Belmont

Then the tallest structure in the UK, seen in November 2007
Belmont transmitting station (Lincolnshire)
Mast height	1,154 feet (351.7 m)
Coordinates	53°20′09″N 0°10′19″W / 53.335861°N 0.172°W / 53.335861; -0.172
Grid reference	TF217837
Built	1965 (height increased in 1967)
BBC region	BBC Yorkshire (1965–2004) BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire (2004–present)
ITV region	Anglia Television (1965–74) ITV Yorkshire (1974–present)
Local TV service	That’s Humber That's Lincolnshire

The Belmont transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility next to the B1225, 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the village of Donington on Bain in the civil parish of South Willingham, near Market Rasen and Louth in Lincolnshire, England (grid reference TF217837). It is owned and operated by Arqiva.

It has a guyed tubular steel mast, with a lattice upper section. The mast was shortened in April 2010 and is now 1,154 feet (351.7 m) in height.^[1][2] Before this it was 1,272 feet (387.7 m) high and was considered to be the tallest structure of its kind in the world (taller masts, such as the KVLY-TV mast in the United States, use steel lattice construction), and the tallest structure of any type in the United Kingdom. After the top section was removed, the mast's reduced height relegated it to the second-highest in the UK after Skelton in Cumbria.

Despite the mast being shortened it can be seen in daylight on clear days from most areas close to and within the Lincolnshire Wolds. On clear nights its bright red aircraft warning lights can be very widely seen across much of Lincolnshire from as far north as the Humber estuary and Barton-Upon-Humber; from the west of the county it can be seen from Lincoln, Gainsborough and Grantham; from the south of the county it can be seen from Spalding and Bourne; and from the east it can be seen from Skegness, Mablethorpe and most areas along the Lincolnshire coast. The lights can also be seen from many parts of Nottinghamshire, coastal areas of North West Norfolk and a few parts of Derbyshire on very clear nights.

Construction

The foundations were laid on 30 June 1964.^[3]

The mast was constructed in 1965 and it came into service on 20 December of that year. As built it was a tubular pipe 900 feet (274.3 m) long by 9 feet (2.7 m) in diameter, surmounted by a 365 feet (111.3 m) lattice upper section (an identical mast was constructed in 1964 at Emley Moor near Huddersfield in Yorkshire, but the other mast collapsed due to guy failure caused by icing and high winds on 19 March 1969). Its ropes weigh 85 tons, made by British Ropes, with steel from Steel, Peech and Tozer of Templeborough in South Yorkshire. The column weighs 210 tons and has 375 segments, with steel from United Steel Companies at Scunthorpe in northern Lincolnshire.^[4]

In September 1967, meteorological equipment was added to the 1,265 feet (385.6 m) mast extending its height to 1,272 feet (387.7 m). The imperial measurement was the accepted value quoted by publications including the 1993 edition of the Guinness Book of Records.^[5] The metric measurement quoted by the current owners is 0.2 m (8 in) shorter.

Between October 2009 and April 2010, the mast was shortened as part of the Digital Switchover works. Most of the top section above the fifth stay level was removed (along with the sixth stay level) and the mast now stands 1,154 feet (351.7 m) high.

Coverage

From its location, high in the Lincolnshire Wolds, it broadcasts digital television and both analogue and digital radio to Lincolnshire, eastern Yorkshire, northern parts of Norfolk and some eastern parts of Nottinghamshire. This includes the cities of Hull and Lincoln. When it was first operated it transmitted (amongst others) ITV station Anglia Television. Following a re-organisation of ITV coverage in 1972, from 1974 it started transmitting neighbouring station Yorkshire Television instead, which it continues to do to this day.

Transmitter power

In the analogue era Belmont, at 500 kW E.R.P. for the four main analogue television channels, was one of the most powerful transmitters in the UK, though there were four UK transmitters which were more powerful; Sutton Coldfield, Crystal Palace and Sandy Heath were all at 1000 kW and Emley Moor was 870 kW. After digital switchover Belmont's digital transmitting power was 50 kW for SDN (previously Mux A), 100 kW for Arqiva A & B (Mux C, D) and 150 kW for BBC A, D3&4 and BBC B (Mux 1, 2, B).

700MHz clearance

On 4 March 2020, Belmont was due to complete its 700MHz clearance and will become an A group transmitter, excluding the temporary MUXES 7 and 8 (see graph). Since Belmont started out as an A group for (just) analogue it returns to that band after being a wideband for 21 years. Technically the advent of C5 analogue complicated the issue for a few months prior to (dual) running digital transmissions started in 1998.

Services listed by frequency

Analogue television

20 December 1965 – 19 November 1966

First transmissions from the site: ITV's 405-line television service was fed by off-air reception of Mendlesham at Great Massingham in Norfolk, with an onward microwave link to Belmont via an intermediate point at Winceby in Lincolnshire.

19 November 1966 – 24 May 1971

The BBC's services came online on both VHF and UHF. BBC1 was initially fed by means of an off-air rebroadcast of Holme Moss but this was plagued by co-channel interference from the continent. BBC2 was an off-air rebroadcast from Emley Moor.^[6] On 19 March 1969, the Emley Moor mast collapsed, taking Belmont's BBC2 transmissions off-air for several days.^[7]

Despite the programme sources on VHF and UHF being (for many years) off-air rebroadcasts of other transmitters in the vicinity, Belmont was always regarded by the BBC as being a "main station" both on VHF and UHF. The IBA initially regarded it as a relay of Mendlesham (and numbered it 14.2 in their numbering of VHF stations) but from 1974 it became a "main station" for Yorkshire Television (renumbered as 20.0 in the IBA's numbering of VHF stations)^[8] after changes in the minor franchise areas.

It was always number 120.0 in the BBC/IBA numbering scheme for UHF stations^[9]).

24 May 1971 – 30 July 1974

ITV's UHF service began.^[10]

30 July 1974 – 2 November 1982

After changes to the regional structure of ITV in 1972, Belmont stopped being a relay of Mendlesham and became a main station for Yorkshire TV.^[7] It was fed by a Post Office (later BT) microwave link from Leeds, allowing Yorkshire TV to supply Belmont with a separate 7-minute segment of their regional news magazine programme "Calendar", a Belmont titled version of Anglia's weather forecast, as well as having the ability to sell advertising separately in the Belmont and Emley Moor areas. The microwave link from Leeds to Belmont apparently ran via Emley Moor, where the IBA could insert test transmissions, such as Test Card "F"

2 November 1982 – 30 March 1997

Both the BBC and ITV 405-line VHF TV services from Belmont were discontinued early^[11] in mid-1982, and when Channel 4 began formal transmissions in November that year it was radiated on UHF from the site:

30 March 1997 – 15 November 1998

Belmont started transmitting the UK's final terrestrial analogue UHF TV service: Channel 5. This was done well out-of-band and at reduced power compared with the main group.

Analogue and digital television

15 November 1998 – 3 August 2011

Belmont began transmitting digital TV, with the new digital multiplexes spaced far from the existing analogue channels. In July 2007 it was confirmed by Ofcom that Belmont would be remaining a wideband transmitter after digital switchover.