Harz-West transmitter

The system, also known as the Torfhaus transmitter by the NDR, is used to broadcast NDR radio programs on ultra-short waves and digital television ( ARD digital and ARD regional) in the DVB-T2 HD standard . The digital ZDF bouquet (formerly ZDFmobil ) can be received via the Brocken station .

freenet TV , the fee-based DVB-T2-HD platform from Media Broadcast , is not broadcast by the stations in Torfhaus and on the Brocken .

Geographical location

The transmitter mast to the west of Bundesstraße 4 in the immediate vicinity of the DJH - Torfhaus Youth Hostel is on the southern summit ( 821 m above sea level ) of the Lerchenköpfe , a two-pinned ridge . On the north summit is the transmitter Torfhaus the DFMG .

Description and history of the transmitter

In the course of setting up a television network in Germany , Nordwestdeutsche Rundfunk (NWDR) put a television converter with an output of 40 W into operation in Torfhaus on November 15, 1954, to broadcast what was then the only television program (now Das Erste ) . A 40 m high tubular mast served as the antenna carrier. This mast was taken out of service on December 19, 1955, moved to Wuppertal and then served there as a transfer device.

The Harz-West transmitter was born on December 20, 1955, when the new 200 m high tubular mast with a diameter of 2 m officially went into operation, which in addition to the television program also broadcast two VHF radio programs. The antennas were attached to a lattice mast attachment of around 50 m, which resulted in a total height of around 250 m. The three transmission systems were located in the buildings that are still in use today. The VHF radio programs of the newly founded Norddeutscher Rundfunk could only be broadcast from September 1956, as the antennas already mounted on the transmitter mast had been destroyed by ice accumulation when the transmitter was set up. In December of the same year 1956, a protective cylinder was installed together with a third radio transmitter, which enabled the distribution of the third NDR radio program , to protect the combined antennas for radio (VHF) and television ( VHF ) against ice fall. In the years that followed, the Harz-West transmitter was often used for test broadcasts:

In 1961 as a location for test consignments of the former Bundespost with a picture and sound transmitter in the UHF range.
In 1964 for the first color television test broadcasts in the morning hours

In 1967, a second VHF television antenna was installed on the pipe mast, increasing the height of the transmission mast to 278.5 m. The first transmitting antenna, installed in 1955, now served as a reserve antenna and was only dismantled in October 1999. In the following years the transmission systems and devices were kept up to date with the latest technology and accordingly renewed, replaced and expanded. With renewed antennas, the total height of the mast increased to 279.5 m in 1990. In 2014 the transmitter mast was shortened to 235 m, as the construction of a new tourist resort posed a risk of falling ice chunks. For this purpose, the area around the top guy level was removed. The renovations took place from April to October 2014. Currently, four NDR radio programs are broadcast from the transmitter mast via the VHF antennas and the two DVB-T program packages ARD Digital and ARD regionally via an additionally installed UHF antenna in the DVB-T2 HD standard .

In addition to its function as a transmission system, the Harz-West location also serves to control and monitor all of the northern German broadcasting systems that are now in Lower Saxony. Before that, he had held this task for all NDR broadcasting systems in East Lower Saxony (ON) since 1972. In 1998 he finally took over the tasks of the transmitter control and monitoring system at the Steinkimmen transmitter, which had been responsible for the transmitter systems in West Lower Saxony (WN) . In a future step, it is planned to bundle and centralize the transmitter control and monitoring system of all transmitter systems of the NDR at the Hamburg Billwerder-Moorfleet transmitter site .

In addition, the antenna a is attached to the transmission tower amateur radio - relay station in the 70-centimeter band ( call sign DB0HW) attached, which covers wide areas of the surrounding provinces.

Transmission area

Rough representation of the ARD range in the GDR area with transmitter locations

Historically, the location of the station Harz-West in relation to the decades of division of Germany can be seen as extremely favorable for supplying the former GDR with the first television program (today Das Erste ) and the NDR radio programs and probably also represented a not inconsiderable one The technical range in the former GDR was due to the close proximity to the inner-German border , which ran just a few kilometers (2-3 km) to the east (today the state border with Saxony-Anhalt), and the omnidirectional characteristics of the used transmitting antennas comparatively large. In north to east it served as a reference transmitter up to the border where the transmitters Hamburg Billwerder-Moorfleet , transmitters Dannenberg / Zernien or the transmitter Scholzplatz of the SFB in Berlin offered better reception possibilities. In this direction, the metropolitan areas around Magdeburg , Halle (Saale) and Leipzig were in the coverage area of the Harz-West transmitter. In the south-east, the range was limited only by the coverage area of the Dresden-Wachwitz station , which broadcast the first GDR television program on the same VHF channel 10 of the ARD television program. Thus, the reinterpretation of the abbreviation ARD = “Outside of Dresden” was justified in relation to the Harz-West television station. In a southerly direction, the coverage area connected to the areas of the Hoher Meißner broadcaster of the Hessian broadcasting company and the two broadcasters Kreuzberg and Ochsenkopf of the Bavarian broadcasting corporation .

