405-Line VHF Aerials 2013 to the present day.

[SteveCG]

exray09,

Those are impressive looking Low Band/ High Band arrays. I almost feel that you could do Moonbounce (EME) with them.

[Hybrid tellies]

Originally Posted by Nymrod121

would that have been the end near Heath Road / M32 or the other end by Gloucester Road?

It's the other end towards Gloucester Road as you go towards the Memorial Ground. As you go up the hill the two X aerials are on the houses on the right hand side.

[SteveCG]

Re post no. 129

The St Andrews Road J-Beams. I passed the bungalows today - all bar one (a combined BI & III, next to the entrance to a builders merchants) have gone.

[Herald1360]

Not sure if these should be here, but I couldn't resist snapping the first one in particular.

None would have been 405 line, but definitely VHF in there.

They were all in Malestroit Dept 56 in southern Brittany last Thursday....

[winston_1]

The S shaped aerial, third one up from the bottom first picture is mounted wrongly. The S should be horizontal. See this mistake often in the UK as well. It seems aerial installers just do not understand the basics. Perhaps they use sparks instead of aerial installers.

[colourking]

Originally Posted by winston_1

The S shaped aerial, third one up from the bottom first picture is mounted wrongly. The S should be horizontal. See this mistake often in the UK as well. It seems aerial installers just do not understand the basics. Perhaps they use sparks instead of aerial installers.

What is the S shaped aerial?, is it one of those Circular/Halo/"All-rounder" - designed for horizontal polarisation - FM aerials (like these http://cpc.farnell.com/1/1/19673-aer...tiference.html) that someone bent into something to better pick up vertical polarised FM radio from different directions?

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by colourking

What is the S shaped aerial?, is it one of those Circular/Halo/"All-rounder" - designed for horizontal polarisation - FM aerials (like these http://cpc.farnell.com/1/1/19673-aer...tiference.html) that someone bent into something to better pick up vertical polarised FM radio from different directions?

Yes the S-shaped 'thing' is a commercially produced Band-II FM radio aerial; I forget who the manufacturer is.

They can either be assembled S-shaped as shown, or I've seen some fitted horizontally with one half of the "S" reversed so it looks like a shiny aluminium-tube boomerang.

[exray09]

Here's one for the history books. This was a VHF television receive array. Its purpose was to bring in stations from Denver, Colorado some 100+ miles (160+km) away. I forget now if it fed into a microwave system or cable network. Closest town of any size is about 20 miles beyond here.

These were called a "half-bolic" and there were quite a few constructed in the 1960s. The towers support a mesh of sorts consisting of horizontally strung wires placed every 1 ft (0.3m) apart.

The 'feed point' was simply a conventional yagi on a tripod mount placed in front of the reflector at an appropriate distance.

These photos were taken in early 2004. The array was dismantled later that year.

[Hybrid tellies]

I spotted this interesting array in the Whitehall district of Bristol. It's quite high up and by the small size of the ch10 St Hilary and ch5 single vertical rod aerial it was in a good reception area. Slightly off topic the vintage large UHF aerial was for BBC2 from Wenvoe. It's interesting to note that BBC2 from Wenvoe opened in 1965 whilst Mendip did not open until December 1969.
Sorry I can't rotate the picture

[Heatercathodeshort]

Saves a crick in my neck!

[Focus Diode]

The great photos keep on coming, many thanks to everyone who's contributed and have shown an interest.

We're currently enjoying a few days In Bath. Lots of nice catches in that location! The vertically polarised BIII aerials are for St Hilary ch10, note the wonderful double 9 type. At least they got the option of the Welsh ch7 and BBC ch13 for their money! Some nice Bath relay (ch8 and 6 horizontal) catches too.

Cheers,
Brian

[Herald1360]

How do those elements get bent like that up in the air out of harm's way? Birdstrike?

[Focus Diode]

Recently arrived home. Three more aerials from the area for St Hilary and Wenvoe spotted and photographed. Excuse the telephone wires in two of the photos. All three taken from the same street. It's interesting to note two UHF Bath relay aerials have broken away, they must've been erected long after the surviving VHF ones!

Cheers,
Brian

[Nuvistor]

These any help?

[HamishBoxer]

Outlived the rotten 625 aerials i notice.

[Focus Diode]

Originally Posted by Nuvistor

These any help?

Excellent results! Many thanks. I did have a go but the end result looked worse than the originals.

Cheers,
Brian

[SteveCG]

Re post nos. 171 & 172

Nice pic of a Belling and Lee double 8. With that boom spacing there is probably a 2-3 dB signal level improvement - unlike closer spacings which 'detune' the component yagis, which themselves are only single yagi designs.

As for the bent elements, well you really have to try to bend B & L elements, they were tough stuff - unlike other makes which used purer aluminium tube.

Anybody got any ideas on the Band I 3 elementer? The junction box looks like a J-Beam style, but I'm not sure of the rest of the aerial being J-Beam.

Re post no. 173 - another mystery 4 element make.

[Steve FPV]

Re post no 163.

Thanks SteveCG for the update on St. Andrews Road. I had a look round and the first picture is the array you reffer to. The second picture was taken in West Malvern just below The Brewers Arms. The UHF array is pointing at Ridge Hill, but I've no idea what the other antenna is looking at. I'm not even 100% sure its for TV.

The last two pictures were taken in the centre of Winchcombe. Both can be seen from the main square. The first is atop a large building that dominates the north end of the square and the second is a few yards down the main street to the north of the square. Clearly this was a fringe area at that time; these are quite serious arrays on all three bands including in one case that little bit of elevation to gain those extra few dBs. They are all pointing north towards the Birmingham area transmitters.

I'm a bit puzzled by the second Winchcombe array. How come the UHF array is at the top of the pole? Were the other two lowered down to give it pride of place at the top when colour came along?

Steve FPV

[SteveCG]

Re post no. 178

Steve FPV, yes, the aerial on St Andrews Rd is the one I was thinking about. Other properties on that little bungalow estate also had different types of J Beam Band I and Band III aerials, but going digital seems to have cleared them all away to the big skip in the sky.

I reckon the larger West Malvern, near the Brewers Arms, aerial is an Antiference Band II (ie VHF/FM) aerial, put up after Ridge Hill went mixed polarization. I presume the fact that it is not pointing in the same direction as the, what looks to be wideband, UHF design just demonstrates the broad forward polar diagram of 3 el. designs. I can't think of a V. Pol only transmitter in that direction, so perhaps somebody fitting it was just making use of the short mounting pole. Multi-path performance (quite an issue around the Malvern Hills) would likely to be better in the H. Pol mode of use.

The Winchcome UHF arrays are early (circa 1964 to 67?) Antiference designs. The clue is the type and under-side position of the junction boxes.

The Band III double in pic no 3 is a Labgear design. Quite possibly the Band I is a also a Labgear 1/4 wave. A close-up pic of the junction box could confirm as they were distinctive.
The Band III double in pic no. 4 looks like a Telerection jobbie - looks impressive, but almost impossible to dismantle and not a great performer.

Finally, I've seen other aerial systems where the Band I & III aerials have been demoted in height with the arrival of the new UHF 'baby'.

[Focus Diode]

Excellent photos Steve FPV. The house in your first photo looks remarkably modern, possibly mid to late 1960s. I'm surprised the VHF aerials wern't taken down on installing a dish and BIII DAB aerial.

Cheers,
Brian