The Police Radio You Can Still Listen To! - Liverpool Cathedral

[@AdamSWL]

Rather impressed that the general public are able to wander around the antenna's like that! Incredible building and view from the top. Brilliant as always Lewis!

[@g7vak]

The Police Review used to list the small Constabularies serving specific organisations. Some, like the Royal Parks Police or Dartford Tunnel Police have been adsorbed into larger Metropolitan or County Forces but yes, the smaller devoted Constabularies still exist.

[@jamesa2961]

Nice. Thanks for the holiday weekend video. ( memorial day weekend here in America)

[@A-a724]

I remember listening to emergency chatter on my parents Bearcat scanner, and i think it was "pre-ban" and could pick up cordless phones and early cell phones on 900mhz. And i was on a major highway so anytime sirens lit up, my follks would be on jt lol

[@TheKingOfInappropriateComments]

Those were the days

[@MrToymod]

I asked for a radio check on my ft530 , they had a turn. I have a licence now and am respectable!!.

[@TheKingOfInappropriateComments]

@@Another-Address Here in the states, you could turn even the coolest jocks into closet radio nerds once you showed then 46 mHz and 920-940 mHz. Then it was lets just keep this between you and me that I went to radio shack and bought a scanner

[@MatWolk]

Back in 2000, you could also spy on cordless phone using a simple CB.

[@TheKingOfInappropriateComments]

@@MatWolk here in the states CB is AM and SSB and the cordless phones were FM also separated by many many many megahertz. Totally different band.

[@AnalogueInTheUK]

FYI - In the 1980s, Merseyside Police installed high power video and stills cameras up there, as a means of gathering evidence of criminal activity on Granby Street, a mile or so away, as the crow flies. Someone blew their cover and the camera equipment came down swiftly.

[@Bond2025]

That's not the only thing they were getting up to! I attended various trade shows and security events and still meet vendors who like to boast about who their customers are. Merseyside is a very big customer of companies that sell surveillance equipment. They have spent millions. Security Services used to have two floors in the OLD HQ building. They have bought and used quite a few IMSI catchers, illegally, at demonstrations and gatherings to gather your info and also parked up with them by houses of interest to monitor mobile calls - yes, digital and encrypted. They don't do things by the book, and also spent a lot on Cellebrite software to get in to your phone if you are taken in. Other software is general inspection like EnCase. They also like the database one i have forgotten the name of, it plots cell sites, who called who, who must know who and takes feeds from other systems. They love buying night vision cameras, drones with night vision & IR, they also use cameras to "look through" walls to see where occupants of buildings are and leave the odd car or van on various streets. One they got caught out with was an Iceland home delivery van just parked up. As if no one would notice. Welcome to the World of Surveillance. Most people never give things like this a second thought, if they see an aerial or camera, or people snooping about.

[@Bond2025]

Do you know about mics they install on certain buildings to detect and record things like gunshots and to triangulate them! This was tried in the 80s and then about 10 years ago. London started it off. The Special Constable network is widely used as people are from various jobs and backgrounds and can get info the police need warrants or production orders for and need a genuine reason to access - mostly without any trace or suspicion. examples are info from BT systems, NHS systems, banks, credit reference agencies, DVLA etc - depending on where different Special Constables work - don't say it doesn't go on! They also have access to buildings to install equipment that wouldn't usually be allowed, so quite a resource to have.

[@alistair1978utube]

Any source for this? Sounds unlikely... to get video footage of sufficient quality to recognise people at that distance would need an enormous lens, especially since video sensors were much less sensitive 30 years ago.

[@paulgriffin5237]

@@alistair1978utubearmy had cameras that could read a number plate at over a mile they used them in northan ierland,

[@chriscasey1740]

I watched the video links from there for years.

[@penny_87]

I didn't know Liverpool Cathedral has their own Police constables. That's mad. Has to be the smallest police service in the UK?

[@tomweickmann6414]

Great video. Thank you. I don't know that much about antennas, but you Brits put them on the classiest buildings around. American buildings look like match boxes.

[@josephdeery4931]

Thank you very much great video. I love church's and radio so brilliant!!!! Thank you

[@charlie_nolan]

It is getting hard here across the pond. My county went to a digital trunked system after a mix of analog conventional and analog trunked a couple years ago. Some fire dispatch is still done on analog in my county and all of it is simulcast in analog in neighboring counties so there are still interesting things to listen to. I just need an old P25 radio and to spend a lot of time programming or a proper P25 scanner since they don’t use much encryption in my county.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

When _"Higher Power"_ has multiple meanings...😉

[@CityRadioServices]

Both Radio City and BBC Radio Merseyside had/have UHF receivers on the cathedral (using the vertical omnidirectional poles). The power would often trip and I would have to get the key to stop the lift to gain access to the bell tower and rest the mains. The "wooden shed" has some private stuff - the Juice/Capital TX is in the opposite corner housed in a wooden frame covered with plastic sheeting. The OB RF kit was housed in a rack cabinet on the wall close to the Capital TX although the Radio City kit was removed when we moved to St John's Beacon.

