Looking at the site plans submitted with the planning applications for DSO, and the photos on MB21, I think the transmitter hall is the large building on the east of the site. The BBC had the south end and the IBA the north. Knocking a hole through should have been fine. That's assuming that the analogue transmitters weren't replaced by temporary ones in shipping containers, in order to make space for the new digital transmitter.
Yep, that's the way it's laid out, with 2 legs of the mast on the transmitter hall itself.
London Tonight's report the other day showed the old ITV transmitter in situ and I very much doubt that they moved the BBC's into the car park. I had a look round the BBC bit of CP about 8 years ago, the BBC analogue transmitters there were installed in the mid 90's and are much smaller than the ones they replaced (the originals?). Those were still in the old transmitter hall collecting dust at the time with a lot of redundant and live feeders and combiners behind them. I'd have thought this space, possibly knocked through to the old IBA/NTL side would have been more than enough space especially going by how little space the existing (low powered) DTT kit took up
I'm really surprised that the analogues are coming back so soon, I wonder what exactly was done in that time.
My guess: unplug BBC Two transmitters from the old channel combiners, plug in the new BBC A transmitters. In my mind, the new channel combiners don't come into service until DSO 2.
'Plug in' and 'unplug' make it sound easy. We're talking about rigid feeders (coaxial copper pipes) carrying 15 kW or more of electrical power. No doubt 'U' links were provided to make the actual make/break of connections easy, but you still don't want to do it with the power on!
I believe the antenna is split PSB (upper)/COM (lower), with each half also split in two for redundancy. The PSB combiner will use the same channels as the PSB services currently do, except for C33 which it won't have a slot for, so it can't be used yet.
The channel masks for analogue are somewhat different than for digital, so I'm guessing some of the time off-air was required to bodge the C23 input's filters to be more suitable for digital.
(The combiner is basically an array of passive filtering components, often loops of feeder, designed to mask off frequency components from each transmitter to just the bandwidth of the desired channel, combine the three or four transmitter outputs together, and make sure all the power goes up to the antenna and none of it gets fed into the other transmitters!)
ITV1 Analogue now back on air. Now in place of BBC Two Analogue. I'm now off to bed as there is nothing else to see as I'm on a relay and currently can't receive DTT!
EDIT: Popping on and off a couple of times but I'm sure that won't happen for long!
'Plug in' and 'unplug' make it sound easy. We're talking about rigid feeders (coaxial copper pipes) carrying 15 kW or more of electrical power. No doubt 'U' links were provided to make the actual make/break of connections easy, but you still don't want to do it with the power on!
When I went round CP there were a couple of U-links just before the feeders that went up the tower - absolutely massive things that looked like a few buckets welded together that needed 2 handles so they could be pulled out.
The BBC A mux on UHF23 is very strong; stronger than any of the tests. Hopefully I will be able to ditch Guildford and reduce the aerial load here.
Guildford has reconfigured Mux 2 on to Mux 1's old frequency and the rest of low power digital stayed on throughout (they are fed into a log array). Just waiting for restoration of the main antenna services with all analogue off and no sign of BBC A yet.
Reigate analogue appears to be back already. Cannot see its digital here yet.
I did a re-tune earlier on and not all the channels came back (tried twice) so I did a first time installation and now all I get is a blue screen with 'no signal' on it - anyone know how I get the re-tune 'box' back on to try again?
It's a tiny cheapo JMB (bedroom tv), brand new, so I have no idea how it works really and the manual is worse than useless.
What about the relay stations of which there are many? Will ITV1 analogue come back on air on their original frequencies or like Crystal Palace main station, will ITV1 be broadcast on BBC2 transmitters. Also does anyone know whether there is any digital back up facilities at Croydon at present or is this currently a low priority.
retuned my bedroom TV & can't get any digital channels at all! That TV uses an indoor booster ariel which worked perfectly well before. It's an Intergrated Digital TV
retuned my bedroom TV & can't get any digital channels at all! That TV uses an indoor booster ariel which worked perfectly well before. It's an Intergrated Digital TV
What about the relay stations of which there are many? Will ITV1 analogue come back on air on their original frequencies or like Crystal Palace main station, will ITV1 be broadcast on BBC2 transmitters.
