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THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
BT TOWER
| Photos by BT Heritage (commentary by Dan Glover) | Page last updated: 2016-05-27 |
| The Post Office Tower was officially opened in October 1965 and one of the stated purposes at the time was to provide links for television distribution. The imminent requirement for additional bandwidth to include BBC2 and upgrade to 625-line colour seems to have a significant factor in the expansion of the GPO microwave network in the mid-to-late 1960s The GPO involvement with television distribution, however, started much earlier, with a link from London (Museum Exchange) to Birmingham on 900 MHz in operation as a feed to Sutton Coldfield. This link was initially "reversible" and later upgraded to two-way working to allow contributions from Birmingham to London. A coax "tube" was also provided over a similar route and it seems the 900 MHz system was not an unqualified success, however the majority of the sites were used for subsequent SHF linking. More information about the London to Birmingham link is shown on the page for Zouches Farm, one of the intermediate sites By 1954 the BBC required a further link from London to the Isle of Wight. A site was established at Golden Pot (see Gallery page for Brockham Hill) and a 4 GHz link provided from Museum to Rowridge - this was upgraded by 1958 to provide a link for the ITA towards Southampton and Chillerton Down Anglia Television also required a link by 1959 and this appears to have run from Museum via two intermediate sites in Essex and Wickhambrook which itself had become a local "hub" as it also formed a repeater station on the BBC link from Birmingham to Norwich (see Wickhambrook for more details) By the end of the 1950s Museum Exchange thus had a key role in television distribution for both BBC and ITA  These images are Copyright BT Heritage, licensed under a Creative Commons License and reproduced under the following terms |
| Undated but probably around 1950 showing Museum Exchange with the tower carrying the dishes used for the London to Birmingham 900 MHz link [TCB 417/E 16249] |
| "Opening of London to Birmingham Television Link; Museum Control Room 17/09/1949" [TCB 417/E 16260] |
| March 1961 - links for TV services were then in operation towards Birmingham (away from the camera), the Isle of Wight (left) and Norwich (right) [TCB 473/P 7555] |
| From the opposite side - the mesh dishes are from the 1949 London to Birmingham link and had been joined by a solid dish operating at SHF over the same route [TCB 473/P 7556] |
| May 1962 - construction of the new tower was underway but it would be a few years before it was operational. The 900 MHz antennas appear to have been removed We understand the Isle of Wight route was two-way as well as being used by BBC and ITA - this probably accounts for two dishes being used. The Norwich route at this stage was likely to be one-way, from London [TCB 346/T 77] |
Brockham Hill | Wickhambrook | Zouches Farm
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