Waltham transmitting station

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The Waltham transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility at Waltham-on-the-Wolds, 5 miles (8 km) north-east of Melton Mowbray. It sits inside of the Waltham civil parish near Stonesby, in the district of Melton, Leicestershire, UK. It has a 315 metres (1,033 ft) guyed steel tubular mast. The main structure height to the top of the steelwork is 290.8 metres (954 ft), with the UHF television antennas contained within a GRP shroud mounted on top.

The first mast was built in 1966. On 16 November 1966, it collapsed. Parts of the wreckage are still in use as pig shelters.

The structure was rebuilt in 1968. This delayed its first transmissions until 1970, and it was not fully operational until April 1971. It is a shorter version of the second Emley Moor transmitter which collapsed whilst broadcasting on 19 March 1969, due to the weight of ice on the structural cables. The Waltham mast has four sets of stay levels as opposed to the six of the ex-Emley mast. The latter was identical to the current 385m high Belmont mast.

The mast was originally built to provide BBC2 (on the new UHF 625 lines system) to the East Midlands. It is now the main TV transmitter for all terrestrial channels covering the East Midlands - Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, the south of Lincolnshire and north Northamptonshire. It can even be received to some degree from Maltby in South Yorkshire, for East Midlands expatriates. It is owned and operated by National Grid Wireless. In July 2007 was confirmed by Ofcom that at DSO (Digital Switchover) Waltham would be transmitting five - of the six - MUXES within its original C/D group. MUX 4 will be out of band on CH29, but should still be receivable on a C/D group antenna in reasonable signal areas.