You are quite right, the corrugated area near the top of the mast is a weather shelter so that technicians working on the mast can shelter if bad weather comes in when they are up the mast. Also it allows staff to take a break out of the wind (which is vicious!) instead of going back to ground level. Incidentally, access up the mast is usually provided by a metal "basket" hauled up by a wire on a ground winch. Some unfortunate person has to climb up the ladder initially taking a rope to haul up the wire so the winch can be rigged up for use during the maintenance project. Climbing vertically takes good fitness! Ice is a big problem here. In the 1980s there was a severe icing episode (on the old mast which was later replaced). The ice was so thick that the guy wires could be clearly seen from down in Holmfirth. Unfortunately a sudden thaw in the weather caused tons of ice to slough off the guys which smashed into the building below. However, luckily it only damaged the standby generator plant and services kept going fed from the mains supply. Since then the building roof has been strengthened to give some protection from ice. You may notice some "knobbly" things on the guy wires. These are "helical strakes" made from plastic to stop an effect called vortex shedding which caused the guys to "gallop" or vibrate under certain steady wind conditions. It was quite frightening to see the guys whipping around and the associated movement of the mast under these conditions! Someone asked about "monitoring" - well at one time Holme Moss was a manned site that supervised the operation of all the BBC transmitters in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and part of Lancashire. Antennas were aimed at the various transmitters, which were unmanned, so that staff could listen to (or watch for TV) what was being broadcast. This supplemented the automatic monitoring equipment which reported faults, usually over telephone lines back to Holme Moss. Thanks for documenting your trip to HM - bought back happy memories from last century! Pretty much everything you talked about was accurate, by the way!
Peter, what an excellent and insightful response. Many thanks! Got me thinking about that corrugated breakout shelter up there though... Did you leave a little gas stove up there, or take a thermos? No technician should ever be without a brew (especially in poor weather). 😂 Thanks again, Mark.
@@m0wms I think probably a thermos and some sandwiches! I must admit I only ever took one trip up in "the cage" or basket on a relatively mild summer's day. But it scared me stiff so I just stayed in the cage admiring the fantastic view while the technicians/engineer jumped across the 2 foot gap to get onto the mast platform to do their work. The cage hung from a sloping wire on a pulley while it was pulled up by the winch wire which ran to just above the landing platform then down the middle of the mast to the winch on the ground. When you start off, the cage is perhaps 30m away from the mast and as you rise it gets closer to the mast, but never quite reaches it - hence the gap you have to swing across! One of the more demanding tasks is to apply grease to the stays or guy wires. The cage is rigged to run parallel to the guy and a rigger applies copious dollops of grease using his hands. The grease helps to reduce corrosion of the steel wires.
@@peterlee2622 Really interesting first hand accounts, thanks for your reply Peter. This is why I hardly watch TV these days and just give my time and attention to excellent RU-vid channels such as this, along with the constructive and interesting comments.
A Navy Captain called my office one day and asked for any failed and weird antennas we had to install on his building. His idea was that the decoy antennas would keep the Soviets guessing at what all those antennas were about amongst the real ones.
This is the kind of content I find fascinating, I would love to see the transmitters and link equipment inside the bunkers. Great work Lewis I appreciate the time and effort that you put in to create these wonderful video's 👍
Indeed! I just found this video after another US engineer pointed to it from seeing a video where my Dad (current radio engineer) and I (total beginner at RF) toured the inside of a similar style tower site in the US.
This reminds me of my time in Spain. I serviced some local radio stations who managed to get a rack space at a side where radio Nacional España had its transmitters. it was a site up a mountain top near Benidorm. You needed to remove any jewelry before entering the building. And the hairs on your arms went straight up when you did enter. One transmitter was 250kw I was told. It had several transmitters at that site. The tower was not that high, but it was packed with antennas in every direction. It also had its own generator as one transmitter was the emergency transmitter for Spain. The diesel fuel tank was made in a hole of the mountain and very large. Yes I do love this type of content. Keep this up. Great video.
I haven't seen your videos before, but as someone who works in the field of RF it's awesome to have videos like this to spread some light over things that aren't commonly understood in a way which is simple and makes sense. Thanks!
Brilliant work Lewis. I was born in Lincoln and became very used to the Belmont site when travelling to the coast, strangely enough - I now live on the Norfolk Coast at Hunstanton and on a clear night I can see the lights of Belmont just across The Wash on the Lincolnshire Wolds and where I live, unless you use Sky - the Freeview signals come from Belmont. Interesting to see the Airwave stuff on the site. Back in the days when you could listen to the police signals on VHF and UHF (not that I did of course!) I tracked down most if not all of their repeater sites in Lincolnshire. Ahhh those days were fun.
