Farnsworth Peak is a peak located on the northern end of the Oquirrh Mountain range, approximately south east of Lake Point, Utah and south west of

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The mountain is named for

Philo Farnsworth Philo Taylor Farnsworth (August 19, 1906 – March 11, 1971), "The father of television", was the American inventor and pioneer who was granted the first patent for the television by the United States Government. Burns, R. W. (1998), ''Televisi ...

, the inventor of the first completely electronic

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

. It is used mainly for radio and television transmission, but could potentially become part of a ski resort owned by nearby Kennecott Land. On the eastern side of the mountain, the land is completely private, and access is restricted. The peak can be reached by hiking from the Tooele side, which is mostly public land. The

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

land extends from Ridge Peak west to the base of the mountain. Public access to this land is available off SR-36 near Lake Point, Utah. Several cattle gates need to be opened and closed, but are access roads to hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding areas.

Radio and television use

Farnsworth Peak, in local radio terms, refers to three separate radio transmitter sites. They are known as "Big Farnsworth," "The

KSTU KSTU (channel 13) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. It is owned by the E.W. Scripps Company alongside Provo-licensed KUPX-TV (channel 16), an independent station. KSTU's stud ...

Site," and "Little Farnsworth." Each site hosts a number of transmission towers which broadcast

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

and

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

s. Extensive studies of RF radiation from the site were conducted in 2003 in an effort to aid engineers who work on the mountain.

FM Terrestrial stations with transmitters on Farnsworth Peak

Farnsworth Peak contains a vast majority of Salt Lake FM signals. The following is a complete list of FM stations with transmitters located on (or around) Farnsworth Peak.

FM amateur (ham) radio repeaters on Farnsworth Peak

Local television networks

KSL-TV KSL-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Bonneville International, the for-profit broadcasting arm of the Church of Jesus C ...

and other sites on Farnsworth Peak have provided space for

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency radio spectrum, spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emer ...

repeater operation. Farnsworth peak serves as a major hub, connecting western and southern Utah to the Utah Intermountain Intertie main hub repeater a top the Snowbird Tram on Hidden Peak.

Television stations

Farnsworth Peak is home to several full service television stations.

is perhaps the best known transmitter site on the mountain, but the peak houses transmitters for

-TV, the local Fox affiliate,

KUCW KUCW (channel 30) is a television station licensed to Ogden, Utah, United States, serving as the CW network outlet for Salt Lake City and the state of Utah. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside ABC a ...

(The CW), and

KUTV KUTV (channel 2) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside independent station KJZZ-TV (channel 14) and St. George, Utah, St. George–licensed MyNetwor ...

(CBS) among others. KTMW, an independent station and KUPX, the local Ion affiliate, now broadcast their digital signals from Little Farnsworth Peak about 0.45 miles to the south. KSL-TV was the first television station to use the mountain for broadcasting. It also is responsible for transmitters on the mountain, having engineers on site for periods of time in case of emergencies. A large number of the television stations located on the peak previously carried their analog signals from the same sites. Farnsworth Peak was one of the first places in the

to construct a facility specifically for digital television transmission. Specifically, Farnsworth Peak houses transmitters for the following stations:

Lightning incident

On September 13, 2009, lightning struck the tower carrying a majority of the area's

digital television Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using Digital signal, digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an ...

signals. The lightning strike took eight stations in total off the air, and damaged the combiner for the tower. According to the engineers on site, the combiner was leaking oil. The lightning strike of the tower also caused a failure of the waveguide switch control system, which caused it to display improperly. A waveguide switch is part of the transmission circuitry. An engineer on site was able to correct that situation within hours, but the combiner would not be working for a few more hours. By the next day, the problem had been fixed and the stations were back on the air and all were in working order.

2020 Salt Lake City Earthquake

On March 18, 2020, a 5.7 magnitude

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

occurred north-northeast of

Magna, Utah Magna ( ) is a city in Salt Lake County, Utah, United States. The current population of the city stands at 29,251 according to the 2020 census, a 10.4% increase over 26,505 in 2010. History Settlement Settlement of the area began in 1851 shor ...

, west of Farnsworth Peak. A number of radio and television stations experienced interruptions after power was lost on the mountain, but were able to return to air within seconds. Farnsworth Peak has generators for emergencies.

References

External links

{{SLC TV , state=collapsed Mountains of Utah Mountains of Salt Lake County, Utah Mountains of Tooele County, Utah Mass media in Salt Lake City