I wonder if it will be possible soon for them to be able to share high power transmitters for the larger cities (and so mitigating high operating costs)?

Stations can share a tower and even an antenna, but it is not possible for them to share a transmitter without sharing the bandwidth of a physical channel. This may happen in small markets to make things more affordable, but in larger markets, each station is required to have its own channel and thus transmitter.

Sutton Coldfield Main mast pending DSO. The temporary mast behind it is carrying services during DSO operations. 4 UHF TV channels at 1 MW ERP each plus 5 VHF FM radio channels at 250KW ERP each. In addition digital radio and Digital TV 6 * MPXs at 8 Kw each and local radio. This is a fairly major operation for all involved as all services from the main mast will be switched over to the temporary mast for the Switchover period. The Digital TV ERP is increasing from 8 Kw ERP/multiplex to 200 Kw ERP/multiplex after DSO. The old PYE Klystron transmitters for BBC1 and BBC2 will be withdrawn from service near August 2011. The budget for DSO for the UK is near 1 Billion Dollars Cdn.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=455&pictureid=2086

This is the Main mast that will be worked on "cold" during the DSO operations. This is being increased in height by 75 feet during DSO and will reach a new height of close to 900 feet. The reason given for the height increase is to reduce "Code 6" type signal radiation to the populated areas in the closer proximity to the mast. The major concern is cancer incidence increase due to R.F. souces and this includes cell phone towers! The Sutton Coldfield service currently serves near to 5 million people.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=455&pictureid=2087

This temporary mast will be in service up until DSO and during the DSO switchover period. It is near to 700 feet in height and will provide all TV services analog and digital, VHF FM radio services and High Band DAB digital radio services until the changeover period is complete and all normal full power digital programs are in service.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=455&pictureid=2088

The Sutton Coldfield station (The first one outside of London) was initially placed into service in 1949 and relayed the Queen's coronation in 1953. The early main transmitter was 50 Kw Vision and 12.5 Kw Aural producing 100 Kw Vision ERP nominally and broadcasted on the UK Band 1 (Low Band) Channel 4 with vertical polarization using the UK M system which used 405 lines. VHF FM broadcasting began circa 1955 at 120 Kw ERP per BBC program. The BBC Light program, Third program and Home service for the Midlands area. The early mast was replaced in 1985 to carry the heavier "mixed polarization" VHF FM antennas with a power increase to 250 Kw ERP using 3 pairs of 14 Kw transmitter sets. The early Low band antennas were removed and the UHF fiberglass cylinder and antennas of 1963-4 were replaced with the new mast installation. The UHF transmitted ERP remained at 1 Mwatt per program. A later 4th set of VHF FM transmitters were added (to include BBC Radio 1 new on VHF at that time). A yet further set of transmitters was subsequently added to include the National Independant (Non-BBC) Classic FM channel at 250 Kw ERP bringing the total to 5 high powered FM services plus a number of low powered FM services via a number of directional antennas. This station whilst originally used to help train newly hired BBC engineers and technicians remains one of the most important in the UK to this day and most likely will be so for some time to come.


http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=455&pictureid=2092

The temporary mast construction has now been completed ready to carry all of the existing program services until the DSO is complete when the mast will be dismantled.


http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=455&pictureid=2098

Phase II (update to video in Post #95)

ES8HyxQPQk8

http://www.youtube.com/v/ES8HyxQPQk8

The tower in St. John's hosted some non-CBC radio stations, an XM Sat Radio repeater, Rogers GSM site, along with a ton of other funny antennas & equipment on the tower.. Great looking facility..

Sorry for the poor pic quality.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/joel2762/18.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/joel2762/17.jpg

Note the large number of cables. The white circle is a receive dish for the XM repeater:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/joel2762/16.jpg

Holy Schnikes! Now THAT's a cable rack! I was just reminded about the transmitter fire that happened here in 2007. I think 4 radio stations and one tv station went down when something caught fire at the 700 ft level. There was a thread about it here.

:)

This is an antenna at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland. As you can see, the top is coated in ice. This picture was taken almost a week after an ice & freezing rain storm went through the area, collapsing power poles and interrupting power to many communities for five days.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=166&pictureid=2304

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/picture.php?albumid=166&pictureid=2305

Funny how the 4-bay antennas look clean. Wonder if they sent some high wattage RF to heat things up. :)

Funny how the 4-bay antennas look clean. Wonder if they sent some high wattage RF to heat things up. :)
No extra power needed. The power used to broadcast will heat things up nicely. To give you an idea, I know someone who burnt his finger because he touched a connector that wasn't tightened enough, and this was only for a cell phone network transmitter.

During and after WWII with workers performing maintenance on the first generations of live radar stations, and later when microwave links were being widely constructed in the 1950s around the world, there were some "accidents" in which workers remained in the beam too long, so that even while the temperatures might have been in the -20C range and the dishes, reflectors, or radomes were ice-covered, the RF activity was heating up their internal body tissue as they worked. Some of those guys died of it after time; their internal organs had been cooked. There just wasn't enough knowledge back then about the dangers. Anyway it just reminds us that with broadcast antennas in the winter looks can be deceiving. :eek:

To give you an idea, I know someone who burnt his finger because he touched a connector that wasn't tightened enough, and this was only for a cell phone network transmitter.
In my early days of amateur radio I got a burn due to "RF in the shack" (before I fully understood the importance of proper RF grounding). It wasn't pleasant.

Wow, thanks for the great pics & great info guys...


Are you aware of what that tower is being used for? Wonder what the power output is, etc..

Going to have to read up more on this RF burn.. what an amazing amount of power they are using in the big transmitters if you can get burned from the power used for cell equipment :|

Actually the antenna in the tower look more like a Sinclair antenne SRL310C4 or SRL 210C4. a Mobile radio antenne for VHF or UHF. Generally the power in those antenna are around 30 watts to 100 watts

Hello Hello everyone.
As for Omni in Calgary, there already is infrastructure up at the Harvard site ready and waiting. They have a Rohde & Schwarz transmitter for CKAL-DT, then 3 racks for equipment and enough space for the second transmitter (Omni) to go on the right side of those racks.
It truly is a beautiful install.
I believe the work done by the fellow from Rogers (I won't give his name out because I don't know him personally) is a bar that has been set very high.

From what I've heard, last summer a lighting strike took out a number of the strobes and the beacon has been stuck on night for months now. As well, the light boxes are aimed more towards the sky to avoid splash on the homes around the site.

Here is CKAL-DT:

http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/static.panoramio.com/photos/original/36992237.jpg

Wow, what a great looking install. Thanks for sharing!
Are there any existing pictures available online that give a view of this site from outdoors?

Wowww - Great - Very good looking job! Thanks for the picture!

Wharf - No problem! I can easily take some photos when I get home! :)

But the first job for me will be to re-adjust and reallocate my own receive antennas by the looks of

things!

Wow, nice installation, looks like a Rohde And Schwarz Liquid Cool.