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THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY
WEARDALE
Photos by Steve Buckley and Ian Porter | Page last updated: 2020-03-30 |
Weardale was once a Band I site but the tower is of a type used at many early UHF relays. When originally commissioned in 1966 (see BBC Research Report) the Band I array occupied the whole of the parallel section at the top, and Band II was a single horizontal dipole at around 20m AGL. Both 405-line BBC 1 and BBC FM radio entered service on 21st February 1966. 405-line BBC 1 closed on 4th January 1983. FM radio was re-engineered for mixed polarisation, and Radio 1 added in February 1993. Stays have been added - possibly due to the age of the structure and the exposed location? |
Another site where the signs are used for target practice. |
Steve submitted the original photo of this site (date unknown). Ian's update shows the addition of stays and removal of a few SHF links. |
The use of a cylinder and twin troughs suggests this was an early UHF relay. [Ed]. The service dates were: BBC 1, Sep-1972; BBC 2, Feb-1971; ITV, 24-Aug-1973; Ch 4, Sep-1986. The original channel line-up was 51/44/41/47. During the summer of 1975 the channel allocations of BBC 1 & 2 were interchanged. The channel line-up was then 44/51/41/47 which was the same as at Emley Moor. For Band II there are four slant polarised dioples rather than the usual panels. Perhaps this was done to reduce wind loading? |
The FM receive log is at relatively low level. |
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