Coming up from Fazeley to Hopwas, this aerial is a constant off to the west, towering into the air.
I've never yet found it on the map, and don't know what it is. Which is annoying! To the north of Hopwas there is a military firing range, so I have wondered if the aerial is a military item. If anyone knows, I'd love to hear!
It’s the Litchfield transmitter. I believe it used to be used to transmit the ITV signal but now is used for local radio.
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia:
The station was the main 405-line ITV transmitter for the Midlands from 1956 until 1985. It has a 305.2 metres (1,001 ft) tall guyed mast.
The station came on air on 17 February 1956, using two 5 kW transmitters and a 16-stack antenna mounted on a 450 feet (137 m) 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 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.
All analogue TV transmissions ceased on 21 September 2011, as part of the digital switchover. A temporary HD multiplex BBC B (Mux HD) on C34 was moved to the Sutton Coldfield transmitting station on C40+ (626.2 MHz) thereby ceasing all analogue and digital television broadcasts from the Lichfield transmitter.
Mike
Nb Duxllandyn
Mike, that's really interesting, Thank you. It's amazing to have such a huge object just serving local radio.
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