Black Hill transmitting station

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Black Hill Transmitter

The Black Hill transmitting station is a facility for FM and TV broadcasting on Black Hill (grid reference NS828647), North Lanarkshire, Scotland near the town of Airdrie on the eastern outskirts of the Greater Glasgow metropolitan area. It has a guyed mast 306.6 metres (1006 ft) tall, bringing the antennas to a height of 540 metres above sea level. It was built in 1961 and is now operated by Arqiva.

The present mast is the second to have been built at the site. The first, built in 1957 brought the Independent Television service to Central Scotland and opened for service on 31 August 1957. Unfortunately complex anomalies in the behaviour of the antenna caused its performance to be less than predicted, and the decision was taken in 1959 to replace the mast with a higher structure and a more conventional aerial on the outside of the mast rather than inside as had been the case with the first mast. The original 750 foot mast was then dismantled and later used at the Selkirk station in the Borders where it still stands. The transmitter was originally a B group but with the advent of Digital two of the 6 muxes are now out of band and require an E group (or wideband) aerial if reception of these is required. Black Hill has the fifth greatest population coverage with a figure of around 2.5 million.

Between 1961 and the end of the 405 line ITV service in 1985 the Black Hill aerial had the highest effective radiated power of any transmitter in the ITV network with 475kW radiated towards Dundee.

[edit] Channels listed by Frequency

Analogue Radio (FM VHF)
- 89.9 MHz BBC Radio 2
- 92.1 MHz BBC Radio 3
- 94.3 MHz BBC Radio Scotland
- 95.8 MHz BBC Radio 4
- 97.6 MHz 97.3 Forth One
- 99.5 MHz BBC Radio 1
- 100.3 MHz Real Radio
- 101.7 MHz Classic FM
- 102.5 MHz 102.5 Clyde 1
- 104.7 MHz BBC Radio nan Gaidheal
- 105.2 MHz Saga 105.2
- 106.1 MHz Xfm

Digital Radio (DAB)
- 220.35 MHz (Block 11C) Score Glasgow
- 229.07 MHz (Block 12D) Score Edinburgh

Analogue Television (ERP 500 kW)
- UHF 40 - BBC One
- UHF 46 - BBC Two
- UHF 43 - STV (ITV)
- UHF 50 - Channel 4
- UHF 37 - Five

Digital Television
- UHF 41 - Multiplex 1 BBC ERP 20 kW
- UHF 47 - Multiplex 2 ITV and CH4 transmitted by Digital 3 and 4 ERP 20 kW
- UHF 44 - Multiplex A SDN ERP 20 kW
- UHF 51 - Multiplex B BBC ERP 20 kW
- UHF 55 - Multiplex C National Grid Wireless ERP 20 kW
- UHF 65 - Multiplex D National Grid Wireless ERP 20 kW