Ossy wind farm
 

Is anyone in Baxenden or surrounding area having problems with freeview reception over last week as latest structures have gone up?
I'm getting broken pictures just on BBC channels which are all broadcast from Winter Hill on the same bandwidth and we are in a direct line through the farm to the transmitter. Wind Farms have been shown to disrupt analogue and freeview signals in other parts of the country, if you are on Sky or Freesat this wouldn't be an issue.

Re: Ossy wind farm
 

Yes my freeview pictures freeze for a few seconds and we are up Sandy Lane in Accrington

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Yes our picture freezes quite often . We are tuned into Winter Hill and we live at the top of Sandy Lane Accrington

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A quick google reveals that wind farms can cause the signal disruption.

Electromagnetic fields and marine organisms

"During the generation, transmission and utilisation of electromagnetic energy, the devices generate electromagnetic disturbance that can interfere with the normal operation of other systems.

Wind turbines can potentially disrupt electromagnetic signals used in telecommunications, navigation and radar services. The degree and nature of the interference will depend on:

The location of the wind turbine between receiver and transmitter.
Characteristics of the rotor blades.
Characteristics of receiver.
Signal frequency.
The radio wave propagation in the local atmosphere.

Interference can be produced by three elements of a wind turbine: Tower, rotating blades and generator. Tower and blades may obstruct, reflect or refract the electromagnetic waves."

Re: Ossy wind farm
 

ahh! i knew they were new! i was in baxenden last week and asked my friend how long they'd been there and she had never noticed them lol

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I live in Baxenden and the reception has been getting steadily worse but it's not just the BBC channels either. I live on an extremely windy corner and thought the aerial needed tweaking but my local aerial technician intimated that its the wind farm which is affecting the reception in Baxenden and he also feels it's got worse as the year progressed.

According to the BBC website the developers and local council are responsible for sorting out the problem.

<<Terrestrial television transmissions for reception within the UK are the joint responsibility of the BBC and Ofcom. The transmission network is provided and operated on behalf of the broadcasters by Arqiva.
Where a new development such as a wind farm causes reception problems, we look to the develop to rectify these. Planning authorities sometimes require a legally binding commitment, under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 or Section 75 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, in order to enforce this at the outset.
The BBC and Ofcom have produced a technical document, aimed at town planners and developers, entitled 'Tall structures and their impact on broadcast and other wireless services'. See the link in the right-hand column.
If a development causes reception problems, there may be straightforward solutions such as improving the receiving aerials or providing the affected households with an alternative source of suitable television signals. These could be analogue or digital, and could come from a different transmitter, from an existing cable system, or in certain circumstances from a satellite.>>


BBC - Help receiving TV and radio - Wind farms and interference to TV reception

Re: Ossy wind farm
 

Have you tried plotting a straight line from your house to the Winter Hill transmitter to see if they are between you and the transmitter?

Google maps should help you do that

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Before I posted earlier in this thread, I did just that.

It is not possible to be precise because the windfarm is not yet shown on google earth, but I consider that the likelihood is that the windfarm IS on a line between Winterhill and Baxenden.

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I think it probably is but it might depend where in Baxenden you are. I would expect it to cause problems for others living around her as well unless it is her aerial and or coax causing the problem.

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I link to google maps with 'A' as Winter Hill.

This clearly shows that Ossy is north of the line which could be drawn between Winter hill and Baxenden and so isn't affected

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Win...nter+Hill&z=11

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The wind farm site at Home : HyndburnWindFarm gives a detailed OS map with the positions of all 12 windmills which you can xfer to an OS map and draw the line from winter hill. If the map on the web is accurate I can see the wind farm is smack bang between our house and Winter Hill.

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Should have said, it's the link labelled windfarm layout not location map.

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I have contacted the BBC re reception problem and they tell me there is not a problem with Winter Hill Transmitter so we should contact H.B.C. Ihave this morning sent an email to my local councillor and Hyndburn Borough Council

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Is this a problem for your neighbours as well?

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No one has said so, but we will contact the neighbours as they may think it is down to the weather

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I wrote to my local councillors too on the 20th Oct when the reception was particularly bad and was subsequently asked if my neighbours were having similar problems. As it's dark when they arrive home I thought I'd leave it until this weekend - but I got diverted and haven't asked any of them yet.

I don't know if faulty suppressors have any effects on digital TV, as they did with analogue TV, but in case any of my electrical units were the problem I also turned them all off but the reception didn't improve.

It's so long ago that I forgot that we, and several of our neighbours on this street, used to have a TV reception problem when were first moved to Baxenden in 1980 which eventually was eliminated. We got told that the problems in the summer were due to trees on the rec. being in full leaf and the weather caused reception breakup in the winter.

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I sent my local councillor an email yesterday and got a reply today with the email address of the councillor who is dealing with these complaints If you pm me your email address I will forward it to you

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I've also written to the BBC to confirm no current problems with Winter Hill And will then follow up with council. The planning application for the wind farm is available online fron Council website and one of the conditions was a contingency fund to be allowed for by construction firm to rectify TV reception problems so there is a tacit admission that the turbines can interfere with reception. One thing I have noticed is that the interference is predominantly during the day and early evening but clears up during the evening later presumably when no construction work or testing is happening.

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Yes I only notice it when any of the turbines are turning.I f you pm me with your email I can forward the emails I have got from my councillor with the details of who is dealing with it

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TV reception is particularly bad tonight - the screen keeps freezing and I can only describe the international football match as though we were watching via a set of static picture post cards.

Latest News : HyndburnWindFarm

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I received a letter from our MP Graham Jones yesterday with a phone number to contact Nathan Wicks from Energiekontor who are building the windmills. If any member wants the number please pm me

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I asked in the corner newsagent shop if there'd been any progress on the effects caused by the wind farm which prompted the response' "Haven't you received the letter?". No I hadn't but there was a piece in this week's Accrington Observer which said there'd only been 60 complaints received about the wind farm causing disrupted TV reception. This prompted me to send an email directly to the contact address given in the Observer. I got a reply via email that day in which they asked for further information but my 2nd email has been rejected and returned by their server. I have a feeling that this is going to be a long saga.

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I rang the phone number twice last week but still waiting a reply.Sent an email yesterday.Let's see what happens. I heard that Graham Jones brought the subject up in parliament.

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Thanks, but as you can see I've already made contact. This is a time when I want to bring back "the good old days". I'm thinking about the time in the 1950s when all you had to do was go to the local post office to make a complaint. They'd send an engineer round with a gadget to test your TV and find the source of the disruption, which was usually a faulty suppressor in either yours or a neighbour's fridge (for example), but was often a vehicle's ancient suppressor. When I visited my grandmother's house she'd always know when I'd got off the bus because her TV made a bleeping noise when the bus conductor rang his bell to indicate to the driver that it was safe for him to drive on.

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Speaking to some of our neighbours,they seemed to think that their tellies were on the blink.This might be the tip of the iceberg.

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If the Observer quotes 60 complaints then add another 0, the Observer has been noted for well over 90 odd years for getting the facts wrong, misleading people and not correcting their errors.
You want to see some of their sh1t I've have had to wade thro looking for WW1 soldiers