UKTX

Walsden South

England · TV and FM

Position
53.690629, -2.096576
Grid reference
SD93722158
Nation
England
Ground height
227 m
Antenna height
20 m
Aerial group
Group A — C21–37, the low end of the band
Polarisation
Vertical
BBC region
North
ITV region
Yorkshire
ITV news region
Yorkshire West
Parent transmitter
Emley Moor
Ofcom site number
10466

How far it reaches

Two different questions, and the map below can be switched between them. Reaches is everywhere this mast puts a usable signal; strongest is the much smaller slice where nothing else does it better.

BandReachesStrongest in
Television11 of 238,895 Output Areasunder 0.1% of UK Output Areasa relay, serving a local area
FM radio15 of 238,895 Output Areasunder 0.1% of UK Output Areasa relay, serving a local area
More detail

Most places can receive several transmitters — a median Output Area hears twelve — and only one of them can be the best, which is why the two columns are so far apart. Reach counts an area once the model clears the reception threshold there at all, and it inherits the sweep's screen: only the strongest twenty candidates per area are stored, so a mast lying twenty-first somewhere does not count as reaching it. Both are a share of areas, deliberately, and not a number of homes: checked against Ofcom's own coverage the model ranks transmitters correctly (Spearman 0.861) but over-states how far each one gets by a median factor of 2.5. A share is a ranking statement and survives that; a household count would not. How this is worked out.

On the map

Everywhere Walsden South is predicted to reach for television and FM radio, shaded by how much signal is left over. Other transmitters reach most of this ground too.

The lines are how far the signal is modelled to get: solid while the margin still clears 10 dB, dashed out to where it last clears 0 dB. The real edge sits inside them — every point inherits the model's measured optimism of about 17 dB.

How the rings were drawn

It is an envelope, not a boundary: terrain can still block reception well inside it, and it is an edge, not a fill — the colour says how far the signal gets, not that every spot under it works. Zoom in and the shading gives way to the per-area prediction, which is the same question answered Output Area by Output Area. The television and FM radio rings were contoured from the stored predictions, which keep only the strongest candidates for each area — the true edge can extend beyond what is drawn [I].

The modelled outer edge drawn above: television about 5 km at its widest but barely beyond the mast at its narrowest; FM radio about 5 km at its widest but barely beyond the mast at its narrowest [I].

Open this transmitter on the full mapreach, the aerial direction, and everything else within range

Television

Multiplexes transmitted from this site, as published by Ofcom.
MuxFreeview nameChannelFrequencyERPSystemOperator
PSB1BBC AC32562 MHz2 WDVB-TBBC
PSB2D3&4C34578 MHz2 WDVB-TDigital 3&4 (ITV/Channel 4)
PSB3BBC BC35586 MHz2 WDVB-T2BBC

FM radio

FM services. ERP is published separately per polarisation; a dash means nothing is radiated in that plane.
StationFrequencyERP (H)ERP (V)HeightRDS namePI codePattern
BBC Radio 288.4 MHz—10 W14 m_BBC_R2_C202V
BBC Radio 390.6 MHz—10 W14 m_BBC_R3_C203V
BBC Radio 4 (FM)92.8 MHz—10 W14 m_BBC_R4_C204V
BBC Radio 198.0 MHz—10 W14 mRadio_1_C201V

BBC Radio 2 — radiation pattern

0 dB10 dB20 dBNESW160°

Radiates most strongly toward the south (160°), as published by Ofcom.

More detail

Each ring is 10 dB of attenuation below the pattern's own peak; the outer rim is the peak itself and anything 30 dB down or deeper is drawn at the centre rather than off the edge of the chart, so a very deep null reads as “weak” and not as a hole in the picture. The shape says which direction radiates harder relative to the mast's own peak, not the absolute field strength there or how far it reaches — that is what the coverage map and the postcode lookup are for.

BBC Radio 3 — radiation pattern

0 dB10 dB20 dBNESW160°

Radiates most strongly toward the south (160°), as published by Ofcom.

More detail

Each ring is 10 dB of attenuation below the pattern's own peak; the outer rim is the peak itself and anything 30 dB down or deeper is drawn at the centre rather than off the edge of the chart, so a very deep null reads as “weak” and not as a hole in the picture. The shape says which direction radiates harder relative to the mast's own peak, not the absolute field strength there or how far it reaches — that is what the coverage map and the postcode lookup are for.

BBC Radio 4 (FM) — radiation pattern

0 dB10 dB20 dBNESW160°

Radiates most strongly toward the south (160°), as published by Ofcom.

More detail

Each ring is 10 dB of attenuation below the pattern's own peak; the outer rim is the peak itself and anything 30 dB down or deeper is drawn at the centre rather than off the edge of the chart, so a very deep null reads as “weak” and not as a hole in the picture. The shape says which direction radiates harder relative to the mast's own peak, not the absolute field strength there or how far it reaches — that is what the coverage map and the postcode lookup are for.

BBC Radio 1 — radiation pattern

0 dB10 dB20 dBNESW160°

Radiates most strongly toward the south (160°), as published by Ofcom.

More detail

Each ring is 10 dB of attenuation below the pattern's own peak; the outer rim is the peak itself and anything 30 dB down or deeper is drawn at the centre rather than off the edge of the chart, so a very deep null reads as “weak” and not as a hole in the picture. The shape says which direction radiates harder relative to the mast's own peak, not the absolute field strength there or how far it reaches — that is what the coverage map and the postcode lookup are for.

Other transmitters nearby

Walsden2.1 km NNW · TVTodmorden3.2 km NE · TV/FM/DABLydgate3.8 km N · TVWardle4.9 km SSW · TVLittleborough5.1 km SSE · TV/DABCornholme5.2 km NNW · TV/FM

Every structure Ofcom list within 40 km, nearest first. Close is not the same as an alternative: most of these are single-service relays, and one of them may radiate a thousandth of this mast's power in a direction that misses you.