Phone masts

thomasross20

So. Put deposit down on house *faints*. 
There's a phone mast about 100-200m away. 
I mentioned this in my other thread... Sheena is all for this place but me being a worrier... 
What do you reckon? Would you live near one?

octatonic

I wouldn't want to live that close to one myself.

frictionfraction

At least you will get a good phone signal. 

TTony

Are you on the same network?

thomasross20

It's actually on the development plan, so they must be aware some people would be concerned. The deposit is down, Sheena is happy but sh!t... I'm a tad concerned. Talk about rushing in.

Budgie

Congrats! 

I don't know if there are any health risks? I would probably have concerns about trying to sell in the future, it would definitely be a 'tick against'  for me if there were two similar houses for sale.

thomasross20

It's about the only tick against, unfortunately. Everything else about it is perfect for her (I like it, too!) and she's been so excited about that development for ages.. I only just found out about the mast but there was no stopping this happening. Let's just say I'm a tad concerned and hope it doesn't eat away at me, but I've bigger problems in the meantime.

Sambostar

I don't believe it increases your risk, more or less everyone lives within a few miles of one these days. 

If you look at the circumstantial evidence from the Daily Mail, it says 14 residents withing a mile radius got sick...Now if it was a threat, it would be at least 80% of immediate permanent neighbours in the vicinity of the mast.  14 people, with fairly high density housing, within a mile, especially if they are aged, correlates with natural causes to be honest.  There is no conclusive evidence of a health risk.  There is probably much more of a health risk living on granite with a hermetically sealed, non ventilated house or near a congested road to be honest.  If you think the country is cleaner, then think again as there are a whole host of horrible cases associated with living near boom crop sprayers and the like.

Whether it affects your TV signal or causes your pickups or amp to hum is another matter, I'm not sure about that, that would be my only concern really.

holnrew

Wouldn't bother me on the slightest

fields5069

No one wants to live near one, and virtually no one wants to be without a mobile phone signal. Doh. NIMBY! 

menamestom

I wouldn't worry at all.  I work with them and have spent many an hour within a few meters.  They are low power and the inverse square rule means that the signal will be very small when it reaches you.  Less power than when you are near your own wifi (although different a frequency, and different frequncies affect the human body differently), less power than when you are stood near your microwave and much more power than what your handset emits when it's in your pocket/next to your head.  As part of my job I undertake Radio Frequency training every 2 years and if you want to PM me your details I'd be happy to discuss / answer any specific questions.

thomasross20

Is there any way you can find out where these are located in your area? It'd be interesting to see exactly where they're dotted around as I agree, we're probably all quite near them?

Sambostar

Been looking at that, apparently Ofcom has stopped it's SiteFinder service and new mast locations aren't updated anymore as you've probably found.  I know there is one just over a mile from me, which leaves you with the phone companies, which is a minefield.  I'II keep looking.

If it does interfere with your gear, you have legal rights and Ofcom should step in though.

Sambostar

http://www.mastdata.com/

In any town there are probably 20 or thirty of them.  I'd say that if you are more than 6 miles away it's hard to get a signal

menamestom

frictionfraction said:

At least you will get a good phone signal. 

Not only that, it means that your phone probably wouldn't be transmitting at full power, which is a good thing.

thomasross20

Ok thanks, all.. this purchase is going ahead but guaranteed when I get the chance, I'll check this out some more. 

richardhomer

thomasross20 said:

It's actually on the development plan, so they must be aware some people would be concerned. The deposit is down, Sheena is happy but sh!t... I'm a tad concerned. Talk about rushing in.

There is an obligation on developers and estate agents to disclose 'Material' issues (without you having to ask) under the Consumer Protection Regulations. While the presence of a mast is unlikely to present any risk whatsoever - if a buyer found out about it at a later stage, there is a risk action could be taken against the company selling the property if a buyer considered it a 'Material Omission'. So they're just covering their arse by disclosing it - which suggests they are a responsible organisation.

This is one thing you really don't need to worry about.

TTony

thomasross20 said:

Is there any way you can find out where these are located in your area? It'd be interesting to see exactly where they're dotted around as I agree, we're probably all quite near them?

There are phone apps that you can get that gives you plenty of info about the masts in your area.  I use OpenSignal and Network Signal Info - both Android, but I'm guessing that there are iOS equivalents.

I'd guess that there's also a difference between the "main" masts that broadcast a strong signal and the local repeaters that just spread it out over a much smaller area.

ICBM

Your biggest problem is likely to be *poor* phone signal - really. I live about 200m from the mast, and I could never get a decent signal in the house even though I can literally see it if I step onto my patio. One day when I was bored I phoned the company and asked why, when this was the case - they put me on to a technical support chap who told me that the problem was 'local reflection' (ie the signal being bounced back from a building or something, and effectively cancelling itself out) and that they could change the tower's transmission frequency at the next scheduled service, which would fix it. I assumed I was being fobbed off and didn't think much more about it, but lo and behold a couple of weeks later the signal in the house suddenly went from one bar to four or five bars, where it has remained ever since…

If there was any kind of health risk from them then probably most of the population is at risk given how many of them there are. I'd be more concerned about high-voltage power cables - there does seem to be a small amount of statistical evidence of a slightly increased risk of cancer from that but you have to be really close, like almost under the pylons.

menamestom

TTony said:

thomasross20 said:

Is there any way you can find out where these are located in your area? It'd be interesting to see exactly where they're dotted around as I agree, we're probably all quite near them?

I'd guess that there's also a difference between the "main" masts that broadcast a strong signal and the local repeaters that just spread it out over a much smaller area.

Nope, that's not how they work.  They are all linked by fibre or microwave link, they all use similar antennas although some will be higher power if they have more carriers and hence take more traffic.   But all are low power, each antenna I believe are in the hundred watt range.

menamestom

ICBM said:

If there was any kind of health risk from them then probably most of the population is at risk given how many of them there are. I'd be more concerned about high-voltage power cables - there does seem to be a small amount of statistical evidence of a slightly increased risk of cancer from that but you have to be really close, like almost under the pylons.

Exactly.  it's about energy, a phone mast normally has a 100A invoming supply but rarely use anything near that.   Antennas are directional and split in 3's so if the site is drawing 30 amps each antenna is only using 10 amps (minus losses in the radio equipment as heat etc).  Infact the only time they draw higher power is when the battery backup system is charging.  They are low power devices, emitting low power non ionising radio frequency radiation which dissipates to milliwatts really quickly.