Radio & TV Transmitter Masts and Towers in Malta 1

Before we get to the main photographs of Masts and Towers on Malta here are a few more details for you to digest:

BRIEFLY:
Malta is a very small island located in the Mediterranean South of Italy, between Sicily and Libya, the population is around 400,000 with Valletta as the capital. Malta has 4 terrestrial television channels and numerous radio stations and also The Melitia Cable television service that provides around 57 channels. The Maltese enjoy watching the Italian television stations, many of which are available off air using a high-gain UHF TV aerial directed towards Sicily & Italy. Most houses boast several TV aerials, one of which is usually used to receive Italian TV. The main TV and radio transmitters are located on high ground just to the West of Valletta. The very highest land is actually to the South-West of Malta, but there are no broadcast TV or radio masts there.

MORE:
We visited Malta in April 2004 and enjoyed mixed weather some good sunny days with blue skies and a good breeze and a few overcast and very windy days. I had not intended to photograph any masts in Malta, but the island is so small, about the size of the Isle Of Wight, that you cannot drive anywhere without seeing a mast or a tower! I therefore just had to get the camera out and take a few photos on our various journeys. I always seem to be very unfortunate when photographing masts and have to suffer grey skies as backgrounds - surprisingly Malta was no exception, the clouds must follow us wherever we go! There are one or two pictures with nice blue skies but a few too many that are grey. The higher than normal winds did not help the camera shake either.

Malta's radio and television services are co-ordinated and regulated by the Malta Broadcasting Authority which was established in 1961 as in independent statutory body appointed by the President of the Republic of Malta. The public service radio and television stations are funded by licence fee and are provided by Public Broadcasting Services Ltd, who provide 2 TV stations and 3 radio stations, as marked in the table above.

I was disappointed to read in the Malta Independent newspaper that PBS have been suffering some testing times. Like other countries at the moment, the government of Malta does not appear to be fully supportive of the public service broadcasting being provided by the PBS radio and television company. PBS employed less than 200 staff in total and, according to the newspaper, this is to be reduced to less than 70 due to on-going cut-backs.

The other two television stations and all the other radio stations are privately run. Super One Television and Super One Radio being run by the Maltese Labour Party, while NET TV is run by the Maltese National Party.

The most popular of the numerous private independent radio stations is 89.7 Bay Radio which claims around 20% of the audience and fast paced pop/rock station.

English speaking visitors will no doubt be pleased to learn that Radio Malta (93.7 FM & 999 AM) relays regular BBC World Service news bulletins and that Campus Radio (103.7 FM) broadcast whole blocks of BBC World Service output in the afternoons which was very useful. However the BBC World Service was also quite well received on their usual shortwave frequencies in the 49, 31, 25 and 19 meter bands (6195, 9410, 12095, 15485 & 15565 kHz [April 2004]).

The Malta Communications Authority regulates the telephony services on the island and the providers of telephony services include Maltacom, Go Mobile and Vodafone.

Malta has a population of around 400,000 inhabitants who own (according the the World Radio and Television Handbook WRTH) approximately 100,000 radios and nearly 200,000 television sets. About 70 percent of the island's income is derived from tourism with some supplemental by part time agriculture. Many Maltese own small-holdings and after returning home from their full time job they will cultivate vegetable crops to sell. Malta is self sufficient in potatoes, with some of its potato output being exported to The Netherlands or Denmark. There is a brewery on Malta that produces Cisk beer, I am not a lager drinker, I prefer Real Ale, but the Cisk beer is quite delicious.

Out of interest, Malta's water supply comes from seven reverse-osmosis plants located around the coast that de-salinate the salt water of the Mediterranean making it suitable for domestic water supply.

But back to radio: It is astonishing to think that with so little major industry, other than tourism, and with such a small population that Malta is able to support 4 television channels and about 13 island wide radio stations, not to mention a number of very local community radio services!

A LITTLE RADIO HISTORY:
Previous to PBS, XANDIR MALTA (a division of Telemalta Corporation) had operated radio and television on Malta as follows:
Radio Malta 1 : 999 kHz AM 20 kW ; 93.7 MHz FM 4 kW (89.7 MHz FM was also listed)
Radio Malta 2 : 91.7 MHz FM 4 kW
Xandir television : Ch E/10 10 kW H PAL System B

Previous to the Xandir company, Malta Radio was operated by the BBC.

The 1973 edition of the Wireless World Guide To Broadcasting Stations listed Malta as having three medium wave transmitters which broadcast on 998 kHz , 1214 kHz (Radio Malta 1kW) and 1568 kHz.

