The Peterborough transmitting station is a
broadcasting and
telecommunications facility at
Morborne
Morborne is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Morborne lies approximately south-west of Peterborough, near Yaxley. Morborne is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well a ...
Hill, near
Peterborough, ().
There are two tall structures on adjacent sites: a guyed steel lattice mast belonging to
Arqiva, and a tall reinforced concrete tower belonging to
BT. These sites are known by their owners as 'Peterborough' and 'Morborne Hill' respectively.
Arqiva mast
A guyed high-steel lattice mast, belonging to
Arqiva, is used primarily for
FM broadcasting but carries many other services.
Originally, this mast was built for broadcasting television on
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 ...
Band I
Band I is a range of radio frequencies within the very high frequency (VHF) part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The first time there was defined "for simplicity" in Annex 1 of "Final acts of the European Broadcasting Conference in the VHF and U ...
.
On 30 October 2004, the original mast was destroyed by a fire. It collapsed, seriously damaging the transmitter building at the base. Services were temporarily restored by transferring them to the adjacent BT tower and two temporary masts, including the
BBC emergency mast which was put in use for the first time.
A new replacement mast finished construction in 2006 and is in full service.
Services available
Analogue radio
Digital radio
BT concrete tower
The adjacent tower is one of fourteen
reinforced concrete towers owned by BT in the UK. It is used mainly for point-to-point microwave links and forms part of BT's national telecommunications network. It was not damaged by the collapse of the Arqiva mast.
See also
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British Telecom microwave network
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Telecommunications towers in the United Kingdom
Telecommunications towers in the United Kingdom are operated mainly by Arqiva. Arqiva operates the transmitters for UK terrestrial TV and most radio broadcasting, both analogue and digital. BT also operates a number of telecommunications towe ...
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Communications in the United Kingdom
Telecommunications in the United Kingdom have evolved from the early days of the telegraph to modern broadband and mobile phone networks with Internet services.
History
National Telephone Company (NTC) was a British telephone company from 188 ...
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List of masts
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List of radio stations in the United Kingdom
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List of tallest buildings and structures in Great Britain
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List of towers
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Radio masts and towers
Radio masts and towers are typically tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. There are two main types: guyed and self-supporting structures. They are among the tallest human-made ...
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Radio masts and towers - catastrophic collapses
This is a list of catastrophic collapses of broadcast masts and towers.
Masts and towers can collapse as a result of natural disasters, such as storms and fires; from engineering defects; and from accidents, sabotage and bendover.
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List of ...
External links
The Transmission Gallery: Peterborough Transmitter photographs and informationThe Transmission Gallery: FM coverage map*
Map of site
{{Peterborough_VHF_405-line_Transmitter_Group
Communication towers in the United Kingdom
Transmitter sites in England
Buildings and structures in Cambridgeshire
Mass media in Peterborough
British Telecom buildings and structures