Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 30 September 1964, page 15


m NEW TOWER IS QUITE

AN EIFFEL!

By NAN MUSGROVE

# The third tallest tower in the world-TCN9's new TV tower-is already punctuating Sydney's cos-mopolitan skyline north of the Harbor as it rears its elegant head.

THE highest tower in

the world is Tokyo's XV tower, which stands 1088ft. above ground; the second highest is the Eiffel Tower in Paris, 984ft. above ground.

TCN9's- new tower, a kind of giant palm-stand to house the small antenna which transmits your TV pro-grammes, will be 765ft. above the ground, 1000ft. above

sea-level.

Sydney's rich crop of TV towers all stand on the magic mile, some land at Gore Hill, designated by the Australian Broadcasting Control Board

as the best available ground for TV towers - high and

within a reasonable distance of the centre of the residential area of Sydney

and suburbs.

At this moment, Sydney has three tall towers all on

the magic mile. Channel 2's and Channel 7's towers stand

just off the Pacific Highway

at Gore Hill.

TCN9's tower is across the

North Shore railway line near Artarmon, and rises 561ft. into the air. Along-side it now, steadily growing and dwarfing the old one, is

the new tower.

Conversa t i o n a 11 y, TV towers are "in" in Sydney at present. The questions most often asked are: Why is TCN9 building a new tower?

Will all the other channels

follow suit? Why weren't

all the towers built as tall as the new one is in 1956?

TCN9 is building a new tower to give viewers from Barrenjoey to Cronulla better reception without ghosts or

snow and so that viewers north to Newcastle and south

to Wollongong will get a clear, strong picture.

Channel 2 won't build a new tower-it has no need to.

As well as their present tower they have two others, one near Wollongong and one

near Newcastle.

Channel 7 will have the use of a new mast. Next April, when Sydney's fourth TV channel, Channel 10, is expected to begin tele-casting, a fourth tower will appear on the magic mile.

It will be on the opposite side of the railway line to Channel 9, to the north-west of the new TCN rnast. This mast will be shared jointly by Channels 7 and 10.

TCN9's old tower will be dismantled when the new tower becomes operational.

Other vital statistics of the new tower: Its base is 112ft. 6in. square; the old one was only 69ft. square. The new mast contains 347 tons of steel, is designed tc withstand wind velocities up to 137 m.p.h.

The new tower will be

painted in alternating bands of white and "international orange," specified by the international civil aviatior organisation, to make their visible to aircraft in day light.

It will carry identical band of fixed red lights and a flashing red beacon on top.

The girdling lights will be affixed and fit as soon as the new tower reaches the height of the present one.

READ "TV TIMES" FOR FULL WEEK'S PROGRAMMES

NEW TCN9 tower

(left) dwarfs the

"old*' one even at an incomplete stage of building.

The lights are all aviation warning lights, officially de-scribed by the Department of Civil Aviation,

This brings us to the third question: Why wasn't the

tower built 1000ft. above sea level in the first place?

Because, back in 1956, the Department of Civil Aviation set a safety height level for

the towers of 850ft. above

sea-level. This height is based

on considerations related to the safety of aircraft, and this year the D.C.A. increased the height.from 850ft. to 1000ft. above sea-level.