A Visit to Holland - Easter 2003

Just before Easter my wife and I spent a few days in Holland and Belgium. We stayed for the most part near to Amsterdam. I was hoping to photograph lots of transmitters and aerials but that was not to be.

When travelling, particularly through Holland, you soon realise that there are not many aerials to be seen on houses. This is because most of the country, at least the urban areas, are completely cabled. This also means that there are very few actual transmitters. I suppose they only need enough to supply the cable head-ends and outlying rural areas.

A map of the main national transmitter sites shows how few main stations there are. Of course, there may be some low power relays that are not shown on the map below.

TV Transmitter Sites

There are rather more VHF radio sites scattered around the country carrying both National and Local Services.

VHF Radio Transmitters

With most of Holland being very flat radio and tv transmissions carry along way hence another reason why they do not need so many transmitters as, for example, we do in the UK.

We stayed in a small town north of Amsterdam called Purmerend and the cable system at the hotel provided the following channels:

In Belgium we stayed for 2 nights in a hotel that also provided BBC 2. All the programme guides in Belgium and Holland give full details of the programmes for BBC 1 and 2 as they are provided on the cable networks. People living near to the west coasts are also able to receive some pictures off air. Interestingly in Holland the BBC 1 version being received was the London area carried by Sky Digital and broadcast over the cable network in wide screen. In Belgium the version of BBC 1 was the South East, not in wide screen, so presumably it was received via a UHF aerial direct from the Dover transmitter.

The following map shows the locations of all transmitters both AM, SW, VHF and UHF in Holland.

Digital Radio Broadcasting in Belgium and Holland

While in Gent (Belgium) I was able to receive 2 DAB Multiplexes using the same Band III system as is used here. The programmes and frequencies are detailed below. I was not able to receive anything in Holland.

DAB in Gent (Belgium)

RTBF DAB RADIO -12B 225.65

FM21

Radio 21

BRF 1

Musique 3

Premiere

 VRT DAB -12A 223.93

Radio 1

Radio 2

RVi

Studio Brussels

927 Live

DABklasick

Donna

Klara

DAB in Holland

I understand that there is currently 1 DAB transmitter at Lopik carrying 1 DAB Multiplex.  This is on 12 C (227.36 MHz).

There are 6 stations in the packet:

I was only able to photograph 1 main transmitter which was at Lopik which is south of Utrecht. Click here for a picture and more details.

For more information about TV and radio in the Netherlands try this excellent site which includes photos of some of the transmitters.

http://members1.chello.nl/~h.vanderploeg1/fm-nederland.html

There are 3 new photographs in the aerial gallery taken in Holland and France. Click here to see them.