Is 96.6 from bilsdale lowered powered now?

[radionortheast]

After the fire frequencies were very clear, I was able to put my tiny tx on 100.7 relaying 106 recordings, then one day heart came back on. I did wonder if they’d turn the transmitters back on after the fire, i’ve never heard anything like it, back in the 90’s suspect they would of all been back on within days, there was just silence on the frequencies, this went on for about 2 years. I think they did put lower power txers on air closer to the places they were trying to cover, suppose was abit of wonder about this as Bilsdale out in the middle no were miles from the places its trying to cover mostly just sheep around, if it would come back at all, a end of days scenario. I suppose with so much power going to the aerials there was always going to fire risk, don’t know what actually happened, maybe the coax caught fire?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-62491721

It was interesting too as with 106.4 not there I could hear imagine radio, from derbyshire, within a few weeks this changed to greatest hits. During the summer I could also hear kiss fm from the east of England, reminded me abit of the old vibe fm days, with full rds at one bit, I suppose not that people think of kiss of been a dance station better capital but it was still something, now that has also gone, think greatest hits, 106.4 is Capital again, I get the impression it is maybe not as strong as it was in the past.

I’ve noticed since the transmitters came back from b’sdale, alot of the time the 96.6 tx is not that there at all, it was given the name the blowtorch in the past for the fact it could get everywhere not so much a blowtorch, makes you wonder if they'd changed something about it, makes its difficult to find a frequency for my tiny tx too.

[pirateaddict]

Or8 northeast...Tfm on 96.6 used to bang in ere clear as day before the fire..While they were off a station came on 96.7 in Sheffield so that could be a reason why 96.6 is not getting there.. Whether it's to do with what you said about the 'torch' being received everywhere, power may have been reduced to save some money on the silly power or/and to stop interfering with stations in other areas near their frequency..That heart on 100.7 shouldn't even be picked up in our area so get that 100.7 tx on and amplify it

[FMEnjoyer]

642 meters to the tip, no wonder that got out well. Amazing, what kind of distances were people receiving transmissions from the site of Bilsdale ?

[radionortheast]

Or8 northeast...Tfm on 96.6 used to bang in ere clear as day before the fire..While they were off a station came on 96.7 in Sheffield so that could be a reason why 96.6 is not getting there.. Whether it's to do with what you said about the 'torch' being received everywhere, power may have been reduced to save some money on the silly power or/and to stop interfering with stations in other areas near their frequency..That heart on 100.7 shouldn't even be picked up in our area so get that 100.7 tx on and amplify it

its not far away were i’m listening its north facing it only got the tempory ones weak from eston nab, so it was’nt a problem, wonder why they kept heart at the same level, they must have money unlikely coming out of ashley and amanda’s wagers.

I saw something on 96.7 on frequency finder you have pstone on 97.7 too, it was on fm scan it showed a drive in movie therta on that frequency been received everywere, which was abit funny. You could put in a location find all the txers you could hear, if you lowered the db level it would start to show stations you’d never hear. Since it went, closed, wonder what happened to the licence..

642 meters to the tip, no wonder that got out well. Amazing, what kind of distances were people receiving transmissions from the site of Bilsdale ?

People would often tune to tyne tee’s when they couldn’t get the program on yorkshire tv from the transmitter up there, even with dtv, the secondary coverage region gose all the way from derbyshire, to way past new castle it is nuts. When we went to the lakes we had breakthrough from 106.4 on 106.6 for a long way on the a66, it must of been head stomping.
Alot of my old recordings of 106 have it there in the backround, annoying at the time, you tell what song was playing on kiss north east, interesting time capsule, closest thing to been back in that time, I can hear tin tin out here’s where the story ends, lutricia mcneal ain’t that just the way.

[reverend]

I suppose with so much power going to the aerials there was always going to fire risk, don’t know what actually happened, maybe the coax caught fire?

Rumour has it that some work had been done on the combiners and they had been misaligned. As there's so much power going through them they heated up and caught fire - so operator error - though this has not been officially confirmed.

As for Bilsdale, at the place we used to TX from in Sheffield you couldn't receive Emley Moor (despite it only being 13 miles away) as the signal had to pass through some woodlands and these caused so many reflections that the picture was unwatchable. The Sheffield relay (4 miles away) was behind a hill and unreceivable. The choice was either Tyne Tees from Bilsdale (63 miles), Central TV from Waltham (53 miles) or the wrong version of Yorkshire TV from Belmont (55 miles). Most people watched Belmont though it was odd seeing the news for Hull and Lincoln and nothing about South Yorkshire. Those high-power high-tower masts get out a loooooong way.

One good thing about the situation was that when ITV used to show different programmes on different regional variants you had more shows to choose from.