Does the Brookmans Park Transmitting Station present a health risk?

[WAXWING]

Just for interest .... Nothing much changes.

I was born in BP in 1938 and lived at the very top end of Moffats Lane for 18 years. My Dad, a radio engineer, built me a crystal set, and the signal from the pylons was so strong that he tuned the aerial around my bedroom so  it would drive a loudspeaker (about 4" across). No batteries!!..........

We used to leave it on when we left the house to scare any intruders, but it didn't stop "our" burgular!!

[Spurs fan]

Has anyone notice how XFM seems to be almost jammed when driving in the village? Other stations are ok, but there is a horrible hum over XFM! 

[sherlock1a]

We are intermittently suffering an interference 'spike' on digital channel 22 - which delivers ITV1, Channel 4 and a few other channels.  When the ‘spike’ is present, our digital TV’s state there is ‘no signal’, and we can’t watch that channel.

The local aerial company are researching this, but I wondered whether anyone else in the village was suffering too and whether anyone had identified a fix?

Thanks,

[sasquartch]

Sounds like a local interference problem as I have not had any problems.

Any decent aerial company should be able to use a spectrum analyser to see if there is any interference around CH22, although if present, finding the actual source can be a challenge. Is the interference regular ? Can any pattern be determined, eg it drops everytime a car passes, or is exactly at the same time each hour ?

To get a decent digital signal you need a good Band-A aerial.

[AK]

Is not being able to receive Channel 4 such a bad thing? Perhaps a blessing in disguise!

[benjon40]

I have exactly the same problem with a new digital tv and so far have not been able to solve it.  Any advice or details of your aerial compnay would be appreciated.

Thanks

[michael_rosenberg]

We all know that residents have suffered over the years from radio interference from the site in BP which affects telephones,tv's and indeed other equipment. I had thought that most of these problems had been dealt with when we formed a special committee to address this issue some years ago. Recently I have been told that the problem seems to have reoccurred in at least one household in the village.

Has any one else suffered from this ? I would like to know so we can try to help if possible

michael rosenberg

[pgmills]

I had a digital aerial installed last year and watched the engineer test the signals. It was obvious that there is a localised interference with the 'London' transmission in my part of Brookmans Ave. We turned the aerial to pick up the 'Sandy' transmitter and hey presto no problems (other than getting local news from Cambridge rather than London).

[sasquartch]

I had a digital aerial installed last year and watched the engineer test the signals. It was obvious that there is a localised interference with the 'London' transmission in my part of Brookmans Ave. We turned the aerial to pick up the 'Sandy' transmitter and hey presto no problems (other than getting local news from Cambridge rather than London).

There is no such thing as a 'digital' aerial - all transimssions are analogue, the digital information is encoded within the signal. Many aerials are sold as such though and normally these are actually 'wideband' aerials which may or may not be required for digital channels.

An aerial is designed to cover a range of frequencies and in this part of Herts we are served by Crystal Palace more or less due south. All analogue and digital channels from Crystal Palace are in the lower range of the UHF band and a Group A aerial is the correct type to fit. Such an aerial has a high gain at these lower frequencies at the expense of little gain at higher frequencies (which we have no interest in in BP). A wideband aerial (which may have been described incorrectly as a digital aerial) will receive signals right across the UHF band but much less effectively than the correct Group A type that should be fitted in BP.

The fact that you say you now receive signals from the much more distant Sandy Heath transmitter (which DOES require a wideband aerial because of the frequencies used) indicates you probably do have a wideband aerial fitted. Any competent installer will know what the correct aerial to use is.

Another benefit of a grouped aerial (ie NOT wideband) is that having higher gain it is more effective in rejecting interference from directions other than the direction it is pointing. Therefore a wideband aerial will be LESS effective at rejecting interference from the side.

It is very unlikely that the transmitting station in BP is causing interference that would require a different transmitter to be required. The AM transmissions are at a frequency of around 1MHz, UHF TV is transmitted at 300MHz or so. I think whoever installed your aerial may not really understand the problems. It may be of course that there is an obstruction between you and Crystal Palace but that won't be anything to do with the transmitter. Possibly your aerial needs to be resited or use a different type of pole. Everybody in BP should be able to receive Crystal Palace OK with a correctly installed Group A aerial. Even people in The Gardens, probably the lowest elevation in BP can do this, you should have no problems in Brookmans Avenue.

If you are getting any work done by an aerial installer ask him which type of aerial he will use, what type of co-ax etc. If they um and er then find someone else who understands the business, look for a CAI member (Confederation of Aerial Installers I think) See http://www.cai.org.uk/ Installing a domestic aerial isn't rocket science but isn't quite as simple as just bolting an aerial to your chimney 

[johnn]

Hi just wanted to say that we've been having problems with the BP transmitter too.  We have CCTV around the house and the wires seem to pick up an indian radio station which from reading the posts above I would imagine is Sunrise Radio.  The problem is so bad that it's actually the only thing you can hear out of the monitors.  Did anyone ever get a complete solution to this problem?

Any help would be gratefully received.

[sasquartch]

Call into the transmitter station and ask for technical advice.

You will probably find them very helpful.

n my experience AM radio interference can be solved by using ferrite rings (which the transmitter station supplied free of charge)

[BrookyP]

I get Indian radio down my phone so will be calling the station to try to sort.

Another thing i get is big break ups on my freeview Ariel reception.

I have had a new system installed when i moved in (4 months ago) but get transmission break ups on a daily basis.

This will entail the tv saying "no signal being recieved" or pixelating for a bit then recovering.

The engineer has come out twice and signal strength is great/he has also reun all cables to eliminate possibility of any cable fracture. do other people get this issue.

any help appreciated. ta BP

[Oly]

I have had a new system installed when i moved in (4 months ago) but get transmission break ups on a daily basis.

This will entail the tv saying "no signal being recieved" or pixelating for a bit then recovering.

I have this issue too, I have moved from Welham Green to Old Hatfield. Every 10-15 mins the signal goes and then comes back after maybe 5 seconds.

[sasquartch]

It is highly unlikely that AM transmissions from BP will have any effect whatsoever on Freeview.

A good aerial installer will use a spectrum analyser to check the signal strength of all multiplexes and check for interference.

It is still possible that equipment is at fault, for example if the RF signal is looped through a VCR or other box.

Ideally a good Band A (Not the cheap wideband aerials mis-sold as 'digital' aerials' - see my previous post) aerial should be installed.

[Aidan Winwood]

hi All,

I battled with this issue for sometime when I bought the flat in the village centre - radio (correct, it is Sunrise) through my home cinema processor.  I had couple of chaps from the radio transmitting station come over to my house to try to work out what the problem was.

In the end we sourced it to the case of the processor picking up the radio.  I used the earth on my phono preamp (or the earth of any phono level connection would work) and wires to earth the case of the offending item.  It cleared up fine.

Aidan

[PMB]

Has anyone heard a humming sound in the early hours of the morning say 3am ~ I'm thinking the sound of a generator comming from the Transmitting Station etc but would welcome anyone's views or experience of this please?

[Angel]

I think I could hear it now (got up as couldn't sleep and it's just gone 3!)

[saffie]

What about the Ariel's and satellites on the Great North Road, I hear some very disturbing health scares about them, hope none of the rumours and stats are true, does anyone know their purpose?

[Editor]

Hi Saffie, 

I have split your post from the thread about the Brookmans Park beacon because the Brookmans Park Transmitting Station is a different site and discussing two separate facilities in one thread could get confusing. Also, there are a number of threads already dealing with this topic which I will merge with this thread to add the context of previous discussions. 

David