[@thisismossop]

Liverpool is a bit special, they also have the Mersey Tunnels Police, a small, specialised, non-Home Office police force that provides policing services for the Mersey Tunnels.

[@RingwayManchester]

;) 🤐

[@dirtbagdeacon]

I love the idea of vergers tooling around the cathedral in a cassock and fancy robe with a two way radio at their belt. Old meets new!

[@maxasaurus3008]

Clockwise circular polarization! I have been reading about those signals in the Technician test study book, REALLY cool to see real world applications! You rock Lewis!!

[@alexr5557]

Great work Lewis. Thank you also for the history information. M0OOJ

[@baronedipiemonte3990]

The Cathedral Constables sound very close to the New Orleans Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Police... at one time the longest bridge in the world (now a Chinese honor) but still the longest in America at 24.1 miles long. They are fully armed & have full police powers of arrest etc... Their 2 channel comms on UHF are unencrypted and mostly boring, utility comms... a toll taker reports someone ran one of the booths without paying (a couple dozen times a day - they just pull you over and escort you off), or an EMS unit running lights/siren got on. Once or twice a year some yahoo driving 100mph + will blow a tire and go over the side. Or a major accident in the fog... The actual police comms are on the State Police P25. Another very interesting video Lewis!

[@pauljones1838]

Great video as always Lewis. So more information for you: Some, but not all Constables at the Cathedral (due to training ongoing) are attested, meaning they have the full powers of a Constable, like the officer in your video, this is why they can carry handcuffs and a baton. Hope that clears things up.

[@rambo1152]

I (name) ...of (address)... do solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that I will well and truly serve the King in the office of constable, with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, upholding fundamental human rights and according equal respect to all people; and that I will, to the best of my power, cause the peace to be kept and preserved and prevent all offences against people and property; and that while I continue to hold the said office I will to the best of my skill and knowledge discharge all the duties thereof faithfully according to law. There. Now that I'm attested I can wear a uniform indistinguishable from a Police Officer, right? Can I also drive a Jam Butty?

[@SkinwalkerFarm]

I had no clue about Cathedral Constables, thanks for the education Lewis

[@alanslade2319]

WOW that's amazing all them years having there own police force.you learn something new every day.thanks so much for all of your work, brilliant stuff, ALAN 🙏😱👍

[@ssquirrel88]

RWM shows up casually to admire the view, really there to check out the hardware. Meme, People who know; people who don't know.

[@angusmatheson8906]

😂 hahahahahaha. Whatever could you mean. Listening to piggies snorting to each other over the radio.... who'd want to do that?.... on a COMPLETELY unrelated note, please don't Google " Philips card with a SAA7134 chipset" ....

[@stuartwillis944]

I had a friend who was a police officer at chester catherdiral. The cathedrial police are the smalliest police service in the uk with only 50 staff in total. The cathdrial police at chester used airwave radio and were able to talk to cheshire police to if they need backup.

[@davidrumming4734]

Wow , thought that building was much older.

[@Mike-H_UK]

Bravo Lewis! Great video.

[@lincomm]

Thanks for another great video!

[@charliehustle5529]

This is the best channel on youtube

[@billcosgrave6232]

The man has a talent

[@richardmillican7733]

Great depth of info in all of these antenna/operator videos. However, I'd be interested to know type of Coaxial Cable used in some of these installations, whenever that detail is available. 👍

[@martinrothwell8275]

8.40 - The folded dipole you mentioned possibly used for FM radio reception inside the building. (Tells you all you need to know about capital if it is lol) I wonder if i could suggest another possibility for its use? .. but only because of the jay beam yagi next to it, which makes me think it does (or at least used to) do something else. I've been involved in broadcast radio for a long time, i’ve been involved in many RSL’s and indeed used setups much like this as a transmitter site. The yagi being for the STL program receive, (in our case I think around 866MHz). The fact it’s on the side of the tower, makes me wonder if that was due to licencing rules and height limits, as RSLs are or at least were, limited how high their antenna’s can be - I think the rule is/was no higher than 20m - I wonder how high this is? It could also be lower to shield coverage to a particular area, or because there was risk of interference to/from capital or other services on the top of the tower.. - Where does the yagi point? If it’s to a TV mast, (and other TV reception antennas in the area point the same way, id agree, they are both likely receive.. but if its pointing in a strange direction, not a TV tower, they could both easily be leftover from an RSL. (Maybe the Crash FM RSL?) As always, a great, and really informative video! Thanks Lewis! :-)

[@harrymcandrew1447]

Liverpool cathedral has the heaviest and i think highest set of 12 bells plenty videos of them i dont like them as they sound rather messy due to the humongous tower as mentioned at 2:54 doves guide says they were cast 1939 12th says 1939(1938) bourdon bell cast1940 by John Taylor & Co

[@FayeClegg]

The largest of the bells is the 3rd largest operational bell in the world.

