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The Tacolneston transmitting station is a facility for both
analogue and
digital VHF/
FM radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...
and
UHF television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
transmission near
Tacolneston
Tacolneston () is a village and civil parish in the South Norfolk District of Norfolk with a population of around 700, measured at the 2011 Census as a population of 825. Its name occurs in the 1086 Domesday Book as ''Tacoluestuna'' and is theori ...
, south-west of
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
It includes a tall guyed steel lattice mast, which was built between 2009 and 2012, and previously a tall guyed steel lattice mast, which was built in 1956 (completed in late September/early October that year). On top of the current mast is located the UHF television transmitting
antenna, which brings the overall height of the structure to (the overall height of the previous mast being ).
[South Norfolk District Council planning application, January 2008](_blank)
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History
Construction
The station's original mast, built from early 1954, was tall and first broadcast television transmissions, albeit temporarily, from February 1955. VHF (FM) radio broadcasts began on a test basis from 22 December 1956, in order to allow East Anglia to receive programmes on VHF over the Christmas period.BBC Light Programme
The BBC Light Programme was a national radio station which broadcast chiefly mainstream light entertainment and light music from 1945 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 1. It opened on 29 July 1945, taking over the ...
was not available during this test phase, and there were warnings that the service would occasionally be interrupted for engineering reasons.BBC East
BBC East is one of BBC's English Regions covering Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, northern Buckinghamshire, and the majority of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. It is headquartered in The Forum, Norwich since 2003. It wa ...
region.
Transmissions
The station began broadcasting regular programmes from Norwich purely for East Anglian audiences on the Midlands Home Service from Tuesday 5 February 1957, and the transmitter went to full power for VHF from 6.35pm on Tuesday 30 April 1957.
The transmission site is located at 52° 31' 3.9" North, 1° 8' 19.3" East (National Grid Reference: TM131958). In July 1989, it was reported that the transmitting station cost almost £500,000 a year to run.
The current mast has an average height of 221 metres above sea level. It 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 headquart ...
, but was owned by the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
before they privatised their transmission department prior to 1997.
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 ...
(formerly National Grid Wireless) announced, on 6 August 2007, that they plan to replace the current mast with a new
mast in order to ensure good digital TV reception across
East Anglia after digital switchover, which took place in the area in November 2011. Arqiva also plan to replace the original transmitter hall at this site as it has now reached the end of its useful life. Work has been completed on the new structure, and for the moment there will be three structures (two masts and a lattice tower) on the site. The old 165m mast is expected to start being dismantled in 2013.
Radio services listed by frequency
Analogue radio (FM VHF)
Digital radio (DAB)
Television services listed by frequency
Digital television
Digital transmissions became at least ten times stronger in power after the digital switchover (DSO), and their frequencies were reorganised.
At Tacolneston, extra HD muxes are being broadcast on UHF 55 and UHF 56, along with a local TV service (
That's Norfolk) using an interleaved frequency on UHF 32 (QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mbit/s).
Before switchover
Analogue television
Tacolneston switched to digital-only television transmissions in November 2011;
analogue
BBC Two transmissions ceased on 9 November, and two weeks later, on 23 November 2011,
the other four analogue channels ceased analogue transmissions.
See also
*
List of masts
The tallest structure in the world is the Burj Khalifa skyscraper at . Listed are guyed masts (such as telecommunication masts), self-supporting towers (such as the CN Tower), skyscrapers (such as the Willis Tower), oil platforms, electricity ...
*
List of tallest structures in the United Kingdom
This list contains all types of structures in height or more, which is the accepted criterion for a building to qualify as a skyscraper in the United Kingdom.
Entries in ''italics'' denote approximate figures.
Structures taller than 300 ...
*
List of radio stations in the United Kingdom
This is a list of radio stations in the United Kingdom.
National analogue and digital (DAB) stations
This list does not include stations which broadcast on numerous local digital multiplexes or MW licences to achieve near-national coverage.
DAB ...
References
*http://www.ukfree.tv/txdetail.php?a=TM131958
External links
The Transmission Gallery: photographs, coverage maps and information
{{Tacolneston VHF 405-line Transmitter Group
Transmitter sites in England
Norfolk