Mahon’s Radio Tower

Twenty two years separate the two images here. The first one is a photo of the old radio antenna tower in Mahon and it was taken in 2003. Back then cattle grazed in the field the tower stood in. That tower was dismantled around a year ago. There’s an interesting Reddit thread here about it. The second photo was from earlier this year where a smaller tower with familiar equipment for what is probably mobile phone cell reception.

It’s an old AM / Medium Wave radio tower that used to carry RTE Radio Cork / Radio 1 and at one stage even a relay of 2FM on medium wave, for those who liked their music crackly. It hasn’t been on air rather a long time an I think RTE has a number of transmitters being demolished. They’re doing it as a single contract.

As far as I’m aware that site was decommissioned in the early 2000s, before RTE finally switched off the main Medium Wave (AM) site in Tullamore. The transmitter itself is long gone. All that’s there is the mast.

There’s no prospect of that mast ever being used again.

Old AM sites typically use the whole structure of the antenna as the transmitter. They often sat on an isolated base and the tower height is half the wave length. So you can’t even easily retune them for an alternate AM frequency and they’re relatively useless for mobile phone gear as they are somewhat flexible and move in the wind.

Basically it would cost RTE a fortune to maintain it, even if it’s a local landmark. They’re not going to pay for ongoing maintenance and they’re quite complicated structures with guy-wires and aircraft hazard lighting and all that stuff.

#cattleFarming #Cork #CorkHarbour #infrastructureDevelopment #Ireland #IrishBroadcasting #Mahon #Photo #Photography #radioTower #ruralCommunications #technologyEvolution #telecommunicationsMast

More cattle kept in UK ‘megafarms’, BBC finds

More cows could be kept indoors for the whole of their productive lives, #AnimalWelfare campaigners have warned, after the BBC found a rise in “megafarms”.

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests by the BBC show the number of larger-scale #beef and #dairy #cattle #farms in Britain has increased from 756 to 802 in five years, now holding more than 915,000 #cows.

Campaign group Compassion in World Farming (CiWF) said the rise in large-scale #CattleFarming was “deeply concerning” as many would be intensive #megafarms housing #cattle all year round.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4ldkpz1klo

#Agriculture #AnimalAgriculture #Vegan #GoVegan

#Nitrogen, #Methane, #Carbon …… When will we ever admit that #Livestock & #CattleFarming are NOT going to get us to #NetZero? #BehavioralChange and a #PlantBasedDiet are required.

Farmers on frontline as Dutch divided by war on nitrogen pollution https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/25/farmers-on-frontline-as-dutch-divided-by-war-on-nitrogen-pollution?CMP=share_btn_tw