For commonly used antenna systems, the Harz-West transmitter has a comparatively very large range of almost 150 km to 200 km for VHF radio programs and this around the transmitter location, which is a decisive difference to topographically similarly positioned transmitter locations on the edge of the Alps . The supply area thus extends from the Lüneburg Heath over the Altmark , the agglomerations of Magdeburg and Halle / Leipzig, the Thuringian Forest , the Rhön , the Waldecker Land near Kassel to the Teutoburg Forest and the area around Nienburg / Weser .

Frequencies and Programs

In the antenna diagram, in the case of directed radiation, the main beam direction is specified in degrees.

Analog radio (VHF)

Four FM radio programs are broadcast:

Frequency (MHz)	program	RDS-PS	RDS-PI	Regionalization	ERP (kW)	Antenna pattern round (ND) / directional (D)	Polarization horizontal (H) / vertical (V)
89.9	NDR culture	NDR_Cult	D383	-	100	ND	H
92.1	NDR 2	_NDR_2__	D882 (regional), D382	Lower Saxony	100	ND	H
98.0	NDR 1 Lower Saxony	NDR_1_BS NDR1_NDS	D881 (regional), D381	Braunschweig	100	ND	H
99.5	NDR info	NDR_Info	D384	Lower Saxony	50	D (300-0 °)	H

Digital television ( DVB-T / DVB-T2 )

The conversion of the Harz-West transmitter to the DVB-T2 standard with HEVC image coding took place on March 29, 2017.

The following DVB-T2 bouquets are transmitted:

channel	Frequency (in MHz)	Multiplex	Programs in multiplex	ERP (in kW)	Antenna diagram round (ND) / directional (D)	Polarization horizontal (H) / vertical (V)	SFN with
23	490	ARD Digital (NDR)	The first HD phoenix HD arte HD tagesschau24 HD one HD	32	D (160-50 °)	V	Braunschweig-Broitzem , Braunschweig city center , Göttingen (Espol-Solling) , Göttingen-Hetjershausen , Hanover (Telemax) , Hanover-Hemmingen , Hildesheim (Sibbesse) , Torfhaus (Harz-West)
40	626	ARD regional (NDR) Lower Saxony	NDR television HD (Lower Saxony) WDR television (Cologne) HD HR television HD / NDR FS HD (HH) (temporarily) mdr television (Saxony-Anhalt) HD / NDR FS HD (MV) (temporarily) BR Television South HD / NDR FS HD (SH) (temporarily)	32	D (160-50 °)	V	Braunschweig-Broitzem , Braunschweig city center , Göttingen (Espol-Solling) , Göttingen-Hetjershausen , Hanover (Telemax) , Hanover-Hemmingen , Hildesheim (Sibbesse) , Torfhaus (Harz-West)

Reception parameters

Used by (HD Programs per Mux)	Modulation method	Code rate	FFT mode	Guard interval	Pilot tones	Data rate [Mbit / s]
ARD Digital (NDR) (5) NDR regional (5)	64-QAM	1/2	16k extended	19/128	Pilot Pattern 2	18.2

Analog television ( PAL )

Until the switch to DVB-T on October 9, 2007, the Harz-West transmitter served as the basic analog network transmitter for Das Erste .

channel	Frequency (MHz)	program	ERP (kW)	Antenna pattern round (ND) / directional (D)	Polarization horizontal (H) / vertical (V)
10	210.25	Das Erste (NDR)	100	ND	H

literature

Leaflet NDR 50 years transmitter Torfhaus / Harz West Chronik , published by Norddeutscher Rundfunk, 2005.

Individual evidence

↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
↑ New antenna tip on the NDR transmission mast. ndr.de, accessed on February 19, 2017 .
↑ Data sheet DVB-T2 HD Lower Saxony. (PDF) NDR.de, accessed on March 12, 2017 .

[DE_BFN-Karten-1] Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )

[2] New antenna tip on the NDR transmission mast. ndr.de, accessed on February 19, 2017 .

[3] Data sheet DVB-T2 HD Lower Saxony. (PDF) NDR.de, accessed on March 12, 2017 .