Why do some cabinets have TV aerials beside them?

Has anyone noticed this where they live? Some, but not all of the cabinets in my area have aerials beside them, pointing at the nearest Freeview transmitter. I haven't read anything about this kind of thing before. What do they need an aerial for? Is it something to do with BT Vision?

Edited by haggismn (Sat 16-Feb-13 18:00:06)

Any chance of a photo or two uploaded somewhere please?

In reply to a post by haggismn:

Has anyone noticed this where they live? Some, but not all of the cabinets in my area have aerials beside them, pointing at the nearest Freeview transmitter. I haven't read anything about this kind of thing before. What do they need an aerial for? Is it something to do with BT Vision?

Sounds like a mobile phone mast

In reply to a post by robertcrowther:

Sounds like a mobile phone mast

I would expect mobile phone masts to point upwards, not towards a TV transmitter.

Suspect what you are seeing are the cabinets associated with a mobile mast, some of the smaller units have cabinets which look very similar to some forms of the FTTC ones.

Probably Remote Reporting and/or Control.

Sounds similar to that on Meteorological Stations.

Also keep in mind that in the 1980s and 1990s that Teletext ("Ceefax") was used to remotely control Norwich BBC Studio Transmissions etc from London.

Teletext was also used to update some Supermarket Chains Price Lists, in the Teletext Pages 700 series.

Monitoring is done over the fibre link. Susspect the OP is mistaken .

Here's one
and another

There are a few more, although not within walking distance. They seem to point in the general direction of Divis Mountain or Black Mountain transmitters - Black Mountain's freeview transponders are vertically polarised, Divis on the other hand has a much stronger signal. Its freeview transponders are horizontally polarised, but perhaps there is another vertically polarised transponder on it for BT usage? On the first image, there is a mobile mast on the other side of the road, the aerial isn't pointing directly at it. All of the aerials and cabinets have been recently installed, before there was nothing there.

Edited by haggismn (Sat 16-Feb-13 17:31:52)

In the 1st picture, is the fibre cabinet out of view?

The cabinet in that picture is not an Openreach FTTC one