Specific Transmitter Sites

Click here to see an interactive map of UK Medium Wave Transmitters. This useful site was created by Mark Hattam.

Click here to see some very good photographs of Rampisham, Droitwich, Daventry, Kirk O'Shotts, Skelton and the Engineering Training Centre at Evesham.  The pictures are on the Flickr site established by Russell Barnes.

Transmitters in specific areas: South East, MF in South East.

Some BBC transmitter sites are of particular interest and further links are given below.

2LO (The BBC's first transmitter)

Video on 2LO

Vintage BBC Transmitters - 2LO and AP

The Emergence of Broadcasting in Britain

2LO circuit: full, mono.

Alexandra Palace (The BBC's first television transmitter)

Recent pictures and information about parts of the original transmitter

Technical description of the Marconi-E.M.I system of television

AP history, with some good recent pictures

Alexandra Palace Television Society
A Society to preserve, for present and future generations, the oral and written history of the pioneers who inaugurated the world's first, regular, public high-definition television service from Alexandra Palace, North London, in 1936. 

Alexandra Palace - Direct Television
Personal experiences of the early days of BBC Television from Alexandra Palace between 1952 and 1963.  In addition there are some experiences of Lime Grove and Riverside Studios in the mid-1950s. (A note about the regeneration of this website can be seen here.)

Vintage BBC Transmitters - 2LO and AP

Prospero article in 2011 about the launch of TV.

Prospero article in 2006 about AP.

The Story of BBC Television - Audio and Video.
A film on the BBC web site about the building of Alexandra Palace. (Link no longer working, but you might be able to find it somewhere!)

History of the BBC: Ally Pally (Link no longer working, but you might be able to find it somewhere!)

Ascension

Memories of Ascension - Phil Brooks and more Ascension pictures - David Dunmall

The story of when a BBC micro shut down power to an entire Island - Dave Parsons

Athlone

Athlone transmitting station (not BBC)
Pictures of early Marconi and Brown-Boveri transmitters that are still in their original RTE (Radio Telefis Eireann) building. All of the BBC transmitters of this vintage were scrapped and so this web site provides an interesting view of an equivalent installation.

Brookmans Park

"Home movie" from 1927 which includes work on Brookmans Park.

"Provisional Instructions - The London Regional Broadcast Transmitter" 1929.
"General Construction and Layout of Transmitter".
Blueprints of the London Regional Station.
(Contributed by Rod Viveash via John Liffen.)

"Useful data" about the 1929 transmitter system. Since it shows “T1” (one of the old Marconi regional tx’s) as being in use for the “Light Programme”, it must be from the 1950’s or early 60’s, before the installation of the new 50kW Marconi tx for the Light Prog / Radio One.

Brookmans Park - Pictures and Memories - Peter Gutteridge

Marconi B6034 MF Transmitters final shut-down at Brookmans Park Transmitting Station. (Link to a YouTube video)

Brookmans Park.
The London Twin-Wave Broadcasting Station,  A Descriptive BBC Souvenir 1930.

A History of Brookmans Park Transmitting Station
By Lilian Caras 1982 (revised January 2002)

A Brief History of Brookmans Park, with references up to 1992.

British Architecture Since the 1920s. A Building Study. Brookmans Park Transmitting Station, Hertfordshire. By Lilian Caras.

Hand written building steelwork calculations 1939 for Brookmans Park: A, B C, D.

Burghead

See MB21 for information.

A book still exists with details of all 259 members of staff who worked at Burghead between 1936 and 1988.  Contact for information.

Caribbean Relay Company

This site used to be operated by BBC Transmission.
Here is a link to a video that was taken before the station's HF operations ceased in 2005.

Crystal Palace

The New BBC TV Station at the Crystal Palace c1957.

Crystal Palace Transmitter Information Sheet.

The Phoenix Tower. A 1957 film about building the BBC Crystal Palace tower. (Youtube video in three parts.)

Pictures and descriptions of analogue television transmitting equipment at Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace history and significant dates up to 1991.

Cyprus

Article about the ATAC control system.  This system was installed when the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was responsible for the transmitting station.  This was shortly before BBC Transmission became responsible for its operation in about 1985.

IET lecture about the Broadcast Group of the Diplomatic Wireless Service, including Cyprus.

Daventry

Daventry 1925 - 1992 (A commemorative booklet).

Daventry Calling the World

Starting with the BBC in 1941 - Reminiscences about Daventry - Don Bowman

Daventry-Index
Click on Photo Tour to see an interesting history of Daventry transmitting station, with pictures.

