I was Chief Engineer of a directional AM for decades (among other stations) and when they started putting up cellular towers, I used to get calls asking us to power down so the cell site workers could work on the pole without receiving love nibbles from it. Keep in mind, those are grounded poles and towers that were absorbing enough of the RF to have high voltage points along their length. I helped detune several for them so the workers could work on them safely while I stayed on the air. But all it took was for them to add some more feedlines or otherwise change the electrical length of the tower and the detuning was disabled.
LOL.... Worked in a factory that that had miles and miles of unsheilded twisted pair phone lines. There was a 50000 watt AM monster about a mile down the road. We had a free muzak system on every phone in the building. It was comical trying to actually use it as a phone system. I never got bit by the phones but there were plenty of other things like fences, window frames, and a couple of times a week an elevator cable would energize and trip out the whole system.
@@abelincoln7473 I worked for a dialup ISP waaay back in the day. We had an unfortunate customer who couldn't connect at speeds greater than 14.4Kbps, and listening to his phone call to support would tell you why. He lived about 1/4 mile from a 50KW daytime AM radio transmitter (5KW at night) and you could clearly hear talk radio in the background of his phone call, and that just wasn't playing well with the modem. He joked he could hear the station in his tooth fillings but I think there could have been some truth in that statement! All I could do is suggest he contact the FCC and/or the radio station's engineering department and see if they had any suggestions.
Nothing to do with Tesla...he was a late-comer to radio. Say thanks to James Clerk Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz.. Maxwell wrote the theoretical Mathematics which predicted Electromagnetic radiation...radio. Hertz was the first to demonstrate radio...long before the upstart Tesla.
I once went to a pharmacy near to Moorside Edge, to sort out their IT system. While I was there, I used their FAX/phone and noticed Talksport was breaking through on the handset. The staff said it was something they had learned to live with. I has a spare ADSL filter in the car, and that cured it completely.
It is easy to forget that radio wave are actual power being transmitted through the air. At first it didn't dawn on me why the two towers a mile away were what was causing the danger. Definitely something to remember when exploring old antenna sites!
I've seen people make devices to "tap into this free source of power" and light an LED with it or something. I don't think the FCC would appreciate you sapping radiostations' power output for your own personal use. I don't know the law exactly, but a large enough reciever could potentially attenuate the signal a great deal for everybody else. I'm sure in the case described in the video, it probably caused a lot of disruptions to transmission.
@@VoidHalo There are demonstrations of AM transmitter arrays with one element down and as the now "dead" element is grounded for safety, a would be lethal hot arc strikes as the clip gets close, with the clear as day audio imposed on the hiss. It's picking up the RF from the other still operational transmitters in the array. They run multi 6 digit power figures ERP. If you're stupid enough to connect yourself between an active element and ground, bring sauce for the first responders. You're done.
I used to live less than half a mile from this transmitter while growing up. One year I was given an electronics set to play with which included an AM radio that I could build. The signal was so strong that it didn’t need the antenna wire attached!
Before the telephone system went digital beyond the local loop, I used to be able to hear to local am stations on the landline telephone handset when it was on hook. Weird then, but not anymore when they went digital beyond the local loop.
In Bob Noakes book Last of the pirates, he mentioned getting shocks of Carolines aerial when they were off air. The signal from Veronica and RNI a mile away produced enough electricity in Carolines mast to light a florescent tube! This was used to light the ship for safety reasons when all of carolines generators had failed.
Many,,years ago, our revered ex-Middlesex Scoutmaster with his Excelsior motorbike told us that the red navigation lights on the 4YA AM masts on Otago Peninsula,,Dunedin NZ, were only tied on, with no connecting wires. We couldn't quite get it that the radiated power was enough to activate the light bulbs,,or maybe they were short fluorescent tubes. ...on an aside,,, since someone mentioned local accents.... noticing the hard "g" sounds the narrator has on the end of his "xxng" words.... local, regional accent,,wonder where the limits of this are.... The South Island has its famous Scots originated "Southland burr" with the long "rr" as in "burrrn".
This video in the beginning reminds my of what they called as a "fantom" antenna. A radioamatour on the westcoust in Norway could not reach repeater on the other side of a mountain. He had 3 yageybeems. He set up one at home, and 2 beams back to back on top of the moutain, and then he was able to reach the repeater!!! Nice work I think! The best from LB1NH Arild 🙂
Pennine Radio is a blast from my past - the first local independent radio we could listen to in Bradford in the 1970s and we knew where the studios were!
At first I wondered why it could be dangerous even when switched off, then when you mentioned the other two masts nearby I knew what the problem would be. We did a special event radio demonstration maybe 15 years ago at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and located in the old railway station with a long wire outside. Graham had brought an countrpoise earth and tuner and connected it up while I was transmitting on my h/b 5 Watt output radio. He jumped back as he had received a shock. That's only 5 Watts. G4GHB.