[@dave1secondago]

another belter of a vid

[@barrieshepherd7694]

A specific 378 Watts is strange given that the calculation of TX ERP taking into account TX output - Coax feeder length - phasing harness - mast installation effects and antenna gain cannot be accurate to a single watt! Those antennas have a gain of -1.51 dB , according to Shively, when spaced at half a wavelength - which looks to be the case, add -1.5 dB for feeder and other losses and a TX power around 750 watts in indicated. Would they be running at that power?

[@phoenixrising4073]

I'm thinking the watt rating for these antennae may be specific to the distance the constables are working all day and what the maximum exposure throughout their shift may be? Disclaimer: I completely made this up and am probably 100 percent wrong. Cheers!

[@akulamashina]

Some cathedral constables in Liverpool (ones with the checkered hats) are real constables and do have the power of arrest.

[@charlie_nolan]

I did not know that cathedral was so relatively new, or that it took so incredibly long to build!

[@Bond2025]

4:54 that drives me mad, the aerial for Capital has been mounted upside down. It's changed in recent years as it only had one element and the power level was a lot lower. 378Watts is odd, maybe to overcome the length of feeder loss and the -dB gain that aerial has, they are horribly inefficient and I am not sure why people still use them. All that wasted power to radiate the same signal I can get from a mixed polarisation aerial with 100 Watts to vertical and horizontal.

[@andyhowlett2231]

It's no good, I'll have to ask. Looking at that antenna, it would be the same either way up, except the mounting bracket would be offset in the other direction.

[@skuly-dm2lp]

Lots of transmitter and lots of police maybe a bit more going on than it looks.

[@skyking6989]

Everything where i live is encrypted. Police, Fire, EMS. Water, gas, electric. Nobody broadcasts in the clear.

[@marcus1503]

Someone post our local Shop watch frequencies at tall groups , colour codes and within one week it had gone encrypted, plus’s 2 other local towns went encrypted that are run from the same control room via fibre link (internet). I even heard the local fire groud radio using encryption on an excise but not yet a real incident. I notice a lot of shop have also gone on to a ROIP link, So shop watcher are slowly going encrypted it seems the final service are an encrypted channel surprise me.

[@Milcom34]

Thanks RM. Always the Coolest Radio Stuff**** Take Care.

[@Omegaman1969]

I remember my Father listening to the house wives of the village gossiping on their cordless phones in the 80's lol

[@RogierYou]

Nice! Perhaps an episode about ham radio repeater sites, remote stations etc

[@digitalchaos1980]

Cathedral Constables, very interesting! I do wonder what kinda weapons, if any, would be carried? Holy water, rosaries, a bible perhaps? 😆 Jokes aside, it is pretty cool, and loved your video about it! 😁

[@paulnortham]

😂 More likely to use those over at 'Paddy's Wigwam', as it is affectionately known! I wonder if they have a church version of Interpol and share intel, or perhaps unite for an ecumenical operation? By the way, have you ever seen the original plans for Liverpool's Catholic Cathedral? It would have been a massive Byzantine church similar in size to the Anglican one, but they only got as far as the crypt before giving up and constructing the steel and glass version they have now. Shame.

[@HogwartsBasement]

Belt worn pressurised holy water(instead of PAVA) to spray in the face of blasphemy

[@paulnortham]

@@analogueavenue I don't think so. The world is always improved by things of genuine beauty, which the current Catholic Cathedral is not a great example of! Whether they become mosques will depend on Islam's own internal struggles going forward, and also whether the Christian churches can become confident again in their own identity, in 'opposition' to the Islamic worldview.

[@dirtbagdeacon]

A stake, a gun with silver bullets, anointing oil, garlic, a book with exorcism rites? Just my silly speculations. Hehehe.

[@paulgriffin5237]

stop people robing the colection box

[@rambo1152]

I can't find any reference that says the Cathedral Constables are connected to the Special Constabulary.

[@scousepie2]

Awesome Video thank you !!

[@asp383]

I know Sussex Police still have their analogue VHF radio system as a back up, fully maintained and ready to go, should the need arise. I remember my Walkman radio could just pick it up back in the day, before they went digital. It still transmits a beacon although I don't think it is an identifier such as other beacons or amateur radio repeaters.

[@mpol701]

There junior cadets also. Use business radio hired analogue ctcss 131.8 hz 456.3875 repeater 461.8875 input at events still, before airwaves they used ch7 uhf 451. 325

[@kuukeli]

thank you

[@basshorseman998]

Thanks Lewis, another good job...

