Skelton Transmitting Station

The transmitter Skelton is a great transmitter for short and long wave ( LORAN -C) in England near Skelton, a village in the county of Cumbria, eight kilometers north-west of Penrith.

Shortwave transmitter

The short- wave transmission system consists of several curtain and steep beam antennas which are mounted on free-standing steel lattice towers or steel framework masts. It began operation in 1943 and 1946 was declared by the BBC for one of the largest and most powerful shortwave transmitters. The BBC ran the transmitter to 1997, since at that time privatized their broadcasting activities and all transmitters were sold to private companies.

Today, the transmitter part of the British defense company Babcock International Group and is a relay station some foreign radio stations, including the BBC World Service ( UK), KBS World Radio ( South Korea) and NHK World Radio (Japan ); last only for the BBC World Service and for the Christian radio station IBRA. Until 31 January 2013, the BBC World Service beamed from this transmitter also an experimental program in the mode of Digital Radio Mondiale. On February 1, 2013, the transmitting station Wooferton took over this mission.

In February 2013 it was announced that the short- wave transmitter in Skelton will cease operations on March 30, 2013, but is retained as a reserve. The programs still broadcast from this transmitter are transferred to the transmission system in Woofferton. Reason for the closure was among other things the huge decline in demand for shortwave broadcasts from this transmitter. The transmission system for very long wave is not affected.

VLF transmitter

The VLF transmitter has a 365 -meter-high insulated against ground guyed lattice steel mast and took its operation in 2001 as a replacement for the transmitter in Rugby on. It is mainly the British Army for the dissemination of VLF signals for the air navigation LORAN -C.