The Lisnagarvey transmitting station is a facility for
mediumwave
Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM broadcasting, AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. Du ...
broadcasting located in the
townland
A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...
of Magherageery, on the southern edge of
Lisburn
Lisburn (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with th ...
,
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...
(). It is close to
Sprucefield shopping centre and about one mile from the middle of Lisburn.
The station was built by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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for the
Regional Programme to be transmitted to Northern Ireland and it went into service in 1936. It is now owned by
Arqiva
Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquart ...
.
During World War II, a 100 kW shortwave transmitter (Marconi model SWB18) was installed at the station as an alternative to the well-known one at
Daventry
Daventry ( , historically ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority in Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 Census Daventry had a population of 28,123, making ...
in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
, in case that one should suffer from an enemy attack. It transmitted on 6140 or 6145 kHz, and used the call sign GRW. The shortwave transmitter was taken out of service on 26 May 1946 and was later redeployed at th
BBC Far Eastern Relay stationat Tebrau, Malaya in January 1951.
The station includes three
radio masts, including two standard lattice masts and one
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diamond cantilever vertical radiator. The two standard lattice masts have a wire slung T-antenna suspended between them. The Blaw-Knox radiator is the only one of its kind in Western Europe. The height of a vertical radiator is related to the
frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from '' angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is ...
(or
wavelength
In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats.
It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tr ...
) of the service transmitted, and for maximum efficiency should be one half of the station's wavelength. Its height was originally , but it was shortened when the station's broadcast frequency was changed.
Similar masts in Europe can be found nowadays only at
Lakihegy,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
, at
Riga
Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the B ...
,
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
, and at
Vakarel Vakarel ( bg, Вакарел) is a village, away from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.
Population: 1984 people. It is situated in the Sredna Gora mountains, within Ihtiman Municipality. The village is an important transport knot along the So ...
,
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Mac ...
.
BBC Radio Ulster's service from the transmitter on 1341 kHz ended on Thursday 6 May 2021 at 0930 UTC, as part of the BBC's programme of switching off their medium wave services around the UK.
__NOTOC__
Transmitted services
Analogue radio (AM medium wave)
See also
*
List of masts
The tallest structure in the world is the Burj Khalifa skyscraper at . Listed are guyed masts (such as telecommunication masts), self-supporting towers (such as the CN Tower), skyscrapers (such as the Willis Tower), oil platforms, electricity ...
*
List of towers
Several extant building fulfill the engineering definition of a tower: "a tall human structure, always taller than it is wide, for public or regular operational access by humans, but not for living in or office work, and are ''self-supporting ...
*
List of radio stations in the United Kingdom
This is a list of radio stations in the United Kingdom.
National analogue and digital (DAB) stations
This list does not include stations which broadcast on numerous local digital multiplexes or MW licences to achieve near-national coverage.
DAB ...
References
External links
Entry for Lisnagarvey transmitting station at The Transmission Gallery*
*
ttp://www.skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b47478 Entry at Skyscraperpage.com
Transmitter sites in Northern Ireland
Towers completed in 1936
1936 establishments in Northern Ireland
{{Europe-mast-stub