Peterborough Transmitter
Encyclopedia
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
and telecommunications facility at Morborne
Morborne
Morborne – in Huntingdonshire , England – is a village west of Yaxley.Morborne is a very small village occupying 1205 acres, of which most is arable farmland. The population in 1991 was 43, down from a peak of 122 people in 1851...
Hill, near Peterborough
Peterborough
Peterborough is a cathedral city and unitary authority area in the East of England, with an estimated population of in June 2007. For ceremonial purposes it is in the county of Cambridgeshire. Situated north of London, the city stands on the River Nene which flows into the North Sea...
, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, .
There are two tall structures on adjacent sites: a guyed steel lattice mast belonging to 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...
, and a reinforced concrete tower belonging to BT. These sites are known by their owners as 'Peterborough' and 'Morborne Hill' respectively.
Arqiva mast
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
but carries many other services.
Originally, this mast was built for broadcasting television on VHF Band I
Band I
Band I is the name of a radio frequency range within the very high frequency part of the electromagnetic spectrum.Band I ranges from 47 to 88 MHz, and it is primarily used for radio and television broadcasting....
.
On October 30, 2004, this mast was destroyed by fire. It collapsed, seriously damaging the transmitter building at the base. Services were temporarily restored by transferring them to the adjacent BT tower and two temporary masts, including the 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...
emergency mast which was put in use for the first time. A new replacement mast has now been built and is in full service.
Analogue radio
| Frequency | kW | Service |
|---|---|---|
| 90.1 MHz | 40 | BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres... |
| 92.3 MHz | 40 | BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation... |
| 94.5 MHz | 40 | BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the... |
| 95.7 MHz | 5.1 | BBC Radio Cambridgeshire BBC Radio Cambridgeshire BBC Radio Cambridgeshire is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Cambridgeshire. It originally broadcast from studios on Hills Road close to the train station in Cambridge - which have now moved to a new multi-million pound centre at the Cambridge Business Park on Cowley Road - ... |
| 99.7 MHz | 40 | BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock... |
| 101.9 MHz | 40 | Classic FM Classic FM (UK) Classic FM, one of the United Kingdom's three Independent National Radio stations, broadcasts classical music in a popular and accessible style.-Overview:... |
Digital radio
| Frequency | Block | kW | Operator |
|---|---|---|---|
| 221.352 MHz | 11D | 5 | Digital One Digital One Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. , the multiplex covers more than 90% of the populationfrom a total of 137 transmitters... |
| 225.648 MHz | 12B | 10 | BBC National DAB |
| 229.072 MHz | 12D | 4 | NOW Peterborough NOW Peterborough NOW Peterborough is a local commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, which serves Peterborough and the surrounding area. NOW Peterborough is transmitted on frequency block 12D 229.072 MHz from trasmitters at Huntingdon , Peterborough and Stamford. It launched in November 2002... |
BT concrete tower
The adjacent tower is one of twelve reinforced concrete towers owned by BTBT Tower (disambiguation)
BT Group owns at least 200 radio masts and towers in Britain. Of these, twelve are reinforced concrete towers. The rest are of steel lattice construction....
in the UK. It is used mainly for point-to-point microwave links and forms part of BT's national telecommunications network. It was not damaged by the collapse of the Arqiva mast.
See also
- British Telecom microwave networkBritish Telecom microwave networkThe British Telecom microwave network was a network of point-to-point microwave radio links in the United Kingdom, operated at first by the General Post Office, and subsequently by its successor BT plc...
- BT Tower (disambiguation)BT Tower (disambiguation)BT Group owns at least 200 radio masts and towers in Britain. Of these, twelve are reinforced concrete towers. The rest are of steel lattice construction....
- Communications in the United Kingdom
- List of masts
- List of radio stations in the United Kingdom
- List of tallest buildings and structures in Great Britain
- List of towers
- Radio masts and towersRadio masts and towersRadio 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...
- Radio masts and towers - catastrophic collapses