Blackstairs Mountain / White Mountain
Waterford City

This photograph was kindly submitted by Liam Walsh who explains that it shows the transmission tower located on White Mountain belonging to Total Broadcast Ltd. The official name of the transmission site is "Blackstairs Mountain". The site is just a few miles south of the main transmitter site at Mount Leinster in south east Ireland and almost as high. The FM transmitter operates 103.8FM and has carried "Christmas FM" in December 2010 and "Zenith Classic Rock" on the weekends from January to March 2011. Both are stations with temporary licenses. Zenith Classic Rock is operated by Total Broadcast Ltd.

The two dipoles on the left transmit the VHF/FM signal. The power is 2.5 KW but the stacked dipole arrangement makes the ERP around 4KW, I am told. The antennas at the top of the mast are for DAB and are operated by Total Broadcast Ltd. This is a temporary 'trial' broadcast started in April 2010 to run for one or two years. The trial tests DAB and DAB+ (AAC+) transmission formats. The radio stations carried include: WLR-FM, South East Radio, Radio Nova, Beat 102-103, Sunshine, 4FM, KCLR 96FM, Phanton FM, RTE 2XM, Tipp FM, talkSPORT and UCB Ireland.

DAB Coverage from Blackstairs Mountain: