The two receive logs for the national services are about half a wavelength apart vertically. The local signal (from the antennas above) is picked up by both, but when they are combined the signal is largely cancelled out. This prevents the overload of the receivers on site from the high levels of local pickup. Also any intermodulation products created in the transmitter outputs and radiated by the broadcast antennas will be attenuated by the same process. The receive antenna feeders are probably combined inside the building (giving 3dB gain for the wanted signals from Sutton Coldfield), and providing the option to use one of the antennas in the even of a fault with the other without having to climb the tower. For Radio Derby, receive antennas are Yagis (more narrowband than logs, but only receiving one frequency). They are horizontally spaced, probably to null out an interfering frequency close to or directly on the wanted receive frequency, but off to the side of the antennas. Could also possibly to minimise crosstalk caused by the pickup of reflections of the wanted signal from close in terrain. They are lower down on the structure, so less pickup of the locally radiated signals.
Very interesting cheers!!!
That's some years gone by, that I was last at that site. Left my first modern phone there and it was a bit of a drive back to collect it!! A bit of a change from the old Nokia Talkman which you really couldn't forget!
Thanks RM. Such Great Informative Videos***** Radio On.
I ponder that sometimes, those that be, think, here is a tower, let's stick a few more antannae on. Overlooking the initial specification of the tower, and forgetting the accretion of winter rime and storms, and then they wonder why the tower collapsed.
Good clear pics of Stuart Hall then in Manc
Ringway the two sets of Yagi you are showing in this antenna system starting at around 7:00 through 7:02 the top ones appear to be individually feed. For South Coldfield. The set underneath are phased. Just on the antenna in the back is a white phassing box. Those are the ones that point to Stanton Moor.
I wish we had a creator like you where I live in Brisbane, Australia. We have a few transmitters but they’re all concentrated on one mountain, Mt. Coot-tha. There are microwave links going to other mountains and buildings in the city though.
What really annoys me is fancy mixed polarisation aerials - often set as a beam on a 45degree angle or 4 folded dipoles at 45degree angles on 4 poles or those X shaped ones with 8 or 12 elements. All of them are a total waste of power, stations are having to pump in 4 times the power to get any coverage because they are inefficient. I looked at the old JUICE FM TX in Liverpool a few years ago and they were using a compromised antenna with 100Watts and gain of -2.5dB, so were allowed to turn the RF up to around 140Watts to give 100W at the aerial to overcome feeder loss. It was a dipole that had each element bent out so it was part horizontal, then vertical. It only give a combined H/V radiation pattern with 50Watts in each plane in theory. They would have been better using two dipoles - or just using vertical polarisation.
I am not even sure if it is still in the Cathedral. You can go on the roof for a tour of the cathedral in Liverpool most days and look at the transmitter room if you're lucky and all the aerials on the roof. There are PMR, police, mobile companies, coastguard, taxi service and radio stations.
Many years ago mixed polarisation was introduced in an attempt to improve reception in cars and portable sets which suffer from multipath (and hence some polarisation change).
I don't know the exact ratio but I'd hazard a guess that at least 40% of VHF & DAB reception is now in cars - even if not actually listening to programme material the VHF (FM) RDS Traffic Announcement & TMC/TPEG services are permanently being monitored in many car entertainment units. Unfortunately the UK government did not develop the RDS equivalents in the DAB network 😒
When VHF/FM broadcasting first started in the UK it was always horizontal polarised. But then in the 70s 80s they changed to mixed or circular polarisation, to improve reception for cars and portables.
you should do a tour of the croydon mast telling us what comes from where onit it
Please do a tour of The Wrekin transmitter and it's relays.
I love these videos. Thank you for posting them.
I'm in the US, but they're no less interesting.
I wanna see radical spinning antennas, certain RPM for diff purpose - better than the standard 3 types of polarization. the receiving antenna needs to spin the exact same rpm. the sending antenna needs to sub-broadcast its current RPM, and send a sync signal to ensure synchronized dipole orientation
How very interesting what all the parts of a local transmitter do. Here in Exeter I am near to the Exeter St Thomas mast, which was put there I believe the late 60s or early 70s to provide coverage to the west and lower parts of the city which doesn't get TV from Stockland Hill near Honiton. I've always lived in Exeter and always seen it so it's been here for at least 50 years. I wonder if you want to find out what does what. Radio 1 to 4 is there, TV, local BBC, local commercial and DAB channels. I heard that a feed from national medium wave is sent there and relyed to Pearce's Hill which overlooks the M5 at Jun 31. Radio 5 comes from there but previously Gold, Radio Devon, Talk Sport came from there.
Isn't that satellite dish looking straight at the wall?!
It's watching Pink Floyd!
This video was absolutely brilliant. I'm a little bit curious about the multiple Tetra antennas, why so many?
