Belmont transmitting station

The Belmont transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated next to the B1225, one mile west of the village of Donington on Bain in the civil parish of South Willingham, near Market Rasen and Louth in Lincolnshire, England (grid reference TF217837). It is owned and operated by Arqiva.

It has a guyed tubular steel mast, with a lattice upper section. The mast was shortened in April 2010 and is now 351.65 m (1,154 ft) in height.^[1] Prior to this it was 387.5m high and was considered to be the tallest structure of its kind in the world (taller masts, such as the KVLY-TV mast in the United States, use steel lattice construction), the tallest structure of any type in the United Kingdom and also the tallest structure within the European Union. After the top section was removed the mast's reduced height relegated it to 14th highest structure in the EU and second highest in the UK after Skelton. The current world's tallest guyed tubular steel mast is TV Tower Vinnytsia in Ukraine.

Construction

The mast was constructed in 1965 and it came into service on 20 December of that year. As built it was a tubular pipe 900 feet long by 9 feet in diameter, surmounted by a 365 ft lattice upper section. (An identical mast was constructed in 1964 at Emley Moor near Huddersfield in Yorkshire, but that mast collapsed due to guy failure caused by icing and high winds on 19 March 1969.)

In September 1967 meteorological equipment was added to the 1,265 ft mast extending its height to 1,272 ft (387.7m). The imperial measurement was the accepted value quoted by a number of publications, including the 1993 edition of the Guinness Book of Records.^[2] The metric measurement quoted by the current owners is 0.2 m (8 in) shorter.

Between October 2009 and April 2010 the mast was shortened as part of the Digital Switchover works, most of the top section above the fifth stay level was removed (along with the sixth stay level) and the mast now stands 351.65m high.

Coverage

From its location, high in the Lincolnshire Wolds, it is used to broadcast digital television and both analogue and digital radio to parts of Lincolnshire, north Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, north-west Norfolk, Hull and East Yorkshire. When it was first operated it transmitted (amongst others) pictures from ITV station Anglia Television. Following a re-organisation of ITV coverage in 1972, from 1974 it started transmitting pictures from neighbouring station Yorkshire Television instead, which it continues to do to this day.

On 1 January 2012, Yorkshire and Anglia will join forces to broadcast to north Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Humberside, north and west Norfolk, a small part of west Suffolk, Derbyshire, Rutland and east Leicestershire on Channel 3 (Yorkshire) and Channel 7 (Anglia).

Relay stations

Belmont has few relay stations, with a lot of Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire being flat. The strongest relay station is at Oliver's Mount and there are two in the Yorkshire Wolds. The Belmont transmitter can be received some distance outside of the intended broadcast area.

Transmitter power

At 500 kW E.R.P. for the four main analogue channels, Belmont was one of the most powerful transmitters in the UK, though there are four UK transmitters which are more powerful; Sutton Coldfield, Crystal Palace and Sandy are all 1000kW and Emley Moor is 870kW. Channel 5 was only broadcast at 50 kW from Belmont and digital at 20 kW (Mux 2), 10 kW (Mux 1, A, B) and 4 kW (Mux C, D) although this level of digital power is theoretically equal to 500 kW on analogue in terms of the received carrier to noise ratio required to give a "perfect" picture. After digital switchover Belmont's digital transmitting power rose to 50 kW for SDN (previously Mux A), 100 kW (4 kW until November 2011) for Arqiva A & B (Mux C, D) and 150 kW for BBC A, D3&4 and BBC B (Mux 1, 2, B).

Different sources (even "official" ones) give differing digital output powers for Belmont; this is also the case for several other transmitters, e.g. this Ofcom source published Feb. 2009 and this Ofcom source.

Channels listed by frequency

Analogue radio (FM VHF)

Digital radio (DAB)

† Not yet on air.

Analogue television

BBC Two closed on UHF 28 on 3 August 2011. BBC One was moved into its frequency at the time and the BBC A multiplex began broadcasting on UHF 22. The remaining analogue services ceased transmission on 17 August.

Digital television

Belmont began transmitting digital TV on November 15 1998. In July 2007 it was confirmed by Ofcom that Belmont would be remaining a wideband transmitter after digital switchover, though the first four of the six multiplexes would still be available within the original A group, as this graph makes clear. The switchover occurred at the Belmont site on 3 & 17 August 2011; the existing analogue and digital signals were turned off and replaced with higher power digital signals.

• Arqiva A and Arqiva B were limited to 4kW until 23 November 2011, when they were increased to 100kW.
• Details of all the muxes can be found at [1]

Before switchover

• Multiplex 1 (BBC) on UHF 30 was closed on 3 August 2011 and replaced by BBC A on UHF 22.

See also

• List of tallest buildings and structures in the world
• List of tallest buildings and structures in Great Britain
• List of masts
• List of radio stations in the United Kingdom

References

External links

• The Transmission Gallery: Belmont index.
• TV coverage.
• Info and pictures of Belmont, including co-receivable channels.
• Freeview.
• Skyscraperpage plan of Belmont.
• Belmont TV Mast at Structurae
• Pictures.
• Article about Belmont's lights being turned out.
• Article about Belmont's possible cut in size.
• Belmont Transmitter at thebigtower.com

Relay stations

• Grimsby
• Hunmanby
• Lincoln Central
• Oliver's Mount
• Weaverthorpe