[@alzeNL]

excellent video as ever ! You will keep in good shape walking all these tall buildings for the channel content :D Clearly some of those antennas are pointing directly up to Heaven as well :) ;)

[@gamlemann53]

Nice video Lewis! Thank's! The best from LB1NH 🙂

[@petersmith5199]

Excellent again!

[@markharpen7417]

Great video. Thank you. What were the small shed like buildings?

[@alunroberts1439]

I think I may go up there with my grabber and see what I can go home and listen to

[@georgespeck8761]

can you use a frequency counter to find the radio frequencies ?. really love your videos.

[@AdamSWL]

You can, but without some sort of filtering or pre-selector in line, the counter will be easily swamped on a busy radio site like that. It will tend to lock up on the strongest signal (like the 378 watt FM station up there for example) and you won't get much else if anything at all.

[@mpol701]

Use close call scanners very useful

[@mpol701]

But counters yes used to use differant ones many a freq found, never got overloaded in most setting we used them, but close call scanners voice and freq straight away

[@mpol701]

Or use ofcom wtr to find freqs as well

[@KeystoneInvestigations]

The Vicar Geraldine Granger tried to be the minister at this church but instead wound up in Dibley!

[@Bond2025]

Also known for Solicitor Robert Broudie, the brother of lightning seeds singer Ian Broudie, jumping off the roof in 2007 around 11am one morning. He left £5Million in his Will, with £3Million of it to charities, including those for people with mental health conditions.

[@fretlessfender]

If you add up all these transmitters and the fact that they have a dedicated police force... you know there is more than meets the eye right?

[@thisismossop]

Cathedral constables have a long history and have existed in England since the 13th century. They oversaw the administration of the parish, good order during services, and the upkeep of the church fabric and property. They also kept watch and maintain law and order within the cathedral and its precincts.

[@thisismossop]

Oops, just replied to the wrong comment, but you might find that interesting @fretlessfender so I'll leave it.

[@fretlessfender]

@thisismossop no worries! Hahaha it happens...

[@gordslater]

it's a UFO base

[@IndependentNewsMedia]

Nice overview video, God bless.

[@JonnyMack33]

I'm just glad there are _stables_ for those... errrrr....Catch U N Tuesdays

[@trevormurphy7041]

Sure do miss the days of the clock radio scanner I had a really nice wood grain one there’s something for the community to bring back make an idiot proof clock radio scanner

[@wisteela]

Looks an amazing place.

[@angeley3756]

Last cathedral police I had seen had Airwave sets.

[@MI7DJT]

Ever tried lisening to them with OpenEar?

[@nerdegem]

"Crikey!, its the church rozzers"

[@Benj-09]

I’m really hoping for a Blackpool tower one please ☺️🙌🏻

[@RingwayManchester]

Already filmed ;)

[@itechflagstaff]

Thanks!

[@RingwayManchester]

Thanks so much!!

[@sparkyp3715]

Third video asking for a video of the Fenton transmitter mast please and thank you

[@shadowmaster9780]

That roman catholic church, looks like a jedi temple!

[@andyhowlett2231]

One of the old BBC-2 Trade Test films was all about the construction of the RC cathedral. It's called 'Crown of Glass' and I think it can be found online.

[@phil4350]

York minster has something similar with their constables

[@HighWealder]

Strangely atavistic designed building.

[@CLMSF25]

My Birthday Today!

[@hi-tech-guy-1823]

Bet the TinySA made them Puzzled to what your upto

[@tcpnetworks]

Ahh... Lightning protection on a church.... Proof that any god doesn't exist..

[@maimetechy]

It’s for the electronics… don’t need to say “no god exists” randomly because you see something and think stuff happens a certain way.

[@barrieshepherd7694]

I'd hazard a guess that the lightning protection was there as part of the original design - long before radio kit was installed. All tall buildings have lightning protection.

[@IanDarley]

No insurance company would cover a building over the prescribed height without it, that being said, they would still claim an act of God if it did get destroyed by lightning.

[@tcpnetworks]

@@IanDarley I don't think you get the (very clear) point. Why have lightning protection? Just pray to your god to NOT hit the building... Act of god? On a church? What did they do wrong? You can see where this dichotomy plays out.

[@asumazilla]

​@@tcpnetworksGod helps those who help themselves.

[@elementbr]

Why is that constable wearing the thin blue line gang badge?

[@SB-mi2ii]

Its probably as boring as the sermons! 😂

[@nikkirazelli3250]

20th century church.. would have been impressive, is it was older, and it doesn't look particularly large. I guess it is in Liverpool though, only so much you can expect in a dismal area like that

[@angusmatheson8906]

You can still listen to pigs grunting at each other, it's just illegal and requires some mastery of decryption. In most jurisdictions their frequencies are still vulnerable. FTP, ACAB, 1312.