UK Broadcast Transmission

THE TRANSMISSION GALLERY

Keswick Forest Cumbria NGR: NY223244 Maps: Google  Bing (Ord Surv)   Site Height: 215m       Structure Height: 22m Digital TV: National Radio: Radio 1: 99.2   Radio 2: 89.6   Radio 3: 91.8   Radio 4: 94.0   Local Radio: Smooth Radio (Lake District): 101.4   Radio Cumbria: 104.1   Digital Radio: Comments: Keswick Forest is a network FM relay of Sandale

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This site was quite difficult to find - it is tucked away inside a public car park at Noble Knot about 4 miles west of the Lakeland town of Keswick. The transmitter hut containing the broadcast kit (and the adjacent hut for the unidentified GSM network) are situated about 75 feet down the slope that the mast is erected on. The yagi providing the programme feed from 'parent' station Sandale can be seen about half-way up the mast. Unusually this relay station is horizontally polarised (probably to help listeners counteract multipath reception in the very rugged terrain?). The radiators are the two log periodics towards the top of the mast. Service dates Jan 1995 BBC Radio 1 - 4. 5-Nov-2001 Radio Cumbria 23-Apr-2013 ILR 101.4 MHz. (Lakeland Radio) TV is not transmitted from this site, but rather from another site on the eastern edge of Keswick

Bill Wright: I came upon the Keswick Forest transmitter by accident. We were touring in the Lake District in early March and stopped in a lay-by at dusk to put the kettle on. The winter had seen tremendous gales in the north-west, and the Lake District was scarred by countless fallen and smashed trees. I walked across the road to look at the acres of devastated conifers. I stepped a few yards into the forest and came upon the transmitter mast. It was almost dark but my dedication to mb21 sent me back to the van for my camera and a big flashgun. By the time I'd finished taking the photographs it was really dark, and I'd wandered a long way from the road. I headed back but somehow deviated to the right quite a lot. Blundering through the undergrowth in the gloom I pulled up sharply at the top of a thirty foot cliff. From then on I proceeded with extreme care. I arrived back at the van sweating profusely and rather bedraggled. This aroused no comment because it's normal when I've been on an mb21 mission!

The yagi (with the yellow end cap, is the receive aerial, directed at Sandale. The other two logs, with black caps are the Tx aerials.

Mark Carver took this, and the two pictures below in August 2002.

Arqiva (legacy Crown Castle) equipment cabin

Keswick

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