What are they?

Here are some passive reflectors used by the BBC. The UHF TV transmitter at Eitshal in the Outer Hebrides is fed from the Rosemarkie transmitter 160km away on a combination of active and passive repeaters on 7GHz. Due to the remote locations in the far North of Scotland there are 2 passive sites to save on the huge costs of running electricity to them and also building and maintaining relay stations.

This passive reflector is at Glenmarksie, 3.6m x 4.8m in size.

These back to back dishes are at Sgurr Marcasaidh and are 3.6m diameter. They linked with waveguide, no active electronics.

The link was built in mid-70s and went active in 1976. 45 years ago this was some serious RF linking!

Pictures © 1977 BBC Engineering.

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