Unfortunately people call the police when you ask a question about these things. But I know my rights so after a discussion with police and no ID given, nothing to worry about. But it is an inconvenience
Always spot antennas on peoples houses etc when I’m driving or a passenger in a car, love spotting antennas and knowing what they are for - although I have had a couple which I had no idea! 73 M6JDT
Its a capacity hat sitting above a small loading coil, helps compensate for the mast being much shorter than natural resonance. You may well see them on NDB antenna as well.
In Southeast Louisiana there is the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway bridge, 24 miles long, at one time the longest bridge in the world. Has it's own police and rescue squad. It also had (still there but off the air) an AM broadcast radio, 1610khz that gave weather, traffic, and safety advisories. It could be heard within a 6-10 mile radius. The bridge police used to monitor CB channel 15 for reports of accidents and impaired drivers.
You sometimes see capacity hats like that used in the ham bands for 180m, since it's hard to get a vertical anywhere close to a half wavelength and the hat increases the resonant length without increasing the physical length.
The tapped coil or inductor under the capacity hat is used to bring the antenna to resonance. In the transmitter cabinet, there would be most probably be an AMU (Antenna Matching Unit) to match the 50-ohm feeder to the antenna feed point impedance. I'm no antenna expert but the coil under the hat should be outside of the field of the hat and therefore a little lower down
I was a volunteer at my local Hospital Radio also on AM at Crawley Hospital, West Sussex. Unfortunately the service was stopped a few year's back. Personally I would love to bring it back if I can get a job at the Hospital. Thank you for sharing its good to know other Hospitals are still running stations.
Your comment on the station not acknowledging reception outwith their official catchment area is an interesting one. In the 2000's I was involved in Blackpool Stop The War and when we were discussing publicising an upcoming demo I suggested to our press officer that he contact the University of Central Lancashire radio station in Preston, named Frequency 1350. A few days later he said he had phoned them only to get interrogated about where he had learnt of the radio station and then been told not to contact them again. I used to listen to this station and still remember that they used to broadcast ITN's football results feed on Saturday afternoons, with the intervening "keep-alive" pips also going out on air.
The range it goes is amazing. As somebody that often wonders about random antennas, I'm going to find this to be a fascinating and useful series. 73 M7TUD
We have a nearly identical transmitter at our local hospital in Nuneaton. Called Anker radio, I believe only intended for the hospital, although you can hear it in many parts of the town. However I was informed it's ten watts. Seems a little high, and again never incorporate anything not within the hospital grounds, and been running since at least the end of the 90's. Regards Tim HT nuneaton Warwickshire.
The First Antennas are for Receiving Signals on 2m and 70cm Bands to Search the Frequencies for Pirates and other Communications who are not allowed. The last Antenna is for Emergencies Communication on a KW Band.
The Third Programme mast at Dodford near Daventy had a radial capacity hat, though it was demolished in 1984. There is a BBC Eng Information video on RUclips of the demolition. The Radio 4 long wave Marconi T antenna at Droitwich is also a vertical radiator with a capacity hat, albeit not in radial form.
There are a few of these around Manchester. One I know is at the Manchester United football ground car park, the other at Whalley Range High School (Range Radio). You got a nice shot of Radio Cavell's mast base mounted on insulators.
@@davidshapiro383 I guess the magnetic losses are accounted for as its ERP rated and so can be made up for with extra _excitement_ of the elections flowing in it
@@MidlifeRenaissanceMan Yes, almost all of these LPAM installations required a fair bit more RF power to meet the required EMRP (Effective Monopole Radiated Power) requirement. I have the calculations here (not for the faint-hearted or those requiring extra maths tuition). The highest power transmitter that I ever read about was a 100 Watt used by Susy Radio in Surrey down the LF end of mediumwave, 531Khz I seem to remember where antenna efficiency is poor. I installed a couple of LPAM RSL's back in the day including the East London Mosque where unfortunately we lacked enough area for a decent ground system. It looks also in this video that the land area around the antenna base is also somewhat limited however, most current flows close-in to the antenna feed-point so more short radials is always going to work better than a few longer ones when you are space limited.
@@davidshapiro383 thanks for that. So, here is a question for you re ground radials 20m / 14Mhz. How does a 33’ end fed vertical pole with no radials, and a ground stake as a counter poise on the match Versus A 16.5’ vertical with some short radials, say 10’ on the ground ?? Just curious. I have built the former and have been using it in our tiny inner city back yard
Thank you for your channel. It is fascinating. At 1350 KHz I'm thinking that there'll be quite a bit of skywave radiation and so when the ionospheric propagation is right, those waves will be bounced back down at decent range. At the low frequency end of skywave prolongation around 1 Megz propagation would be favoured at high latitudes like Scandinavia where adsorption is reduced for the lower frequencies. I'm not upto date on the ionospheric conditions at the moment, so just a thought?
