Save BBC1 analogue transmitter? Time fast running out...

Can you let on how many zeroes are involved Lucien ? Are we talking about the cost of a Raymond Blanc dinner for two or a new gearbox for a family car (or even a First Class return flight to Hawaii ) ?

VB

OK, at that level then count me (strictly speaking, 'us') in too. I'll PM Lucien an offer of £100.

VB

Me too.

Count me in also.

Regards,

This is all going rather well, thanks to many generous offers! We are past the halfway point and I have started the dialogue to hammer out the final details with the contractor. Update this afternoon...

I'm in. PM from my VRAT account sent, as this was down at the time.

Here are a few pics of some of the hardware. In the wide view of the TX, there are five cabinets comprising two transmitters either side of the central control section. We would be saving the leftmost three, i.e. one complete transmitter and the control. We would save some parts of the other TX, such as the output bottle, for separate display (e.g. sectioned) so you can see what's inside without having to cut open the one in the TX display.

There would be some apparatus from the source racks at the far end, such as the system monitoring, and some RF plumbing hopefully including the RF switch pictured. This allows one or both transmitters to drive the same antenna. I would endeavour to make sure that the complement of material we collect will assemble into a coherent display, although ultimately the main event is saving the TX itself.

Hi Lucien, could you pm your mobile number, I seem to have mislaid it.

Rob.

Sorry I am a bit late to read this, I have made same offer by PM.

Eddie

I'm in too for £100 - anyone mad enough to take on this stuff for posterity deserves supporting!
Lucien I will PM you tomorrow for details.
If you get over-subscribed I am sure the funds will help elsewhere.
All the best
Jeremy

An excellent initiative...I am in for £100 too.
I will PM for required details.

Well done for such an exciting initiative.

Trevor.

Thanks to everyone who has pledged support - my apologies if you didn't get a direct reply to your message yet, I've got you in the spreadsheet and will reply with full update probably on Monday. We're not quite at the target yet but sufficiently close that we are definitely going ahead.

We're planning to send all sponsors a small souvenir part or module from BBC1B (the identical twin TX that ran in parallel and would have been in the active signal path most of the time) to put on the mantelpiece, a picture album and a certificate. There will be an info plaque displayed with the TX with your name on it if you want, or not if you don't. You will be invited to the EK launch do, where you will be expected to pose with it!

I'll be reliant on iffy mobile internet signal over the weekend so there might be a delay answering correspondence. As relaxation from the heavy work, Dave and I will be spending an hour or two looking at the display space and working out just what has to be got out of the way ready for the TX to make its way through the building into position. Lots of jolly fun with forklifts...

Lucien

I think it's this actual transmitter that Mark Thompson is switching off close to the start of this video

isn't it ?

VB

Yes that is the very one. When you visit, you may push the ON button. I cannot exactly predict what would happen next...

I'll be on site tomorrow morning to have a look at options - there is some difficulty removing the left-hand unit complete and undamaged and current thinking is that it would be better to take the right hand (B) unit. They are identical twins and have served BBC1 equally with identical track records and service history. We'll keep the output bottle from the A unit if this turns out to be the case. The shared control unit (that Mark Thompson turns off in the video) is unchanged. Update tomorrow...

Lucien

The whole unit looks like it is made up of 5 modules from zooming the photo a few posts back.
Have a look and see what goes between the cabinets as the move could be made a whole lot easier if the cabling could be disconnected and marked up.
If the sections are only held together with screws there could be tears if you tried to lift it in one bit.
A few trips with a van with a tail lift might just do it in sections at a much reduced price.

Yes, it certainly does have to be split in a number of places, the whole assembly that you see in that pic is about 25 feet long. In fact the cabinets not only need to be separated from each other but also split fore and aft, as they are too deep to go through the door and were built on site. There are also freestanding parts such as the 1.5 tonne mains transformer, smoothing choke and output valve trolley that have to come out first.

I had a good look at things this morning and a chat with the project engineer, where it transpired that the A unit (left two cabinets) was missing some parts that had been requisitioned as spares for other equipment with which they happened to be compatible, but the B unit was 100% complete and intact and overall in slightly better condition anyway. So we decided that the B unit is the one to preserve, and we took some 'souvenirs' and output bottle from the A unit, the remainder of which is now heading to the recyclers. As I mentioned before, there is no tangible difference between the two, the designations A and B could be Fred and Charlie, they have served the station equally. B unit dismantling starts tomorrow.

I also had a chance to meet the team from ICEE, the contractors doing the decommissioning and dismantling. They seem very clued-up and helpful, and along with the engineer from Arqiva they plan to make us a photo diary of each step of the dismantling, so that we can easily 'reverse the above procedure.'

Pics to follow...

Is the decommissioning company laying on the transport or are you providing hire vans to move the sections?

We're doing the moving. Edward, our man with the crane lorry, needs to come to the store to move some heavy lumps of plant around. Rather than forking things onto pallets and doing it with a couple of 7.5 tonners, it makes sense for him to pick up the TX and bring it with him. I'll be going along in our van to take the loose items such as spares, the A unit IOT, documentation etc.

We have a system: If we can fork it on and off our van or a 7.5, Dave and I usually move it. If it is too big / heavy / tricky to handle with the forklift, or there's too much to fit in a 7.5, or we simply want to watch it being done effortlessly while we make the tea, Edward moves it. He can levitate anything up to about 10 tonnes - if you scroll down to the bottom of this page you'll see the flywheel floating off our oil-engined lighting plant http://www.electrokinetica.org/d1/1/1.php