Meridian and London DSO

DSO in the Meridian region has already begun, with BBC2 analogue switched off at Hannington on 8 February. Here are the dates for each transmitter group in the Meridian region (stage 1 and stage 2 in each case), in order of DSO.

Batch 1
Hannington 8 Feb 2012 & 22 Feb 2012
Midhurst 29 Feb 2012 & 14 Mar 2012
Rowridge 7 Mar 2012 & 21 Mar 2012
Whitehawk Hill 7 Mar 2012 & 21 Mar 2012

Batch 2
Heathfield 30 May 2012 & 13 Jun 2012
Tunbridge Wells 30 May 2012 & 13 Jun 2012
Hastings 30 May 2012 & 13 Jun 2012
Dover 13 Jun 2012 & 27 Jun 2012
Bluebell Hill 13 Jun 2012 & 27 Jun 2012

Some interesting observations from this:
1) A substantial time gap of over two calendar months between Rowridge / Whitehawk Hill stage 2 (21 Mar) and Heathfield / Tunbridge Wells / Hastings stage 1 (30 May).
2) Dover and Bluebell Hill stage 1 is the same day as Heathfield / Tunbridge Wells / Hastings stage 2 (13 Jun).
3) That's why I've been able to classify the nine Meridian transmitter groups into two batches: Batch 1 and Batch 2 listed above.
4) Amazingly, the whole of London (Crystal Palace group) DSO dates are 4 Apr 2012 (stage 1) and 18 Apr 2012 (stage 2); i.e. both between Rowridge / Whitehawk Hill stage 2 (21 Mar) and Heathfield / Tunbridge Wells / Hastings stage 1 (30 May).

Any reason why there is such a gap between what I've called Meridian Batch 1 and Meridian Batch 2?

Apart from the frequency issues I've highlighted to you before, I suspect the main reason is the introduction into the UK of very high powered mixed polarisation transmissions from Rowridge, Arqiva and DUK will need to conduct a major series of tests once active to ensure no interference issues. before moving on.

Similarly, the impact of DSO on London cannot be underestimated. Any issues there will be bound to overspill into the South East, noting the location of Crystal Palace Transmitter.

Yes, although Rowridge will not adopt the the vertical component of the signal on the COM muxes, nor will they adopt the post DSO frequency allocations, until London's DSO 2 day April 18th. There were a series of overnight high power tests from CP and Rowridge in September, all the measurements of mutual interferance etc have already been conducted I'm told.

In short Rowridge's DSO will not really fully complete, until CP's on April 18th. Another knock on, is that Stockland Hill (Devon), Oxford, and Hannington (Thames Valley) can finally go to high power on all muxes on that day too.

DSO stage 2 at Salisbury (a relay of Rowridge, which already carries all 6 Freeview muxes) will mean that Arq A and Arq B will be able to adopt their final channels and powers on 28 March 2012.

I'm surprised a main transmitter the coverage level of Mendip and relay the service area of Salisbury could influence each other in this manner in this way, considering how far apart they are.

Mendip is receivable in Salisbury !

The Salisbury relay also used to receive its input feed for C5 analogue, by off air reception of Mendip.

In that case, how has the Salisbury relay received its input feed for C5 analogue since Mendip DSO stage 2 in April 2010 when analogue C5 on UHF C37 at Mendip was switched off?

Is anyone planning to record DSO 2nd phase from Crystal Palace or know if any of the broadcasters have plans to mark the event on air?

Thanks

D-Sat feed from Astra, ARC'd appropriately.

I'm sure, in common with just about ever other transmitter that has DSO'd, some folk will upload to You Tube the analogue channels going off. It's not terribly exciting in most cases, one moment sound and pictures, the next noise and snow.

There's been nothing mentioned by ITV, 4 or 5, at any stage as far as I know. The BBC in some areas have mentioned the switch off, just before it happens. Notably BBC Wales for Wenvoe, and BBC Scotland for Black Hill. S4C also mentioned the Wenvoe switch off, but of course that was also the entire ' S4C analogue' channel closing down forever.
Red Bee put out and announcement just before BBC 1 from Sutton Coldfield and Emley Moor went, I suspect CP will be granted the same privilege !

CP will also have ITV taking BBC 2's place for the period between DSO 1 and 2. That has happened in other areas too, just to add to the confusion !

Yep, I recorded the 3 closedowns for 2nd phase from Wenvoe and stuck them on YouTube, be nice to see if London marks it in the same way.

Ah, yes, I recognise your ID now

The BBC Nations pres depts seem far more active in marking the DSOs. It will be interesting to see what happens in London. I suspect a degree of London-centricness, it'll be as if DSO hasn't happened anywhere else yet at London DSO 1, and that nationwide DSO is complete at London DSO 2

Yes, they're not spectacular but some of the better done ones are quite good. There are some much better ones floating around from switch off happened in the US - but there it mostly happened at about midday during a local news programme so more of an effort was made on air. It's a shame they've not been switched over here during the regional news.


Almost certainly, Crystal Palace is the big one!

Incidently, I don't know what the publicity campaign was like everywhere else but they've really gone to town in London. I don't know if there is more or whether it's just that there's more places to put posters. I've not used analogue for years but stumbled over to it occasionally recently just for old times sake and I've not seen any captions yet