The Lichfield transmitting station is situated close to Tamworth

Tamworth

Tamworth is a town and local government district in Staffordshire, England, located north-east of Birmingham city centre and north-west of London. The town takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through the town, as does the River Anker...

 in Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

 in the West Midlands

West Midlands (region)

The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...

 between the A5 and A51. The nearest geographical feature is Hopwas Hill. The station is owned and operated by Arqiva

Arqiva

Arqiva is a telecommunications company which provides infrastructure and broadcast transmission facilities in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The present company, with headquarters located at Crawley Court in the village of Crawley, Hampshire, was formed by National Grid Wireless...

. The mast is known locally as Hopwas mast or Hints mast.

History

The transmitter was the main 405-line

405-line

The 405-line monochrome analogue television broadcasting system was the first fully electronic television system to be used in regular broadcasting....

 ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 transmitter for the Midlands from 1956 until 1985. It includes a 305.2 metres (1,001 ft) tall guyed mast

Radio masts and towers

Radio masts and towers are, typically, tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. They are among the tallest man-made structures...

 and was built in 1961. The original mast looked akin to the Eifel tower and was dismatled in 1965.

625-line colour transmitters for the region were all co-sited at the nearby Sutton Coldfield transmitting station until 1997, when Lichfield began broadcasting Channel 5 in the Midlands. At 1000 kW it was the most powerful Channel 5 transmitter in the country. Before the digital switchover, lichfield effectively worked in conjunction with Sutton Coldfield (4 miles to the SW) to supply the full five analogue channels. Reception of Channel 5 from Lichfield was also receivable at viewable quality throughout the borders of North Wales

North Wales

North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...

.

All analogue TV transmissions ceased on the 21st September 2011, as part of the Digital switchover. The HD multiplex BBC B (Mux HD) was moved to the Sutton Coldfield transmitter on C40+ (626.2MHz) thereby ceasing all television broadcasts from the Lichfield transmitter (Analogue and Digital).

Television services and digital switchover

Since the digital switchover on 21st September 2011, no television services are broadcast from the Lichfield transmitter.

There are no current plans to carry any television services and all services are now broadcast from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter.

Analogue radio (FM

Frequency modulation

In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...

 VHF)

Frequency	kW	Service
101.6 MHz	0.06	Touch FM Touch FM (Burton, Lichfield and Tamworth) Touch Radio launched 1200 BST on Saturday April 29 2006. It replaced Centre FM as the radio station broadcasting to South East Staffordshire on 101.6 MHz FM from Lichfield and 102.4 MHz FM from Burton. Between 2006 and 2008, the station was known as Touch FM...

Digital radio (DAB

Digital audio broadcasting

Digital Audio Broadcasting is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, used in several countries, particularly in Europe. As of 2006, approximately 1,000 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format....

)

Frequency	Block	kW	Operator
220.35 MHz	11C	0.5	CE Birmingham CE Birmingham CE Birmingham is a DAB digital radio broadcast multiplex covering the city of Birmingham and surrounding areas in central England. It is operated by CE Digital, a DAB multiplex operator jointly owned by Global Radio and Bauer Radio...

Analogue television

Analogue television is no longer broadcast from Lichfield as of 21 September 2011.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Service
599.25 MHz	37	1000	Channel 5

Digital television

Digital television is no longer broadcast from Lichfield as of 21 September 2011.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Operator
578.0 MHz	34	4	BBC BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...  B (Mux HD)

See also

• List of masts
• List of tallest buildings and structures in Great Britain
• List of radio stations in the United Kingdom

External links

• The Transmission Gallery: photographs, coverage maps and information
• Bob Cotton's Lichfield Memories
• http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b61327
• Lichfield Transmitter at thebigtower.com