In 1987 The Guide To Broadcasting Stations, by Philip Darrington, listed several medium wave and shortwave transmission sites:

Delimara:	756 KHz 20 kW	Use not confirmed - maybe Radio Malta 2 ?
Delimara:	999 Khz 20 kW	Radio Malta 1
Bugibba:	1485 KHz 1 kW	Use not confirmed - possibly local station or relay
Cyclops:	1557 KHz 75 / 600 kW	DW & Radio Mediterranean (75 kW) & Voice Of The Mediterranean (600 kW)
Cyclops:	Shortwave Broadcasting 250 kW	Deutsche Welle Relay & Radio Mediterranean and Voice of the Mediterranean

There is no listing for the Delimara transmitter today (2004), the transmissions of Radio Malta on 999 KHz having been moved to Bezbezija. 756 KHz is certainly inactive. Delimara is a point on a peninsula just to the East of Marsaxlokk (pronounced Marshaslock) and the original medium wave transmitter was located here approximately 50 meters North of the lighthouse.

The transmission of Radio Malta continues on 999 Khz but at reduced power. In 1987 the 999 Khz transmission was listed at 20 kW from Delimara, and in the WRTH of 1999 it is listed at 5 kW from Bezbezija. When I monitored the station the signal had poor modulation depth (i.e. was very quiet compared to other transmissions on MW and Short Wave) and also seemed quite weak, so I would judge that it may today be of the order of only a few hundred Watts. The station was quickly swamped by co-channel interference as dusk approached, even when only 5 km from the mast.

There is no medium wave mast in Bugibba so this must have been dismantled.

EXTERNAL AND SHORTWAVE BROADCASTING
There are no longer any external , short wave or foreign language broadcasts originating from Malta.

The German international short wave broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) built a medium wave transmitter and major shortwave relay station at Cyclops (G.C: 14:34E/35:51N) which entered service with regular broadcasts in 1971. It carried 250 kW short wave transmitters and a high power 600 kW medium wave transmitter on 1557 kHz. The Cyclops site was at Xorb I-Ghagin Point (known as il Hofra I-kbira) which is between Delimara Point and St Thomas Bay. DW built some of the largest masts on the island, the shortwave aerial consisted of curtain antennas supported by three 300 ft structures. There were also a number of MF mast radiators and vertical and horizontal log-periodic antennas. DW used this facility until 1996 when transmissions were discontinued.

The Cyclops transmitters were also used by Radio Mediterranean on 1557 kHz MW and 6110 Khz shortwave. This station was based at P.O. Box 2 Valetta and produced programmes in French, English and Arabic. This service has now ceased.

The radio station VOICE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN (VOM) was established in 1984 and was a joint venture between the governments of Malta and Libya to promote the Mediterranean culture, unity and peace in the region.   The station also used the Cyclops transmissions site and broadcast in English having a postal address of P.O. Box 143 Valletta. When the DW transmitter site was closed down, The Voice Of The Mediterranean continued to broadcast on shortwave via transmitter time hired from Russia. The frequencies used during 1999 were 9765, 9810, 12060, 13605, 15550 and 17570 kHz. Unfortunately the station was forced to close by the Maltese Ministry Of Foreign Affairs on December 31st 2003 because Libya had defaulted on its share of the payments and eventually owed the government of Malta approximately Lm1 million (£1.6 million).

The Cyclops shortwave transmission site at Xorb I-Ghagin Point (G.C: 14:34E/35:51N) was completely dismantled around 1999, as was required by the contract signed between DW and the government of Malta - nothing was to remain once the site was no longer to be used for broadcasting.

Interestingly the Maltacom Benghisa Transmission Station is not far away, being just across Marsaxlokk Bay near Brizebbuga. There are several other sites around the island that sport a multitude of masts and towers that give the appearance of shortwave or transmission sites of some kind, at least one of which (Siggiewi) looks completely disused and this turned out to be an ex-Navy receiving station. Some radio facilities on the islands date back to when the British forces¹ had a presence in Malta and have since fallen into disrepair others have been dismantled and removed.   There are more details below.

¹Malta had been under British rule for nearly 200 years, but gained independence on 21st September 1964. In 1979 Malta became a republic and so the British forces departed the island that same year.

BEACONS:
There are three NDB's (Non Directional Beacons) in Malta and while there I confirmed reception of two of them; one on 395 kHz and the other on 416 kHz. 395 kHz was weaker of the two at our location in Qawra and while my Morse Code is not very good, it appears to send out the morse code signal _ _    . _ . .   _ which is spells out the letters MLT. The 416 kHz beacon was stronger in Qawra and was seemed to be strongest around the Valletta area, with some direction finding I thought that the most likely source of the beacon was a pair of towers at Fort St Rocco, an ex British Army base. These two towers had a T aerial strung between them, but we were on a coach trip at the time and did not get close enough to either get a positive fix or a photograph.

The Morse Code signal on this 416 kHz beacon was . _ . .    _ _ . _   . _ which decodes as LQA. LQA is from Luqa Airport, and this confirms that this is an aeronautical beacon. Since our visit it has been confirmed that Fort St Rocco is the correct location and that the beacon consists of a pair of 94 ft high wooden towers that support a T aerial, which is exactly what I saw.

The other locations where beacons (NDB's) are sited are confirmed to be at the Maltacom Benghisa Transmitting Station, which uses an "Inverted L" aerial, and at Kercem on the island of Gozo which uses a 'T' aerial that is supported by two 45ft steel towers.