The Kilkeel relay is situated on the summit of Aughrim Hill. We were informed originally that the battle of Aughrim was fought here around 1690, but we've been contacted recently and it turns out that there are three Aughrims, and the Aughrim in question is miles away in County Galway.
There are no less than 4 towers on the hill - 3 on top and one - for Orange mobiles - just off the access road at the bottom.
The TV relay was initially confusing because the trough receiving aerial is directed over Carlingford Lough and I didn't know where it's getting a feed from (Kilkeel has no direct line of sight with Divis due to the mountains.) But the answer is Killowen Mountain, which is an active reflector of Divis.
The police have a tower up there which appears to use TETRA. the other tower is for Vodafone.
Originally a BBC landlord site, 405-line BBC 1 on VHF channel 3 and BBC FM radio entered service on the 20th March 1967. Link to the original installation BBC RD report, at the foot of this page. BBC 1 VHF channel 3 closed 6th April 1982.
UHF TV channels 1 - 3 entered service on 2nd September 1977, with Channel 4 from June 1984. DSO was on 10th and 24th October 2012.
BBC FM radio was re-engineered for mixed polarisation and Radio's 1 & 4 added in April 1994. Five FM launched on 16th October 2007. |