The original local commercial radio stations were precisely that - local stations with local content - not always local voices, but we forgive them for that - as long as they pronounced the local places properly - though I think they were given training or something - anything broadcast on that station was being broadcast from that station - some stations made programmes that were ultimately broadcast by other stations that were suitable for national broadcast, but there was no actual network programming - the only thing you were likely to hear on most stations simultaneously was the news from IRN - some stations included the IRN news within the bulletin, then had local news, whereas others mixed the two together - a pin item from IRN with the associated report, followed by a local story, alternating between the two - but, for the most part, everything was broadcast from the station itself - not some remote location in somewhere like London- although the stations had only IRN from 7 pm whether or not they took the regular daytime feed live - often broadcast specialist music shows in the early evenings, built around classical or rock or soul or folk - but they usually came from the station - by the mid-80s, some stations “merged” (really a takeover bid by the bigger of the two) - Metro and Tees being an example- between about 1986 and 1988, Radio Tees simulcast Metro Radio, originally from 1 am, then from 10 pm, then from 7 pm - Radio Tees still claimed to be broadcasting 24 hours a day - but with Metro Radio taking over between 7 pm and 7 am, it was not the case - even more bizarre was that Radio Tees relayed Metro via a landline, resulting in the broadcast being relayed in mono - how that = 24 hours a day in stereo, when it’s 12 hours a day in stereo from Stockton and 12 hours a day in mono from Swalwell? The downfall for local radio stations was the Network Chart Show - although it could be heard in stereo on Capital Radio and stations nearby who could use a radio to relay it in stereo, it was put out using the same landline they used for IRN - fine for the news, but hopeless for music- it was like listening on a portable kitchen radio! They did eventually use a satellite link, which improved reception! A radio station was offered to local commercial stations as an all night sustaining service - it was in stereo - called Radio Radio, but identifying itself as The Superstation, not all stations carried it - some only took it from midnight or 2 am, but others took it all - when that closed down, that saw some big companies turning into conglomerates and taking over each other - it was not uncommon to have programmes on several different stations simultaneously - then the AM services became various quasi-national stations with only local news, traffic news and local ads - national stations with limited local content - now they’re all Greatest Hits Radio or Heart!
You certainly nailed it... IMO there really isn't any good local commercial radio in the UK anymore, especially on AM where services are shutting down. In Surrey, the most reliable local station is BBC Surrey and even that is shared with BBC Sussex. Sure there are some community stations (Kane FM in Guildford comes to mind) but their coverage is... pants. I know this is way off topic to the OP but with AM shutting down that mast in Vicars Lot might not get so excited by nearby Mooreside Edge anymore. Though it's probable the site may be gone and the FM relocated to a cellphone mast before Mooreside Edge goes away too. Honestly soon we'll be talking about the shutdown of FM analogue in the same way we're talking about AM shutdown. And everything will be a quasi national DAB+ service.
CONGRATS ON HITTING 100K SUBSCRIBERS!!! Brings back a lot of memories working at various transmitter sites in the States. Had to do a cable repair for a paging transmitter on top of the John Hancock building in Chicago. It was a restricted antenna site where one could only enter the roof area two times a year unless you had these special RF "suits" to wear which were grounded. Not having access to such attire we had to wait until the January major maintenance of the site to conduct our repair. Reason is that the two masts on top of the building house the antennas for all of the FM radio stations on one mast and the TV masters on the second mast. Combined output power alone from the TV masters was well over 800,000 watts combined visual and aural, this was actual watts NOT ERP. The FM masters were at least 200,000 watts into the antenna. Boy was it freezing up there in January! A friend who was in the Navy told me of an issue as they came close to port, they had an issue with seagulls coming in and roosting under the pulsed radar array antenna on the carrier he was stationed on. Let’s just say that those sailors who were on the Chiefs sh!t list were tasked with gathering dead gulls and tossing them overboard. The ship also had an incident where an electronics tech in the hangar bay accidentally activated radar countermeasures on one of the aircraft he was working on, thank goodness the rest of the team was in the galley for chow, he wound up with nerve damage from the high RF exposure.
Great story and production, Lewis! RF fields decay following the inverse square law, but the TX powers here are so high, there is danger of RF burns at relatively large distances.
Also be aware of lokal thunderflashes. they also could cause verry high voltages on the isolated tower. Same goes with airplanes. When refueling them you have to connect a ground lead first, to prevent flashes caused by static electricity
It’s over decades certainly, but it’s still amazing just how much change went on within radio in this one regional area. It makes it seem rather volatile from the outside looking in. But very interesting as well. Really really enjoy the content! Well done, sir. Well done indeed. 👍🏼
Well as Y2K manager for WSP I had rapidly to learn everything from HVAC to substations. It was mostly BMS though. And climbing up any broadcasting mast definitely not a good idea. (Afterwards working for Wates they thought it a good idea to put me in charge of excavation and reinfored concrete. That was a rapid learning curve as well)
I witnessed an HVAC guy do the funky chicken dance when he stuck his finger in the wrong spot while servicing my heat pump. Glad I was there, had he passed out or gotten stuck he'd have been in a tight spot if he were alone.
I love this channel. Congratulations Lewis - you should feel immensely proud of achieving 100K subscribers. I'm a broadcast geek and I'd love to see more TV and IP related content if that's possible in the future? Either way, looking forward to more videos like this! All the best, J.
I must agree , your progress has been great to watch Lewis , i love it when you go down the numerous rabbit holes , a techy and a investigative journalist , top bloke indeed , thanks
I grew up within 3 miles of Emley Moor, so all of this scenery is very familiar to me. That close to Emley Moor we could get teletext with no antenna connected, but getting a TV picture without ghosts was a nightmare.
It is the same reason why switched-off high-voltage wires have voltage when a switched-on wire is close to this switched-off wire. You have to earth the switched-off wire, then it is really de-energised.
I've seen a video of a tool drop resulting in a cable snap and tower collapse, pretty amazing that this kind of electrocution hazard can be caused so far away. Thanks for your great and unique videos and content.
