The Stockland Hill transmitting station is a transmitting facility of FM Radio and UHF television located near

Honiton Honiton ( or ) is a market town and civil parish in East Devon, situated close to the River Otter, north east of Exeter in the county of Devon. Honiton has a population estimated at 11,822 (based on mid-year estimates for the two Honiton Ward ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

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 ...

. This transmitter mainly serves the East of Devon and West Dorset. It was constructed in 1961 by the IBA to transmit

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 ...

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 ...

television with transmissions commencing on

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 ...

channel 9 from antennas at above sea level. Colour television came to the site in 1971. Channel Four started up in November 1982. Stockland Hill never radiated the analogue Channel Five service. Digital television was first introduced at this site in 1998, and

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 ...

happened in May 2009. Stockland Hill was the second transmitter in the south west of England to have its analogue television transmissions shut off.

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

was switched off on 6 May 2009 and the rest of the analogue services were switched off on 20 May 2009 around after midnight. Stockland Hill currently transmits all of the DTT multiplexes at full planned ERP. The three PSB multiplexes are at 50 kW, the other three multiplexes are at 25 kW.

Services

Analogue television

29 April 1961 – 13 September 1971

405-line

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 ...

ITV television arrived in the southwest with the simultaneous building of this station and

Caradon Hill Caradon Hill ( kw, Bre Garn) is on Bodmin Moor in the former Caradon district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The summit is above mean sea level. Caradon Hill is on the southeastern edge of the moor; it is between the villages of Minions ...

60 miles (100 km) to the west in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

13 September 1971 – 1 November 1982

UHF colour television commenced.

1 November 1982 – 3 January 1985

The UK's fourth UHF television channel started up.

3 January 1985 – 15 November 1998

The VHF 405-line system was discontinued across the UK, and from that point for the next 23 years, television from Stockland Hill was the originally-intended four channels on UHF only.

Analogue and Digital television

15 November 1998 – 6 May 2009

The initial roll-out of digital television involved running the digital services interleaved (and at low ERP) with the existing analogue services.

6 May 2009 – 20 May 2009

commenced at Stockland Hill, with analogue BBC2 being switched off on channel 26 and BBC Mux 1 being switched off on channel 22-. Channel 26 was reused by the new BBC A multiplex at full post-DSO power (50 kW) and using 64-QAM with 8k carriers.

Digital television

20 May 2009 – 18 April 2012

Digital switchover was completed at Stockland Hill. All analogue television was switched off and the new post-DSO multiplexes took over the analogue frequencies plus a few new ones. Full power could not immediately be achieved for the COM multiplexes due to interference issues at

Rowridge Rowridge is a hamlet on the Isle of Wight towards the west in an area known as West Wight. It is the location of the Rowridge transmitting station, a 149.6 metres (491 ft) tall guyed transmitting mast. It is in the civil parish of Newport and ...

and in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

18 April 2012 - present

The current

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 ...

channels that Stockland Hill is transmitting are:

Analogue radio (FM)

Digital radio (DAB)

References

External links

MB21's page on 405 TV to the Southwest

The Transmission Gallery: Photographs and Information

{{Stockland Hill VHF 405-line Transmitter Group Transmitter sites in England