5XX Transmitter Valves Return to Daventry - Rod Viveash

Miscellaneous pictures of technical facilities that were at Daventry

Hand written building steelwork calculations: A, B, C, D, E.

Article in Daventry Express newspaper about the closure of Daventry HF Tx station in 1991.

The Daventry museum includes items that were used at the transmitting station and a BBC built re-broadcast receiver made in 1928 to receive 5XX from Daventry (long wave).  It has the equipment code R5X/3/3.  The original long wave rebroadcast experiments were carried out when 5XX was at Chelmsford and this Wireless World article from 30th July 1924 gives some relevant information (page 152 of the PDF file).  If you can provide any more information about the R5X/3/3 please contact me.  Click on the pictures to see enlargements.

Pictures of Daventry.

Last HF broadcast from Daventry.  Speech by Chief Engineer, Bert Gallon. Speech by Stanley Unwin, a well known ex-employee.

Divis
Two videos: Television arrives in Northern Ireland (1954) and antenna replacement (1992).

Dover

Dover history.

Droitwich

Droitwich Calling - The Story of Droitwich Transmitting Station

Film of Droitwich transmitting station being constructed in 1934.

Local newspaper article about the Droitwich exhibition set up by John Phillips.

The Droitwich Transmitting Station.  A 1934 BBC booklet scanned and contributed to bbceng by Tony Smith.

Hand written calculations from 1934 for the engine bed at Droitwich.

Video about Droitwich: The Death Of The 1/2 Million Watt Transmitter. New: Nov 2024.

Emley Moor (ITA site)

Collapse of ITA Emley Moor mast on 19 March 1969 - James F Middlemiss

Galdenoch

A short history of Galdenoch Radio Station Lochnaw - Peter Linzey

Holme Moss

Holme Moss - How it was Built (Film from BBC archive)

Home Moss Open day - film

hm-recollect-prospero-2011.PDF

Kirk O'Shotts

An article in the Scotsman about the first TV show that was broadcast in Scotland (14th March 1952), including a picture taken in the Kirk O'Shotts television control room.

Lisnagarvey

Lisnagarvey and the Blaw-Knox mast - Aubrey McKibben

Masirah (BERS - British Eastern Relay Station)

A video illustrating the transmitting station and its environment - Russell W. Barnes (Link to a YouTube video)

More pictures on Facebook - David Platter

IET lecture about the Broadcast Group of the Diplomatic Wireless Service, including Masirah.

Meldrum

Pictures of Meldrum and staff.

Moorside Edge

Pictures of Moorside Edge New in Feb 2023

Rushton and Hornsby diesel engines that were installed at Moorside Edge.

Orfordness

Tribute to BBC 648 kHz Orfordness - The Enthusiast's Version by Jonathan Marks.

Detailed report on Orford Ness by English Heritage.  It refers to BBC involvement, as well as many other interesting activities.
The Conclusion, starting on page 57 (PDF page 61), provides a good overview of the report's contents.

Picture of large BBC transmitters looking small inside the Cobra Mist building c1990.

IET lecture about the Broadcast Group of the Diplomatic Wireless Service, including Orfordness.

O.S.E 5 Ottringham

(O.S.E. = Overseas Extension)

Hand written feeder line suspension calculations 1947

Rampisham

Rampisham HF transmitting station in 1961 (From BBC Spotlight archive)

Resplendent Rampisham
Report of a visit to this HF transmitting station. Short Wave Magazine. January 2004. (Not presently available)

Pictures of Rampisham in 1940.

Pictures of Rampisham in 2003.

Rowridge

Picture of staff and ex-staff at 40th Anniversary of Rowridge Start of Transmission. Picture contributed by Mark Ashworth.

Skelton

Skelton, Penrith and the World 1943 - 1993, by Ken Davies: see Books page.

An article published in the Cumberland & Westmoreland Herald on 3rd May 2013: 70 years of Skelton, once the voice of freedom in a world of turmoil …

Skelton Transmitting Station 1942 to 1998 - Over half a century of short wave broadcasting - G.P. Lowery

A video made by Russell Barnes during an evening shift at Skelton 'A' in 1995. The place has now changed completely. (Link to a YouTube video)

A video made by Russell Barnes of the CO2 being discharged in Sender 61, prior to stripping out. Russell writes that "This was the second S61: an ex-Daventry 'cast-off' BD272. The first was a Marconi SWB18 (original war-time set) and the one we have currently is a RIZ DRM / analogue transmitter. We still have a Sender 61!"

Bush House - Skelton Carrier Equipment

Skelton pictures.

