Скачать или смотреть Mendip TV Mast, Somerset | UK's Eighth Highest Transmitter Output 1997

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The Mendip Transmitter is the main TV station for the West of England, located near the City of Wells covering the counties of Avon, Somerset, South Gloucestershire, West Wiltshire and North Dorset.

Built for colour TV, Mendip's first transmissions were due in 1967 but were delayed because of planning issues. BBC2 colour starting in Dec 1969 followed by BBC1 and HTV May 1970. However, much of the West of England is also covered by the Wenvoe transmitter in South Wales that started to broadcast BBC2 colour from September 1967.

Local authorities requested the Mendip mast was painted white as shown in this video from 1997. The rule was relaxed around 2012 and the paint slowly peeled away to reveal the grey colour of the metal tubular structure.

I recall my primary school TV was a dual standards set with a complicated set of cables and aerials to receive BBC2 on UHF and BBC1 & ITV on VHF which the headmaster struggled with!

During 1990, the original transmitters were replaced and Mendip became one of the first to broadcast NICAM Stereo in the UK. The new equipment took up less space and in the following years the kit for Channel 5 was absorbed within the existing ground buildings.

Background Info
The Mendip television transmitter is situated 18 miles South of Bristol. It is a "guyed mast" structure (309m in height) and is identical to Waltham and Bilsdale. It was built in 1967 by British Insulated Callender`s Cables (or B.I.C.C) who were responsible for much of the infrastructure built in this country from 1945 up to the 1980s. The company is still going but now called Balfour Beatty. The mast is a tubular structure to the top and has an internal lift, though this is thought to be out of use following an accident at Belmont.

The Mendip transmitter was originally owned by the BBC before being sold off to Crown Castle then to National Grid Wireless and finally to Arquiva.

Mendip is a powerful transmitter, it has the joint eighth highest output in the country but it still needs fifty four smaller repeaters to improve its coverage in areas of poor reception due to the hilly terrain in its coverage area.

Mendip transmitter is horizontally polarised. It was originally (for analogue, then, initially, for digital) a C/D group. When MUXES 7 & 8 came along it went E group (or wideband). Eventually, in 2019, it`ll end up a K group (excl MXES 7 & 8, though they will be turned off by about 2022).

OVERLAP COVERAGE
Signals from Mendip also cross the Bristol Channel into parts of South Wales, overlapping with coverage from the Wenvoe transmitter. Conversely some lower-lying areas close to Mendip, where the signals effectively 'pass-over', receive better reception from Wenvoe or Stockland Hill.

BBC NATIONAL RADIO (FM)
There is no BBC National FM service from Mendip as the West of England is served principally by transmissions from Wenvoe.

Previous to the Mendip mast, television programmes for the West country was a mix of English and Welsh sharing the same 405 line transmitters & relays. With many relays required, during the transition from 405 to 625-lines, most West Country and South Wales homes continued to receive television pictures from the single transmitter in Glamorgan.

The Mendip TV mast provides the West Country with it's own TV service.

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