Most of the installation work was done by volunteers. A second transmitter, known as Cliff Hill, covers Loch Ewe, Poolewe and Loch Maree. Between them the two sites seem to cover this very mountainous area remarkably well.
January 2005: Alex Gray, Two Lochs Radio writes:
Mike,
I see Bill Wright has provided a very comprehensive set of photos of our installation for your web site! Surprised there aren't pics of our Poolewe (Cliff Hill) site as he was obviously tramping the area - I love his account of looking for the Inverewe UHF relay.
Anyway, the reason for writing is that sadly the green steel TX hut was destroyed in last week's hurricane, so it no longer looks quite like his photo! A couple of other minor things - I see your comment about the halo aerial used for off-air monitoring (I prefer to call it a crap aerial, because that's what comes out of it!). Actually we monitor our own transmitter on a bit of wire hanging from the receiver - all that's needed. The outdoor aerial is for general reception of other stations such as BBC, and was selected as omnidirectional, but multipath is so bad here that its's almost useless for anything, and I will change that aerial if I ever find time (unlikely). The BBC Tx is 50kW, but we get really poor reception here a few miles away because of multipath and need highly directional aerials for a good result. I also see a picture featuring our temporary safety earth. This was put in for electrical safety during construction - we never bothered to remove it, but the mast is actually multiple-earthed by copper straps and underground tracers and rods. It has withstood several lightning storms (and the recent hurricane).
We have now removed the main Tx and secured the site, and are transmitting locally on very reduced power while we sort out fundraising and more substantial rebuilding. We have been touched by several out-of-the-blue offers of donations from people we have never spoken to before who have seen coverage of our plight - I guess there's something special about transmitter fans.
Now we have 60mph blizzards! |