Singapore

Pictures of the Far Eastern Relay Station at Kranji and links to more information  New in Sep 2023

Memories of Kranji on Singapore Island

Also, see Tebrau in the list below.

South East

se-tx-history.pdf

South West

MF-in south-west.pdf

Start Point

Start Point's special role following D Day - Stuart Frost

Sudbury

Brief Sudbury history.

Sutton Coldfield

Tales from  Cold Field by Ray Cooper
An excellent feature on the MB21 web site about this important transmitting station.

Wireless World article about the opening of Sutton Coldfield in January 1950.

Swingate

Swingate history.

Norman Marsden has pointed out an error in the above document, and added some interesting information.  He writes: "“TV programme feeds to Swingate... started with direct reception of Crystal Palace” - this is not strictly true as reception of Crystal Palace (Band 1) at Swingate was sub-standard and only used as a reserve. The main feed was from the Post Office Radio Station at Tolsford Hill near Folkestone where Crystal Palace was received off air on a RC4/501 receiver and the video and sound fed by co-ax cable and land line to Swingate. EiC Dover was responsible for maintaining the receiver and associated amplifiers, the lines were provided by the Post Office.

Interestingly the above receiving equipment at Tolsford Hill was in a room leased by the BBC for the Eurovision link and it contained three early optical standards converters which were basically a Marconi TV camera pointing at a high quality picture monitor enabling the 405 line UK standard to be sent across to Europe in 625 or 819 line format with a similar setup to convert the incoming 625/819 line picture from Europe to 405 line UK standard - state of the art in 1963!"

Tebrau

Picture of BBC gathering on 8th January 2014.

Article about BBC gathering on 8th January 2014.

Picture of Tebrau staff in 1970.

Washford

Picture of staff in 1970.

Wenvoe
Video of the open day in 1965.

Picture of engineers involved in the re-engineering of Wenvoe. (Who gave me this picture!?)
 

Westerglen

Here are some links to a series of aerial photographs of Westerglen in 1942: a, b, c.

Hand written calculations and memos from 1947 regarding Washford and Westerglen.

Woofferton

Click here to request further information about these Woofferton documents written by Jeff Cant: The Early Days, Chronology and Staff List. New in Dec 2023

Happy Birthday Ozzie 10 - Bert Gallon New in Dec 2023

Woofferton@80 New in Oct 2023

Historic Woofferton Boasts a Modern Twist.

A Guide to powering RCA 50 S/W senders at OSE10.

Woofferton UK - an excellent set of videos on YouTube in which David Porter provides guided tours of the transmitting station..

Fifty years of transmitting at BBC Woofferton - Jeff Cant. (75 page, 7MB PDF file)

Life at Woofferton 1961 - 1995 - Eileen Briggs

Woofferton: Ancient and Modern - Richard Buckby

A visit to Woofferton -  Two articles resulting from a visit arranged and hosted by David Porter:

Wonderful Woofferton - Celebrating 60 years on air in October 2003, this article from Short Wave Magazine (now Radio User) provides a good description and includes many interesting pictures. See also: Diamond Jubilee below.

Wonderful Woofferton - 60 Years Old
Report of a visit to this HF transmitting station. Short Wave Magazine. September 2003. (Link no longer available)

Diamond Jubilee - This article from Practical Wireless magazine is based on a visit by the editor Rob Mannion together with Kevin Nice the editor of SWM (see above).  The two articles inevitably have much in common, but Diamond Jubilee has more on the history of the station, whereas Wonderful Woofferton has more on the technology.  Permission to reproduce the articles in BBCeng is gratefully acknowledged.

Stormy Weather! - Phil Brooks

Woofferton control system 1980.

Woofferton pictures.

Writtle (forerunner of BBC transmitters)

2MT Writtle: the birth of British broadcasting.

A good book describing events leading up to the start of the BBC, with particular emphasis on transmitters and characters such as P.P.Eckersley. author: WANDER T R   publisher: Capella  year: 1988   isbn: 0-946443-10-6

Two Emma Toch - Writtle
A play made for hospital radio which depicts some of the events leading up to the formation of the BBC.  The main character is Peter Eckersley who later became the BBC's first Chief Engineer.  This very entertaining play recreates the atmosphere in the famous hut where broadcasting pioneers built up an enthusiastic audience during 1922.  Written by Tim Wander and Dennis Rookard, the play is based on the book "2MT Writtle: The Birth of British broadcasting" (see details above). 

Wrotham

Wrotham aerial system 1951 and Wrotham history up to 1989.