Grid reference TM131958 BBC region BBC East Local TV service Mustard TV | Built 1954, 1956 ITV region ITV Anglia | |
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Location Wymondham Road, Tacolneston, Norfolk | ||
The Tacolneston transmitting station is a facility for both analogue and digital VHF/FM radio and UHF television transmission near Tacolneston, 11 miles (18 km) south-west of Norwich, Norfolk, England.
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It includes a 149.0 metres (489 ft) tall guyed steel lattice mast, which was built in 1956 (completed in late September/early October that year). On top of the mast is located the UHF television transmitting antenna, which brings the overall height of the structure to 165.0 metres (541 ft).
The station's original mast, built from early 1954, was 61 metres (200 ft) tall and first broadcast television transmissions, albeit temporarily, from February 1955. VHF (FM) radio broadcasts began on a test basis from December 22 1956, in order to allow East Anglia to receive programmes on VHF over the Christmas period. The BBC Light Programme was not available during this test phase, and there were warnings that the service would occasionally be interrupted for engineering reasons. The station began broadcasting regular programmes from Norwich purely for East Anglian audiences on the Midlands Home Service from Tuesday 5 February 1957, and the transmitter went to full power for VHF from 6.35pm on Tuesday 30 April 1957.
The transmission site is located at 52° 31' 3.9" North, 1° 8' 19.3" East (National Grid Reference: TM131958). In July 1989, it was reported that the transmitting station cost almost £500,000 a year to run.
The current mast has an average height of 221 metres above sea level. It is now owned and operated by Arqiva, but was owned by the BBC before they privatised their transmission department prior to 1997.
Arqiva (formerly National Grid Wireless) announced, on 6 August 2007, that they plan to replace the current 165 metres (541 ft) mast with a new 206.1 metres (676 ft) mast in order to ensure good digital TV reception across East Anglia after digital switchover, which took place in the area in November 2011. Arqiva also plan to replace the original transmitter hall at this site as it has now reached the end of its useful life. Work has been completed on the new structure, and for the moment there will be three structures (two masts and a lattice tower) on the site. The old 165m mast is expected to start being dismantled in 2013.
Digital television
Digital transmissions became at least ten times stronger in power after the digital switchover, and their frequencies were reorganised.
From April 2014, two extra HD muxes are being broadcast on UHF 31 and UHF 37, along with a local TV service (Mustard TV) using an interleaved frequency on UHF 57 (QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mbit/s).
In May 2013, BBC B will move from UHF 62- to UHF 50, and Arqiva B from UHF 50 to UHF 39-.
Analogue television
Tacolneston switched to digital-only television transmissions in November 2011; analogue BBC Two transmissions ceased on 9 November, and two weeks later, on 23 November 2011, the other four analogue channels ceased analogue transmissions.