Rosemarkie transmitting station


The Rosemarkie transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated close to the town of Rosemarkie, Scotland, in Highland. It consists of a high guyed steel lattice mast erected on land that is itself about 210 m above sea level only a few hundred metres from the coast of the Moray Firth. It is owned and operated by Arqiva.

Coverage

includes the areas around the Moray Firth, in the Highland region of Scotland, including up to Helmsdale in the north, Elgin to the east, Dingwall to the west and the northern shores of Loch Ness to the south. This also includes the city of Inverness.

History

The station was built in 1957 by the BBC to bring BBC Television to North East Scotland for the first time. The 405-line monochrome transmissions were on channel 2, Band I VHF.
When colour UHF television began in 1970, the site was chosen over the nearby IBA owned station at Mounteagle to carry these broadcasts. Both the UHF and VHF services continued in tandem until 1985, when VHF television was discontinued in the UK.

Channels listed by frequency

Digital television

20 October 2010 – present

Digital switchover was completed at Rosemarkie. All analogue television was switched off and the new post-DSO multiplexes took over the analogue frequencies plus a few new ones.
FrequencyUHFkWOperator
3920Digital 3&4
4010Arqiva B
4220BBC B
4310SDN
4520BBC A
4610Arqiva A

Analogue radio (FM)

Former Services

Analogue television

16 August 1957 – 11 July 1970

405-line BBC television arrived in the northeast of Scotland.
FrequencyVHFkWService
2H20BBC1 Scotland

11 July 1970 – October 1973

BBC Two UHF colour television commenced.
FrequencyVHFUHFkWService
2H—20BBC1 Scotland
—45100BBC2 Scotland

October 1973 – 1 November 1982

BBC One and ITV UHF colour television commenced.
FrequencyVHFUHFkWService
2H—20BBC1 Scotland
—39100BBC1 Scotland
—45100BBC2 Scotland
—49100Grampian Television

2 November 1982 – 3 January 1985

The UK's fourth UHF television channel started up.
FrequencyVHFUHFkWService
2H—20BBC1 Scotland
—39100BBC1 Scotland
—42100Channel 4
—45100BBC2 Scotland
—49100Grampian Television

3 January 1985 – 15 November 1998

The VHF 405-line system was discontinued across the UK, and from that point for the next 23 years, television from Rosemarkie was the originally-intended four channels on UHF only.
FrequencyUHFkWService
39100BBC1 Scotland
42100Channel 4
45100BBC2 Scotland
49100Grampian Television

Analogue and Digital television

15 November 1998 – 6 October 2010

The initial roll-out of digital television involved running the digital services interleaved with the existing analogue services.
FrequencyUHFkWServiceSystem
39100BBC One ScotlandPAL
41-10SDN DVB-T
42100Channel 4PAL
44-10BBC DVB-T
45100BBC Two ScotlandPAL
46+8Arqiva DVB-T
47+10BBC DVB-T
49100STV PAL
50+8Arqiva DVB-T
51+10Digital 3&4 DVB-T

6 October 2010 – 20 October 2010

commenced at Rosemarkie, with analogue BBC Two being switched off on channel 45 and BBC Mux 1 being switched off on channel 47+. Channel 45 was reused by the new BBC A multiplex at full post-DSO power and using 64-QAM with 8k carriers.
FrequencyUHFkWServiceSystem
39100BBC One ScotlandPAL
41-10SDN DVB-T
42100Channel 4PAL
44-10BBC DVB-T
4520BBC ADVB-T
46+8Arqiva DVB-T
49100STVPAL
50+8Arqiva DVB-T
51+10Digital 3&4 DVB-T