It took me a while to figure it out too, I’ll tell you in a future video, it’s quite complex haha
@@RingwayManchester Ill be very interested in that video as none of the co-linear antennas on this mast are connected to the police Tetra system
Fascinating! Would there be a possibility to locate a repeater there for the amateur radio service? Probably not.
Buxton has a repeater. I’d say putting one here would be expensive
Would be great to see what equipment is running all this stuff in the buildings
Thanks for relaying the message with another video...
...i like trains (and bad puns).
😊 this is my local relay
Stacking beams one on top of the other is for gain, handy for longer distances. You might only get 3dB more, but that is double, so worth it. Putting them side by side tends to be for dealing with reflections, you can slide one beam forwards or backwards to eliminate multipath interference - or it is to tighten the angle of reception but keep the same gain. Think of changing from floodlight to torch beam.
I don't think they would use two lots of RX.
I used both methods to overcome rubbish signal when Winter Hill was on reduced power as it was being changed to Digital.
2 x 10 element group CD wasn't good enough. 1 with no preamp meant no CH4/5 and breaking up ITV. A preamp got ITV and CH4 was still bad.
I tried the 2 x 10 element stacked by the length of the dipole. Then i got 2 x 18 element and that was better. I had an indoor preamp at the time, but you can't amplify something that isn't there. I used a masthead preamp and got a good picture for years. Others were being ripped off, a neighbour paid £250 for this huge aerial and coax and it kept breaking up. They even had one about 6ft long pointing to Wales and that was no good.
My TV aerial now is a log periodic with amp on it that's on the pole supporting a washing line in the garden. Perfect signal. It was only temporary after getting shut of VirginMedia for doubling my bill, but it works really well, so i left it,
How are you getting the drone footage? I would have thought you couldn't fly that close to the antennas.
I would not mind a video of what is hiding in those sheds...
Or am I being greedy?
not seeing any wind-power next to those towers :( FYI Minnesota has had above average winds almost non stop since 9 weeks ago...calm the last few days
Croker Hill please.
Do the ambulance and fire services also use the police antenna services?
2:21 Those swaying buildings on the right are freaky.
The whole site sways
0:23 I like trains!
Trains!
I like trains!
Say Lewis, with all the engineering of relays and broadcast areas by both public and private entities, do you know of any location or area in Britain where there's *no* radio, television, or public service coverage? Are there no 'dead spots' in Ole' Blighty?
That’s an interesting one! I’ll have to do some digging
@@RingwayManchester Cool. ;)
Part of Betwys-Y-Coed never had TV or radio - not sure if they have relays now. They only just had phones and when internet took off around 1995, speeds were 4-5Kbps using Demon, or attempting to via 14K4 and 28K8 modems. I used to go on holiday every year and stay near a farm, so got to know the family that run it. They couldn't even get MW stations unless they hooked up the radio to miles of fence. We did that with a CB one day and the result was amazing from about 3miles of barbed wire running 3ft off the road, then up a hill. There were no mobiles back then and no VHF radio, SATTV was not common.
There are some spots that are in shadow of terrain (and occasionally even buildings) for some services. UHF is line of sight, but VHF and lower follows the surface more. There will be some remote properties that don't have coverage of any kind, but, most small communities above a few properties will likely have tv coverage from small relays or fillers. Old technologies like MF and LF tend to have better reach. That said, there are some edge areas on all services where reception is poorer or even affected by the sea where transmission occurs over water.
@@ianflint4610 I understand all this, Mr. Flint. British broadcasters have gone to great lengths to ensure their services are receivable by all. That's the point of all the relays and such. But I wonder if, despite all these efforts, there are areas where reception is simply impossible, either due to natural or deliberate cause?
I LIKE TRAINS.
Make more Videos 😁 please
What is the difference between a "relay" and a "repeater?"
if you read this have a nice day
You too 👍
@@TexasPrisonStories thank you
You too homie
bgchycjhygvkinhb ! ay ta kcab thgir
Thanks, I've had a lovely day 😊
Were all those stone walls in the fields built by the Romans??
i dont understand YAGI antennas that have a metal central boom stick, that touches the metal Yagi element rods??? how is there no interferance? I always use laminated wood to hold the antenna rods
It's magic, really - it can be complicated to explain if you are not in to RF. It depends on the frequency the elements are resonant on and how they are spaced and how the impedance is matched to the feedpoint. The more elements, the higher the gain to a point, but narrower acceptance angle or beamwidth. The boom is designed not to be resonant on the frequency the aerial is designed for, so the RF doesn't see it. I will not even mention a dual or triple band aerial that can be connected via one piece of coax to a diplexer or triplexer in to 3 different radios - then all transmit/receive at the same time, or 2 transmit and 1 receive or 1 transmit and 2 receive. That will blow your mind how they don't interfere with each other. Think of low and high pass filters and how the aerial is resonant on say VHF and UHF.
