TV Station - Belgium

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UrbanX

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Location
Cambridge
History:
This transmission station was planned to be built in the 1930’s, but the war proved a bit of a distraction so it was delayed until the late 1940’s and was finally operational in the early 1950s.

TV antennas were also installed on the huge mast. The mast was installed with a 30 year guarantee. 30 years and 7 months later the base failed and it fell over during a storm. FFS.

The last radio broadcast from the site was in 2017, so it was high time we went for a mooch.

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The Explore:
We entered under to cover of darkness into a pitch black space. Even though we were only whispering the acoustics told us it was a big space. Minutes later the sun burst above the horizon and revealed this is where we were standing.

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Speaking of things bursting in, it was only a couple more minutes until Secca arrived. We simply popped on our invisibility cloaks and carried on with the explore.

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The control desks were phenomenal.
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The desks blinked and flashed. Servers whired and screens updated. Despite temptations we all gave the equipment a wide berth for fear that a tripod leg might inadvertently poke the button that sends out the 4 minute warning to all of Western Europe.

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Now that’s a fire extinguisher!
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Stained glass:
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Corridor:
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Camera dollies:
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Sick bay:
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The station is still on stand by for emergency broadcasts. It has rooms upon rooms of diesel generators. Looking between the tanks:
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We went in search of the studios:
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Thanks for looking
 
Everything looks awesome, from the old tubes on the desk to all the switches. I wonder why there's a bed inside the tv station.

Cheers! It was like a sick bay type thing as there was other medical bits and bobs in there!
 
Wow, some money in those old Vinten pedestals.

Those old valve transmitters needed a human controller to keep them running, but they would have been obsolete by the late 80s. I assume there was something more modern tucked away in a corner somewhere that was actually still being used more recently.
 
Those old valve transmitters needed a human controller to keep them running, but they would have been obsolete by the late 80s. I assume there was something more modern tucked away in a corner somewhere that was actually still being used more recently.

Yeah, I also assume you could probably now do the whole operation on an iPad! It is still semi-live, servers were whirring away, screens were on etc. Its still used for the odd emergency broadcast / links etc.
 

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