The Caradon Hill transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility on

Bodmin Moor Bodmin Moor ( kw, Goon Brenn) is a granite moorland in north-eastern Cornwall, England. It is in size, and dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. It includes Brown Willy, the highest point in Cornwall, and Rough Tor, a s ...

in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Linkinhorne Linkinhorne (in Cornish ''Lanngynhorn'') is a civil parish and village in southeast Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village itself is situated at and is approximately four miles (6.5 km) northwest of Callington and seven miles (1 ...

, located on

Caradon Hill Caradon Hill ( kw, Bre Garn) is on Bodmin Moor in the former Caradon district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The summit is above mean sea level. Caradon Hill is on the southeastern edge of the moor; it is between the villages of Minions ...

, Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is 4 miles (6 km) north of

Liskeard Liskeard ( ; kw, Lyskerrys) is a small ancient stannary and market town in south-east Cornwall, South West England. It is situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Plymouth, west of the Devon border, and 12 miles (20 km) eas ...

, and ¾ mile (1.25 km) south-east of Minions, the highest village in Cornwall (). Built in 1961, the station includes a guyed steel lattice mast. The mean height for the television antennas is above sea level. The site has a smaller towers used for telecommunications and a wireless internet signal. It is owned and operated by

Arqiva Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquart ...

. The South Caradon Copper Mine, 1,000 yards (1 km) to the SW of the transmitter, was the largest copper mine in the UK in its heyday, 150 years ago. Many other copper, tin and granite mines are scattered around the base of the hill.

History

The station was built in 1961 by the

Independent Television Authority The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" (ITV (TV network), ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA exi ...

to bring

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

South West England South West England, or the South West of England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of the counties of Bristol, Cornwall (including the Isles of Scilly), Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Cities and ...

for the first time. Inaugural broadcasts were from the ITV franchise holder for the area,

Westward Television Westward Television was the first ITV franchise-holder for the South West of England. It held the franchise from 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981. After a difficult start, Westward Television provided a popular, distinctive and highly regar ...

405-line The 405-line monochrome analogue television broadcasting system was the first fully electronic television system to be used in regular broadcasting. The number of television lines influences the image resolution, or quality of the picture. It was ...

monochrome transmissions were on channel 12,

Band III Band III is the name of the range of radio frequencies within the very high frequency (VHF) part of the electromagnetic spectrum from 174 to 240 megahertz (MHz). It is primarily used for radio and television broadcasting. It is also called high-b ...

VHF. The station was also the first in the area to broadcast television using Band III. In 1969 it was chosen to become a main station in the new colour UHF television network, broadcasting

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

and

. Both the UHF and VHF services continued in tandem until 1985, when VHF television was discontinued in the UK. In 1992 Caradon Hill (along with

Redruth Redruth ( , kw, Resrudh) is a town and civil parishes in Cornwall, civil parish in Cornwall, England. The population of Redruth was 14,018 at the 2011 census. In the same year the population of the Camborne-Redruth urban area, which also inc ...

) was chosen as the site of the first commercial radio broadcasts in Cornwall, with

Pirate FM Pirate FM is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Bauer and based in Cornwall. The station forms part of the Hits Radio network, although its entire output and playlist is locally produced and takes no network programming. ...

taking to the air on 11 March of that year.

Coverage

Caradon Hill covers east and central

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

, from

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...

and Falmouth in the west to

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

and

Bude Bude (; kw, Porthbud) is a seaside town in north east Cornwall, England, in the civil parish of Bude-Stratton and at the mouth of the River Neet (also known locally as the River Strat). It was sometimes formerly known as Bude Haven.''Cornish ...

in the east. It also reaches into west

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, as far as

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town in North Devon, England, at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool and won great wealth. Later it imported Irish wool, bu ...

Okehampton Okehampton ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and had a population of 5,922 at the 2011 census. Two electoral wards are based i ...

and

Salcombe Salcombe is a popular resort town in the South Hams district of Devon, south west England. The town is close to the mouth of the Kingsbridge Estuary, mostly built on the steep west side of the estuary. It lies within the South Devon Area of ...

Digital switchover

Digital switchover began at Caradon Hill in the early hours of 12 August 2009. At approximately 1.15am the analogue BBC Two signal was switched off. The other analogue signals (BBC One, ITV and Channel 4) along with digital Multiplex 1 were then temporarily switched off in sequence. Between one and two hours later the analogue BBC One, ITV and Channel 4 signals were restored in sequence along with Multiplex 1 which was moved from UHF 34 to UHF 28 – analogue BBC Two's frequency. The rest of the analogue signals were switched off permanently just after midnight on 9 September 2009. Once the digital signals were reshuffled to take advantage of the space left by the switched off analogue signals, they were then brought up to full power (digital signals were broadcast at a much lower power pre-switchover). This completed Caradon Hill's switchover to digital. This also completed the West Country region's digital switchover.

Freeview HD

Freeview HD Freeview is the United Kingdom's sole digital terrestrial television platform. It is operated by Digital UK Ltd and DTV Services Ltd, a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky. It was launched on 30 October 2002, taki ...

became available on UHF 22 on 11 June 2010. All four main HD channels –

BBC HD BBC HD was a 24-hour high-definition television channel provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007 before its discontinuation on 26 March 2013. It broadcast ...

, BBC One HD,

ITV1 HD ITV1 HD is a British free-to-air HDTV, high-definition public broadcast television network operated by ITV plc, the company which is contracted to provide 13 ITV1 services across the UK. ITV1 HD simulcasts them in high-definition (excluding forme ...

and Channel 4 HD – are available.

Channels listed by frequency

Analogue radio (FM VHF)

Digital radio (DAB)

Digital television

Before switchover

Additional Digital Television

Prior to 19 June 2019, Caradon Hill used to broadcast two additional multiplexes. This is due to the clearance of the 700 MHz frequency band.

Analogue television

Analogue television is no longer transmitted from Caradon Hill. BBC Two was closed on 12 August 2009 and the remaining three services on 9 September.

In Popular Culture

The Caradon Hill transmitter was referenced in the "TV EP" by Jangly Mark in the track actually called "Caradon Hill", a tale of suddenly no longer being able to receive its transmissions from Swansea at the onset of digital broadcasting due to transmissions from the nearby Kilvey Hill blocking the signal. https://www.discogs.com/Jangly-Mark-TV-EP/release/14091859

References

External links

The Transmission Gallery: photographs and information

Television coverage map

List of channels on each multiplex
{{Caradon_Hill_VHF_405-line_Transmitter_Group Radio masts and towers in Europe Transmitter sites in England Buildings and structures in Cornwall Mass media in Cornwall Bodmin Moor