Mendlesham transmitting station

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Mendlesham
Suffolk UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Mendlesham transmitting station (Suffolk)
Location Mendlesham, Stowmarket, Suffolk
Mast height305.4 metres (1,002 ft)
Coordinates 52°14′04″N1°06′27″E / 52.234444°N 1.1075°E / 52.234444; 1.1075
Grid reference TM123640
Built1959
ITV region Anglia Television (1959-1985)

The Mendlesham transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated close to the village of Mendlesham, near the town of Stowmarket, in Suffolk, United Kingdom (grid reference TM123640 ). It is owned and operated by Arqiva.

Contents

It has a 305.4 metres (1,002 ft) high guyed steel lattice mast. It was originally commissioned to bring ITV signals (provided by Anglia Television) to East Anglia, including Norfolk, Suffolk and parts of Essex and Cambridgeshire on 405-line VHF, using Channel 11 (Band III).

History

Other sites considered in February 1958 for an ITV television mast were Tacolneston and Snetterton. By June 1958, the site was chosen. The site was in the village of Wetheringsett-cum-Brockford, but Mendlesham was the name of the nearby airfield.

For the new ITV region, the GPO would provide a link from London to Norwich, via Ongar, Essex, Sibleys Green (Chickney, to Mendlesham, then on to the telecommunications tower at Stoke Holy Cross, and by cable from there to Norwich. Construction began in January 1959, with the mast being built from April 1959. [1] By June 1959 it was 600 feet. Construction finished in mid-July 1959, taking ten weeks. [2]

On Monday 5 October 1959, tests at full power of 200kW took place, from 10am to 9pm from Monday to Saturday. [3] [4] This was also the same day that the BBC started broadcasting from Norwich. [5] It came into service on 27 October of that year. It was at the time the highest television mast to be constructed in Europe and the first of six of the same height subsequently used at other Independent Television Authority stations. It was fabricated in Hereford from zinc-galvanised steel, and was erected by British Insulated Callender's Construction Co. (BICC), now known as Balfour Beatty.

When UHF television came to East Anglia, main transmitters were commissioned at Tacolneston, near Norwich and Sudbury, near Colchester. Mendlesham was not required in the UHF plan, so when 405 line television was discontinued in the UK in 1985, the mast ceased to be used for any broadcast transmissions for over a decade.

However, in 1997, the site was chosen to be a main transmitter for new regional commercial radio station Vibe FM (renamed Kiss 105-108 in 2006), on 106.4 MHz VHF FM at a power of 20 kW. Vibe FM launched November 1997. Later in December 2001, national digital radio multiplex Digital One also added its antennas to the mast. The BBC National DAB Multiplex was added on 13 July 2010.

Channels listed by frequency

Analogue radio (VHF FM)

FrequencykW [6] Service
106.4 MHz20 Greatest Hits Radio Ipswich & Suffolk

Digital radio (DAB)

FrequencyBlockkWOperator
222.064 MHz11D1 Digital One [7]
225.648 MHz12B4.3 BBC National DAB [8]

Analogue television

VHF analogue television was transmitted from Mendlesham from its launch in 1959 until the nationwide shutdown of VHF signals in 1985.

FrequencyVHFkWService
204.75  MHz 11200 Anglia

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Suffolk and Essex Free Press Wednesday 29 April 1959, page 19
  2. ↑ Haverhill Echo Saturday 25 July 1959, page 6
  3. ↑ Haverhill Echo Saturday 10 October 1959, page 5
  4. ↑ Suffolk and Essex Free Press Thursday 15 October 1959, page 20
  5. ↑ Bedfordshire Times Friday 9 October 1959, page 20
  6. ↑ Radio Listeners guide 2010
  7. ↑ Radio Listeners Guide 2010
  8. ↑ BBC Reception Website
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