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THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
BOLLINGTON CLARENCE MILL
| Photos by Ringway Manchester | Page last updated: 2024-08-06 |
| Clarence Mill the home of Canalside Radio on 102.8 FM. The station has been broadcasting to the North East Cheshire area since 2005 from its studios at Clarence Mill in Bollington. Canalside’s first broadcast was initially online in November 2004 as part of a trial to test the water. The month long trial was a success and lead to their first FM trial for a month in May 2005. The station was on the air again in December 2005 and 2006 and with the support of the local community, it was awarded a full time FM licence in 2008 and started broadcasting on the 8th December. Canalside was founded by a team of volunteers from Macclesfield and Bollington, spear headed by Nick Wright who was well known for his work on Macclesfield’s Silk FM. Canalside Community Radio is classed as a not for profit organisation and also operates a youth training project called ‘Phase One’ which is a registered charity. The station only operates with the financial support of local businesses which sponsor the station in return for publicity on air. Since Alan Price visited this site in 2017, the transmit aerial has been changed to a Lindenblad array. |
| Clarence Mill studios. |
| I love this old Fiat Ducato van. |
| Overview of the mill. Spot the TX antenna! |
| There's an obvious lack of studio to transmitter link. This is because the transmitter site is located in house. Moving to the roof of the mill you can see an array which consists of what looks like a Lindenblad LBLAD-600 array of 45 degree slanted band II dipoles. They’re used commonly in FM radio setups and can radiate up to 600W. Each dipole is fed in phase with equal power, from a machined power splitter. The dipoles are spaced ¼ of the wavelength from the mounting pole to achieve an omnidirectional, circularly polarised, horizontal radiation pattern. Ofcom Tx Parameters quote the ERP as 100W but the coverage area is pretty decent considering its relatively low elevation within the local terrain. The mill is 153m above sea level and the antenna is just 34m above the ground. |
| The folded dipole below may serve as a back up but I can’t be certain. |
| Dipole for monitoring the TX. |
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