Black Mountain transmitting station explained

Black Mountain
Height:228.6m (750feet)
Gridref:J278727
Built:1959
Relay:Divis
Bbc:BBC Northern Ireland
Itv:UTV

The Black Mountain transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated on land 301m (988feet) above Ordnance Datum (mean sea level) to the west of the city of Belfast, in Northern Ireland . It includes a guyed steel lattice mast which is 228.6m (750feet) https://web.archive.org/web/20060925010233/http://tx.mb21.co.uk/info/sitedata/index.asp in height. The height of the top of the structure above mean sea level is 529m (1,736feet). It is owned and operated by Arqiva.

History

Construction

It was built by BICC.[1]

Transmission

Coverage

For high power transmissions of Cool FM, and formerly analogue Channel 5, coverage includes most of central and eastern Ulster, north as far as Ballymena, south as far as Downpatrick and Newry, and west past Dungannon and Cookstown.

Radio stations Q Radio and U105 have a more restricted coverage area, including areas around Greater Belfast, up to Carrickfergus, Antrim, and the shore of Lough Neagh.

With the exception of the NIMM broadcasts, the low power digital TV transmissions are designed only to cover areas of Belfast not already covered by Divis.

Service availability by frequency

Analogue radio

FrequencykWService
96.7 MHz0.55Q Radio Belfast
97.4 MHz3.2Cool FM
105.8 MHz0.96U105

Analogue television

8 August 1975 – 2 November 1982

FrequencyVHFUHFkWService
9100UTV
390.025BBC1 Northern Ireland
450.025BBC2 Northern Ireland
490.025UTV

2 November 1982 – 3 January 1985

FrequencyVHFUHFkWService
9100UTV
390.025BBC1 Northern Ireland
410.025Channel 4
450.025BBC2 Northern Ireland
490.025UTV

3 January 1985 – 30 March 1997

FrequencyUHFkWService
390.025BBC1 Northern Ireland
410.025Channel 4
450.025BBC2 Northern Ireland
490.025UTV

30 March 1997 – 10 October 2012

Frequency UHF kW Service
3750Channel 5
390.025BBC One Northern Ireland
410.025Channel 4
450.025BBC Two Northern Ireland
490.025UTV

Analogue and digital television

10 October 2012 – 24 October 2012

FrequencyUHFkWServiceSystem
3750Channel 5PAL System I
390.025BBC One Northern IrelandPAL System I
410.025Channel 4PAL System I
450.005BBC ADVB-T
490.025UTVPAL System I

Digital television

24 October 2012 – present

Digital television replaced the old analogue signals during October 2012. An additional multiplex named NImux including TG4, RTÉ One, RTÉ Two and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta launched at switchover here and at two other transmitters in Northern Ireland. In September 2019 further frequency changes took place.

FrequencyUHFkWOperating NameSystem
33 (was 39+)3NImuxDVB-T2
44 (Was 42)0.005Digital 3&4DVB-T
41 (Was 45)0.005BBC ADVB-T
47 (Was 49)0.005BBC BDVB-T2

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Times Tuesday 27 October 1959, page 6