Bilsdale transmitting station offline indefinitely

[QuestionableMouse]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-58169501.amp

Means a huge chunk of the North has no TV or radio which is very odd! My poor dad is going into news withdrawal.

Wow ,that's a biggie .Can you or someone living nearby help him with any of the work arounds suggested in the article?

as below

Coverage of BBC Radio Tees on DAB is reduced but some reception should continue for most listeners and there is no need to re-tune.

BBC Radio York uses Bilsdale to relay its signal and bypassing the mast is resulting in a weaker service.

Listeners to the BBC's national radio services on FM should attempt to re-tune to a neighbouring transmitter, ensuring aerials are fully extended and placed near windows.

nother viewer in North Yorkshire told how their 86-year-old neighbour lived alone and had no broadband.

They said they fitted a wi-fi extender to their internet and gave her their Amazon Firestick so she was able to watch television

Despite the loss of transmission from the tower, BBC television remains available on iPlayer.

Radio stations can still be listened to on BBC Sounds.

I wonder if anyone has panicked because they can't pick up Radio 4. If Radio 4 isn't up then the country had collapsed or so they say.

They have a smart TV so I've connected it to the Internet for them. Just so weird it's not being talked about more!

I heard about it on the news and I'm in Scotland. Wasn't it caused by a fire?

Some channels have now been restored in our area, but not all,of them.

It was on R4 news today - engineers evidently upgrading station to 5G. Wonder if it was conspiracy lunatics who set it on fire .

Yes a fire in one of the buildings at the base housing equipment. One article mentioned the fire started during maintenance. I think it’ll be weeks before they get it going again, longer if it’s structural unsound. Many houses in the area will struggle with catch up services unless they have satellite broadband. I wonder if there will be a tv license extension for the affected households?

@Kpo58

I wonder if anyone has panicked because they can't pick up Radio 4. If Radio 4 isn't up then the country had collapsed or so they say.

I think if the Today programme doesn't go out, their orders are to set off all the missiles.

@reprehensibleme

It was on R4 news today - engineers evidently upgrading station to 5G. Wonder if it was conspiracy lunatics who set it on fire .

It was 5G viruses, with Zippos

I hope people who don’t have internet tv will get a refund on their license fee!

They bloody should!

@mayblossominapril

Yes a fire in one of the buildings at the base housing equipment. One article mentioned the fire started during maintenance. I think it’ll be weeks before they get it going again, longer if it’s structural unsound. Many houses in the area will struggle with catch up services unless they have satellite broadband. I wonder if there will be a tv license extension for the affected households?

Why on earth would they need satellite broadband?!?! 😆 Are you under the impression that regular broadband comes from transmitters?!?! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 It is accessed via phone lines for goodness sake!

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

I hope people who don’t have internet tv will get a refund on their license fee!

Were affected, I'm not sure the £2.50 per week or whatever is worth the hassle, unless it really drags on.

We're, not were!

Maybe they can take the temporary mast we’ve had at Emley for 4 years up to Bilsdale ? I think work to Emley is pretty much complete.

I'm pretty sure that when Peterborough mast collapsed following a fire, they put a temporary one up - maybe a possibility?

Ah the BBC says Arqiva are putting a temp in but it will take 14 days. To be fair that seems like a reasonable timescale for a emergency erection

Boredmotherofone If you live in a very rural location a long way from the phone cabinet you can’t get fast enough broadband to stream tv. You have to pay for satellite broadband. It’s more expensive and yes it’s received through a satellite dish. There’s a reason you give your postcode to phone companies before you sign up for broadband and it’s not just for billing purposes it’s because they don’t offer the fast services to rural areas.

This has affected my parents who live very rurally and don't have reliable enough internet to stream TV. They are now having to spend a few hours downloading a programme so they can watch it properly. Not ideal.

It was caused by a lightning strike, wasn't it?

@mayblossominapril I was once told on here that I couldn't possibly be getting my broadband through a satellite dish as 'broadband only comes down the phone line- satellite dishes just do TV' and that I was stupid for thinking otherwise.

Apparently 'everyone' can get super fast broadband through their phone line.
At the time ours was 0.5mbps down the phone, and 15 from the satellite.
(Thankfully we finally got fibre)
#rural

I think there is more too it than just putting up a temporary mast. I think it's the tallest transmitter in England, and situated in a SSSI.....

Weve got some channels back by moving the aerial to point to Pontop Pike. Thankyou DH for reading the deeds that say no external aerials, and following it rather than all our neighbours who have external aerials! The Eston Nab transmitter has been boosted too. Slowly stuff is coming back for many.

I wondered about the cause between maintenance and lightening. Not heard anything said officially other than lightening tho.

Hope those without fast broadband or sky can access something soon.

The saddest aspect is that the authorities seem to be ignoring the fact that the transmitter serves some extremely rural communities for whom Broadband services are not available or pretty useless.

My 88 year old FIL has no Broadband, would wait weeks to have it fitted and would be very unlikely to get TV / Radio through it even if it was fitted because of the appalling speeds.

Yet the advice being churned out is to use IPlayer / Hub for replacement services.

At the very least people currently without the TV / Radio services they rely on for companionship, need to know the likely timescale for restoration of their services.

We have visited FIL, bought him a DVD player, taken all the films we think he might like and stocked his Kindle up with books. We are on at least the 10th phone call about how the DVD player works but do at least know he has some noise / entertainment in the house.

I get that no one planned for this fire and that they are working to try and mitigate the outcome, but the communication and lack of recognition that not everyone has broadband services, has been very frustrating.

Why on earth would they need satellite broadband?!?! 😆 Are you under the impression that regular broadband comes from transmitters?!?! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 It is accessed via phone lines for goodness sake!

Oh dear @Boredmotherofone - I suggest you do your research in future before trying to make other people look stupid