Angus transmitting station

The Angus transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated approximately five miles due north of Dundee, between the villages of Charleston and Tealing, Scotland (grid reference NO394407). It includes a guyed steel lattice mast which is 229.5 metres (753 ft) in height. Mounted at the top are the UHF television antennas, contained within a GRP shroud. These antennas have an average height above Ordnance Datum of 547 metres (1,795 ft). It is owned and operated by Arqiva.

It was constructed in 1965 by the ITA, having been chosen as a suitable site for high power colour UHF transmissions.

The construction contract was given to J. L. Eve Construction in April 1963, to be built at Harecairn by early 1964, for the Tayside area, but not Dundee, which had a separate relay station.

The relay station was built by Laird Brothers, of Forfar, to open in the summer of 1964.

The site would open in October 1965, with ITV on Channel 11. It was built at Balcalk Hill.

The first broadcasts began on VHF channel 11 in black and white, from 13 October 1965 A new television production site in Dundee, was to be later built.

Trade testing of BBC2 in colour began on Monday 14 July 1969, to go into full service on Monday 28 July 1969 on channel 68.

BBC1 in colour began from Saturday 2 October 1971, for 300,000 viewers, six months early.

In May 1972, the ITA announced that ITV would broadcast in colour from September 1972. ITV would go colour from Saturday 30 September 1972.

It covers parts of the Dundee City council area, eastern Perth and Kinross, southern Angus and north and east Fife. Reception is also possible in much of north and east Edinburgh and the coastal areas of East Lothian, as far along as the town of Dunbar.

• Tay Bridge transmitting station (56°26′41″N 2°55′30″W / 56.4447°N 2.925°W / 56.4447; -2.925), which is owned and operated by Arqiva.

† Mixed polarisation.

Digital terrestrial television was first transmitted from the Angus mast from 15 November 1998 using the frequency gaps between the analogue TV broadcasts. To limit interference to the analogue transmissions, power output on the digital multiplexes was low.

On 4 August 2010, BBC2 was switched off on UHF 63 and STV was switched from UHF 60 for its final weeks of service. Multiplex 1 on UHF 68 was closed and replaced by BBC A on UHF 60 (which had just been vacated by analogue STV). BBC A was transmitted at full power (20 kW) and in 64QAM, 8k carriers mode from the start.

Following the completion of analogue TV shutdown on 18 August 2010, Angus transmitted all of its higher powered multiplexes at 20 kW for PSB 1, 2 and 3, and 10 kW for COM 4, 5 and 6. From this date the frequency allocation was:

Due to the clearance of the 800 MHz band, Arqiva B was moved from UHF 61 to UHF 49 and BBC A gained a negative offset. Also during this time, COM 7 and 8 and the Local TV multiplex launched.

Due to the clearance of the 700 MHz band, the following channels come into use:

Due to the clearance of UHF 56 (COM8), in the 700 MHz band, the following channels come into use:

• List of masts
• List of tallest buildings and structures in Great Britain
• List of radio stations in the United Kingdom

• Photographs and information at The Transmission Gallery
• Angus Transmitter at thebigtower
• Tay Bridge at The Transmission Gallery at the Wayback Machine (archived 2021-10-23)