@@NinoJoel It was a wrench, and yeah it was for 2" or 2.5" nuts. It fell several hundred feet before it hit the cable and it cut in enough to snap it. I'll try to find the video of it and reply back.
@@NinoJoel This is the closest I can find now and I think it may be where I saw the story originally. Maybe not :P Frontline story on cell tower deaths th-cam.com/video/ue5fMQ9vZCU/w-d-xo.html
@@DoctorMangler dam the chances of hitting that steel wire are insanely low. What an unlucky b@stard . Reminds me of an accident in Poland where a worker accidentally took of a support cable while he was working on the tower resulting in a collapse and his death.
wonderful, if you like classic gold, will you listen to the Easy listening mega pulse gold 2 network? or should i switch to Pulse hallam Yorkshire gold AM? Maybe I should just stick to the pro Gold late night mega share Gold Pulse 1 network! ....ha
96.9 viking fm oh that's an old one from when I used to clog around in my old X reg fiesta it was a good station around Hull and Scunthorpe and grimsby. Cheers Lewis another great video
You should consider making a detailed video or two on the Emley Moor tower! Not being from the UK, I was not aware of it, and suspect it's completely unknown to most in North America. It's an absolutely exceptional structure, and its looks are very imposing. I would have guessed such a thing belonged in the Soviet Union, not current day Great Britain. I see now you have some older videos visiting it. I suspect it's rather mundane to you. But being from the US, it's completely different from what I'm used to seeing, and really remarkable! At best you could compare it to the CN Tower in Toronto, or Space Needle in Seattle, which are tourist attractions, and designed very differently overall. The Emley Moor tower is definitely all business, and rather stark and brutal in its appearance! I don't think Americans are used to seeing all-concrete, purpose-built, freestanding radio towers. I appreciate all your videos.
The previous tower, which I visited on a public open day in about 1967, was a more conventional steel mast with guy cables. It collapsed in severe winter weather a few years later, because the weight of ice that formed overloaded the cables. So the transmitter that replaced it in 1971 was built on a much more imposing scale, and as you know it has stood the test of time.
I found this very interesting, I worked at the Bradford studios in the late 80s and remember playing different jingles on Classic Gold on 1278 and 1530 I always wondered where the 1530 transmitter was located now I know
For me, it's interesting each country has its own FM antenna systems, here we still rely on V shaped dipoles with a reflector from Aldena. The antenna here used is forbidden in the Benelux.
There's a wind turbine in the background close to the mast, would that have been installed to help power the transmitter (reducing the load on the DNO cables)?
Unless the masts happen to be fed from a completely separate supply I'd assume all of the grid-tied turbines up there would be contributing to the local network. I wouldn't have thought it installed for that specific purpose though - it's just a particularly favourable location for siting turbines.
How do you "switch off" a tower? I can see "switching off" the transmitter feeding an antenna on the tower, but I've never seen an on off switch on a tower.
I'd be fascinated over what you could find out about the stations around Scarborough (Both Irton Moor GCHQ and the dishes - yep - dishes used to transmit TV signal to the town below).
same with some scaffolding rigs. I worked on many film sets with massife scaffolding arrangments, before we earthed the towers down there was often a large mesurable differance to ground. With so much kit been wireless thesedays, this problem is only getting worse. Ive always said, earthing / grounding is such an under raited safty system.
Most People do not realize how RF works and be dangerous you can hold up a tube from a office light under a high voltage line and it will light up . We take a small tube and tape them to our radio antennas and light them when the mic is keyed .
Done a few surveys on Arqiva sites where there was a standard lattice tower (supporting cell equipment etc) in the same land as a MF mast or near a sloping wire. All of them were supervised by an engineer and when climbing would only be able to use a RF monitor that covered kHz range which the Nardalert S3 did but the cheaper ones used in the cellular industry don’t. Never seen anything untoward on the monitors on-site, but assume if winching up kit/steel it could be an issue.
nice 1 lewis i live in the west country very much same here our mendip tv and radio transmitter is still going strong i am 25 miles from it. its a beast does all the dab radio too. many moons ago gb3 wr was there it was said they could receive gb3 wr in london thanks lewis 73 m3hnl
As always fascinating unique content ! Just longing for the day when all those high power transmitters are switched off for good certainly talksport or talkbore as I call it
@@tazmaniachillthere's video of tower construction here on TH-cam. It's scary to see 2 guys at the top of the completed part while a helicopter lowers the next 100 feet onto and the guys have to line it up.
Would you consider doing a video on companies like arqiva? i saw their logo in your last video and thought nothing of it, but then walked past there office in london on my way home, and again here
My biggest FM is 100kw and biggest AM is 1kw. The latter is in the same building as the studios and the ground itself isn't great so I chase RF demons out things all the time. I have had equipment not connected to anything but a bit of wire I was removing and gotten a shock off it. That close pretty much anything is an antenna. If I am somewhat near the tuning coil I can make the curly lightbulbs light up in my hand. I sometimes have to remote in or drive out to lower power on my FM so climbers can go up near the bays. In the analog days my predecessor would get complaints and have to go to houses near the towers to add some filtering to a tv or hifi.
