Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Mar 23, 2019 8:26:18 GMT
Continuing the thread on links between ITV and BBC studios....
I am informed; that there were wired sound and vision links between BBC and ITV studios. These were in place to provide links for both networks.
During the days of the Cold War; these links could be used as part of the "Nuclear Attack" warning system. So - if an attack was imminent, the BBC would be notified (and ITV); an Emergency Broadcasts could be quickly aired.
On the Radio - this would come from a vinyl LP, stored in a safe until required, and on TV, these would be 16mm films (Protect & Survive etc) also stored in a safe in the transmission dept.
In "peace time"; the network could be used for sharing broadcasts - such as a Royal Wedding, a Visit by the Pope (as both the BBC and ITV covered certain sections of his trip in 1928 - using this network).
Most of the time, they were used for sharing "Christmas Tapes".....
As for "hijacking" the airwaves - I have to be careful what I say here; as I know someone who has done this - albeit quite a long time ago. This person and his "mate" both at the time worked for "Central TV". Both lived locally to a Relay station transmitter just outside of Nottingham; which covered a reasonable area.
After "Central" closed down for the night; the station would broadcast a "pulse" (during the black screen) - this would shut down the remotely controlled relay transmitters (main stations were done manually) - to save power. In the morning, they would re-broadcast this "pulse" and fire the transmitters back up again.
So - my mate & co, broadcast a "Pulse" to the local transmitter; firing it back up. Using a low power UHF transmitter (similar to the ones you get for distributing TV in your house) - they could broadcast tapes from a Betamax recorder on the same frequency as "ITV" from that transmitter.
This was proved, a handful of their mates tuned in at 2am to see various videos and bits.
After a about a week or so - a snippet appeared in the Nottingham Post about "strange overnight broadcasts" - and the post contacted "Central" and also the "IBA" to see if it was Engineering tests - both claimed they knew nothing about it. So they quickly abandoned the broadcasts.
However - this was how easy it was to do - these days, it's much harder with digital.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Mar 23, 2019 9:48:26 GMT
Fascinating!
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on Mar 23, 2019 10:39:40 GMT
Great story Sparky. I suppose it's a variation on the theme that pirate radio station use. I'm surprised more didn't do this when the days of long closedowns on tv stations would have allowed the opportunity.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Mar 23, 2019 11:08:52 GMT
Great story Sparky. I suppose it's a variation on the theme that pirate radio station use. I'm surprised more didn't do this when the days of long closedowns on tv stations would have allowed the opportunity. I think people didn't realise just how easy it was, providing you had the know how.
Pirate Radio Stations had their own Transmitters and Sets - so could broadcast from anywhere, anytime at their own will.
But also risked being pin pointed.
With TV stations - I think it was "assumed" it couldn't be done without masses of equipment.
With Main Transmitters - such as the ones covering a huge area; it would be very hard to hi-jack - as these were more than often manned 24hours a day - as they also carried Radio and many other Comms and bits, not just TV. Also - the feeds to such stations were usually either via a Microwave link, or via Vision and Sound lines. So quite hard to intercept unless you really knew what you were doing (kind of Regan in the "Country Boy" Sweeney episode).
With the remote Relay Stations (I never knew this until recently) that cover a small town or area - with them being "Relays" they received their signal in exactly the same way as we do at home. On the side of the mast is a receiving aerial (as on the roof of the house) - this would pick up the "off air" signal from the Main station.
Included in this signal at startup and closedown - were the pulses to fire up and close down the relay transmitters (which would otherwise be ignored by our TVs).
The weak point would be here - once you fire the pulse to "open" the transmitter, you could virtually broadcast anything (using any of the BBC1, BB2, ITV or Ch4 frequencies that the transmitter uses) - so anyone within it's coverage area watching would see whatever you put out.
There was a case in November 1977, when the Transmitter at "Hannington" (Southern TV area) was hijacked on a Saturday evening around 5pm. Though - the twist in the tail - somehow, someone managed to only Hijack the sound - which is very hard as TV signals are combined.
Some people think it was Students, other think it was "Aliens"....... that debate continues!
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Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on Mar 23, 2019 11:13:56 GMT
That is exellent. I would have loved to have seen some of these impromptu broadcasts.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Mar 23, 2019 11:18:00 GMT
There was an audio recording on line of the Hannington Hi-jack in 1977. Though - there are 100s of videos online claiming to be the same thing - but as far as anyone was aware - there was no video whatsoever.
Also - one clip showed the local "ATV" news with the soundtrack dubbed over. Which (of course) would have been total b****cks - as the transmitter at Hannington, was only for "Southern TV" in the south.
Or maybe it had been simply Hi-jacked by ATV - in the Midlands?!!
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Mar 23, 2019 11:35:24 GMT
Great story Sparky. I suppose it's a variation on the theme that pirate radio station use. I'm surprised more didn't do this when the days of long closedowns on tv stations would have allowed the opportunity. I think people didn't realise just how easy it was, providing you had the know how.
Pirate Radio Stations had their own Transmitters and Sets - so could broadcast from anywhere, anytime at their own will.
But also risked being pin pointed.
