Black Mountain transmitting station


The Black Mountain transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility, situated on land above Ordnance Datum to the west of the city of Belfast, in Northern Ireland. It includes a guyed steel lattice mast which is in height. The height of the top of the structure above mean sea level is. It is owned and operated by Arqiva.

History

For high power transmissions of Cool FM, and formerly analogue Channel 5, coverage includes most of central and eastern Ulster, north as far as Ballymena, south as far as Downpatrick and Newry, and west past Dungannon and Cookstown.
Radio stations Q Radio and U105 have a more restricted coverage area, including areas around Greater Belfast, up to Carrickfergus, Antrim, and the shore of Lough Neagh.
With the exception of the NIMM broadcasts, the low power digital TV transmissions are designed only to cover areas of Belfast not already covered by Divis.

Service availability by frequency

Analogue radio

Digital radio

Analogue television

31 October 1959 – 8 August 1975

8 August 1975 – 2 November 1982

2 November 1982 – 3 January 1985

3 January 1985 – 30 March 1997

30 March 1997 – 10 October 2012

Analogue and digital television

10 October 2012 – 24 October 2012

Digital television

24 October 2012 – present

Digital television replaced the old analogue signals during October 2012. An additional multiplex named NImux including TG4, RTÉ One, RTÉ Two and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta launched at switchover here and at two other transmitters in Northern Ireland. In September 2019 further frequency changes took place.
FrequencyUHFkWOperating NameSystem
33 3NImuxDVB-T2
44 0.005Digital 3&4DVB-T
41 0.005BBC ADVB-T
47 0.005BBC BDVB-T2