Carnmoney Hill was built due to what I've named the bowl effect. Newtownabbey is shielded from Divis by Cavehill, a rock outcrop in North Belfast - like a cereal bowl with a hill in the middle. Newtownabbey is sandwiched in the valley below and can't receive Divis.
The vertically polarised FM trnamissions are from the end-fed antenna at the top of the tower.
I've included an image of the next-door site known as Glencairn, Glencairn was the original site for television before Divis was built. These days the site is still broadcasting Channel 9 local television at 1kw. It's known today as Ballygomartin. The top of Divis is just visible to the right of the tower.
Carnmoney Hill was originally a BBC landlord site with BBC 1 entering service in June 1973 and ITV on
7-Dec-1973. Unusually, and probably due to the troubles in N.Ireland, at the time, BBC 2 was added later in December 1975. Channel 4 was added in June 1983. DSO was on 10th and 24th October 2012.
BBC FM radio entered service on 20-Jan-1992. City Beat launched on 4-Apr-2007.
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