Stockland Hill transmitting station


The Stockland Hill transmitting station is a transmitting facility of FM Radio and UHF television located near Honiton, Devon, England. This transmitter mainly serves the East of Devon and West Dorset.
It was constructed in 1961 by the IBA to transmit ITV 405-line television with transmissions commencing on Band III channel 9 from antennas at above sea level.
Colour television came to the site in 1971. Channel Four started up in November 1982. Stockland Hill never radiated the analogue Channel Five service.
Digital television was first introduced at this site in 1998, and Digital Switchover happened in May 2009. Stockland Hill was the second transmitter in the south west of England to have its analogue television transmissions shut off. BBC Two was switched off on 6 May 2009 and the rest of the analogue services were switched off on 20 May 2009 around after midnight.
Stockland Hill currently transmits all of the DTT multiplexes at full planned ERP. The three PSB multiplexes are at 50 kW, the other three multiplexes are at 25 kW.

Services

Analogue television

29 April 1961 – 13 September 1971

405-line VHF ITV television arrived in the southwest with the simultaneous building of this station and Caradon Hill 60 miles to the west in Cornwall.
FrequencyVHFkWService
9V100Westward Television

13 September 1971 – 1 November 1982

UHF colour television commenced.
FrequencyVHFUHFkWService
9V—100Westward Television/TSW
—23250Westward Television/TSW
—26250BBC Two
—33250BBC One

1 November 1982 – 3 January 1985

The UK's fourth UHF television channel started up.
FrequencyVHFUHFkWService
9V—100TSW
—23250TSW
—26250BBC Two
—29250Channel 4
—33250BBC One

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 Stockland Hill was the originally-intended four channels on UHF only.
FrequencyUHFkWService
23250Westcountry Television
26250BBC Two
29250Channel 4
33250BBC One

Analogue and Digital television

15 November 1998 – 6 May 2009

The initial roll-out of digital television involved running the digital services interleaved with the existing analogue services.
FrequencyUHFkWServiceSystem
22-5BBC DVB-T
23250ITV1PAL
25-5SDN DVB-T
26250BBC TwoPAL
28-5Digital 3&4 DVB-T
29250Channel 4PAL
30+2.5Arqiva DVB-T
32-5BBC DVB-T
33250BBC OnePAL
34+2.5Arqiva DVB-T

6 May 2009 – 20 May 2009

commenced at Stockland Hill, with analogue BBC Two being switched off on channel 26 and BBC Mux 1 being switched off on channel 22-. Channel 26 was reused by the new BBC A multiplex at full post-DSO power and using 64-QAM with 8k carriers.
FrequencyUHFkWServiceSystem
23250ITV1PAL
25-5SDN DVB-T
26+50BBC ADVB-T
28-5Digital 3&4 DVB-T
29250Channel 4PAL
30+2.5Arqiva DVB-T
32-5BBC DVB-T
33250BBC OnePAL
34+2.5Arqiva DVB-T

Digital television

20 May 2009 – 18 April 2012

Digital switchover was completed at Stockland Hill. All analogue television was switched off and the new post-DSO multiplexes took over the analogue frequencies plus a few new ones. Full power could not immediately be achieved for the COM multiplexes due to interference issues at Rowridge and in France.
FrequencyUHFkWOperatorSystem
22-10Arqiva ADVB-T
23+50Digital 3&4DVB-T
25-10SDNDVB-T
26+50BBC ADVB-T
28-10Arqiva BDVB-T
29+50BBC BDVB-T2

18 April 2012 - present

The current UHF channels that Stockland Hill is transmitting are:
FrequencyUHFkWOperatorSystem
22-25Arqiva ADVB-T
23+50Digital 3&4DVB-T
25-25SDNDVB-T
26+50BBC ADVB-T
28-25Arqiva BDVB-T
29+50BBC BDVB-T2

Analogue radio (FM)

Digital radio (DAB)