The Biedenkopf transmitter is a transmission tower owned by the

Hessischer Rundfunk Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; "Hesse Broadcasting") is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting, public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, ...

. It is located on the 673 meters (2,208 ft) high

Sackpfeife Sackpfeife is a mountain of Landkreis Waldeck-Frankenberg, Hesse, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, an ...

mountain near the city of

Biedenkopf Biedenkopf () is a spa town in western Hesse, Germany with a population of 13,491 (2020). Geography Location The town of Biedenkopf lies in the west of Marburg-Biedenkopf district. Ringed by mountains reaching up to above sea level – the ...

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

, just a few meters away from the border to

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

. It is used for radio and formerly TV broadcasting. Because of the close proximity to North Rhine-Westphalia, the facility is also used by the

Westdeutscher Rundfunk Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (''West German Broadcasting Cologne''; WDR, ) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the conso ...

to cover certain valleys which cannot be reached by either Ederkopf transmitter or Nordhelle transmitter. However, the signals are transmitted omnidirectionally and so cover large parts of Hesse as well. The transmitter was first constructed in 1953 as a steel tube pylon. This was replaced in 1982 by a 210 meters high guyed

lattice tower A lattice tower or truss tower is a freestanding vertical framework tower. This construction is widely used in transmission towers carrying high voltage electric power lines, in radio masts and towers (a self-radiating tower or as a support for a ...

Coverage

The Biedenkopf transmitter covers mostly the very mountainous region around the cities of Waldeck and Frankenberg to the north, as well as the area to the south up to the city of

Limburg an der Lahn Limburg an der Lahn (officially abbreviated ''Limburg a. d. Lahn'') is the district seat of Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Limburg lies in western Hessen between the Taunus and the Westerwald on the river Lahn. The to ...

. It also happens to reach far into the east and south-east direction including

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. The signals don't reach into the west at all because of the unsuitable geography, and the

Taunus The Taunus is a mountain range in Hesse, Germany, located north of Frankfurt. The tallest peak in the range is ''Großer Feldberg'' at 878 m; other notable peaks are ''Kleiner Feldberg'' (825 m) and ''Altkönig'' (798 m). The Taunus range spans ...

mountain range restricts the range to the south.

Channels

*Analog radio: ** hr1 - 91.0 MHz (100 kW) ** hr2 - 99.6 MHz (100 kW) **

hr3 hr3 is a German, public radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radi ...

- 87.6 MHz (100 kW) ** hr4 - 104.3 MHz (100 kW) **

hr-info hr-iNFO is a German, public radio station owned and operated by the Hessischer Rundfunk Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; "Hesse Broadcasting") is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting, public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frank ...

- 102.3 MHz (10 kW) **

WDR 2 WDR 2 is a radio station owned and operated by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) public broadcasting organization in Germany. It focuses on contemporary pop and rock music for an adult audience and on information. It is also WDR's broadcast sport ev ...

- 92.3 MHz (15 kW) **

WDR 3 WDR 3 is a German public radio station owned and operated by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (''West German Broadcasting Cologne''; WDR, ) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North ...

- 88.7 MHz (15 kW) *Analog television (no longer on air) **VHF 2 - ARD (100 kW) The 102,3 MHz frequency originally transmitted hr4 as well, but with a different regionalization. This was considered superfluous, so the frequency was redelegated to the news radio station hr-info. However, because it still transmits primarily in the north-east direction, it can hardly be heard in the main populated cities. The Biedenkopf transmitter was one of the few transmitters in Germany to use the

Band I Band I is a range of radio frequencies within the very high frequency (VHF) part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The first time there was defined "for simplicity" in Annex 1 of "Final acts of the European Broadcasting Conference in the VHF and U ...

for TV broadcasting. It is not used for digital television, however, signals may be received from the Angelburg transmitter.

References

{{Authority control Radio masts and towers in Germany Communication towers in Germany 1953 establishments in West Germany Towers completed in 1953