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UK Broadcast Transmission |
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THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
COED DERW
| Photos by Ray Cooper | Page last updated: 2021-10-12 |
| Although located very close to Betws y Coed village, is not intended to primarily serve it. The hills hereabouts are steep-sided and round-topped, and the main Betws relay is sited well back from the edge of its hill, leaving a shaded region at the base of the hill. Additionally the southern part of the Conwy valley, stretching from Waterloo Bridge to Fairy Glen, is similarly shaded. At Coed Derw, the transmit beams point back eastwards, towards the parent Betws y Coed relay site, and illuminates that side of the Conwy valley which is shielded from the main site. The other beam points roughly southward, illuminating the southern shaded area. Coed Derw was originally a BBC landlord site which entered service in June 1988. |
| Some idea of the problems involved in locating a pole in a forest. The aerials only just peep over the tree canopy, and are all that can be seen of the station from the town (provided you know exactly where to look) |
| The cabin. The site is completely unfenced: the bottom section of the pole is wrapped with barbed-wire to discourage casual climbing. The station ID plate is missing from the cabin door. |
| The pole top, looking south-west. Four tiers of crossed vertical log-periodic aerials for transmit: single log-periodic vertical on Betws y Coed relay for Rx RBL. The usual telegraph-pole style climbing rungs start well above the barbed-wire wrap. |
| Looking east. |
| The RBL aerial, and the pole splice. These poles are sectioned into two for ease of delivery before being delivered to site. They are then rejoined using a scarf-type joint and held together with two steel bands. Note the diagonal line of the joint between the bands. |
| Full frontal view of the array. |
| No landscape view is available from the site, thanks to the trees. But if the Rx aerial had eyes, this is much what it would see (photo actually taken from further up the track). Betws-y-Coed relay, just over 2 miles distant by my reckoning. |
| Behind the scenes. That circular object at the top of the pole is the underside view of a power-splitting transformer - 1 input, 4 outputs - that feeds one beam (4 logs) of the Tx array. There is an identical unit round the other side of the pole, feeding the other beam. The inputs of these transformers will be fed from another, two-way power splitter, out of view in the clutter behind the aerials. This two-way splitter will not necessarily give equal powers at its outputs: in this installation it is likely that the easterly beam will get less power than the southerly one. NB in this view, the pole appears to be bent. In fact it is, somewhat - but not as badly as this foreshortened view suggests. |
| A notice attached to the base of the pole. Hortech appear to be an outfit specialising, amongst other things, in arboriculture, so it looks as if CCI are putting this inspection work out to specialists. Later: we've had a note in from "Marcus" who tells us that this sign is in all likelihood an indication of a visit by the company charged with maintaining the ground around the site, and probably indicates that weedkiller has been applied, or similar. It doesn't look as though there was much else to attach the card to. |
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