The Lichfield transmitting station is situated close to Tamworth in Staffordshire in the West Midlands between the A5 and A51. The nearest geographical feature is Hopwas Hill. The station 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 mast is known locally as Hopwas mast or Hints mast.

History

The station was the main

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 wa ...

ITV transmitter for the Midlands from 1956 until 1985. It has a tall

guyed mast A guyed mast or guyed tower is a tall thin vertical structure that depends on guy lines (diagonal tensioned cables attached to the ground) for stability. The mast itself has the compressive strength to support its own weight, but does not ha ...

. The station came on air on 17 February 1956, using two 5 kW transmitters and a 16-stack antenna mounted on a tall Eiffelised tower (one that is tapered exponentially towards the top). This tower was replaced by the tall mast which came into service on 18 July 1961. The 450 ft tower was dismantled in 1962 and shipped to Jersey, Channel Islands and re erected at Fremont Point on the north of the Island. 625-line colour transmitters for the region were all co-sited at the nearby

Sutton Coldfield transmitting station The Sutton Coldfield transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility located in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England. In terms of population covered, it is the third most important transmitter in the UK, after Crystal Pa ...

until 1997, when Lichfield began broadcasting Channel 5 in the Midlands. At 1000 kW on C37 it was the most powerful Channel 5 transmitter in the country. Before the digital switchover, Lichfield effectively worked in conjunction with Sutton Coldfield (4 miles to the SW) to supply the full five analogue channels. Reception of Channel 5 from Lichfield was also receivable at viewable quality throughout the borders of

North Wales North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdonia N ...

. All analogue TV transmissions ceased on 21 September 2011, as part of the

digital switchover The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is conv ...

. A temporary HD multiplex BBC B (Mux HD) on C34 was moved to the

on C40+ (626.2 MHz) thereby ceasing all analogue and digital television broadcasts from the Lichfield transmitter.

Services listed by frequency

Analogue radio ( FM VHF)

Digital radio ( DAB)

Analogue television

17 February 1956 – 3 January 1985

30 March 1997 – 21 September 2011

Analogue television is no longer broadcast from Lichfield. Channel 5 closed on 21 September 2011.

Digital television

Digital television is no longer broadcast from Lichfield as of 21 September 2011.

References

External links

The Transmission Gallery: photographs, coverage maps and information

Bob Cotton's Lichfield Memories
* http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b61327

Transmitter sites in England Lichfield District {{UK-bcast-stub