Do you happen to know what the single guyed mast at Farlington is for? (Another Arquiva) Best I could find was local radio years ago, bit nothing current
Nice , the risk that these towers contain. I would think alternative ways of more efficient and effective technology thats known and present would be already applied today like that of lasers to transmit, reflect and receive the signal through a connected array. Wouldnt need all the equipment they use for powering that huge propagation being emitted, relay of nodes.... cell phones now adays have wifi and all and so do street lights... who knows the unseen or hidden effects this is doing in terms to agricultural, biological, and celluar levels with the radiation. Virus's i read are caused by mere cell mutation and frequencies and vibrations can alter their vibratory growth rates. It seems more and more are being built. Im sure theres better, more efficent, and safer ways that dont hinder life and growth that wouldn't need nonwhere near as much energy to get the same results by narrowing in. Just my thoughts to consider. Thanks for this video , brought some awareness and perspectives along with it.
another "big loop" parasitic "antenna" that can accidentally give you a "zap" if you are close to a high power MW (or shortwave) transmitter is big tower cranes.... big metal upright, long metal boom & metal cable going back down to the ground basically forms a big conductive receive loop so not a good idea to stand on the ground & grab the hook when it descends (always make sure there is a "shorting tail" hitting the ground before you grab anything (just like rescue chopper winch-men have a conductive tail before they touch anything on the ground).
There's not much danger of being electrocuted, the danger is being severely burned. RF induced voltage is high frequency and anything over about 10kHz is not dangerous to the body. Similar to how a tesla coil works, instead of getting shocked you get burned.
Like the military uses a gloved wand to discharge static from fighter canopies, maybe they could use this approach before starting work on the antenna.
@FUL0H8, Once the airplane canopy is discharged, whoever touches it is free from shocks until it charges up again, most likely from flying. The radio station antenna mast is different, it is constantly receiving RF energy from the other station's transmitter, it's not something that could be discharged.
Oh yes we did it with our CB radios here in the US and taking the 8 foot ones and standing under high voltage transmission towers lines careful not to touch the ends !
I was a Ham radio operator in the mid-seventies from age 13 to 15. [No, I didn’t have a girlfriend, why do you ask? ;-) ] Anyway I’ve been burned by RF a few times over my life. I use burn rather than shocked because that’s what it always felt like. And I have a permanent straight line in two fingerprints to prove it. ;-)
FM coverage is all about height above average terrain, taller is better. Nice location, imagine a 4 or 500 M tower in the middle of a housing estate. Consultants make a tidy sum keeping sites legal.
Why does Broadcast Radio stations Change formats & Ownership so Frequently ?? ....It's like their "Long range Business Plan" is maybe 30 seconds Long or so...
I was Chief Engineer of a directional AM for decades (among other stations) and when they started putting up cellular towers, I used to get calls asking us to power down so the cell site workers could work on the pole without receiving love nibbles from it. Keep in mind, those are grounded poles and towers that were absorbing enough of the RF to have high voltage points along their length. I helped detune several for them so the workers could work on them safely while I stayed on the air. But all it took was for them to add some more feedlines or otherwise change the electrical length of the tower and the detuning was disabled.
love nibbles ;-)
Nibbles and bytes of trans-love@@NigelJones - the AM transmitter was a cause to many sparks just from nearby metal fence.
Love nibbles. I am gonna use that one.
LOL.... Worked in a factory that that had miles and miles of unsheilded twisted pair phone lines. There was a 50000 watt AM monster about a mile down the road. We had a free muzak system on every phone in the building. It was comical trying to actually use it as a phone system. I never got bit by the phones but there were plenty of other things like fences, window frames, and a couple of times a week an elevator cable would energize and trip out the whole system.
@@abelincoln7473 I worked for a dialup ISP waaay back in the day. We had an unfortunate customer who couldn't connect at speeds greater than 14.4Kbps, and listening to his phone call to support would tell you why. He lived about 1/4 mile from a 50KW daytime AM radio transmitter (5KW at night) and you could clearly hear talk radio in the background of his phone call, and that just wasn't playing well with the modem. He joked he could hear the station in his tooth fillings but I think there could have been some truth in that statement! All I could do is suggest he contact the FCC and/or the radio station's engineering department and see if they had any suggestions.
Shocked by transmitted power from a mile away. Nicola Tesla smiles upon us.
Nikola, not Nicola.
He was a rare brilliant genius, not Coca Cola.
or a Swiss cough drop @@foureyedchick
ole mate nikki was ahead of his time
Nothing to do with Tesla...he was a late-comer to radio.
Say thanks to James Clerk Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz..
Maxwell wrote the theoretical Mathematics which predicted Electromagnetic radiation...radio.
Hertz was the first to demonstrate radio...long before the upstart Tesla.
I once went to a pharmacy near to Moorside Edge, to sort out their IT system. While I was there, I used their FAX/phone and noticed Talksport was breaking through on the handset. The staff said it was something they had learned to live with. I has a spare ADSL filter in the car, and that cured it completely.
It is easy to forget that radio wave are actual power being transmitted through the air. At first it didn't dawn on me why the two towers a mile away were what was causing the danger. Definitely something to remember when exploring old antenna sites!
Personally I'm waiting for someone to tongue test one
@@MadScientist267 that would be a shockingly heart stopping experience I am sure. But someone should check it to be sure!
@@MadScientist267 Yeah, in the middle of a freezing cold winter!
I've seen people make devices to "tap into this free source of power" and light an LED with it or something. I don't think the FCC would appreciate you sapping radiostations' power output for your own personal use. I don't know the law exactly, but a large enough reciever could potentially attenuate the signal a great deal for everybody else. I'm sure in the case described in the video, it probably caused a lot of disruptions to transmission.
@@VoidHalo There are demonstrations of AM transmitter arrays with one element down and as the now "dead" element is grounded for safety, a would be lethal hot arc strikes as the clip gets close, with the clear as day audio imposed on the hiss.
