The Beacon Hill transmitting station is an English
telecommunication
Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...
s facility located at Beacon Hill,
Marldon
Marldon is a village in the South Hams in Devon, United Kingdom, to the north-west of Paignton. It is the most northeasterly Civil Parish in the South Hams and includes the village of Compton with Compton Castle. Beacon Hill transmitting statio ...
,
Devon
Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
. It includes a
guyed mast
A guyed mast is a tall thin vertical structure that depends on guy lines (diagonal tensioned cables attached to the ground or a base) for stability. The mast itself has the compressive strength to support its own weight, but does not have the ...
(Beacon Hill A) and a free-standing
lattice tower
A lattice tower or truss tower is a freestanding vertical latticework, framework tower. This construction is widely used in transmission towers carrying high-voltage electric power lines, in radio masts and towers (a self-radiating tower or as a ...
(Beacon Hill B), both of which support various
antennas
In radio-frequency engineering, an antenna (American English) or aerial (British English) is an electronic device that converts an alternating electric current into radio waves (transmitting), or radio waves into an electric current (receivi ...
.
History
Beacon Hill A became operational in 1972–3, bringing 625 line
PAL
Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...
colour television to the coverage area of
Torbay
Torbay is a unitary authority with a borough status in the ceremonial county of Devon, England. It is governed by Torbay Council, based in the town of Torquay, and also includes the towns of Paignton and Brixham. The borough consists of ...
and south Devon. Beacon Hill B transmits
FM radio
FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation (FM) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high fidelity, high-f ...
and
DAB radio to the area. In 2007, a third guyed lattice mast was constructed at the site to provide
medium wave
Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the daytim ...
transmissions for
Gold (Exeter/Torbay). The transmitter for Gold was dismantled after the service was discontinued.
Digital switchover
In April 2009, the analogue television transmissions at Beacon Hill A were turned off, requiring homes in the area to switch to the
Freeview Freeview may refer to:
*Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia
*Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand
*Freeview (UK), a ...
service.
The Beacon Hill transmitter group was the first in the
South West of England to stop broadcasting analogue television services.
BBC Two
BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...
ceased at 00:50 on 8 April 2009 and the remaining analogue signals were turned off on 22 April 2009 at 00:20.
Services listed by frequency
Analogue radio
Digital radio
Digital television
700MHz clearance
The 700MHz clearance programme led to the removal of some of the Freeview HD and SD channels from the Beacon Hill transmitter.
"700 MHz Clearance Programme"
Ofcom, 27 February 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
Before switchover
Analogue television
Analogue television signals ceased in April 2009. BBC2 was closed on 8 April 2009, with ITV Westcountry temporarily moving into its place, followed by the remaining services on 22 April.
References
External links
Beacon Hill at The Transmission Gallery
{{Supertall
Buildings and structures in Devon
Transmitter sites in England