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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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4th Oct 2021, 4:42 pm | #101 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
A public information website by Arqiva is now available here:
https://bilsdalemast.co.uk/ It currently doesn't contain much information, and nothing we don't already know from the link in the previous post. |
6th Oct 2021, 7:58 pm | #102 |
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Bilsdale mast fire
The mast has now been demolished: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-58821271
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19th Feb 2022, 1:48 pm | #103 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
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19th Feb 2022, 2:09 pm | #104 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
There is a similar mast at Durris, near Stonehaven. Some 30 or so? years ago it was the victim of multiple lightning strikes. The top white section is a large glass fibre tube, which housed all of the TV broadcast aerials. Speaking to their chief engineer at the time, I was told that the whole of the interior was blackened and melted.
A replacement had to be manufactured, as no spare existed. Replacing it must have been quite an undertaking at 1000 plus feet. The transmitters were off the air for many weeks and my wife was most annoyed at missing one of her favourite programmes. Chris R |
20th Feb 2022, 2:07 pm | #105 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
I should have added that this is a lattice, guyed mast, built in the early 1960's.
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21st May 2022, 8:43 pm | #106 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
As a conclusion to the story of what caused the fire:-
https://www.richmondshiretoday.co.uk...ire-announced/ |
22nd May 2022, 11:11 am | #107 | |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
Actually the most important thing I noticed in the item at the link above was this:-
Quote:
SWMBO is one of those still orphaned by the mast failure - she has had Freesat installed for now at not insignifiant expense but it is much harder to pipe a Freesat signal to several rooms / receivers than it is to do the same with Freeview, plus, she has several expensive Freeview receiver / recorders which are effectively redundant with no signal to receive. So, the news that they actually are going to rebuilt the mast to full height is very welcome. |
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22nd May 2022, 2:15 pm | #108 | |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
Quote:
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22nd May 2022, 3:22 pm | #109 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
Insurance may be the driving factor behind putting up a new mast rather than relying on the temporary work-arounds in use now.
But as the linked article was mostly free of new facts other than water ingress to some third party equipment, there's only pure speculation, unless anything more comes out from a professional source, and that won't happen until any legal wrangling has concluded. David
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22nd May 2022, 4:00 pm | #110 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
I suppose one factor in deciding to dismantle the existing tubular mast and replace it with a lattice mast rather than repairing it is the fact that is was a tubular mast.
Tubular masts have known design deficencies and are, I would assume, regarded as markedly inferior safety and maintence wise than a regular lattice mast so any chance to get rid of one would be taken up. |
22nd May 2022, 4:21 pm | #111 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
Parts of the structure had obviously suffered severe heat stress, so getting safety certification for any repair was always going to be a nightmare. Arqiva weren't even prepared to risk lashing up a temporary aerial array on the damaged mast to provide a temporary service. It was a very big mast to fall down in an uncontrolled manner.
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22nd May 2022, 4:47 pm | #112 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
The article says the cause was water damage to third party equipment, this raises a few questions as to what the third party equipment is and why would water cause a fire anyway?
If a feeder was to chafe on a sharp surface and short to earth, that is likely to start a fire but water starting it? Not convinced.
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22nd May 2022, 6:06 pm | #113 | |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
Quote:
I have seen this demonstrated quite simply, with veroboard (strip board). two adjacent strips, with 12v between them. Rainwater sprayed on and it's surprising quite how quickly the fizzing and popping starts. This issue caused some massive issues for a particular manufacturer when their product kept catching fire simply because they designed a part of it badly and it allowed water in. They actually had to advise customers to keep the product away from their houses until they could apply a fix. |
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22nd May 2022, 7:25 pm | #114 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
Coax cables and wave guides will heat up, melt, reflect signal, etc. after water ingress.
As a temporary measure before sending out technicians to a site, some broadcast providers are prone to just turn up the power a bit, remotely, to retain their desired coverage when it's suddenly found to be insufficient. This presumably happened in one or more mast fires in The Netherlands. |
22nd May 2022, 8:17 pm | #115 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
It's interesting learning what water can do to things, thanks for the info.
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22nd May 2022, 10:03 pm | #116 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
There was apparently work being done on site at the time or shortly before the fire- "water ingress" might of course be blame-minimising legal creativity. If loss of life had occurred, then (and quite rightly so) heavyweight state forensics would have become deeply involved to find out exactly who and what had been incompetent but when mere property losses are in question, it could have been mutually beneficial to minimise the A blames B who blames C who blames D.... lengthy and expensive ding-dong litigation when several contractors are involved, particularly if highly technical detail and uncertainty of precise sequence of events is present.
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23rd May 2022, 11:40 am | #117 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
I am looking forward to reading the more detailed report when Arqiva are permitted to do so.
High voltage and current at RF frequencies with water ingress can lead to rather undesirable consequences. Even at lower powers and lower frequencies without water you can get rather lively and dramatic conditions as I experienced a few years ago with some equipment that generates just under 100w of VLF RF. One of the Top cap leads suffered a small loss of insulation. Within seconds half the house was full of smoke luckily I was nearby at the time to prevent a more serious incident.
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23rd May 2022, 12:02 pm | #118 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
The report doesn't tell us much, but in my experience, high power broadcast antenna system feeders are very flammable when ignited. A poorly made flange connector can cause water ingress, leading to a mismatch and then overheating. Maintenance and inspections are vital on such systems, but of course are costly and require downtime or reduced power working.
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26th May 2022, 7:28 am | #119 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
I've been keeping up with this thread for a while now & its interesting to note that water ingress into a bit of 3rd party kit was the seat of the fire. I work in the deep sea electric ROV sector & we have seen control pod fires due to tiny amounts of water (albeit salt water usually), sometimes as little as a few milliliters. The results are always final, not only to the electronics but also the metalwork (sometimes carbon fibre) pods themselves. I know there is very little comparison between a radio mast & the pods but the stress mechanisms are similar. The end result is usually total replacement which I'm glad to see they are planning with the mast. Enough of my rambling, have a good day.
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13th Jun 2022, 12:48 pm | #120 |
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Re: Bilsdale mast fire
Ofcom review of the incident published today.
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-an...smitter%20Fire
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