Amusing notice at Durris transmitter

Hi, all.

Went for a woodland walk up towards the ( un-manned ) Durris transmitter
this afternoon.

As you approach the top of the hill, there are warning notices which warn
ominously against approaching the site in strong winds due to ongoing work
on the mast. Perhaps they are worried it's going to fall over!

The notice goes on to say that in case of emergency, to call ......

Emley Moor!


That amused me.
Perhaps they've still got some staff at Emley who remember when their mast
came down who can help out...

http://picasaweb.google.com/ronlowe.abz/Durris

A few other things of note in the photos:

The concrete tie-down points for the guy-ropes must be suspect... They
have taken core samples out of them recently, and they have stacked
additional 1M cube concrete blocks on top of the originals, hopefully these
will prevent them pulling out!

The main office building ( now rather deserted ) has a sky dish on the
front! Nothing for the visiting engineers worth watching on the
transmission feeds?

--
Ron

In article , Ron Lowe
[email protected]?.? writes
Hi, all.

Went for a woodland walk up towards the ( un-manned ) Durris transmitter
this afternoon.

As you approach the top of the hill, there are warning notices which warn
ominously against approaching the site in strong winds due to ongoing work
on the mast. Perhaps they are worried it's going to fall over!

The notice goes on to say that in case of emergency, to call ......

Emley Moor!


Yep, thats their regional control and service centre for quite a large
area

Http://tx.mb21.co.uk/emley/index.asp


That amused me.
Perhaps they've still got some staff at Emley who remember when their mast
came down who can help out...

http://picasaweb.google.com/ronlowe.abz/Durris

A few other things of note in the photos:

The concrete tie-down points for the guy-ropes must be suspect... They
have taken core samples out of them recently, and they have stacked
additional 1M cube concrete blocks on top of the originals, hopefully these
will prevent them pulling out!

There some real saddo's who take these sort of piccys all the time!.
I should mail that one with the tea chests off to mike brown for
inclusion

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/durris.asp


The main office building ( now rather deserted ) has a sky dish on the
front! Nothing for the visiting engineers worth watching on the
transmission feeds?

No one at home!...
--
Tony Sayer

OK, let's get it right.

Durris is manned - except when it is windy.

When they did samples for the mast strengthening for DTTV they found
that the guy anchors are 'floating' in peat, hence the large
additional concrete blocks. The site is still considered unsafe
however in high winds and the staff have to evacuate.

Emley Moor is the national control centre for the Arqiva broadcast
operation. Service staff are based at each main station site (or
nearby) and cover the transmitters in the associated ITV region.

Satellite is used for all sorts of feeds these days - apart from main
programme distribution - such as, for example, paging. Unless the dish
says Sky on it there is nothing to say it has anything to do with Sky.
You'll find such dishes at Emley Moor as well!


--
Woody

harrogate3 at ntlworld dot com

Hi,

In-line...

"harrogate3" wrote in message
...
OK, let's get it right.

OK, thanks for the ( presumably inside ) info!


Durris is manned - except when it is windy.

OK, fair enough.
I't always been deserted when I've gone past, in all weathers: I walk and
mountain-bike around there from time to time. But always outwith normal
office hours, so perhaps that's why I've never seen anyone there.


When they did samples for the mast strengthening for DTTV they found
that the guy anchors are 'floating' in peat, hence the large
additional concrete blocks. The site is still considered unsafe
however in high winds and the staff have to evacuate.

Yes, I can see why that might be the case!

Emley Moor is the national control centre for the Arqiva broadcast
operation. Service staff are based at each main station site (or
nearby) and cover the transmitters in the associated ITV region.


Indeed, but you must understand the humour in a sign that says "Danger: Mast
may fall down... Call Emely Moor" !


Satellite is used for all sorts of feeds these days - apart from main
programme distribution - such as, for example, paging. Unless the dish
says Sky on it there is nothing to say it has anything to do with Sky.
You'll find such dishes at Emley Moor as well!

Indeed. I just found it slightly amusing that someone at a main TX might
feel the need for sky!

And, incidentally, if you are connected with them, you might let someone
know that an loud external audible warble alarm has been sounding for the
last couple of weeks at least. Sounds like a burglar alarm, but there's no
sign of forced entry. It's disturbing the wildlife :-)

--
Ron ( Peterculter )

"Ron Lowe" ronATlowe-famlyDOTmeDOTukSPURIOUS wrote in
:

[snip]

The main office building ( now rather deserted ) has a sky dish on the
front! Nothing for the visiting engineers worth watching on the
transmission feeds?


When I visited the RTE Mount Leinster transmitter as a student about 30
years ago, the staff were watching perfect a BBC Wales picture which they
had picked up using the equivalent of a metal coat-hanger.

"Ron Lowe" ronATlowe-famlyDOTmeDOTukSPURIOUS wrote in news:45fc32bd$0$759
:

Went for a woodland walk up towards the ( un-manned ) Durris transmitter
this afternoon.


Stupid question maybe, but I assumed most transmitters were unmanned - are
all the main transmitters manned?

"Ron Lowe" ronATlowe-famlyDOTmeDOTukSPURIOUS wrote in message
...
Hi, all.

Went for a woodland walk up towards the ( un-manned ) Durris transmitter
this afternoon.

As you approach the top of the hill, there are warning notices which warn
ominously against approaching the site in strong winds due to ongoing work
on the mast. Perhaps they are worried it's going to fall over!

The notice goes on to say that in case of emergency, to call ......


It's a health and safety requirement. It's to stop people being hit by
things that are dropped or that fall from the mast during work.
I would have thought a notice warning of strong RF would be better.

On Sat, 17 Mar 2007 20:53:34 GMT, "harrogate3"
wrote:


|!Satellite is used for all sorts of feeds these days - apart from main
|!programme distribution - such as, for example, paging. Unless the dish
|!says Sky on it there is nothing to say it has anything to do with Sky.
|!You'll find such dishes at Emley Moor as well!

Also the huge dishes on top of TV Outside Broadcast vans.
--
Dave Fawthrop sf hyphenologist.co.uk 165 *Free* SF ebooks.
165 Sci Fi books on CDROM, from Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page Completely Free to any
address in the UK. Contact me on the *above* email address.

In article ,
NewsNN wrote:
"Ron Lowe" ronATlowe-famlyDOTmeDOTukSPURIOUS wrote in news:45fc32bd$0$759
:

Went for a woodland walk up towards the ( un-manned ) Durris
transmitter this afternoon.


Stupid question maybe, but I assumed most transmitters were unmanned -
are all the main transmitters manned?

Manned (staffed) transmitters went out with the 405 era. Some main sites
were also maintenance team bases, but the first the team knew of a fault on
the transmitter next door was by a message from the monitoring centre.

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11

In article ,
Trevor wrote:
goes on to say that in case of emergency, to call ......


It's a health and safety requirement. It's to stop people being hit by
things that are dropped or that fall from the mast during work.
I would have thought a notice warning of strong RF would be better.

but there isn't strong RF at ground level near a transmitter. It's beamed
out almost horizontally. Usually 2 or 3 degrees below the horizon. After
all its safe for the staff.

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11