It's picking up the RF from the other still operational transmitters in the array. They run multi 6 digit power figures ERP. If you're stupid enough to connect yourself between an active element and ground, bring sauce for the first responders. You're done.
I used to live less than half a mile from this transmitter while growing up. One year I was given an electronics set to play with which included an AM radio that I could build. The signal was so strong that it didn’t need the antenna wire attached!
I had a similar set, I think it was called "Electronics in action". It had basic schematics and these spring thing on a board to connect wires too.
Before the telephone system went digital beyond the local loop, I used to be able to hear to local am stations on the landline telephone handset when it was on hook. Weird then, but not anymore when they went digital beyond the local loop.
In Bob Noakes book Last of the pirates, he mentioned getting shocks of Carolines aerial when they were off air. The signal from Veronica and RNI a mile away produced enough electricity in Carolines mast to light a florescent tube! This was used to light the ship for safety reasons when all of carolines generators had failed.
Many,,years ago, our revered ex-Middlesex Scoutmaster with his Excelsior motorbike told us that the red navigation lights on the 4YA AM masts on Otago Peninsula,,Dunedin NZ, were only tied on, with no connecting wires. We couldn't quite get it that the radiated power was enough to activate the light bulbs,,or maybe they were short fluorescent tubes.
...on an aside,,, since someone mentioned local accents.... noticing the hard "g" sounds the narrator has on the end of his "xxng" words.... local, regional accent,,wonder where the limits of this are....
The South Island has its famous Scots originated "Southland burr" with the long "rr" as in "burrrn".
Again, your drone work is excellent. The shot of the plane flying by the antenna is most impressive! Thanks.
Towers are great at turning RF into happy tingles ⚡️
Yes they are!
I had no interest in radio stations etc and for some reason TH-cam reccomended your channel...
Now I'm hooked! These are great videos ❤
This video in the beginning reminds my of what they called as a "fantom" antenna. A radioamatour on the westcoust in Norway could not reach repeater on the other side of a mountain. He had 3 yageybeems. He set up one at home, and 2 beams back to back on top of the moutain, and then he was able to reach the repeater!!! Nice work I think! The best from LB1NH Arild 🙂
Pennine Radio is a blast from my past - the first local independent radio we could listen to in Bradford in the 1970s and we knew where the studios were!
100 K subscribers? Way to go! You deserve all the attention after all the work and research that you do.
Wow, thank you!
Congratulations on the milestone. I have got bit by an antenna before. It wasn't connected to anything at the time. It was a heck of a sting though.
Thanks so much mate!
@@Willam_J I learned that lesson before I could even drive. It was memorable enough I shall not repeat the mistake. 🤣
What happened to the dog? :) @@Willam_J
@@TymexComputing It peed on an ungrounded antenna tower :(
It's called static, you need to discharge your antenna, especially after a storm
I feel pretty lucky to recognize exactly what this video was going to be about as soon as I saw the directional AM sticks.
At first I wondered why it could be dangerous even when switched off, then when you mentioned the other two masts nearby I knew what the problem would be.
We did a special event radio demonstration maybe 15 years ago at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and located in the old railway station with a long wire outside.
Graham had brought an countrpoise earth and tuner and connected it up while I was transmitting on my h/b 5 Watt output radio. He jumped back as he had received a shock. That's only 5 Watts.
G4GHB.
Bauer is the worst thing ever to happen to broadcast radio in the UK.
The original local commercial radio stations were precisely that - local stations with local content - not always local voices, but we forgive them for that - as long as they pronounced the local places properly - though I think they were given training or something - anything broadcast on that station was being broadcast from that station - some stations made programmes that were ultimately broadcast by other stations that were suitable for national broadcast, but there was no actual network programming - the only thing you were likely to hear on most stations simultaneously was the news from IRN - some stations included the IRN news within the bulletin, then had local news, whereas others mixed the two together - a pin item from IRN with the associated report, followed by a local story, alternating between the two - but, for the most part, everything was broadcast from the station itself - not some remote location in somewhere like London- although the stations had only IRN from 7 pm whether or not they took the regular daytime feed live - often broadcast specialist music shows in the early evenings, built around classical or rock or soul or folk - but they usually came from the station - by the mid-80s, some stations “merged” (really a takeover bid by the bigger of the two) - Metro and Tees being an example- between about 1986 and 1988, Radio Tees simulcast Metro Radio, originally from 1 am, then from 10 pm, then from 7 pm - Radio Tees still claimed to be broadcasting 24 hours a day - but with Metro Radio taking over between 7 pm and 7 am, it was not the case - even more bizarre was that Radio Tees relayed Metro via a landline, resulting in the broadcast being relayed in mono - how that = 24 hours a day in stereo, when it’s 12 hours a day in stereo from Stockton and 12 hours a day in mono from Swalwell?
The downfall for local radio stations was the Network Chart Show - although it could be heard in stereo on Capital Radio and stations nearby who could use a radio to relay it in stereo, it was put out using the same landline they used for IRN - fine for the news, but hopeless for music- it was like listening on a portable kitchen radio! They did eventually use a satellite link, which improved reception!
A radio station was offered to local commercial stations as an all night sustaining service - it was in stereo - called Radio Radio, but identifying itself as The Superstation, not all stations carried it - some only took it from midnight or 2 am, but others took it all - when that closed down, that saw some big companies turning into conglomerates and taking over each other - it was not uncommon to have programmes on several different stations simultaneously - then the AM services became various quasi-national stations with only local news, traffic news and local ads - national stations with limited local content - now they’re all Greatest Hits Radio or Heart!
