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Old 4th Oct 2021, 4:42 pm   #101
Paul Stenning
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Default 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.
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Old 6th Oct 2021, 7:58 pm   #102
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Default Bilsdale mast fire

The mast has now been demolished: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-58821271
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Old 19th Feb 2022, 1:48 pm   #103
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Default Re: Bilsdale mast fire

Latest update:-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...shire-60445095
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Old 19th Feb 2022, 2:09 pm   #104
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Default 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.

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Old 20th Feb 2022, 2:07 pm   #105
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Default 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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Old 21st May 2022, 8:43 pm   #106
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Default Re: Bilsdale mast fire

As a conclusion to the story of what caused the fire:-

https://www.richmondshiretoday.co.uk...ire-announced/
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Old 22nd May 2022, 11:11 am   #107
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Default Re: Bilsdale mast fire

Actually the most important thing I noticed in the item at the link above was this:-

Quote:
“We are also focused on the huge construction project underway to build a new, permanent mast at Bilsdale, which will serve the people of North Yorkshire, Tees Valley and County Durham for many years to come.”
Something like 90% of the population deprived of a Freeview signal by the mast fire have now had some sort of signal restored by other means, so it would probably make better economic sense to buy the remainder free Freesat systems or streaming boxes (where their broadband infrastructure supports that) than to build a new full height mast.

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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Old 22nd May 2022, 2:15 pm   #108
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Default Re: Bilsdale mast fire

Quote:
Originally Posted by wave solder View Post
As a conclusion to the story of what caused the fire:-

https://www.richmondshiretoday.co.uk...ire-announced/
That doesn't really explain what happened though. Reading between the lines, it sounds as if somebody made an almighty cockup. Let's hope they have good professional indemnity insurance.
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Old 22nd May 2022, 3:22 pm   #109
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Default 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.

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Old 22nd May 2022, 4:00 pm   #110
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Default 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.
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Old 22nd May 2022, 4:21 pm   #111
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Default 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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Old 22nd May 2022, 4:47 pm   #112
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Default 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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Old 22nd May 2022, 6:06 pm   #113
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Default Re: Bilsdale mast fire

Quote:
Originally Posted by Glowing Bits! View Post
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?
Unfortunately water is surprisingly good at causing fires in electronic equipment, especially if there's and DC involved. Most 'water' isn't completely pure and contains other stuff. Mix copper, impure water, and electricity and you get dendrite growth. Eventually the dendrites will short out the supply, and may simply be blown away with no harm done, but if it keeps happening the result can be excessive current flowing through a resistive path.

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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Old 22nd May 2022, 7:25 pm   #114
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Default 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.
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Old 22nd May 2022, 8:17 pm   #115
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Default Re: Bilsdale mast fire

It's interesting learning what water can do to things, thanks for the info.
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Old 22nd May 2022, 10:03 pm   #116
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Default 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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Old 23rd May 2022, 11:40 am   #117
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Default 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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Old 23rd May 2022, 12:02 pm   #118
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Default 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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Old 26th May 2022, 7:28 am   #119
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Default 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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Old 13th Jun 2022, 12:48 pm   #120
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Default 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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