Fire at Bilsdale TV/Radio Mast

[Inspector Sands]

Some Discovery channels are also off air as a result of the fire:

That goes without saying really, all TV is off air in that part of the country.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service worked to control the fire in difficult circumstances and extinguished a fire in a single-storey stone building and a 315ft transmitter mast. Only one building in a complex of four was affected and there are concerns about the structural integrity of the mast.

A 300m exclusion zone has been put in place around the mast.

Eight pumps from North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service attended the incident and firefighting has now ceased until the site has been confirmed as safe for further work.

https://www.northyorksfire.gov.uk/fire-a...ng-centre/

I just had a watch back of Look North who had a report from Bilsdale, he too said there was a possibility that the structure is unsafe and they were being kept back.

[Inspector Sands]

Might a retune be required anyway if they are able to get something back up and running.

Possibly although any temporary replacement would use the same frequencies because those are the ones available to that area.

They are telling people not to do a rescan of their TVs because they wont be able to tell when the services have returned. Though of course that's the first thing people do these days when their TV reception fails. BBC Tees had an electrical dealer on their news bulletin earlier who had been inundated with calls from customers who have lost their telly

It still baffles me really how a huge chunk of metal on a hill somehow gets a picture to our screens via the air.

Well the bit that does the business is a small chunk of metal... it just needs a lot of metal to get it as high up as possible :lol:

[Markymark]

Some Discovery channels are also off air as a result of the fire:

That goes without saying really, all TV is off air in that part of the country.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service worked to control the fire in difficult circumstances and extinguished a fire in a single-storey stone building and a 315ft transmitter mast. Only one building in a complex of four was affected and there are concerns about the structural integrity of the mast.

A 300m exclusion zone has been put in place around the mast.

Eight pumps from North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service attended the incident and firefighting has now ceased until the site has been confirmed as safe for further work.

https://www.northyorksfire.gov.uk/fire-a...ng-centre/

I just had a watch back of Look North who had a report from Bilsdale, he too said there was a possibility that the structure is unsafe and they were being kept back.

Just watched it. That portion where it looks like the paint has been stripped off doesn't look good, but it might just be missing paint and not damage from today

Here's a picture of one of Bilsdale's 'twins' at Mendip, and that looks in even worse shape !

[Spencer]

Does anyone know if broadcasters will have to reimburse advertisers due to the loss of services from Bilsdale?

If someone’s taken out an ad on ITV Tyne Tees South, or TFM for that matter, will they get some compensation? Or will the broadcaster argue that their services are still available on other platforms?

[Markymark]

Bilsdale and Emley Moor famously has a substantial overlap.

So if viewers in this area retuned are they likely to pick up Emley Moor, even if their aerial was pointing in the wrong direction, or would that be very unlikely, particularly in the digital world where you generally get a signal or you don’t, rather than the analogue days when you’d get a varying degrees of a weak signal

My in-laws in York have their aerial pointing towards Bilsdale. A while back when they asked me to set up their new TV for them, a full scan didn’t pick up anything from Emley despite being well inside its coverage area.

It can be totally random. I remember staying in a holiday flat in York in the 80s. Aerial was directed at Emley. First thing I did was to try and tune Tyne Tees from Bilsdale in, and hey-presto, it was watchable !

[LI4M]

Yeah, I'm 10 miles south of York and while most rooftop aerials are pointed to Emley - and always have been here - upstairs portables always made easier work of Bilsdale. Since switchover pulling in either us pretty common. (Only 5 miles east of here and you're deep in Uncle Peter territory though!)

York itself used to have offices of both TTTV and YTV in the city - it's still pretty much 50:50 as to whether any particular aerial is pointed in any particular direction.

I would say that it's easier to pull in Bilsdale on an aerial pointed towards Emley than the other way round though.

[Markymark]

....although any temporary replacement would use the same frequencies because those are the ones available to that area.

Here's a thought. With the miracle of SFN working, they could provide a number of low power replacement temporary rigs scattered in strategic positions (If Arqiva could find enough kit, possibly just the PSB 1 and 2 muxes)

[Markymark]

Yeah, I'm 10 miles south of York and while most rooftop aerials are pointed to Emley - and always have been here - upstairs portables always made easier work of Bilsdale. Since switchover pulling in either us pretty common. (Only 5 miles east of here and you're deep in Uncle Peter territory though!)

York itself used to have offices of both TTTV and YTV in the city - it's still pretty much 50:50 as to whether any particular aerial is pointed in any particular direction.

I would say that it's easier to pull in Bilsdale on an aerial pointed towards Emley than the other way round though.

Yes, Bilsdale using lower frequencies helps, and also UHF aerials are better at receiving stuff out of band on lower frequencies than they are designed for, than vice versa. That's how they've got away with the recent 700 MHz clearance, and Grp C/D stations becoming Grp B or A.

[London Lite]

Does anyone know if broadcasters will have to reimburse advertisers due to the loss of services from Bilsdale?

If someone’s taken out an ad on ITV Tyne Tees South, or TFM for that matter, will they get some compensation? Or will the broadcaster argue that their services are still available on other platforms?

After Tyne Tees and Border merged, there's only one advertising region for the Tyne Tees franchise.

[BcastCornwall]

Arqiva …

https://twitter.com/arqiva/status/1425202735960543244

https://twitter.com/arqiva/status/1425202825299169284

[Mike]

That doesn't make sense, wouldn't it have started from the top in that case, not the bottom?

Electricity follows a path of least resistance to earth, conveniently placed cables to channel the electricity to the apps room at the bottom and then the smoke and heat would rise through the tubular structure of the antenna - obviously nobody knows what caused it officially yet.

[Si-Co]

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?

[Steve in Pudsey]

That doesn't make sense, wouldn't it have started from the top in that case, not the bottom?

Electricity follows a path of least resistance to earth, conveniently placed cables to channel the electricity to the apps room at the bottom and then the smoke and heat would rise through the tubular structure of the antenna - obviously nobody knows what caused it officially yet.

The photos on mb21 show a pretty generous provision of lightning rods at the top of the cylinder, which should be the least resistance path to earth?

[Brekkie]

Presumably this is far from the first time a mast has been temporarily out of action with concerns it might be permanently so. Obviously they'll have disaster recovery solutions in place but I guess they need to wait to see if the mast is repairable before implementing any temporary solution.

Is there a time frame in which they're supposed to aim to restore services - as others have said the mobile coverage probably more crucial than broadcast nowadays.

[Steve in Pudsey]

Far from it. The Emley collapse was probably the most famous one, but at least BBC 1 from Holme Moss was still available.

Durris had a fire, temporary low power service provided from a nearby radio site

Morborne VHF site at Peterborough, services restored with a temporary installation on a nearby BT site.

The problem with Bilsdale is the lack of alternative nearby infrastructure.

Presumably there is a temporary mast and containerised transmitters en route to the site now, but it won't be the same height.

There likely will be service level agreements with the broadcasters, based on how much they are willing to pay for resilience.