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UK Broadcast Transmission |
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THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
DAVENTRY
| Photos by Alan Drury | Page last updated: 2021-10-16 |
| Alan Drury worked at both Daventry and Holme Moss in the 1980s. See link at the bottom of this page for some detail of his memories of the era. |
| BD272 250Kw sender Hall Excitrons in use in the HT cabinet |
| BD272 250Kw sender Hall Excitron cabinet. These are the HT rectifiers. The HT room with the supply and modulation transformers and PCB-filled high voltage smoothing capacitors is behind the brick wall. The HT supply was 11Kv at 22 Amps |
| SWB-18 Sender Hall Spare CAT27 with its valve record card partially assembled into its “Davros†trolley |
| Output power meter of 100Kw Sender, in service, broadcasting the ‘Green’ BBC World Service programme |
| 5XX Building When I was there all the old kit had already been removed and it was being used as a store |
| Control Room Aerial feeder switching controls and bearing selection panels for steerable aerials (numbered) |
| SWB-18 Sender Hall Westinghouse mercury arc rectifier, at 11Kv. The controls on the panel connected to those at the business end via long insulated rods |
| BD272 250Kw Sender Hall Foreground, modulator cabinet of Sender 27. Behind that, RF cabinet of adjacent sender with its modulator cabinet behind that. Other similar senders to left. Note the service trolley |
| SWB-18 Sender Hall Cooler crypt. This was underneath the senders and reached by a ladder. Despite the name it was raging hot and very noisy |
| SWB-18 Sender Hall Motor-Generator sets for Sender 17. These provided the various voltages for the senders. In shot: 2 x filament MG sets, 2 x Bias MG sets, 2 x Aux HT MG sets and control gear. The wall on the left was the back of the sender itself. The fan-cooled radiators for the coolant and the cooling ponds were outside the windows |
| Control Room Main control desk. Central panels are the input and aerial matrix where the operator would set up which senders would be coming on and off air at each upcoming 15-mnute switching point and with which programme and to which aerial. The clock would then switch them. The schedule board can be seen on the desk. To the right are the programme input meters for each sender and on the left wing are the individual sender controls |
| 100Kw Sender Hall General view of the sender hall with BBC-quality polished tiled floor. A feeder can be seen across the ceiling. These were 100Kw 2-channel senders, two frequencies at once. There were also a couple of SSB link transmitters |
| SWB-18 Sender Hall General view showing four SWB-18s and their control desks. The motor-generator rooms were behind the senders |
| General Matheran aerial/feeder switch on a plinth for demo purposes. The feeders connected at the sides and the central bar moved the links up and down via compressed air actuators |
Alan Drury's Memories of Life as a BBC Tx Engineer
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