Clarkstown radio transmitter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Longwave transmitter Clarkestown)

Jump to: navigation, search

The Clarkstown site

The Clarkstown radio transmitter is a longwave radio transmitter in County Meath, Ireland. It is located some 3 km east of the village of Summerhill, in a field south of the R156 regional road at Clarkstown.

Constructed in 1988 for the transmission of Atlantic 252 on 252 kHz, it uses one 248-metre-high guyed steel framework mast with triangular cross section, insulated against ground. The transmitters are 2x300 kilowatt Continental Solid State built by Varian Associates of Dallas. The ground around the mast and the entire transmission site bed are lined with copper for conductivity. The site has an ITU-cleared transmission power of 500 kW by day and 100 Kw at night.

Atlantic 252 ceased operations on 20 December 2001 and the transmitter was later taken over by RTÉ, the Irish national broadcaster. 252 kHz is now used for the AM version of RTÉ Radio 1, and has been the sole source of Radio 1 on AM since 24 March 2008, when the higher power, but lower range Tullamore transmitter on 567 kHz was taken off air.^[1]

As of 2007, the transmitter was carrying a Digital Radio Mondiale multiplex overnight, featuring Radio 1, RTÉ Digital Radio Sport, RTÉ Digital Radio News and the World Radio Network, before reverting to AM transmission for the daytime.