Hehe British place names.... Scunthorp anyone... Peniston perhaps... mwhahah
As I read this the 80s jingle came to my head: 104 “capital reiiii deeeoooo🎶”
You certainly nailed it... IMO there really isn't any good local commercial radio in the UK anymore, especially on AM where services are shutting down. In Surrey, the most reliable local station is BBC Surrey and even that is shared with BBC Sussex. Sure there are some community stations (Kane FM in Guildford comes to mind) but their coverage is... pants. I know this is way off topic to the OP but with AM shutting down that mast in Vicars Lot might not get so excited by nearby Mooreside Edge anymore. Though it's probable the site may be gone and the FM relocated to a cellphone mast before Mooreside Edge goes away too. Honestly soon we'll be talking about the shutdown of FM analogue in the same way we're talking about AM shutdown. And everything will be a quasi national DAB+ service.
@@MarkWooldridge143I hope FM continues for decades, given the crap sound quality on DAB due to inadequate bit rates.
CONGRATS ON HITTING 100K SUBSCRIBERS!!!
Brings back a lot of memories working at various transmitter sites in the States. Had to do a cable repair for a paging transmitter on top of the John Hancock building in Chicago. It was a restricted antenna site where one could only enter the roof area two times a year unless you had these special RF "suits" to wear which were grounded. Not having access to such attire we had to wait until the January major maintenance of the site to conduct our repair. Reason is that the two masts on top of the building house the antennas for all of the FM radio stations on one mast and the TV masters on the second mast. Combined output power alone from the TV masters was well over 800,000 watts combined visual and aural, this was actual watts NOT ERP. The FM masters were at least 200,000 watts into the antenna. Boy was it freezing up there in January!
A friend who was in the Navy told me of an issue as they came close to port, they had an issue with seagulls coming in and roosting under the pulsed radar array antenna on the carrier he was stationed on. Let’s just say that those sailors who were on the Chiefs sh!t list were tasked with gathering dead gulls and tossing them overboard. The ship also had an incident where an electronics tech in the hangar bay accidentally activated radar countermeasures on one of the aircraft he was working on, thank goodness the rest of the team was in the galley for chow, he wound up with nerve damage from the high RF exposure.
Great story and production, Lewis! RF fields decay following the inverse square law, but the TX powers here are so high, there is danger of RF burns at relatively large distances.
Thanks Clint!
Also be aware of lokal thunderflashes. they also could cause verry high voltages on the isolated tower.
Same goes with airplanes. When refueling them you have to connect a ground lead first, to prevent flashes caused by static electricity
Dear Ringway.
Congratulations on a well deserved 100 k subscribers.
It’s over decades certainly, but it’s still amazing just how much change went on within radio in this one regional area. It makes it seem rather volatile from the outside looking in. But very interesting as well.
Really really enjoy the content! Well done, sir. Well done indeed. 👍🏼
I'm an HVAC guy, this is all wizardry to me, but I like it, it's like when I first learned of Coloumbs 😂😂😂
Well as Y2K manager for WSP I had rapidly to learn everything from HVAC to substations. It was mostly BMS though. And climbing up any broadcasting mast definitely not a good idea. (Afterwards working for Wates they thought it a good idea to put me in charge of excavation and reinfored concrete. That was a rapid learning curve as well)
I witnessed an HVAC guy do the funky chicken dance when he stuck his finger in the wrong spot while servicing my heat pump. Glad I was there, had he passed out or gotten stuck he'd have been in a tight spot if he were alone.
I love this channel. Congratulations Lewis - you should feel immensely proud of achieving 100K subscribers. I'm a broadcast geek and I'd love to see more TV and IP related content if that's possible in the future? Either way, looking forward to more videos like this! All the best, J.
I must agree , your progress has been great to watch Lewis , i love it when you go down the numerous rabbit holes , a techy and a investigative journalist , top bloke indeed , thanks
I grew up within 3 miles of Emley Moor, so all of this scenery is very familiar to me. That close to Emley Moor we could get teletext with no antenna connected, but getting a TV picture without ghosts was a nightmare.
The high frequency of the RF coupled into the tower means it would give you a burn, but not a shock
It is the same reason why switched-off high-voltage wires have voltage when a switched-on wire is close to this switched-off wire. You have to earth the switched-off wire, then it is really de-energised.
I grew up looking over Moorside Edge each day. We called it Pole Hill, at least in my area of Halifax.
I've seen a video of a tool drop resulting in a cable snap and tower collapse, pretty amazing that this kind of electrocution hazard can be caused so far away. Thanks for your great and unique videos and content.
Lol what the hell did he drop? A boat anchor or what
@@NinoJoel It was a wrench, and yeah it was for 2" or 2.5" nuts. It fell several hundred feet before it hit the cable and it cut in enough to snap it. I'll try to find the video of it and reply back.
@@NinoJoel This is the closest I can find now and I think it may be where I saw the story originally. Maybe not :P
Frontline story on cell tower deaths th-cam.com/video/ue5fMQ9vZCU/w-d-xo.html
@@DoctorMangler dam the chances of hitting that steel wire are insanely low.
What an unlucky b@stard .
Reminds me of an accident in Poland where a worker accidentally took of a support cable while he was working on the tower resulting in a collapse and his death.
