Wrotham (Kent, England) analogue radio transmitter
 | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.320,0.288 or 51°19'13"N 0°17'15"E |
UK Free TV shows the coverage area for a radio transmitter as a coloured overlay (orange for FM, other colours for DAB) on the grey map. We have computed the coverage by combining the terrain with the official radiation pattern. A single click will select the transmitter to view the coverage for a single site, and a double click goes to a page showing full details. Click on the buttons in the right-hand corner of the map to choose from different frequencies (or multiplexes for DAB).
Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Wrotham (Kent, England) mast?
No problems on any service. 
Local transmitter maps
Wrotham DAB Wrotham AM/FMSunday, 12 January 2014
What Alex says would be true if the horizontal and vertical components of the signal were transmitted exactly in phase with each other. In that situation, the net result is a signal which is "slant polarised", ie.its plane of polarisation is at 45 degrees, and so you'll get the strongest signal if your receiving dipole is also at 45 deg - as Alex implies, the signal received by either a vertical or horizontal dipole will be 3dB lower in strength. However, this assumes that the dipole is offset from the horizontal or vertical by 45 degrees in the same direction as the radiation produced by the transmitter (eg clockwise) - if you offset it by 45 deg in the other direction (eg anticlockwise) you'll get nothing! Thus you're still in the situation where the received signal strength varies with the orientation of the receiving aerial.
To get round this, most BBC transmitter sites (certainly all the main ones and also many of the low power repeaters) use an aerial configuration which produces circular polarisation. This is acheived by delaying the feed to one section of the aerial relaive to the other so that the horizontal and vertical components are 90 deg out of phase with each other, resulting in a signal whose plane of polarisation rotates, making one 360 deg rotation per cycle. This means that a dipole aerial with any orientation (horizontal, vertical or slant at any angle) will receive the same signal strength. That strength, however, will be 3dB less than would be received by a dipole receiving a plane polarised trnsmission of the same power so, as KMJ says, the present 250kW transmitters are giving approximately the same effective signal strength as the 120kW horizontally polarised ones they replaced.
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Monday, 3 November 2014
Hallo:
I understand that Wrotham is the transmitter for FM radio for Bracknell. Up until a few days ago I could receive Radio 4 on FM perfectly well. But suddenly I cannot receive it at all on FM. All I get in the waveband and surrounding is electronic "music". There is no Radio 4 - even in the background. I can s till receive it on LW, but the reception is not so good, and the programs are different..
I would be grateful for any information on this.
Thank you
Roberta Redemer
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P.S.
Sorry, I forgot to say that on FM I can get all the other stations.
Regards
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Sunday, 9 November 2014
R
Richard Davis11:38 AM
Hi, Roberta,
It sounds as if a pirate radio station may have opened up from a location very close to you. Unfortunately, if this is the case it's difficult to deal with, as the pirate station certainly won't reveal their location, and won't care in the least that they're causing you problems! The thing to do in the first instance is to check with your neighbours and see whether they also have problems, which seems quite likely. You can then put in a complaint to The Radio & Television Investigation Service via their website at Radio & Television Investigation Service - hopefully, they will be prepared to investigate for you and, if you're lucky, close the pirate down. However, a quicker though more expensive solution would be to buy a DAB radio. They're now quite cheap - the transmissions they receive are on a completely different waveband from FM, so won't suffer the interference you're getting, and the sound quality is almost as good as FM, certainly better than LW. As a bonus, you'll be able to get additional stations, such as Radio 4 extra.
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