A Tour of the Fenton TV relay station, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

Part 1

Here's the Fenton relay as seen from Fenton Park, about half-a-mile from the masts. The smaller mast wasn't always there; it appeared soon before Channel 5 started broadcasting, but is used for mobile phone and other services. The site is owned by Crown Castle International.
	We'd sneaked into a farmer's field at this point. The towers themselves are 45m (150ft) and 36m (120ft) tall.
Notice the difference between the two masts. The white pole at the top of the mast on the right is called a 'capping cylinder' and is used to protect the dipoles inside the transmitter from weather damage. There are four dipoles for each channel contained within the capping cylinder, to give good multi-directional coverage. The Channel 5 mast on the left employs newer technologies that do away with the need for a capping cylinder. Some relays have separate capping cylinders - this is for directional purposes.
	A dirty great green box with air-conditioning outlets. This looks like where it all happens...
Some satellite dishes. These are used for Channel 5 downlink and as a downlink for Multiplex A (MUX A) Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) purposes. Both have two dishes. Interestingly, although analogue Fenton transmissions are relayed from the Sutton Coldfield main station, Fenton DTT is not stricly a relay as it is fed directly by BT circuits.

Many thanks to David Harrison and Jamie Matthews for supplying information used on this page.