Really interesting Lewis. I never knew hospital radio actually used airwaves. I started presenting on hospital radio in the 70s and it was all landline then. One Christmas the tech volunteers managed rig up a system whereby DJs could ring into the station with their greetings on Christmas day, from home. This was regarded at the time as great technical achievement and state of the art!
Maybe you could ask the station operator to show you the TX up close and the studio and backlink -- it always leaves me guessing what's inside the locked boxes...
The Droitwich Longwave transmitting station would make for an interesting video topic, it's got a lot of history, and it's somewhat of a local landmark. Plus the curious part of me always wanted a better view, but I've got no drone! Just in case you're ever in my patch, of course!
@@6pfk Far as I know, it's been Automatic and unmanned for years. On rare occasions i see a car parked outside the main hall as I pass by the gate, or contractors spraying weed killer around the gate but thats it
There's a 'strange' antenna visible from the A177 Durham road, on the left as you leave Stockton-on-Tees. I believe it's the Medium wave antenna broadcasting on 1215 KHz - which used to be Virgin Media's frequency.
There is one of these antennas (or there was, 3 and a half years ago) at Old Trafford footy ground, IIRC for MUFC Radio. As noted below, top radials are a 'capacity hat' ( I wear one when on the p1ss; they don't work!), it's in the car park next to the railway line, from whence I saw it. I don't know/care if it is still a 'thing' as I hate football, especially Premier League Money Making/Laundering Ltd., but BITD it puzzled this here swl'er until I saw something similar in Shortwave magazine. A fruitful source of subjects for DX-ers, down on MW, so useful after all!
This was great thank you. I spot strange antennae all the time and wonder what they are for. You could do a whole channel just on this topic and I would subscribe 🙏😎
Does anyone know what the white pods are along the Midlands M6? They look like miniature radar domes about the size of a 2.5l paint can, they started appearing last year I think
Glad iam not the only one walking around looking at peoples antennas LOL
You're far from being the only one !
Phew... I'm not alone. Hope you're well bruva Fred. 73 tottenham
Unfortunately people call the police when you ask a question about these things. But I know my rights so after a discussion with police and no ID given, nothing to worry about. But it is an inconvenience
@Cassie Harryany original sigma 4s?
Always spot antennas on peoples houses etc when I’m driving or a passenger in a car, love spotting antennas and knowing what they are for - although I have had a couple which I had no idea! 73 M6JDT
Its a capacity hat sitting above a small loading coil, helps compensate for the mast being much shorter than natural resonance. You may well see them on NDB antenna as well.
The coil at the top of the mast increases radiation efficiency
The mast is very similar to NDB ones indeed ruclips.net/video/Ne3dKro-tAw/видео.html insulated from the ground with top hat.
My guess is that the reason they had to use the capacity hat is that there wasn't space to burry radials.
When I saw that antenna , I thought NDB. Apparently not. Hospital radio.
Picking that up in Scandinavia would be real DX! 📻
Jeg elsker danmark.
In Southeast Louisiana there is the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway bridge, 24 miles long, at one time the longest bridge in the world. Has it's own police and rescue squad. It also had (still there but off the air) an AM broadcast radio, 1610khz that gave weather, traffic, and safety advisories. It could be heard within a 6-10 mile radius. The bridge police used to monitor CB channel 15 for reports of accidents and impaired drivers.
You sometimes see capacity hats like that used in the ham bands for 180m, since it's hard to get a vertical anywhere close to a half wavelength and the hat increases the resonant length without increasing the physical length.
The tapped coil or inductor under the capacity hat is used to bring the antenna to resonance. In the transmitter cabinet, there would be most probably be an AMU (Antenna Matching Unit) to match the 50-ohm feeder to the antenna feed point impedance. I'm no antenna expert but the coil under the hat should be outside of the field of the hat and therefore a little lower down
I was a volunteer at my local Hospital Radio also on AM at Crawley Hospital, West Sussex. Unfortunately the service was stopped a few year's back. Personally I would love to bring it back if I can get a job at the Hospital. Thank you for sharing its good to know other Hospitals are still running stations.
1476 kHz Carillon Wellbeing Radio in Loughborough is nice. In the night they relay Radio Seagull. I often listened to it on Edinburgh.
