In the early 1950’s television was still in its infancy. With the coming of the Coronation of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second on June 2nd 1953, however, interest mushroomed. There were severe restrictions on capital investment at this time so no new transmitters were available for the coronation. Instead, the BBC were given permission to install three temporary, low power stations to serve the Brighton, Newcastle and Belfast areas.
The Brighton transmitter was at Truleigh Hill and used the wooden RAF mast at the south-east corner of the site. The transmitters were converted RCA type ET 4336 units mounted on a converted outside broadcast trailer. This equipment was modified from its original HF power of 250w to give a peak white power of 500w in band 1. The vision transmitters used a new grid-modulated rf stage with a BBC designed stabilising amplifier as the modulator. A new rf stage was added to the sound transmitters and the conversion, production and installation of the whole system was completed in only three months jointly by the Designs and the Planning & Installation Departments. The transmitter went into service on May 9th 1953 using channel 3 and simple dipole aerials to transmit. The receiver system consisted of four inverted ‘V’ aerials to receive the signals from Alexandra Palace.
Truleigh Hill was eventually meant to be replaced by a new transmitter built at Rowbridge Farm near Newport on the Isle of Wight but this proved to be unsatisfactory for reception in the Brighton area. Truleigh was, therefore, retained but since Rowbridge was working on channel 3 Truleigh had to be moved onto channel 2 to avoid interference.
The haste in which this link was erected, and the extended period for which it was kept in use led to a few minor problems on site including the aerials being damaged in high winds. The Gee engineers usually did the running repairs since they were already on site but, in spite of these problems, the relay was a continued success and was finally removed in 1957 when other, more permanent, local repeaters were constructed.
