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THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
STOCKPORT (RATCLIFFE TOWERS)
| Photos by Ringway Manchester | Page last updated: 2024-08-07 |
| Your FM is a community radio station broadcasting in Stockport, Greater Manchester, formerly known as Pure 107.8. Your FM operates under the same licence as Pure did. Pure 107.8 launched on 13 September 2006 after a series of Restricted Service Licence broadcasts under the name Pure Radio. It was part of Pure Innovations, a not-for-profit organisation that employed people from disadvantaged backgrounds to build the skills and confidence to get back into employment. Pure covered local news and events in the Stockport area and provided live commentary of every Stockport County match, both home and away, until August 2017, when rights reverted to Imagine FM. Pure was based in Cheadle Heath just up the road. In February 2017, it was reported the station faced closure as Pure Innovations no longer had the finances to support the project. In September 2017, the community radio licence for Stockport transferred to a new group, and the station was re-launched in November as Your FM. In addition to FM, Ratcliffe Towers is also other Stockport SSDAB site. The first is on Werneth Low (See Hyde Cricket & Squash Club). While Werneth Low uses a vertical, Ratcliffe Towers has a small VHF dipole on a pole at the top of the block. The home of the Stockport SSDAB is in the adjacent Millbrook tower. There are three verticals on the top of Millbrook Tower but these are nothing to do with the DAB setup and are a trio of Police Airwave antennas. |
| This is the site of the former studio at Cheadle Heath. |
| On the adjacent chimney stack you can see the original transmit aerial. |
| Looking at Ratcliffe Towers, you can see this vertical antenna on the far left which is the transmit antenna for Your FM. Your FM outputs 25w from here and the coverage is quite good from the top of this block. In the background you can see the stacked dipoles of Greatest Hits Radio. |
| Further down the pole is what looks like a Ubiquiti studio to transmitter link panel. |
| Interestingly at the other end of the roof is this shrouded log periodic which was the old studio to transmitter link antenna that points towards the old studio in Cheadle Heath. Looking at Millbrook tower, I couldn’t see any obvious reciprocal studio to transmitter link panel but these things can be small and quite well concealed sometimes. |
| Down at ground level is the Your FM studio at the base of Millbrook Tower. There were no signs of life but the station was on the air and sounding great. |
| It's a hard one to spot. Left: Your FM community radio. Middle: Stockport SSDAB. Right: Stacked dipoles for Greatest Hits Radio. |
| The DAB TX is the far right folded dipole. |
| The sign in the window was confirmation I had the right place! |
| Police TETRA Airwave array. These are not to be confused with DAB verticals. |
| And finally, for those unfamiliar with the area. The block in the foreground is Millbrook Tower, where the offices are based. The block on the back right hand side is Ratcliffe Tower where the TX is. |
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