 |
UK Broadcast Transmission |
         |
|
    |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||||
THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
HASTINGS
| Photos by Peter Vrakking and Dan Glover | Page last updated: 2011-09-10 |
| Peter visited on 14 August: "When I was on-site there were people who were doing work on the tower and after a few days the Hastings signal for Sussex Coast Multiplex was gone and I needed to switch over to the Kent Multiplex." A week later, Dan found a new "main" cylinder in place along with what appear to be a number of temporary changes. It's a bit difficult to work out exactly what's going on, but one possible scenario is set out below. (Peter seems to have had the better weather!) |
| Two gates, two site numbers. No trace of 139.02 though. |
| This is what Peter saw on approach. |
| At this stage the UHF array was still the two sets of unshrouded dipoles. DAB was from two pairs of phased dipoles and two 5-element yagis - seen left and right respectively in the next photo. |
| There seem to be a couple of empty supports on the left? |
| Peter also spotted the stacked dipole array which may or may not be broadcast related - see later. |
| Detail of one of the pairs of receive logs. |
| One week on: what's this? Three cylinders? |
| Comparing with Peter's photos, it seems two pairs of phased dipoles have been added, slightly lower down, and also a third 5-element yagi. |
| Maybe this will help? HS/FA/11/00236/SB at Hastings Borough Council... (see link below) Hmm. "Installation of 8L Shrouded Cardiod... 4L Unshrouded Cardiod...". The planning application itself just makes things more confusing, with some inconsistencies in the drawings. |
| The tell-tale sign of DSO work. |
| From below it's clear the two smaller cylinders are a temporary arrangement. |
| The most interesting thing in this photo may be the stacked dipole array, lower right. It's mentioned in the planning documents as an existing antenna at 34m and on bearing 185. Is this an unorthodox way to provide some local coverage at the back of the main array? The Band II panels seem to be of two slightly different models - the Ofcom data suggests the local services use the lower group, with BBC main networks from the upper group. Were they perhaps added at different times? |
| Two pairs of receive logs aimed at Heathfield - these also appear in the planning documents as "existing". At the bottom is the receive log for FM services from Wrotham. |
| A few satellite feeds tucked away at the bottom of the tower... |
| ...and these larger dishes are now quite well screened from the footpath. |
| From this angle the central cylinder shines like new as does one set of the DAB dipoles. I think the sequence of work is as follows: - add temporary DAB arrays to facilitate work - add 2 x temporary cylinders to maintain services - remove original cardioid arrays - fit new cylinder in the centre - remove one of the temporary cylinders - remove temporary DAB arrays - after DSO all services will come from the main antenna so remove the other temporary cylinder |
| Hang on a minute: where did that one come from? |
| |
Back to TX Gallery index | TX main index
|
