A small collection of photographs of radio and TV masts and towers, some taken by my fair hand and others are credited to contributors including the prolific Martin Watkins.  The section of towers and masts from outside the UK is currently being worked on and will be gradually added to over the coming months.

Some regard them as eyesores, while others (and there appear to be a surprising number!) see them as elegant and mightily impressive feats of engineering.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say.  I'll get my anorak.

Whatever we may think about these structures, it is true that most of us would be unable to listen to our favourite radio station and millions unable to watch television programmes as diverse as Panorama to Coronation Street.

Beautiful or not, these masts and towers are still vital in our media-centric world. The masts pictured here are responsible for carrying either broadcast televison or radio, some carry both.  With the advent of digital broadcasting, some of the masts also carry Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB Radio) for our listening and viewing delight.

I will be gradually adding to the collection af mast photographs presented here as time permits.

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Another Story

There are many masts that are home to other utilities such as transmission equipment for Private Mobile Radio (PMR) often referred to as two-way-radio or 'walkie talkies', the emergency services and amateur radio repeaters, for example. Mobile telephone base stations are also installed on many hundreds of masts across the country so that all our cellular phones will work properly.  The pictures on this site do not cover these types of mast.

As an aside there does seem to be a ground-swell of rather alarmist protestors campaigning against mobile phone masts and, indeed, this seems to be spreading to masts of all kinds - peculiarly even against a long-wave station off the coast of the Isle Of Man. 

We have lived with radio from man-made radio waves for about one hundred years (and with naturally occurring radio waves since the dawn of time) and as far as I am aware, in normal use, there is no proof that radio waves are damaging to health.  No one would suggest however, that it is reasonable to subject the human body to the high energies of radio waves by embracing high power radio antennae, but at a reasonable distance (in the order of meters) the energy is ruduced to such an extent (at a rate of the square of the distance) that informed opinion is that radio is perfectly safe.

When used sensibly and within the guidelines, as the mobile phone companies undoubtedly do, mobile phone masts are deemed safe, in the same way as electricity, gas and petrol are all safe when used according to the guidelines.  We wouldn't put our fingers in an electrical socket, fill a room with gas and strike a match or soak ourselves in petrol and light a cigarette, now would we?  Just because something may be dangerous if misused or abused, should not mean that we have to halt its use.  In this way, all informed and scientific opinion seems to agree that there are no hazards posed by mobile phone masts when sited and installed correctly.

The protestors' argument is that the mobile phone masts emit too much 'radiation'.  In an attempt to scare people about 'phone masts, they appear to like to over-use and mis-use the term 'radiation' since it conjures up images Gieger counters, radiation suits, atomic reactors, nuclear bombs and Hiroshima etc into the minds of the public.  On the face of it, it seems that these campaigners are deliberately confusing benign radio wave emissions with harmful ionising gamma radiation, which is entirely different, and a bogus claim designed to unnecessarily scare the public into surrendering to their protests.

Radio wave radiation and gamma radiation are completely different kettles of fish of course. Certainly they are both part of the electromagnetic spectrum, but so is heat radiation and light radiation!  Lets not get bamboozled by the mis-informed, otherwise they'll have us scared of our electric heaters and light bulbs too! 

There is definitely an argument for sympathetic siting of mobile phone masts, not only for the sensible health precautions already provided for by the authorities, but also to minimise visual impact.  I am constantly astounded that the five mobile networks each have to have an individual mast located in one locality as it can look such a mess.  Mast sharing must be a more satisfactory solution.  One mast carrying all the networks' aerials would seem so much more sensible, the visual impact would be minimal and one would think that this sharing arrangement may even save money. 

Today mobile phones and the mobile phone companies themselves are an important engine of our modern economy, but as with all technology we cannot afford to be complacent and there is a case for continual monitoring and debate, but not for alarmist "radiation" scare stories that can only cause undue concern.  After all, mobile phones are in essence just two-way radios.

I am sure that we don't want to return to the age of the carrier pigeon.

As an MDS975 correspondent  has commented, it is far more dangerous to stand outside in direct sunlight (high energy ultra violet) than it is to stand next to a mobile phone mast emitting fairly low energy radio waves, and that really puts it into perspective.

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