The Holme Moss transmitting station is a radio transmitting station at

Holme Moss Holme Moss ( a.s.l.) is high moorland on the border between the Holme Valley district of Kirklees in West Yorkshire and the High Peak district of Derbyshire in England. Historically on the boundary between the West Riding of Yorkshire and Che ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. The mast provides

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

coverage of both FM and DAB to a wide area around the mast including

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

and

History

Holme Moss transmitting station was built by

British Insulated Callender's Cables British Insulated Callender's Cables (BICC) was a 20th-century British cable manufacturer and construction company, now renamed after its former subsidiary Balfour Beatty. It was formed from the merger of two long established cable firms, Callen ...

with John Laing & Son acting as sub-contractors for the foundations. It became the BBC's third public television transmitter, launched on 12 October 1951. Of historic and technical interest, this operated on the 405 line VHF system, with black and white transmissions originally on British System A, Channel 2, with vision 51.75 MHz, 45 kW and sound 48.25 MHz, 12 kW. The mast survived until the end of the Band I TV broadcasts in 1985, with a replacement mast being constructed, adjacent, in 1984. In early 1986, there was concern that heavy blocks of ice could bring down the old mast - February 1986 had been one of the coldest months on record, but demolition contractors worried that a sudden burst of warm weather could loosen lumps of ice, with the shock of the fall possibly buckling the old mast at its badly rusted centre. This in turn threatened to damage the new mast just 100 yards away and put all its FM broadcasts off air. In the event, a gradual thaw alleviated the problem, and the old mast was taken apart as planned. The site is now 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 headquarters ...

. Television signals from

travelled much further than their intended service area. The Isle of Man and parts of the

Irish Republic The Irish Republic ( ga, Poblacht na hÉireann or ) was an unrecognised revolutionary state that declared its independence from the United Kingdom in January 1919. The Republic claimed jurisdiction over the whole island of Ireland, but by ...

, mainly

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

and

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has ...

, could receive a signal from Holme Moss for some years.

Emley Moor The Emley Moor transmitting station is a telecommunications and broadcasting facility on Emley Moor, west of the village centre of Emley, in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It is made up of a concrete tower and apparatus that began ...

and Moorside Edge masts can be seen from the location
Emley Moor
from Holme Moss). VHF Radio broadcasts started on 10 December 1956, for the

Home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

Light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 tera ...

Third Programme The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3, Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and quickly became one of the leading cultural and in ...

as they were then titled (see table). To this day, these three stations operate on exactly the same frequencies as they did in 1956. Subsequently, BBC Local Radio services were added in the early 1970s. With the awarding of a national commercial station, Classic FM is also broadcast. DAB transmissions also now originate from here.Holme Moss Transmitter
/ref> These transmissions cover North West England (mainly Greater Manchester and Cheshire) and most of Yorkshire; however, signals can be heard as far south as London and as far north as Scotland, whilst coverage can also be heard in Ireland and mainland Europe. The base of the station is 1,719 ft (524 m) above sea level and the mast another 750 ft (228 m) on top of that. This gives a maximum aerial height of 2,467 ft (752 m) which is one of the highest in the UK. The mast weighs 140 tons and is held up by 5 sets of stay levels. At 250 kW ERP on the national channels, it is one of the most powerful VHF sites in the country.

Services available

Analogue radio (FM VHF)

Digital radio (DAB)

Analogue television

TV transmissions ceased from this site with the demise of the original VHF service in 1985.

Relay services

Being the main radio site in the North West and Yorkshire region, there are also a number of smaller relay transmitters used to fill in areas which receive poor coverage from Holme Moss. This is particularly evident around the Pennines where there are frequent hills meaning reception from Holme Moss is poor (especially indoors).

Analogue radio

Gallery

Image:HolmeMossMast.jpg, Holme Moss mast and transmitter buildings File:Aa holme moss 142.jpg, Holme Moss, near summit from west side File:Aa holmemoss 145.jpg, Holme Moss, eastward view from top File:Aa holmemoss 144.JPG, Holme Moss, transmitter mast and buildings File:Holme moss transmitting tower panorama.jpg, A panorama generated from 17 images

References

Sources

External links

Holme Moss brings programmes on BBC Television and VHF Sound

Entry for Holme Moss at The Transmission Gallery

Info and pictures of Holme Moss

{{Holme_Moss_VHF_405-line_Transmitter_Group Buildings and structures in Kirklees Mass media in Yorkshire Transmitter sites in England