The Skelton Transmitting Station is a radio transmitter site at near

Skelton, Cumbria Skelton is a small village and civil parish about north west of Penrith in the English county of Cumbria. It is on the former route of the B5305 road, which is now about to the north. The parish had a population of 1,059 in 2001, increasi ...

, England, about north-west of Penrith, run by

Babcock International Babcock International Group plc is a British aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering services company based in London, England. It specialises in managing complex assets and infrastructure. Although the company has civil contracts, its main b ...

and owned by the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

. Since the Belmont Mast in

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...

was shortened in 2010, the mast at Skelton has been the tallest structure in the United Kingdom.

History

Construction

The site was built by J. L. Eve Construction during the Second World War, for long-distance short-wave transmissions, across Europe.

Transmissions

In 1946, the BBC was heralding the site as being "the World's largest and most powerful (shortwave) radio station". The main purpose of it is

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began wi ...

. The site is capable of

Digital Radio Mondiale Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM; ''mondiale'' being Italian and French for "worldwide") is a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for analogue radio broadcasting including AM broadcasting—pa ...

(DRM) on at least 3955 kHz and 3975 kHz (75m broadcast band) beamed at 121° towards Germany and Central Europe. On AM the frequencies of 5995 kHz and 6195 kHz (49m broadcast band) and 9410 kHz (31m broadcast band) and 12095 kHz (25m broadcast band) are known. A

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

very low frequency Very low frequency or VLF is the ITU designation for radio frequencies (RF) in the range of 3–30 kHz, corresponding to wavelengths from 100 to 10 km, respectively. The band is also known as the myriameter band or myriameter wave a ...

(VLF) transmitter is also located there. It is used to transmit encrypted orders to submarines, including the Trident SLBM fleet. It uses as its aerial a 365-metre (1,198 foot) high guyed steel lattice mast, which is insulated against ground and is the tallest structure in the UK. The transmitter went into service in 2001 and is the successor to the GBR transmitter at

Rugby Radio Station __NOTOC__ Rugby Radio Station was a large radio transmission facility just east of the Hillmorton area of the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. The site straddled the A5 trunk road, with most of it in Warwickshire, and part on the other ...

References

External links

* * http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b40685 Buildings and structures in Cumbria Radio masts and towers in Europe Skelton, Cumbria Telecommunications in World War II Transmitter sites in England Shortwave radio stations {{Europe-mast-stub

History

Construction

Transmissions

See also

References

External links