Mendip transmitting station

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The Mendip UHF Television Mast

The Mendip transmitting station (grid reference ST564488) is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated on the summit of Pen Hill, part of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, at 1002 feet (305 metres) above sea level. The mast is located in St Cuthbert Out civil parish in Mendip district. It includes a 922-foot (281 m) tall mast, which was built in 1967 and weighs around 500 tonnes. It is painted white and can be seen for miles around, however the paint is fast peeling from the central sections and the brighter colours at the top are fading, and is currently being repainted and this work should be complete in 2006.

The mast has around twelve red aircraft warning lamps (six sets of two lights) up the mast with two lights on top. The lights were upgraded in February 2007[1] to comply with CAA 2000 Air Navigation Order, designed to prevent low flying aircraft from hitting the mast in adverse weather conditions.

At the very top of the mast are the television broadcast antennas, contained within a GRP shroud. This shroud was originally white in colour but has discoloured with age and is now yellow-orange.

The mast, whilst an enormous intrusion on the landscape, has become a well known and loved Mendip landmark and can provide some spectacular images when engulfed in fog or cloud or illuminated in full sunlight. It also provides a unique method of identifying the hills from a distance.

The mast broadcasts analogue and digital television and radio, over a large area of the west of England, including Somerset, Wiltshire, North Somerset, Bath and North-East Somerset, Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Gloucestershire and is the tallest structure in the South West of England. The station also covers the coastal areas of south east Wales with many households using it in preference to their more local station, Wenvoe. This is because Mendip carries Channel 4 and Channel Five, whereas Wenvoe only carries S4C, which broadcasts a lot of Welsh language programming. Indeed many houses have aerials directed at both stations. Power on analogue transmissions is 500kW (erp) on channels 1 to 4 but only 126kW on Channel 5. The latter is transmitted outside of the original C/D grouping of the transmitter and so requires an E group (or wideband) receiving antenna. All 6 digital MUXES are transmitted at 10kW and within the C/D band. Mendip's population coverage is around 1.5 million, although some homes in the immediate vicinity, such as those in Cheddar are unable to receive a signal due to being in the shadow of the Mendip Hills and therefore have to depend on local relays.

The mast has an AOD (aerial height above Ordnance Survey datum) of 1924 feet (586 metres) above sea level. This makes the Mendip TV Mast UHF cylinder one of the highest in the region.

The station is owned and operated by National Grid Wireless.