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THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
Photos by Nigel and Ann Coote
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We are indebted to Nigel and Ann for these photos of the Fair Isle link station, which they took while on holiday there in July 2008. The Fair Isle station does not transmit any UHF or VHF broadcast services but receives signals from Keelylang Hill on Orkney and then sends them on, at SHF, to Bressay for transmission to the population of the Shetland Islands.
Fair Isle Mast is not on the highest point of Ward Hill, which can be seen in the first photo, taken from the northern lighthouse.
The next photo shows the building that houses the generators that supply the power to Fair Isle Mast Site which is a about ¼ mile down the hill from the site.
The mast can be seen from the middle of the island [above] and you get a good view of it from the airstrip [below] hence the airsock which also shows the track up to the mast at the white fence.
To get onto the track that takes you up to the mast you have to walk around the Airstrip, once on the track you get dive-bombed by bonxie's (this is the Shetland/Fair Isle name for the Great Skua bird) as their chicks are in the grass which they use as nests.
Once at the top of the track you see the mast as, in photo below, you are looking north...
Looking at rhe next photo, if you look to the left you can see buildings that were used in the second world war and on the right the mast again with it's building, notice the mist rolling in.
The equipment housings are shown in photo 10 and you can also see the North Lighthouse.
The dishes facing south:
Below: on the left the dishes facing north, on the right the dishes are facing south.
Because the mist was rolling in, we left after 5 minutes only to get dive bombed again on the way down by the bonxies.
This article 'Bringing Colour TV to the Shetland Isles' gives details of how the Fair Isle link was planned and established. The article was first published in July 1976 in IBA Tech Review 7: Service Planning and Propogation.
Bringing Colour TV to the Shetland Islands (PDF)
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