With TV stations - I think it was "assumed" it couldn't be done without masses of equipment.
With Main Transmitters - such as the ones covering a huge area; it would be very hard to hi-jack - as these were more than often manned 24hours a day - as they also carried Radio and many other Comms and bits, not just TV. Also - the feeds to such stations were usually either via a Microwave link, or via Vision and Sound lines. So quite hard to intercept unless you really knew what you were doing (kind of Regan in the "Country Boy" Sweeney episode).
With the remote Relay Stations (I never knew this until recently) that cover a small town or area - with them being "Relays" they received their signal in exactly the same way as we do at home. On the side of the mast is a receiving aerial (as on the roof of the house) - this would pick up the "off air" signal from the Main station.
Included in this signal at startup and closedown - were the pulses to fire up and close down the relay transmitters (which would otherwise be ignored by our TVs).
The weak point would be here - once you fire the pulse to "open" the transmitter, you could virtually broadcast anything (using any of the BBC1, BB2, ITV or Ch4 frequencies that the transmitter uses) - so anyone within it's coverage area watching would see whatever you put out.
There was a case in November 1977, when the Transmitter at "Hannington" (Southern TV area) was hijacked on a Saturday evening around 5pm. Though - the twist in the tail - somehow, someone managed to only Hijack the sound - which is very hard as TV signals are combined.
Some people think it was Students, other think it was "Aliens"....... that debate continues!
It was students. Debate over.
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Sparky
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Post by Sparky on Mar 23, 2019 11:46:39 GMT
I think people didn't realise just how easy it was, providing you had the know how.
Pirate Radio Stations had their own Transmitters and Sets - so could broadcast from anywhere, anytime at their own will.
But also risked being pin pointed.
With TV stations - I think it was "assumed" it couldn't be done without masses of equipment.
With Main Transmitters - such as the ones covering a huge area; it would be very hard to hi-jack - as these were more than often manned 24hours a day - as they also carried Radio and many other Comms and bits, not just TV. Also - the feeds to such stations were usually either via a Microwave link, or via Vision and Sound lines. So quite hard to intercept unless you really knew what you were doing (kind of Regan in the "Country Boy" Sweeney episode).
With the remote Relay Stations (I never knew this until recently) that cover a small town or area - with them being "Relays" they received their signal in exactly the same way as we do at home. On the side of the mast is a receiving aerial (as on the roof of the house) - this would pick up the "off air" signal from the Main station.
Included in this signal at startup and closedown - were the pulses to fire up and close down the relay transmitters (which would otherwise be ignored by our TVs).
The weak point would be here - once you fire the pulse to "open" the transmitter, you could virtually broadcast anything (using any of the BBC1, BB2, ITV or Ch4 frequencies that the transmitter uses) - so anyone within it's coverage area watching would see whatever you put out.
There was a case in November 1977, when the Transmitter at "Hannington" (Southern TV area) was hijacked on a Saturday evening around 5pm. Though - the twist in the tail - somehow, someone managed to only Hijack the sound - which is very hard as TV signals are combined.
Some people think it was Students, other think it was "Aliens"....... that debate continues!
It was students. Debate over. Indeed - though the conspiricy theories do make some amusing reading!
In reality - whoever - managed to find a way of isolating a combined (Audio and Video) signal; and just broadcast on the Audio channel. Quite hard to do for anyone, never mind students.
I have heard the audio recordings - and the track isn't fully hi-jacked, you can still hear the news bulletin in the background and this "hi jacked" sound plays over the top.
It was thought it was someone mucking about at the TV station - though the issue was only centered to that signal from Hannington.
My theory - the students (or whoever) tried to broadcast both a picture and sound from a small but powerful transmitter close by - to try and override the incoming "off air" signal - and only the sound got through for whatever reason.
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on Mar 23, 2019 11:58:45 GMT
Sparky, yeah, although they are silly it is interesting to read about and even more to chat about with mates so thanks for putting it up.
Its impossible to dissuade the most passionate ones that they are wrong, cold hard logic defies them.
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Post by D.C. Burtonshaw on Mar 25, 2019 19:54:06 GMT
Some interesting info there about Hijacking airwaves Sparky. Learn something new everyday!
It puts me in mind of an "incident" around 1981/82 when we were watching the telly with ITV on, one Sunday evening;
We'd finished watching some weekly period seafaring drama (not Onedin Line), it was some family serial about a young boy from an American family who was brought back to the UK as he was a descendant of someone but he ends up on a sea voyage with a loads of Cornish sailors - anyway I digress;
The drama had its final part with the ship nearly being shipwrecked in a storm, with a lot of shouting and water and gale blowing.
Shortly after when the adverts were on after the episode finished, the adverts lost the sound and the sound recording of what we had just been watching played for a good 3 minutes at least, maybe longer before finally stopping. The adverts we'd seen before, a bank advert and an Estee Lauder one, but that definately wasn't the soundtrack to them!! Seemed very weird at the time and nothing like we'd heard before.
We said, to our dad "what's going on here??" and when it returned to normal, my dad commented "well somebody cocked up there...... someone's going to be called into the bosses office tomorrow morning!" Wonder what that was........
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