@@NinoJoel A mistake you make only once. I couldn't work on those towers.
wonderful, if you like classic gold, will you listen to the Easy listening mega pulse gold 2 network? or should i switch to Pulse hallam Yorkshire gold AM? Maybe I should just stick to the pro Gold late night mega share Gold Pulse 1 network! ....ha
I love the great music on this channel! So chill and nice to enjoy a good vid any time of the day or night... SO GOOD! Thank you!!
96.9 viking fm oh that's an old one from when I used to clog around in my old X reg fiesta it was a good station around Hull and Scunthorpe and grimsby. Cheers Lewis another great video
I would be worried about RF burns too. As someone lucky enough to get an RF burn, they are no fun at all.
You should consider making a detailed video or two on the Emley Moor tower! Not being from the UK, I was not aware of it, and suspect it's completely unknown to most in North America. It's an absolutely exceptional structure, and its looks are very imposing. I would have guessed such a thing belonged in the Soviet Union, not current day Great Britain. I see now you have some older videos visiting it. I suspect it's rather mundane to you. But being from the US, it's completely different from what I'm used to seeing, and really remarkable! At best you could compare it to the CN Tower in Toronto, or Space Needle in Seattle, which are tourist attractions, and designed very differently overall. The Emley Moor tower is definitely all business, and rather stark and brutal in its appearance! I don't think Americans are used to seeing all-concrete, purpose-built, freestanding radio towers. I appreciate all your videos.
The previous tower, which I visited on a public open day in about 1967, was a more conventional steel mast with guy cables. It collapsed in severe winter weather a few years later, because the weight of ice that formed overloaded the cables. So the transmitter that replaced it in 1971 was built on a much more imposing scale, and as you know it has stood the test of time.
I found this very interesting, I worked at the Bradford studios in the late 80s and remember playing different jingles on Classic Gold on 1278 and 1530 I always wondered where the 1530 transmitter was located now I know
For me, it's interesting each country has its own FM antenna systems, here we still rely on V shaped dipoles with a reflector from Aldena. The antenna here used is forbidden in the Benelux.
There's a wind turbine in the background close to the mast, would that have been installed to help power the transmitter (reducing the load on the DNO cables)?
Unless the masts happen to be fed from a completely separate supply I'd assume all of the grid-tied turbines up there would be contributing to the local network. I wouldn't have thought it installed for that specific purpose though - it's just a particularly favourable location for siting turbines.
Now that was interesting. Being a Tyke, I appreciate this particular content.
How do you "switch off" a tower? I can see "switching off" the transmitter feeding an antenna on the tower, but I've never seen an on off switch on a tower.
I'm another one who has received minor RF shocks during maintenance one has to be careful in high wattage areas.
I'd be fascinated over what you could find out about the stations around Scarborough (Both Irton Moor GCHQ and the dishes - yep - dishes used to transmit TV signal to the town below).
What? They didn't try Classic Gold Death Metal? Great vid as always.
I don’t know a damn thing about radio, but I love watching this channel anyway! Very cool intersection of tech know-how and history!
Thanks for another interesting look at some AM medium wave transmitters. Thanks for the upload.
Now I know how my local good buddies felt in the 1980's when I was Dxing with big big power lol
Great video my friend.
same with some scaffolding rigs. I worked on many film sets with massife scaffolding arrangments, before we earthed the towers down there was often a large mesurable differance to ground.
With so much kit been wireless thesedays, this problem is only getting worse.
Ive always said, earthing / grounding is such an under raited safty system.
Most People do not realize how RF works and be dangerous you can hold up a tube from a office light under a high voltage line and it will light up . We take a small tube and tape them to our radio antennas and light them when the mic is keyed .
Done a few surveys on Arqiva sites where there was a standard lattice tower (supporting cell equipment etc) in the same land as a MF mast or near a sloping wire. All of them were supervised by an engineer and when climbing would only be able to use a RF monitor that covered kHz range which the Nardalert S3 did but the cheaper ones used in the cellular industry don’t. Never seen anything untoward on the monitors on-site, but assume if winching up kit/steel it could be an issue.
an rf burn from that antenna would be quite nasty. at that high of power output, it could maybe kill you if you grounded yourself properly.
Used to listen to Hallam / Hallam FM mainly in the car when driving around Rotheram/Sheffield in the late 1980s
nice 1 lewis i live in the west country very much same here our mendip tv and radio transmitter is still going strong i am 25 miles from it. its a beast does all the dab radio too. many moons ago gb3 wr was there it was said they could receive gb3 wr in london thanks lewis 73 m3hnl
Good story - Was it an AM site going back to wW2?
As always fascinating unique content ! Just longing for the day when all those high power transmitters are switched off for good certainly talksport or talkbore as I call it
Thanks for your work love it. Very interesting see you on your next video Alan from LUTON 💯👍👍👍
Just getting caught up with a few of your videos…excellent work as usual.
I see this transmitter from my house and you are right even on a clear day it's barely visible
How the hell do they stand upright at that height ?
They’re tethered to the ground
@@RingwayManchester yeah I get that my friend, but wow….. still how is so high? Helicopter’s or what?
@@tazmaniachillthere's video of tower construction here on TH-cam. It's scary to see 2 guys at the top of the completed part while a helicopter lowers the next 100 feet onto and the guys have to line it up.
Even without the two adjacent towers you can still get a heft jolt from static - something that happened many years ago to me.
Induction strikes again!
Huh how much power could I grab if I lived nearby? Like could it replace my standard electric if I just set up an antenna and some batteries?
Lewis, your channel is epic 😊
enjoyable content as usual - love the camera work - well done!
