Brougher Mountain transmitting station is a major transmitting station in Northern Ireland. It is located between County Tyrone and County Fermanagh, on top of a high hill called Brougher Mountain. Despite being located in County Tyrone it is sometimes referred to as the "Enniskillen" or "Fermanagh" transmitter.
It has four other transmitter sites in its digital television transmitter group, at Ederny, Derrygonnelly, Belcoo, and Lisbellaw.
Brougher Mountain came into service on 24 February 1964, transmitting the BBC Television Service on VHF 405 lines channel B5.
The ITV service provided by Ulster Television launched from the Strabane transmitter located 40 miles north of Brougher Mountain on 18 February 1963 and its coverage extended down to the area covered by Brougher Mountain. prior to date the only television service available in many parts of its service area was from Telefís Éireann's Truskmore transmitter which opened in 1962.
It became the main UHF transmitter for the area in July 1978, when BBC One, BBC Two and UTV started transmitting in colour on the 625 line UHF service and was the last main transmitting station in the UK to be equipped for UHF. Channel 4 started transmitting from the transmitter in December 1983.
Due to its close proximity to the Republic of Ireland, since the transmitter went on air in 1964, many living in counties Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal, Leitrim, Roscommon and Sligo could receive the UK channels via spill-over signals from Brougher Mountain, as well as the Strabane transmitter.
During the mid-1980s Brougher Mountain was only one of three original BBC main FM transmitters in Northern Ireland affected by the frequency changes arising from the 1984 Geneva (FM) Frequency plan with all (then) three services moving up 0.5 MHz although across the border in the Republic of Ireland the RTE's FM transmitter network were more extensively affected.
The site was the location of a Provisional IRA bombing on 9 February 1971, which left 5 BBC workers dead when their vehicle was destroyed by a landmine. The workers were travelling up the mountain to repair the transmitter when the landmine, which was detonated by a tripwire, detonated. It has been suggested that the booby trap was in fact set to target members of the British Army, who regularly patrolled in the border area.
Services transmitted by frequency
Analogue radio FrequencykWServiceNotes89.4 MHz5BBC Radio 288.9 MHz Prior to c.198591.6 MHz5BBC Radio 391.1 MHz Prior to c.198593.8 MHz5BBC Radio Ulster93.3 MHz Prior to c.198595.6 MHz5BBC Radio 4Since 199396.6 MHz5Downtown RadioSince 198799.0 MHz5BBC Radio 1Since 1993101.2 MHzQ Radio Tyrone & FermanaghSince 2006
Digital radio FrequencyBlockkWOperator225.648 MHz12B3.2BBC National DAB229.072 MHz12D4.35Bauer Northern Ireland
Digital television Including Sept 2019 Frequency changes. FrequencyUHFkWOperatorSystem21 (Was 21+)2SDNDVB-T31 (Was 22+)20Digital 3&4DVB-T242Arqiva ADVB-T37 (Was 25)20BBC BDVB-T2272Arqiva BDVB-T29 (Was 28)20BBC ADVB-T30 (Was 30-)2NImuxDVB-T2
NImux contains TG4, RTÉ One, RTÉ Two and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and transmits from this and two other sites in Northern Ireland.
Before switchover FrequencyUHFkWOperator23+0.5SDN (Mux A)26+0.5BBC (Mux B)29+0.5Arqiva (Mux C)30+0.5BBC (Mux 1)33+0.5Arqiva (Mux D)34+0.5Digital 3&4 (Mux 2)
Analogue television (before 24 October 2012) Analogue tv is now ceased. BBC2 Northern Ireland was switched off from UHF 28 on 10 October 2012, and the another 3 analogue services go on 24 October 2012. FrequencyUHFkWService22100BBC One Northern Ireland25100UTV28100BBC Two Northern Ireland32100Channel 4
See also Divis transmitting station Limavady transmitting station
References
External links Picture of Brougher Mountain from the air Photos and some technical history MB21 Transmission Gallery