Had occasion to whizz up and down the M5 a few times of late, and noticed that for about a mile around the Droitwich transmitter, my car radio drops out and I get static ... just curious as to what's happening ... presumably the overall RF landscape is so flooded with the output, the car radio just can't discriminate and pick up the tiny R4 signal ?
Never had a chance to take/make a call while it's happening, so I can't say if it affects cellphones.
Probably best to post to uk.tech.broadcast.
In old days of LW car radios and electric car aeriels, I used to have to retract the aeriel a few miles either side of Droitwich to reduce the signal to a level the radio could cope with.
If you're trying for R4 on Long wave, it'll be overloading. Otherwise, it'll be non-linearity in the input stages swamping the FM signal. At the closest point, you could probably drive a speaker using a crystal set on a car aerial.
It puts out half a megawatt on LW, and not much less if you combine the MW signals.
No, but I have been inside a dome and watched the dish waving around. BLOODY impressive.
The main antenna is the 198khZ into which 500KW is fed. The followi ng link tells you more.
Peter Crosland
Considering Fylindales operates on around 430MHz any such notices would have been nonsensical.
Peter Crosland
what is the car radio on? FM?
Even so a few 100 KW of RF ecen at 198Khx is gonna f*ck with almost anything..
probably but less so. another order of magnitude further away from 200KHz
Is there anything else ;) ?
MW/DAB
Don't think I have ever driven past but back in the days before Fylindales was castrated I had walked past it several times and ISTR that outside of the perimeter fence there was an area of moorland on the eastern side with notices advising the public to stay out if they wanted to avoid being fried.
Alongside Droitwich, you could probably drive a Prius on a car aerial.
I do remember it killing certain models of Jaguar stone dead.Immobiliser triggered or engine management fails.
BMEWS Site 3. I agree it was more fun in the old golfball days. They amuse themselves by tracking space junk when there are no suspect objects inbound or training sessions in progress. ISTR It was an old CDC Cyber still running it right to the end. A side effect is that there are some very nice stripes of high resolution Russian spy satellite photos of that area of parts of the North Yorks moors.
BTW The Japanese Shakari BMEWS site in Aomori is missing from the list on Wiki. Also was 3 golf balls identical to Fylingdales but facing West.
Regards, Martin Brown
Perhaps "keep your privates out" would work?
MBQ
suggests so. Large impressive transmitting sites are getting rare parts of the landscape now. Daventry and Rugby went a few years ago and Rampisham in Dorset closed at the end of October so no more Martians will be heard around there. How many large antenna farms left now ? Woofferton and?
G.Harman
Sutton Coldfield ?
Not really what I have in mind just being a single mast, there are and still will be a fair few of those around for the foreseeable future. Wireless stations with Aerial or Antenna farms with multiple masts spread over a wide area linked by a cats cradle of wires ,often with strange bits that looked like demented kids had hurled a load of Hula hoops amongst them is a landscape feature that is following smallish coal Power stations,Gasholders ,Phone kiosks Pithead gear ,Pubs etc into disuse as we advance from the 20th century into the
21st.G.Harman
Obviously not a fan of cricket.
Sad innit? Still think on the bright side. In 5 years time you will be able to add windmills and PV panels to the list. And socialism.
Anthorn.
Quite extensive arrays at Anthorn and Skelton.
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