Would you consider doing a video on companies like arqiva? i saw their logo in your last video and thought nothing of it, but then walked past there office in london on my way home, and again here
Possibly, unfortunately arqiva aren’t very good at returning emails
My biggest FM is 100kw and biggest AM is 1kw. The latter is in the same building as the studios and the ground itself isn't great so I chase RF demons out things all the time. I have had equipment not connected to anything but a bit of wire I was removing and gotten a shock off it. That close pretty much anything is an antenna. If I am somewhat near the tuning coil I can make the curly lightbulbs light up in my hand. I sometimes have to remote in or drive out to lower power on my FM so climbers can go up near the bays. In the analog days my predecessor would get complaints and have to go to houses near the towers to add some filtering to a tv or hifi.
I knew exactly where you were from the first second! I've been up there and seen the warning sign about the induced voltage.
Do you happen to know what the single guyed mast at Farlington is for? (Another Arquiva) Best I could find was local radio years ago, bit nothing current
I love the tune at the beginning…care to share who made it? 😊
Nice , the risk that these towers contain. I would think alternative ways of more efficient and effective technology thats known and present would be already applied today like that of lasers to transmit, reflect and receive the signal through a connected array. Wouldnt need all the equipment they use for powering that huge propagation being emitted, relay of nodes.... cell phones now adays have wifi and all and so do street lights... who knows the unseen or hidden effects this is doing in terms to agricultural, biological, and celluar levels with the radiation. Virus's i read are caused by mere cell mutation and frequencies and vibrations can alter their vibratory growth rates. It seems more and more are being built. Im sure theres better, more efficent, and safer ways that dont hinder life and growth that wouldn't need nonwhere near as much energy to get the same results by narrowing in. Just my thoughts to consider. Thanks for this video , brought some awareness and perspectives along with it.
another "big loop" parasitic "antenna" that can accidentally give you a "zap" if you are close to a high power MW (or shortwave) transmitter is big tower cranes.... big metal upright, long metal boom & metal cable going back down to the ground basically forms a big conductive receive loop so not a good idea to stand on the ground & grab the hook when it descends (always make sure there is a "shorting tail" hitting the ground before you grab anything (just like rescue chopper winch-men have a conductive tail before they touch anything on the ground).
This is why I like playing with radio frequencys
I have an aunt who’s like those sheep: she likes to sit under the communications tower because she thinks she’s getting smarter there
At about 03:25 in this video:
That FM station should use the slogan *_"LIVE AT LEEDS."_* 😉
*LONG LIVE ROCK!* 👍😊
100 Volts. I wonder how many ma or amps available and how many potential watts?
Nice presentation Lewis.👍🏻
@RingwayManchester >>> Is that one single wind turbine a dedicated power source for the on-site equipment?
Ye gads the weather's always desperate up on that moor. Looks like you caught it on a good day!
Do you have any information on the radio masts at Sprucefield Northern Ireland 🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑
Lisnagarvey?
Blackley here.. enjoyed watching your video. 💯👍
You make the best videos thank you for ur content
When I saw the title I had a feeling it was about some kind of electrical stuff going on via RF
Nice Lindenblad antennas for FM. Circular polarization.
Indeed! A thing of beauty
Erm what was the station called again? 😂😂
The death of true local radio overseen and allowed by OFCOM such a tragedy.
More a problem of next to nobody listening to it any more meaning they can't get advertising revenue for private stations
only traffic and weather as they said :( @@gherkinisgreat
There's not much danger of being electrocuted, the danger is being severely burned. RF induced voltage is high frequency and anything over about 10kHz is not dangerous to the body. Similar to how a tesla coil works, instead of getting shocked you get burned.
Like the military uses a gloved wand to discharge static from fighter canopies, maybe they could use this approach before starting work on the antenna.
Would probably not work, because there will easily be RF voltage peaks and troughs along the height of the tower, even if you ground the base.
@FUL0H8, Once the airplane canopy is discharged, whoever touches it is free from shocks until it charges up again, most likely from flying. The radio station antenna mast is different, it is constantly receiving RF energy from the other station's transmitter, it's not something that could be discharged.
I live about 3 miles from here ❤
Oops
@@nodriveasusephotos8019?
If someone went up there with a florescent light bulb would the gas glow?
At moorside edge more than likely yes
Yes
Undoubtedly
Oh yes we did it with our CB radios here in the US and taking the 8 foot ones and standing under high voltage transmission towers lines careful not to touch the ends !
I once got a "nibble" from my FT290 accidentally keyed the mike with my finger across the so239😂
"Well, my radio tower is in the Domesday Book!"
Love it, keep it up bud
Yes , the antenna is a transducer ! 👽⚡️
I was a Ham radio operator in the mid-seventies from age 13 to 15. [No, I didn’t have a girlfriend, why do you ask? ;-) ] Anyway I’ve been burned by RF a few times over my life. I use burn rather than shocked because that’s what it always felt like. And I have a permanent straight line in two fingerprints to prove it. ;-)
Great detective work Lewis
Great Video and Information' Super detailed! Thank you'
📡 /l\📻
Do you do any dxing?
100k. Respect 🙏
I suppose they could give Vicars Lot to a lot of vicars… not likely, of course.
FM coverage is all about height above average terrain, taller is better. Nice location, imagine a 4 or 500 M tower in the middle of a housing estate. Consultants make a tidy sum keeping sites legal.
That explains the hf power interference in north i get if this is case its ofcom takedown if reprted
Why does Broadcast Radio stations Change formats & Ownership so Frequently ?? ....It's like their "Long range Business Plan" is maybe 30 seconds Long or so...