Dutch Realize AM as backup to putting all your digital FM on twin towers

[JohnnyElectron]

After a monopole disaster on FM digital towers, they had to use, get this, Medium Wave! OMG - that still works!

"...According to Dutch press reports, about 80 percent of the Netherlands is without over-the-air FM radio due to the twin transmission tower troubles. Stations are continuing to carry programming online and via some cable systems, as well as on medium wave from other sites..."

 

[tomservo]

Is their FM all digital or analog? Sounds analog from your quote. This is not an HD thing but a siting thing.

 

[stormy01]

http://www.rwonline.com/article/tower-disasters-leave-dutch-radio-off-air/23936

 

[tomservo]

Wow. So it's analog FM, not digital, but there was also TV transmissions from the towers as well. It's worth a look at the link stormy posted just to see the 19 second video of the 1,000 foot tall Smilde broadcast tower in Hoogersmilde collapse. Apparently the fire brought it down. It was a mast atop a concrete base, which sounds very unusual.

 

[nd2023]

Shouldn't they have another backup tower site for FM? In New York City, last year the Empire State Building combiner failed and all of the stations went off the air during PM drive. They came back on from 4 Times Square down the street, with most listeners not noticing anything wrong (besides the 5 people that couldn't hear them in HD).

 

[davideduardo]

It was a mast atop a concrete base, which sounds very unusual.

Concrete structures with mast on the top are very common in Europe. The support structure in some contains a panoramic or rotating restaurant or observation deck in some cases.

The CN tower in Toronto is one variant on that model.

 

[Ai4i]

Good old RNW.nl, PO Box 222, Hilversum.
Europe has a bunch of really nice looking tower structures, as does China.
We were delighted to be on an insider's tour of the Pickle Fork atop Mt Sutro in San Francisco a few years ago.
Fortunately for the royal plural, most of the transmission sites from which we receive radio are held up centrifugally (sp?).

 

[tomservo]

It was a mast atop a concrete base, which sounds very unusual.

Concrete structures with mast on the top are very common in Europe. The support structure in some contains a panoramic or rotating restaurant or observation deck in some cases.

The CN tower in Toronto is one variant on that model.

What's so unusual about this one, at least to me, is the concrete tower is ~260 feet, while the metal tower on top is over 700. So it's this tall metal tower on top of a stubby base. The proportions look odd to me.

 

[davideduardo]

What's so unusual about this one, at least to me, is the concrete tower is ~260 feet, while the metal tower on top is over 700. So it's this tall metal tower on top of a stubby base. The proportions look odd to me.

It's not that unusual. The transmitter facilities are on three or four levels at the top of the concrete structure, which is also a good height for microwave relay gear... no long cable runs and direct connection to the transmitter rooms. I've seen quite a few of these.

I've always thought that Europe, having generally greater population densities, favored this kind of self supporting structure, while in most US markets guyed towers are more cost effective. It helps that in Europe, the government financed state owned broadcast companies paid most of the bills.

Russia has a bunch of those structures, but I would probably not go up one (I've been in a bunch of the others in Europe) as I'd get the feeling they had the structural integrity of Chernobyl.

The "mast" is a somewhat miss-named. The telescoping tube was something like 4 meters in diameter at the bottom, and was somewhat like those very high light posts except that it sat on a structure and not on the ground.