The planning and construction of an HF relay station in Hong Kong-a design for automatic and unattended operation

Outlines the design philosophy for the BBC´s Hong Kong HF relay station and the project management approach used to achieve the planned service benefits. The station design was based on providing two 250 kW HF transmitters and four wideband curtain antennas. To met the service objectives, both transmitters were expected to operate normally with the same programme and into the same service area, but on adjacent broadcast bands. To minimise staff costs the station design features fully automatic control to a preprogrammed schedule. The programme material is originated from Bush House studios in the UK and received in Hong Kong over satellite circuits. The Hong Kong station illustrates a number of important design trends. At HF the scheduled frequency and array changes coupled with the much higher power levels pose more difficult problems. The Hong Kong station also illustrates the growing influence of environmental factors which are now having a major impact on transmitting station planning and design, particularly on HF sites which can be visually and environmentally obtrusive