You can even use the same aerial to transmit and receive for repeaters, it can be RXing on 145.150 and TXing on 145.750. that uses cavity filters, see how it starts getting complicated.
It doesn't look a big as the Sutton Coldfield transmitter is it because it's a a higher altitude than Sutton Coldfield that makes it taller.
Buxton is a tower structure. They are generally smaller than masts such as Sutton Coldfield. Lichfield, a short distance away, is actually significantly higher than SC. The top of SC is around 400m. The base of Buxton is at 411m. SC is a big site hosting lots of services.
_"What Do They Do"?_
Give _Lewis_ a topic to make a video about...😉
👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
My question is, what type of permits does it take to install a ham radio antenna/tower that is 60 meters tall… or about 199 ft??? On a nice high hill you own!!!
DE N2JYG
In the UK you need Planning Permission from your local Council. If it was in the middle of nowhere, not near roads or houses, you might get away with just doing it, but you run the risk of aircraft hitting it. It depends where it is,
You'd need planning permission from your local council.
@@Bond2025 Sounds like a building permit to me from the local town or village. FAA issues comes into effect at the 200 ft mark except close to an airport. Lights are needed at 200 ft for a rule of thumb. Unless you pissed off someone in local government. I figure that 30-60 days are the normal amount of time. They did add FAA regulations but they are pretty much just common sense stuff. Being in a rural area with no major airports within 10 miles, in my case I am 25 air miles from a minor airport.
73’s
DE N2JYG
I like trains
i like trains
Im an American so forgive my ignorance. Im a bit of an anglophile but ive never understood the BBCs prominence.
Can you make a video explaining the bbc's role in radio and television? They seem to be the governing body but they also compete with their own channels? You have to get a license from them to broadcast but they briadcoast their own programs as well... they have it made.
They have a monopoly over everything someone can watch or listen to. For instance, "radio 1" is a universally recognized channel "for you lot", as youd say.
We have no equivalent in the us and our broadcasting companies are privatized. Every city has a different channel numbering system for radio/tv and there's many more local channels. Rather then a widely broadcasted government channel or system.
For instance, they operate radio1,2,3, and 4. What do you call channel 5? Our fm channels are like 85-110ish. 97.3 is different in every city tho. a large percentage of tv channels are the same countrywide, but just numbered differently.
Likewise, we have no tv tax/license nor tv license police. You can pick up the 20ish most basic channels in your area with an antenna for absolutely free. although this is slowly becoming more difficult as more people rely soly on digital tv.
The BBC play no part in frequency licensing that is managed by a Government body Ofcom.
The BBC is the 'National Broadcaster' (many countries have the same) and in the early days was the only authorised broadcaster. The BBC have no monopoly over what can be listened to or watched - their programming has to fight with commercial (private) stations for audiences based on content.
Back in the day the BBC had three radio channels 'Light Programme', 'Home Service' and 'Third Programme'. The surge in Pirate Pop Music broadcasts in the '60/70s caused the BBC to develop a POP station which they named Radio 1 which is when they renamed their other stations to Radio 2, 4, 3 respectively. Radio 1,2,3 & 4, along with many BBC local radio stations are carried on VHF (FM) on different frequencies around the country. They are also duplicated, along with other narrow interest BBC radio stations and many commercial stations, on DAB broadcasts. (UK DAB is in the old Band III TV spectrum)
Channel 5 is a TV station and, along with Channel 4, just adopted the names Five & Four to follow the BBC1, BBC2, ITV lead. All UK TV stations used to be transmitted on UHF but now are carried on Digital channels over Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) The terrestrial (from aerial) service delivers all BBC and mainstream TV services along with many other commercial stations - usually about 80 odd. Many other services are available by streaming from the Internet. (Netflix, Prime, Disney etc.)
Yes the UK has a TV license which funds the operation of the BBC (given the TV and radio output I personally think it is good value) This means that BBC TV and Radio stations do not carry advertisements. People think this I archaic BUT 16 other countries in Europe also have TV licenses. While the BBC license fee is optional (if you want to watch live broadcasts and BBC catch up services) most other countries include the TV license fee in either a local tax/levy or a levy on broadband or electricity supply and thus it cannot be 'opted out of'
I should have said that all conventional analogue TV broadcasting in the UK has ceased all free to air TV broadcasts are carried on the DTT 'Multiplex' transmitters.
why no DVB-T?
it does dvbt
The phased array of logs pointing to Winter Hill was probably originally in the 1970s a UHF trough aerial pointing at Ladder Hill or similar.
In the days of analogue TV, Buxton BBC1 used to cause massive problems for my reception of Channel 5 as it was co-channel and on the same bearing as the low power relay we used.
Lewis, BBC Radio Darby. Phased Yagi or not? Perhaps spacial diversity is at play here, receiving first the strongest of the two signals. Poulsbo, Washington
Sheep sheep everywhere