It is amazing how many different services are broadcast from a site. I have seen the antennas on the former World Trade Center in Manhattan, going to the observatory roof there before 9/11 in October 1981. Also been to the antenna site at West Peak near Meriden, Connecticut, for some of the FM Hartford CT area stations, at over 1000 feet above sea level, and finally the antenna site for Montreal Quebec, on Mont Royal site, above the city in 2008. Ray W2CH.
Great video! Old antennas may simply be left on the tower because it's often too much effort and potentially cost to remove them, especially depending on where they are and whether any services have to be disrupted to get at them - e.g. you won't just turn off a major TV station so some riggers can climb past a DAB or digital TV antenna array to remove an antenna thats no longer being used (and this is more complicated now that antennas are transmitting multiplexes of multiple stations all at once...) Additionally, the company that once may have operated them may have gone bust, and the tower owner probably isn't going to make the effort/expense to remove the antennas either. That's all if it hasn't simply been forgotten about during upgrades, migrations, company mergers, etc.
I've worked in so many places (not broadcast) where stuff gets left behind like this, because ... what is it? What does it do? Who is responsible for it? Nobody knows. Lest it be important to somebody, though, don't touch it. The craziest example I've seen of this, though, was at a telco CO. There was a rack with a full rack-width hard drive ... ONE hard drive ... the width of a rack, and about 8U tall ... still powered on! That thing probably failed in the late 80s, but it's still there, because .. "Not my job" or "I don't wanna be the guy that broke something to do something that didn't need to be done."
@@nickwallette6201 in IT we sometimes do so called "scream tests". We disconnect the network from a server we don't know if still used and we wait for a user to scream...
Thanks Lewis. Brought back loads of memories of my time on student placement at Alan Dick & Co in the late 80's. Working on those high power broadcast combining units, feeders and antenna arrays was something else.
Alan dick brings Back memories when Alan joined us as a engineer with j l eves when we built the t v mast at much markle and the mast near great torrington in n.devon in the late sixties .
A friend (a former GPO/BT tech based at Telco Tower London) says that the Mini Tower at Heaton Park was part of the Backbone and Secondary for broadcast. Perhaps you might look into this. Great content, you can of course assume more content like this, would be most welcome.
To see Holme Moss defying the elements on a bleak day is a wonderful sight to behold. Loved this and your pirate radio videos. More please. I love broadcast related stuff like this. 😁
I have to agree, the fact that such a massive, and probably very heavy bit of kit can stand there and not blow over, makes it just as impressive as the aerials!
This was an interesting video of this transmitter site. Brilliant work. I am an Armature Radio operator in the U. S. Always nice to see other transmitting equipment in different parts of the world.
Hi Lewis, I did something similar when I worked in a hi fi shop in Liverpool town centre called Hardman radio, not for tv but for broadcast VHF radio. I put a 4 element Yagi on the roof and a 3 element Yagi in the back of the shop with a wide band Labgear preamp in between the 2 antennas, this worked really well as the shop was about 60 foot long, so the FM reception was brilliant it also really helped to sell transistor radios as the customers where amazed just how good the cheap radios worked in the middle of the town centre. See you soon Dave. 😀
Great episode! Yes, please more of this type of content! I’m in the U.S. , but I really enjoy your channel, and this episode is definitely one I found very interesting! Thanks for the great work you do and the extremely interesting content!!
Videos like this are how I fall down internet rabbit holes. I ended up on the Alan Dick website trying to find out how much it would cost to buy a TV broadcast antenna.
I very much enjoyed this video. Please do more. I went to a local mast @ West Hoathley which carried all sorts of strange antennas including TETRA , took some pictures and the police were called! Have you ever tried explaining yourself to a brain dead non technical police woman who thinks Facebook has its own aerials? I have!
Awesome video Lewis! Definitely like to see more antenna arrays. Really enjoyed looking at this amazing structure. Interesting to see the damage inflicted by a wayward ice chunk on that microwave antenna.
Whomever it was that designed and constructed the anchoring did a damn fine job of it, and whomever performs the structural maintenance also "means business", as evidenced by the thoroughness of the application of the gunship grey paint, and the fact that absolutely no rust is visible, nor are any other signs of corrosion evident. At those heights/'altitudes', actually, one often sees streaks of rust, or other signs of corrosion, and that tower is pristine! Cheers!, and thanks for the upload!
