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THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
MORMOND HILL
| Photos by Jack Richardson | Page last updated: 2023-11-09 |
| This is an interesting site. Home to 5 towers, 1 mast and a water tower, walking around gives you the impression that this used to be a hive of activity. Between 1961 and 1992, Mormond Hill was Station 44 of the US North Atlantic Radio System (NARS), which was a chain of sites reaching from Iceland to Fylingdales in Yorkshire, intended to warn of missile launches. The site was transferred to the MOD in 1993. I'm not sure who looks after it now. On the south west side of the hill there's a White Horse, the only one in Scotland, and a White Stag on the other side of the hill. I drove for quite a while trying to find somewhere to reach the top. Put off by the private road sign on the dead end road from Newburgh, I drove round to see if I could reach the top via the White Horse way. Put off by cows, I went back to Newburgh and drove about 3/4 of the way up the private road and tucked in a verge. Service dates: MFR, 07/05/1997, Waves Radio, 25/11/1997. DAB: Aberdeen, 21/11/2001, BBC, 25/03/2010. I am grateful to Dave Stanley, who did the installation for Waves and MFR in 1997, and Malcolm Lee, engineer at MFR, for their help in identifying the configuration at Mormond Hill. |
| The first gate into the site. This was locked on the way back. I parked further down. |
| The various towers at Mormond Hill. The Waves Radio tower is the one 2nd left (the BT tower), the DAB tower in the centre and the MFR tower on the right. |
| First off, the installation for Waves Radio on the BT tower. |
| I didn't know what were the Waves Radio Tx antennas when I visited, so ended up photographing anything I thought it could be. Dave Stanley writes: "The Waves transmit antennas would be the pair of slanted AEA dipoles. It looks like one of them is damaged or bent. Originally they used a 50MHz link to the site. I note the shrouded yagi antenna on the building (photo below). That may have replaced the 50MHz link. The dipole on the building looks too small for 50MHz. A bit of trivia. The transmit dipoles are the same ones that were used by Nevis Radio at Trislaig. They were removed from Nevis when the antennas were changed to circular polarisation." The AEA antennas as installed at Trislaig can be seen on the third photo down on the Nevis Radio installation page. |
| I wonder if this is anything to do with Waves Radio? The shrouded yagi is pointing towards Peterhead. According to Wikipedia, Waves Radio stopped broadcasting in April 2023. When I visited Mormond Hill on 1 July 2023, non-stop music was being played out on 101.2, with RDS and TOH station idents. |
| Onto the DAB installation. Ofcom data shows both the Aberdeen and BBC mux's as sharing the same antenna, so I assume both this stack and the phased dipoles in the next photo are in use to achieve some sort of coverage pattern? Dave Stanley writes: I have some thoughts on the DAB antennas. The back-to-back cardioid antennas would produce a messy radiation pattern with big lobes to the sides. It looks like the sort of thing that someone would put up without thinking about it! I would speculate that they were temporary or backup. Or perhaps the BBC pointed out that they were not right when they came along later. The Ofcom data matches the 4 stack of dipoles. |
| These dipoles point north and south |
| The tower which hosts MFR |
| I thought these antennas pointed towards Tor Sliasg as the feed for MFR. Dave Stanley reports that when the site was setup in 1997 the off-air feed was from Tor Sliasg, and the signal was pretty good back then. However, Malcolm Lee writes: "Surprisingly that pair of receive antennas are pointed at Mounteagle. As the signal was good enough, it was better than RBR from another relay, Tor Sliasg. The reception is not unsurprisingly good enough to use for MPX, so we use the demoded signal, local processing and local RDS. Charles Mackinnon was my antenna specialist until he sadly died. He put the phased pair of receive antennas at Mormond Hill to enable direct reception from Mounteagle." At 83 miles, that must be one of the longest if not the longest RBL path in the UK. Tor Sliasg is 34 miles away. |
| The Tx antennas for MFR pointing north at Fraserburgh. They are pretty directional, I guess to protect the service area of Northsound 1 on 96.9 from Durris. Driving through the village of Strichen behind the hill, my car radio flicked to Northsound! |
| I am guessing this was the link antenna for Kinnaird Radio, a community radio opt out on MFR's frequency. According to an article from the Press and Journal, the station stopped broadcasting in January 2016 due to a lack of sponsorship and shortage of presenters. There's a matching shrouded yagi antenna on the roof of their old studios at 112 Charlotte Street, Fraserburgh. |
| I'm guessing these are links for off-shore oil rigs? |
| Fraserburgh |
| Moody! |
Durris | Mounteagle | Tor Sliasg | Trislaig
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