A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a

phased array In antenna theory, a phased array usually means an electronically scanned array, a computer-controlled array of antennas which creates a beam of radio waves that can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving t ...

. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

s. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower arrays are used to constitute a directional antenna of a

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 ...

or longwave

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

. The number of towers in a tower array can vary. In many arrays all towers have the same height, but there are also arrays of towers of different height. The arrangement can vary. For directional antennas with fixed

radiation pattern In the field of antenna design the term radiation pattern (or antenna pattern or far-field pattern) refers to the ''directional'' (angular) dependence of the strength of the radio waves from the antenna or other source.Constantine A. Balanis: � ...

, linear arrangements are preferred, while for switchable directional patterns (usually for daytime groundwave versus nighttime skywave), square arrangements are chosen.

Examples

Tower arrays with guyed masts

* Longwave transmitter Europe 1 *

Transmitter Weisskirchen In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

* Beidweiler Longwave Transmitter *

Transmitter Wachenbrunn The Wachenbrunn transmitter was a large broadcasting facility for medium wave in Wachenbrunn near Themar, Thuringia, Germany, established in the 1950s. Until 1993 the main transmitter of this facility, the medium wave transmitter for 882 kHz ...

* Transmitter Ismaning (VoA-Station)

Tower arrays with free standing towers

* Junglinster Longwave Transmitter *

Orfordness transmitting station The Orfordness transmitting station was a major radio broadcasting facility at Orford Ness on the Suffolk coast in the United Kingdom able to broadcast to much of Europe. It closed in May 2012 after more than 30 years of service. In 2017 Radio C ...

References

Broadcast engineering Telecommunications equipment Telecommunications infrastructure Communication towers Radio frequency antenna types Antennas (radio) {{Mast-stub

Examples

Tower arrays with guyed masts

Tower arrays with free standing towers

See also

References