Your comment on the station not acknowledging reception outwith their official catchment area is an interesting one. In the 2000's I was involved in Blackpool Stop The War and when we were discussing publicising an upcoming demo I suggested to our press officer that he contact the University of Central Lancashire radio station in Preston, named Frequency 1350. A few days later he said he had phoned them only to get interrogated about where he had learnt of the radio station and then been told not to contact them again. I used to listen to this station and still remember that they used to broadcast ITN's football results feed on Saturday afternoons, with the intervening "keep-alive" pips also going out on air.
I would love to hear more about how a 1 watt radio can travel that far it's so cool
The range it goes is amazing. As somebody that often wonders about random antennas, I'm going to find this to be a fascinating and useful series.
73 M7TUD
We have a nearly identical transmitter at our local hospital in Nuneaton. Called Anker radio, I believe only intended for the hospital, although you can hear it in many parts of the town. However I was informed it's ten watts. Seems a little high, and again never incorporate anything not within the hospital grounds, and been running since at least the end of the 90's. Regards Tim HT nuneaton Warwickshire.
1W from UK to Finland.
Amazing next level QRP
The First Antennas are for Receiving Signals on 2m and 70cm Bands to Search the Frequencies for Pirates and other Communications who are not allowed. The last Antenna is for Emergencies Communication on a KW Band.
I have never seen a capacity hat in the UK on a broadcasting mast although they were very common elsewhere in the world back in the day.
The Third Programme mast at Dodford near Daventy had a radial capacity hat, though it was demolished in 1984. There is a BBC Eng Information video on RUclips of the demolition. The Radio 4 long wave Marconi T antenna at Droitwich is also a vertical radiator with a capacity hat, albeit not in radial form.
Another fantastic well researched video, thanks Lewis 👍👍
Yes good one Lewis, I think we know them as RSL stations they have them in colleges as well
Cheers Dave.
Interesting video mate and pleased to see you are at a nice round 37k subscribers now, Hopefully not long until you get to 40k
There are a few of these around Manchester. One I know is at the Manchester United football ground car park, the other at Whalley Range High School (Range Radio). You got a nice shot of Radio Cavell's mast base mounted on insulators.
I’m assuming the mast would be aluminium rather than steel, but I guess it could be a non magnetic stainless steel
@@MidlifeRenaissanceMan Chris, It's a galvanised steel lattice design. These are by far the most common.
@@davidshapiro383 I guess the magnetic losses are accounted for as its ERP rated and so can be made up for with extra _excitement_ of the elections flowing in it
@@MidlifeRenaissanceMan Yes, almost all of these LPAM installations required a fair bit more RF power to meet the required EMRP (Effective Monopole Radiated Power) requirement. I have the calculations here (not for the faint-hearted or those requiring extra maths tuition). The highest power transmitter that I ever read about was a 100 Watt used by Susy Radio in Surrey down the LF end of mediumwave, 531Khz I seem to remember where antenna efficiency is poor. I installed a couple of LPAM RSL's back in the day including the East London Mosque where unfortunately we lacked enough area for a decent ground system. It looks also in this video that the land area around the antenna base is also somewhat limited however, most current flows close-in to the antenna feed-point so more short radials is always going to work better than a few longer ones when you are space limited.
@@davidshapiro383 thanks for that. So, here is a question for you re ground radials
20m / 14Mhz. How does a 33’ end fed vertical pole with no radials, and a ground stake as a counter poise on the match
Versus
A 16.5’ vertical with some short radials, say 10’ on the ground ??
Just curious. I have built the former and have been using it in our tiny inner city back yard
Thank you for your channel. It is fascinating.
At 1350 KHz I'm thinking that there'll be quite a bit of skywave radiation and so when the ionospheric propagation is right, those waves will be bounced back down at decent range. At the low frequency end of skywave prolongation around 1 Megz propagation would be favoured at high latitudes like Scandinavia where adsorption is reduced for the lower frequencies. I'm not upto date on the ionospheric conditions at the moment, so just a thought?
I was going to send you a message a few weeks ago about this antenna at Oldham, great work as usual matey 73 M6MDL
Really interesting Lewis. I never knew hospital radio actually used airwaves. I started presenting on hospital radio in the 70s and it was all landline then. One Christmas the tech volunteers managed rig up a system whereby DJs could ring into the station with their greetings on Christmas day, from home. This was regarded at the time as great technical achievement and state of the art!
Did I miss the mention of the transmitter power for this hospital service?
