The Mounteagle transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated close to the town of Fortrose, Scotland, in

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

(). It includes a high guyed steel lattice mast. It is owned and operated by Arqiva.

Coverage

Coverage Coverage may refer to: Filmmaking * Coverage (lens), the size of the image a lens can produce * Camera coverage, the amount of footage shot and different camera setups used in filming a scene * Script coverage, a short summary of a script, wri ...

includes the areas around the

Moray Firth The Moray Firth (; Scottish Gaelic: ''An Cuan Moireach'', ''Linne Mhoireibh'' or ''Caolas Mhoireibh'') is a roughly triangular inlet (or firth) of the North Sea, north and east of Inverness, which is in the Highland council area of north of Scotl ...

, in the

region of Scotland, including up to Helmsdale in the north, Elgin to the east, Dingwall to the west and the northern shores of Loch Ness to the south. This also includes the city of

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

History

The station was built in 1961 by the Independent Television Authority 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 ...

to North East Scotland for the first time. Inaugural broadcasts were from the ITV franchise holder for the area, Grampian Television.

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 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 ...

. The station was also the first in the area to broadcast television using Band III. When colour

UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...

television began in 1969, the nearby BBC owned station at Rosemarkie was chosen over Mounteagle to carry these broadcasts. Both the UHF and VHF services continued in tandem until 1985, when VHF television was discontinued in the UK. At this point, Mounteagle ceased broadcasting television services entirely. In 1982 Mounteagle was chosen as the site of the first commercial radio broadcasts in northern Scotland, with

Moray Firth Radio MFR is an Independent Local Radio station based in Inverness, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio Network. It broadcasts to Moray, the Scottish Highlands and South West Aberdeenshire. As of December 2022, the station has ...

taking to the air on 23 February of that year. In 1996 transmitters for Classic FM were added, and then later in 1997 Mounteagle began broadcasting television services again, when transmitters were installed for the launch of Channel 5. Digital switchover occurred in the Inverness area in October 2010, and at this point the Channel 5 service was discontinued, and now broadcasts digitally from the nearby Rosemarkie transmitter site. More recently the station has become the first in the area to carry

digital radio Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services. Types In digital broadcasting syst ...

broadcasts, with the addition of transmitters for Digital One, BBC and Score Inverness.

Channels listed by frequency

Analogue radio (VHF FM)

Digital radio (DAB)

Analogue television

30 September 1961 - 3 January 1985

30 March 1997 - 20 October 2010

References

External links

Entry for Mounteagle at The Transmission Gallery
{{Mounteagle_VHF_405-line_Transmitter_Group Transmitter sites in Scotland Black Isle