Yes, when I worked there, the mast was painted I think about every 6 or 7 years. They used to use the same paint as on the Forth Rail Bridge, but these days it may be an epoxy based one. I remember at another site, we had 6 tons of paint delivered to put 3 coats on 4 tall towers. I was told that only about 1.5 tons would remain on the metalwork, the rest was solvent which would evaporate into the atmosphere! The paint is water-based these days so most of what evaporates is just H2O. When these masts are painted, the staff have to park their cars away from the building, otherwise they are likely to get spattered with paint that is impossible to remove without damaging the car's finish. (I know from experience!) The paint has a careful amount of thinner added to make it easier to apply, but not too much to cause the coat to be too thin. This is checked by microscope to make sure adequate thickness is applied. Painting is one of the more dangerous maintenance jobs because they have to get to all the nooks and crannies of the steelwork. This involves swinging down on bosun's chairs with a kettle of paint hanging from their belt and a long-handled brush in hand. Naturally, the adjacent antennas are powered down while they are working. I remember one painter asked if a large 1.5m diameter microwave dish was powered off for him to work in front of. He took some convincing that it was used for receive only and so the power was in the nanowatts or less! The guys or stay wires are regularly greased as well to prevent corrosion. Luckily, Holme Moss is well inland, probably 100 miles from the sea, so salt water corrosion is not a problem. Some transmittere sites near the coast are not that lucky.
Fascinating - I work in telecoms so recognise some of the cellular and microwave links, I also had a stint doing student radio at uni so dabbled with a short range microwave link and the associated FM transmitter, but all of this gear is on another level - I'd hate to have to climb that mast though :D
My ex-wife's uncle overheard me asking about the "what are those Golf ball looking globes at RAF Boulmer" He worked for Serco security on the base and got me in to look at the A/C as a visitor.A HUGE American soldier let us in and we descended to a Bunker that was in near darkness. Had a strange smell but he said because it has It's own air from above ground. We looked In a room that was dated, looked like the set of War Games the movie. Led ticker was showing a message but I wont say on here. I was told It was last used during the cold war but the messages on the screen was IRA related. Facinating experience, never forget it.
yes 2 mega watts when i went north yorks railway my video camera went wild got caught in the radio stream also i could feel it warm on my face that was from the railway carriage/
That's one very busy mast! So much good content in this video. I can't imagine how long it took to compile it. Well done, sir! Haskell - W5HLM New Braunfels, Texas
Great Video Lewis. Thanks. I can confirm the necessity of the shelter having been stuck near the top of a tower crane during a sudden thunderstorm. Hanging on for dear life in freezing rain and high winds is not fun.
Has been something I've seen as long as I can remember living in South Manchester Really interesting Lewis thanks for sharing and plese keep the intesting content coming 👍
Brilliant video Lewis, very interesting and informative. I had the opportunity to go up the Mendip Mast (Pen Hill, Somerset) near me many years ago and was fascinated by all the equipment, would love to visit more of these installations.
Most of the info went over my head but I still found it really interesting, thanks Lewis! Hmm, the corrugated section, perhaps some secret military surveillance antennas? 😊
Great video Lewis! When you are in Holmfirth they say if you can’t see the mast then you know it’s raining. If you can see it you know it will start raining soon 😂
Really interesting video. Had no idea there were so many different services on one tower. Have you made any videos about how all of the services are managed at one site ? Or is that impossible due to security etc. ? Great episode 👍
Videos like this are awesome, not long winded at all! For those of us not in the UK, maybe a video explaining how all the networks work together? You were using another name for a network I have no idea what it was, sounded like a company name. Does everywhere get BBC 1,2,3, etc but only Wales get the BBC Wales station? Those kinds of things.
Short version is that the entire UK gets the "national services", which consist of BBC R1, 2, 3 & 4 (on FM), plus 5 on MW and a few extras on DAB. These are transmitted from sites all over the UK, which are fed from London via a NICAM link. In addition, the UK is divided into "regions" with their own "local radio" station, BBC Essex, Southern Counties, or whatever. These are usually only transmitted from one or two sites to cover the smaller area.
Really nice video on what all these antennas do. Really, I thought it was like a two minute video when in fact it was 10 minutes, very informative very interesting thank you.
Even though I’m “across the pond” in the USA, I’m very interested in any video you post. Doesn’t matter the subject. I especially like any commercial equipment along with Amateur Radio as I’m a ham too. (N6FRW). Thanks for all your videos.
I'd love to see a video on the RBS structure and maybe incorporate the RBS test! Love your work making broadcast technology accessible and understandable.
Love your informative videos, and think its wonderful thst you can discuss what the equipmemt does rather thsn just show random pictures , while talkimg about this numbers station or thst oddity
Thanks, Lewis this is most interesting. I never visited the mast but I remember when it opened as a TV transmitter. It was a bit thing those days as this was the third TV station in England and a special program went to air. Where I lived as I do now we picked up TV from the Hints transmitter near Sutton Coldfield. would love you to cover this. Thanks, Robert...
I have some photos you might like I took from one of the Arqiva auctions where I brought quite a few of the TXs recently used as part of the switch over project, and we had to remove them from the racks ourselves. So lots of RF kit. I now have a spare room full of TXs from Emley Moor and not exactly sure why I grabbed them but seemed too good an opportunity to let them pass 🤣.
I really loved this video. I've often wondered how the TV broadcast and radio broadcast done in the UK. I use to live there at RAF Bentwaters in the early 1990's.