You did. 1w
Maybe you could ask the station operator to show you the TX up close and the studio and backlink -- it always leaves me guessing what's inside the locked boxes...
Tried, they never got back to me :(
The Droitwich Longwave transmitting station would make for an interesting video topic, it's got a lot of history, and it's somewhat of a local landmark. Plus the curious part of me always wanted a better view, but I've got no drone! Just in case you're ever in my patch, of course!
. . Plus if you do ever venture down for a gander, let me know and I'll pop the kettle on 🤣
Absolutely would love it. I've seen another interesting LW transmitting site - Westerglen near Falkirk.
long ago worked there. don't think a drone would be happy with the rf levels. is it still manned?
@@6pfk Far as I know, it's been Automatic and unmanned for years. On rare occasions i see a car parked outside the main hall as I pass by the gate, or contractors spraying weed killer around the gate but thats it
@@TheCaptainSparky I wonder if there are still fish in the cooling pond? if it's still there?
Absolutely amazing! I'd love to know how their antenna works though? I can bet that the other responses have already answered this.....so be it!
Fascinating as always!
Big fan and subscriber.
Much appreciated!
I think they need a New building. That one looks a bit run in. A great service for the ones who deserve it. Thanks very much.
You are welcome.
Idk why but I have a phobia of weird looking structures. This helped a lot, I’m trying my hardest to get rid of this phobia
Fun story. Thanks. Great series idea.
I saw a strange antenna driving through the state of Delaware in the US. If I take a picture, can I send it to you?
Sure! Email is in the description
There's a 'strange' antenna visible from the A177 Durham road, on the left as you leave Stockton-on-Tees. I believe it's the Medium wave antenna broadcasting on 1215 KHz - which used to be Virgin Media's frequency.
I thought it was just me ,I see an antenna as a thing of beauty lol ade
Having made some Aerials in the past one which I made for 2 m in the 80s with three phasing loops very successful I also walk looking around the sky
There is one of these antennas (or there was, 3 and a half years ago) at Old Trafford footy ground, IIRC for MUFC Radio. As noted below, top radials are a 'capacity hat' ( I wear one when on the p1ss; they don't work!), it's in the car park next to the railway line, from whence I saw it. I don't know/care if it is still a 'thing' as I hate football, especially Premier League Money Making/Laundering Ltd., but BITD it puzzled this here swl'er until I saw something similar in Shortwave magazine. A fruitful source of subjects for DX-ers, down on MW, so useful after all!
0:10 That one reminds me of a TACAN direction finder. I'd love to know what it actually is though.
I have ADHD and autism. I NEVER stop wondering what things are, what they do, and how they work! So thanks. This will help. 😅
I had to find this on Google Maps... and with your excellent description I'm looking at a Google Street View image of the antenna :-)
Great video and a great antenna
Loving these videos Lewis, always looking out and curious what different antennas are and they purpose.
Like this kind of video, please keep them coming! Best regards.
I wonder how far it goes? nice set up
Are you going to cover the antennas on top of street lights?
That's very interesting. I like these kinds of videos.
I bet it doesnt have a secure link to the TX.... could be interesting lol
I thoroughly enjoyed that. Top work from my manc connection (I lived there once 🌚) keep up the fine work bruva. 73 LONDON
Another fantastic video Lewis thank you
Good research as ever 👍👏👏
Interesting fella look forward to the next one
oh that goes pretty well
Thanks Lewis
Great stuff Lewis thanks.
3:00 Sources?
This was great thank you. I spot strange antennae all the time and wonder what they are for. You could do a whole channel just on this topic and I would subscribe 🙏😎
Great story!
Hehe the video title is "Antennas" but you only identified one ;) is this the first in a series? :)
Great Video!
Does anyone know what the white pods are along the Midlands M6? They look like miniature radar domes about the size of a 2.5l paint can, they started appearing last year I think
I do, and if you stay tuned there’s a video in the making now ;)
@@RingwayManchester oh great, I’d better subscribe then? Looking forward to that 🙂
Great vid!
Don't we call them Aerials in the uk? Antennas are what bugs have.
No. Aerial is receiving, antenna is transmit and receive
@@RingwayManchester ah I see. Thanks. We can't allow Americanisms on these islands! (Joke).
Interesting video!👏
I see it every day at least now I know what it's for
Is it sad I instantly recognised Cavell’s tower from the thumbnail? 😂
Nah, you're good. I thought it's an NDB mast when looking at the thumbnail.
How interesting 👍
Nice Thanks interesting
👍
Is it done, Yuri?
Is it safe?
First???