Just been watching Dragons Den on BBC2 and at 08:30 the picture pixellated on HD then froze.
A quick check for signal strength showed either nothing or almost nothing on 48, 36, 35, 34, and 33 but ok on 29, so Quest is fine but everything else has gone.
Then I tried Radio 4 FM on my Phillips cassette/radio at the back of the house (south) and that cannot get a stereo signal on 92.9 from the IoW. Just rotating the analogue slightly up the dial and a French voice comes through loudly, and clearer than R4. Rowridge is about 45 miles away to the South West, but I have never had this sort of co-channel interference before.
Its called tropospheric ducting and happens all the time. Its caused by a layer of cool air which is fairly stable then a layer of a different temperature, then a cold one again. Mist is often implicated. Back in them old days of analogue we used to be able to get Denmarks Radio tv down here in surrey on band 3 and German tv at uhf this way. Now though the digital systems make the whole thing a mess.
This is different to the sporadic E layer reflections of lower frequencies like band 1 of course though it has been known in summer for both to exist together causing mayhem on fm particularly and boiling mud on dab etc. Brian
A lot easier and less disruptive to meet on a spare (lots available at the moment) cruise ship, mid-Atlantic, protected by ships from the various nations.
Even better to have online discussions, or is it only the plebs that must stay at home cut down on travel in coming years?
Yebbut he doesn't live in the thick of it. I do! Mid-way on a straight line between Carbis Bay and Tregenna Caste hotels, which are about 1km apart. It's going on all around me and it's quite extraordinary here at the moment.
Lots of large artics heavily laden with concrete crash barriers and steel mesh fencing trundling by at frequent intervals.
Miles (literally) of 10ft high steel fencing going up, surrounding both the Tregenna Castle and Carbis Bay hotel estates and beyond. Some people have woken up to find their driveways have been blocked off overnight! Heavy concrete crash barriers in several places. Some roads blocked by massive drop-down barriers.
Over 5,000 police have been drafted in. I've spoken to a couple of them - one had come from South Wales, another from Edinburgh - they've been brought in from everywhere. Police and security people everywhere, in ones, twos and little groups, some of them carrying loaded firearms. They're being accommodated in camper vans on holiday parks and on a spare cruise liner in Falmouth. I walked down into St. Ives yesterday morning; all down one side of the road, for about a mile, was a 10ft high steel fence, and on the pavement on the other side were police and security people spaced every 20 yards.
Dozens of police cars, police vans and little military-type vehicles like heavy-duty golf buggies running around (actually, they're farm utility vehicles
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); marquees springing up everywhere in fenced-off fields to provide toilets and meals.
Lots of cameras on lamp-posts; temporary radio masts have sprung up in a couple of places;
There are several navy ships out in the bay and beyond. So far I've seen HMS Northumberland (frigate), HMS Tyne, HMS Tamar (fisheries patrol vessels), and patrol boats HMS Exploit, HMS Ranger and HMS Blazer. Then on Monday night five large helicopters twice flew low and almost directly overhead towards Tregenna Castle - two large Sea-Kings and three Ospreys (those tilt-rotor helicopters operated by the American military
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). Noisy buggers they were!
If we leave the 'restricted area' to go shopping in Penzance for example, we have to show at least two forms of identification before we can get back in, including one photo-identity such as a passport or driving licence.
I've read that it's all costing £70 million, and all that for just three days! At least we've had the roads resurfaced - our only beneficial legacy I expect! I came across this Daily Mail article which seems to give as fairly good description of it all - no doubt other newspapers are doing something similar.
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I've simply got in enough food to cover the weekend, and I've put the car away and will stay at home for the duration. On the one hand it's quite appalling, but on the other it's quite fascinating!
Any 'G7 benefits' will be impossible to differentiate from the benefits of people rushing to take holidays in the UK because Covid is stopping them from going abroad. The tourist season is well underway down here already, with accommodation fully booked everywhere. The
5000+ police that have been brought in are staying in mobile homes or on a cruise liner as there's no spare accommodation for them locally.
Last time I checked it's not compulsory to have either of those in this country, I've just given Lloyds bank an earful for assuming everybody has one or the other.
They have said that if you don't have them, or you've forgotten them, then it'll take a lot longer at the security check-points while they confirm your identity by other means, whatever that entails. The moral is: just stay home!
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