Yes, most of the relays will now have ITV analogue, where BBC 2 was.
Here in Basingstoke the analogues are now far weaker than they were before the 00:20 shut downs.
Ch 33 is only just visible through the noise. I'd say they are all running either on reduced power, or into a different aerial.
it's more than "slippage" when ther ariel no longer receives a signal. I wonder if my indoor booseter ariel is no longer compatible?
There seems to be no info on those on Switchover sites.
Comments
London Tonight's report the other day showed the old ITV transmitter in situ and I very much doubt that they moved the BBC's into the car park. I had a look round the BBC bit of CP about 8 years ago, the BBC analogue transmitters there were installed in the mid 90's and are much smaller than the ones they replaced (the originals?). Those were still in the old transmitter hall collecting dust at the time with a lot of redundant and live feeders and combiners behind them. I'd have thought this space, possibly knocked through to the old IBA/NTL side would have been more than enough space especially going by how little space the existing (low powered) DTT kit took up
Just ITV1 analogue to hop, skip and a jump over to BBC Two's old frequency channel
I often wonder what they're doing in between switching the channels off and retuning - perhaps sitting down with a nice cup of tea? lol
My guess: unplug BBC Two transmitters from the old channel combiners, plug in the new BBC A transmitters. In my mind, the new channel combiners don't come into service until DSO 2.
'Plug in' and 'unplug' make it sound easy. We're talking about rigid feeders (coaxial copper pipes) carrying 15 kW or more of electrical power. No doubt 'U' links were provided to make the actual make/break of connections easy, but you still don't want to do it with the power on!
I believe the antenna is split PSB (upper)/COM (lower), with each half also split in two for redundancy. The PSB combiner will use the same channels as the PSB services currently do, except for C33 which it won't have a slot for, so it can't be used yet.
The channel masks for analogue are somewhat different than for digital, so I'm guessing some of the time off-air was required to bodge the C23 input's filters to be more suitable for digital.
(The combiner is basically an array of passive filtering components, often loops of feeder, designed to mask off frequency components from each transmitter to just the bandwidth of the desired channel, combine the three or four transmitter outputs together, and make sure all the power goes up to the antenna and none of it gets fed into the other transmitters!)
01:24 Mux 1 gone.
EDIT: Popping on and off a couple of times but I'm sure that won't happen for long!
Quality a bit shaky, though BBC Two has always been the weakest analogue for me (excepting C5).
Guildford has reconfigured Mux 2 on to Mux 1's old frequency and the rest of low power digital stayed on throughout (they are fed into a log array). Just waiting for restoration of the main antenna services with all analogue off and no sign of BBC A yet.
Reigate analogue appears to be back already. Cannot see its digital here yet.
I did a re-tune earlier on and not all the channels came back (tried twice) so I did a first time installation and now all I get is a blue screen with 'no signal' on it - anyone know how I get the re-tune 'box' back on to try again?
It's a tiny cheapo JMB (bedroom tv), brand new, so I have no idea how it works really and the manual is worse than useless.
Reigate BBC A also seeing good signal here on UHF60.
London Relay stations' switchover times - you won't all be getting your Digital channels up yet!
Stick to the radio for a while.
I now have no channels at all, and no signal on the ariel
Yes, most of the relays will now have ITV analogue, where BBC 2 was.
Here in Basingstoke the analogues are now far weaker than they were before the 00:20 shut downs.
Ch 33 is only just visible through the noise. I'd say they are all running either on reduced power, or into a different aerial.
There seems to be no info on those on Switchover sites.