Tower blocks in London used in the 1980's

[teckniqs]

Hi all, I found a good little website with a lot of pictures of old blocks from the early to late 1980s and I would like to see more of them that might have the aerials up on them.

....So it would be interesting if anyone remembers (and can tell me the names below) any tower blocks which were being used in the 1980s and particularly the late 80s so I can see if there is any aerials on them in the photos.
So far I've spotted two possible pirate aerials dated from around 1987/1988 which seems to be the date that most of the pictures were taken.

https://www.towerblock.eca.ed.ac.uk/

[teckniqs]

A nice old picture of Balfron tower from 1987 with what appear to most likely be pirate aerials on the top.

...As far as I'm aware Centreforce 88.3 used it from 1989 to 1990 but does anyone have any idea who was using balfron tower in 1987?

[Albert H]

Balfron was a favourite of RFL in the early 80s.

[Elopid]

Radio Free London

[Albert H]

The "brother" of Balfron was, of course, Trellick Tower, in the Harrow Road. Trellick was the tallest domestic block in Europe when it was first built, and the top of the lift tower had a caged room that was designed as a radio "facilities site". Various aerials went up that block over the years, from Thameside Radio in the late 70s to Time Radio in the late 80s. Many others have used it too. My ⅝-wave groundplane cut for 90.4 MHz was up there for over 10 years!

[famefm]

I lived in Reading in the 80s and big time radio especially in 1988 was crystal clear on 103.7 at the time and always had a land line number to call the studio at the time

[Albert H]

I built some gear for Time back then. They used to run either 80 or 120 Watts into a ⅝-wave with groundplane, with the feeder going down the inside of the scaffold pole that supported the aerial. The rig was (usually) in one of the cupboards in the domestic block roof space. They linked on 202.7 MHz ((48 MHz crystal *4)+10.7MHz), from about a mile away - in those days, there was no DAB, so that part of Band III was clear!

That site used to really give great coverage.

[BobbyDub]

Found this one, Arnold Estate

[mixfm]

class....

[teckniqs]

Found this one, Arnold Estate

That's a big aerial for 1988, I wonder who that was?? Looks like a vertical band iii folded dipole further down the mast on the right...

https://www.towerblock.eca.ed.ac.uk/dev ... ine-street

[teckniqs]

Double Stack 1990 - Thornhill Point, Hackney

https://www.towerblock.eca.ed.ac.uk/dev ... rne-street

[teckniqs]

OK, maybe not in London but...

1987 - Heron Court, Birmingham.

https://www.towerblock.eca.ed.ac.uk/dev ... reen-lanes

[teckniqs]

1988 - Clements Court, Feltham/Hounslow

https://www.towerblock.eca.ed.ac.uk/dev ... e-hounslow

[mixfm]

Heron Court, Birmingham. i remeber that block, real fm,, ex mix fm djs...

[teckniqs]

The "brother" of Balfron was, of course, Trellick Tower, in the Harrow Road. Trellick was the tallest domestic block in Europe when it was first built, and the top of the lift tower had a caged room that was designed as a radio "facilities site". Various aerials went up that block over the years, from Thameside Radio in the late 70s to Time Radio in the late 80s. Many others have used it too. My ⅝-wave groundplane cut for 90.4 MHz was up there for over 10 years!

Found this photo of Trellick, Albert. Which was taken in 1988 and appears to have (if you can just about see it) a 5/8 ground plane antenna mounted on top of the lattice tower.

[Albert H]

That's the one! Used to really get out well. In those days the noise floor was much lower, so you could be heard much further away....

Stations from up there were frequently heard on the South Downs, over at Reading, as far north as Colchester and throughout London - there were very few dead spots.

[Gigahertz]

1988 - Clements Court, Feltham/Hounslow

https://www.towerblock.eca.ed.ac.uk/dev ... e-hounslow

Heard this was used by a station on 99.7 around 2006-2007, always thought it was to close to the Airport and draw to much attention but considering where others have come from nearby maybe not as bad as I thought.

The one in Hounslow with cell mast and weird shape dome roof I’ve always wanted to try but my favourite blocks are green dragon, remember a funny story MC mampi told me when he tried bring ICE FM back on 89.6.

[teckniqs]

1988 - Clements Court, Feltham/Hounslow

https://www.towerblock.eca.ed.ac.uk/dev ... e-hounslow

Heard this was used by a station on 99.7 around 2006-2007, always thought it was to close to the Airport and draw to much attention but considering where others have come from nearby maybe not as bad as I thought.

The one in Hounslow with cell mast and weird shape dome roof I’ve always wanted to try but my favourite blocks are green dragon, remember a funny story MC mampi told me when he tried bring ICE FM back on 89.6.

If you mean Edge FM 99.7 I don't think they came on from that but weren't too far away, but I will ask someone who should know...

Oh do you mean this one?

https://www.towerblock.eca.ed.ac.uk/dev ... nstitution

.....It's had some roof thing put on it since I briefly used it back in 1996

And it's funny you should mention ICE, because a little later in that same year (Friday 13th August 1996) I actually bumped into Ricky Dee and I was asking him if Reload 103.6 was coming back and he told me that he's setting up a House and Garage station on 88.3 called ICE FM, which very shortly after moved up to 88.4...

[gobuddy]

Dare I mention Grenfell Tower? Thameside Radio used it on occasion - especially when being tracked and needing regular transmitter changes.