Fire at Bilsdale TV/Radio Mast

[Emily Moore]

Radio news reporting that there are concerns about the mast’s stability, and an exclusion zone is in place around the site.

BTW - with respect - is this thread in the most appropriate forum?

If there was a forum on this site relating to technical aspects of TV, it'd go in there, but there isn't one - I'm not sure why there isn't, it's not like it'd be especially likely to get political or controversial.

[Inspector Sands]

Yes, service level agreements and the broadcasters contracts will be the key. Although the scale of the contract for a broadcaster like the BBC means that even with a service level of 99.99% even a few days without one transmitter like Bilsdale won't trigger any penalties.

That's not to say that Arqiva won't be trying their hardest to get services back on air though

[TIGHazard]

I think that's one person taking a guess. The various services that report lightning strike haven't recorded anything in the area.

Two questions come up mind: are there any other structures in the area that could be used for a temporary service, like the BT Peterborough site being used after the fire at Morbourne?

And secondly - is that second mast from Emley still for sale?

There's nothing nearby at Bilsdale that can be used, unlike Peterborough that had the BT tower next door.

Possibly the quickest way to a get a service back to the Middlesbourgh area would be rig something at Eston Nab. I don't think there's much that can be done for the rural areas, and viewers south of there.

No doubt lots of punters will run a rescan, and some may just end up with good enough signals from Pontop or Emley off the back of their Bilsdale aerials to carry on.

It's going to take 12-24 months to get things back properly, if the mast is a write off.

I've said it before over on the blue place, it's really only people south of Eston Hills - Guisborough, Loftus, Whitby, etc that will be out of action.

Most people north of Eston Hills have their aerials pointed at Pontop Pike. (Image of Eston Nab transmitter)

[Markymark]

Yes, service level agreements and the broadcasters contracts will be the key. Although the scale of the contract for a broadcaster like the BBC means that even with a service level of 99.99% even a few days without one transmitter like Bilsdale won't trigger any penalties.

That's not to say that Arqiva won't be trying their hardest to get services back on air though

I'm told (last night so it's probably there now) a containerised transmitter set, and mast were on their way to the site. The problem is the mast isn't anywhere near as high as the existing one, so it's not going to be a miracle cure. Oh, and no one is allowed closer than 1000ft from the site, because the damaged mast's integrity is unknown

[Keith]

For anyone interested I believe Jeremy Vine is currently or is about to be discussing the transmitter fire on Radio 2.

[Markymark]

For anyone interested I believe Jeremy Vine is currently or is about to be discussing the transmitter fire on Radio 2.

With Mike Brown of mb21 no less

[Emily Moore]

Yes, service level agreements and the broadcasters contracts will be the key. Although the scale of the contract for a broadcaster like the BBC means that even with a service level of 99.99% even a few days without one transmitter like Bilsdale won't trigger any penalties.

That's not to say that Arqiva won't be trying their hardest to get services back on air though

While I'm sure Arqiva are working really hard to get the services back on, there is the issue that there's really no competition - it's very much a monopoly, they own all the main broadcast sites in the country and there's no real alternative to using them if you're a major broadcaster. There's also the issue that they made quite a lot of their long-serving engineers redundant not too long ago.

A commercial radio station in the North East decided a few years ago that they could do without Arqiva and simply stopped paying them - it didn't go well. I understand that the station's transmitters are now sited on buildings near, but not on, the Arqiva sites they were removed from.

[Emily Moore]

For anyone interested I believe Jeremy Vine is currently or is about to be discussing the transmitter fire on Radio 2.

With Mike Brown of mb21 no less

Has this been on already? I don't want to sit through Covid/vaccine rants if Mike's slot has been and gone!

[Markymark]

For anyone interested I believe Jeremy Vine is currently or is about to be discussing the transmitter fire on Radio 2.

With Mike Brown of mb21 no less

Has this been on already? I don't want to sit through Covid/vaccine rants if Mike's slot has been and gone!

Still to come on I think, he sent me an email at 1:30 saying he was going on.

[Markymark]

With Mike Brown of mb21 no less

Has this been on already? I don't want to sit through Covid/vaccine rants if Mike's slot has been and gone!

Still to come on I think, he sent me an email at 1:30 saying he was going on.

13:41 onwards, Jamie Matthews (who is a friend of mine) followed by Mike

[JAS84]

BBC report.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-58169501

[TIGHazard]

[sarcasm]

I hope Tom Scott hasn't been seen in the area. Otherwise the guy is cursed. Last couple of videos he done, the locations have suffered issues afterwards - Ocado warehouse caught fire and Tower Bridge got stuck up).

[/sarcasm]

[BcastCornwall]

Latest from Arqiva

https://twitter.com/arqiva/status/1425446526990659584

https://twitter.com/arqiva/status/1425446630006865928

[London Lite]

An excellent plain English interview on BBC Radio Tees with an aerial installer who said that some can use Pontop Pike, others will be able to get someone to turn the aerial around to that transmitter if it's a wideband one.

However he said he's had plenty of calls from Middlesbrough which seems to be the largest town affected which he said is mainly Bilsdale.

His general advice is to leave aerials alone and use catch-up services until the tx is back up.

Conmen are also knocking on doors in Darlington to install aerials for £240 which was posted by the local council.

[BettyS]

It would never happened in the days of the IBA