Copyright Jerry Clegg, no reproduction without permission.
This article from the BBC retirees’ magazine, Prospero, by Jerry Clegg gives an update on the OB scanner CMCR9 – Pebble Mill’s original CM1, and later Manchester’s North 3.
The scanner will be on display several more times this year, in case you would like to visit it, see the article for the details.
CM1/North 3 in the snow. Photo Steve Harris no reproduction without permission
Outside Broadcast Scanner CM1/ North 3
Behind the scenes, much work is going on. Steve Jones recently restored the dc power supplies to operation and he and Steve Harris re-installed them beneath the comms bay in the sound control room. On switching on, the whole place came to life. EMX phones started ringing, indicator lights were flashing and amazingly the sound desk sprung into life without any smoke! There was some output from the sound desk and about half the channels actually worked although the PPMs didn’t. One was indicating hard left and the other hard right! However, early tests are showing quite promising results.
We are very pleased that the engineering team has been joined by Richard Ellis, formerly the Chief Engineer of Pye TVT and Granada Television and now a Visiting Professor in Media Technology at Salford University., but tempted back to work his magic on the original Pye SPGs from the type-2 CMCRs which he designed back in the 1960’s. We have several of these from North 1 and North 3. The SPG installed in North 3 for the time being is a more modern example.
We’ll let you know when we have details of the first public outing for 2013.
Jerry Clegg