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THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
OBAN
| Photos by James Towill and Mike Smith | Page last updated: 2020-12-03 |
| Pulpit Hill, the site of the local TV and Radio relay, overlooks the town. James Towill was the first contributor to visit the site. This 45m tower replaced the original 1960's tower for the re-engineering of BBC FM radio to mixed polarisation in 1984. BBC National DAB entered service on 15-Jan-2010. |
| Mike Smith then visited the site in May 2011. A noticeable addition is the DAB Tx array on a cantilever pole next to the UHF Tx logs. |
| Mike writes:- Some of the TV aerials in Oban point towards Pulpit Hill while others are directed towards the higher power TV relay at Torosay, near Craignure on the Isle of Mull. We drove towards Pulpit Hill but as we approached it started pouring with rain. Since the site does not seem to be approachable directly by car I did not try too hard to find a pathway that would enable me to walk up to the tower, but I did get one or two shots from not too far away just off the roadside. The low power station Oban FM offered very good reception in the town, but did not extend particularly far beyond, but is pretty respectable considering that the station only has a mere 0.39kW at its disposal and from antennas lower down the tower and with a restrictive directional pattern compared to the large omnidirectional array near the top that are used by the BBC Radio services at a power of 5.0kW. Reception is certainly limited by the terrain and maybe 5.0kW is somewhat of an overkill after witnessing how well 0.39kW performs. |
| The vertical radiation pattern from the antenna used by the local commercial radio station Oban FM. Maximum e.r.p. is 0.24kW - antenna height is 28.5 meters above ground level. The BBC's national radio services are effectively omnidirectional with a power of 2.5kW per plane sited higher up at 43 metres above ground level. |
| The horizontal radiation pattern from the antenna used by the local commercial radio station Oban FM. Maximum e.r.p. is 0.15kW - antenna height is 28.5 meters above ground level. The BBC's national radio services are effectively omnidirectional with a power of 2.5kW per plane sited higher up at 43 metres above ground level. |
| Coverage map for Oban / Pulpit Hill v.h.f. / f.m. radio: Green = ILR Oban FM estimated coverage. Yellow = BBC FM estimated coverage. |
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