Peterbourgh Radio mast collapses!

Not that its really on topic for this newsgroup, but if any of you are wondering where your Radio on FM and DAB has gone in the West Cambs / east midlands area this morn, here is the reason!.

Still no one's likely to be irradiated in that area for a while!...

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Reply to
tony sayer
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They might fall on you.

Reply to
Huge

Do they have active parts of the transmitter actually on broadcast masts of this type? I thought that they were mainly lattice work with passive radiating elements.

I suppose it could have been something like a transformer underneath...

Reply to
Andy Hall

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a small mast either 153m (500')...

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher
O

Seems to be quite a large building at the base of the tower, so I assume it caught fire and weakened the steel to the point of collapse.

Dave

Reply to
Dave Stanton

Don't forget there is 10's of Kw of power going up the transmiter, it only needs a fault in the feeder for the power to end up where it can cause a problem....

Reply to
James Salisbury

In article , Dave Stanton writes

Doubt it very much. Word seems to be it was "malicious".....

Reply to
tony sayer

I've been into a few mast sites (co-locating comms kit, etc).. There are often several buildings at the base of a mast, each full of seriously heavy duty radio transmission kit (and recievers!) as well as BIG UPSs and auto-start generators... You all know what happens when you put metal into a microwave... Imagine a mast with several dozen microwave transmitters and something goes "phut" ...

Although simply cutting a few of the guy ropes/wires in a strong wind might be enough to bring it down, which might cause a fire in the building(s)...

Gordon

Reply to
Gordon Henderson

While the announcement a little while ago on Radio 4 was the usual laconic and non-specific: roughly, "If you're having difficulty receiving our signal in the Peterborough area, this is due to a technical fault at the transmitter. Engineers are working on the fault, and hope to have FM service restored soon. Meanwhile, you may find better reception by retuning."

What would it take, I wonder, for a "really" serious announcement? (Other than the death in a traffic accident of a poor little rich girl brought about by a drunken chauffer and the soi-disant unwanted attentions of publicity photographers, of course...)

Stefek

Reply to
Stefek Zaba

In article , Gordon Henderson writes

Yes but there is very little power going up there at those frequencies most of the gain is in the aerials themselves, and even at broadcast powers transmitters would "foldback" the power to protect the equipment.

Theres somewhere around 6 to 8 tons of tension in the stays on a mast like that so you wouldn't need a wind;(

Still have a look..

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Reply to
tony sayer

That's what I heard, it was nothing, until I read the opening post of this thread.

Yes.

I've also wondered if the troops would be withdrawn from Iraq if Mrs B* were taken hostage ...

Mary

*either of them

Reply to
Mary Fisher

to take up stamp collecting ...

Mary

Reply to
Mary Fisher

Careful Mary - that could be construed as a plot!

Al

Reply to
Al Reynolds

Oh no - I've blown it!

Mary

er - who's that at the door? Must be Trick or Treat ...

Reply to
Mary Fisher

It may depend on how it affected the load presented by the antenna. The high power transmitters I have worked on, typically had forward and reverse power monitoring built in. Should the antenna mismatch rise to a level where the amount of reverse power would cause damage to the output stages, then the software would "trip" the output for a second to see if that clears the problem. Should you get three such trips in the space of two mins then the transmitter is locked out. So you could end up being unlucky with you mast being damaged in such a way as the SWR still looked reasonable. Next thing you know you have something getting a bit hot!

Reply to
John Rumm

I had a George Bush at the door ! With a little square box stuck to his back, which amused me no end. Guardian readers.....

Reply to
Andy Dingley

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