Gerbrandy Tower
| Gerbrandy Tower | |
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Gerbrandy Tower
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| General information | |
| Type | Partially guyed tower |
| Location | IJsselstein, Netherlands |
| Coordinates | 52°0′36.24″N 5°3′12.87″E / 52.0100667°N 5.0535750°ECoordinates: 52°0′36.24″N 5°3′12.87″E / 52.0100667°N 5.0535750°E |
| Completed | 1961 |
| Height | 366.8 m (1,203.41 ft) |
The Gerbrandy Tower (Dutch: Gerbrandytoren) is a tower in IJsselstein, the Netherlands. It was built in 1961.
The Gerbrandy Tower is used for directional radio services and for FM- and TV-broadcasting. The Gerbrandy Tower consists of a concrete tower with a height of 100 meters on which a guyed aerial mast is mounted. Its total height was originally 382.5 meters, but in 1987 it was reduced to 375 meters.
On August 2, 2007 its analog antenna was replaced by a digital one reducing its height by another 9 meters. Its height is now 366.8 meters.
This tower type is a partially guyed tower, which combines a lower free standing tower antennas with an upper guyed mast. If the structure is counted as a tower, it is the tallest tower in Western Europe. The Gerbrandy Tower is not the only tower which consists of a concrete tower on which a guyed mast is set. There is one similar but smaller tower with the same structure in the Netherlands, the radio tower of Zendstation Smilde, which consisted of an 80 meter high concrete tower, on which a 223.5 meter high guyed mast was mounted. This structure collapsed after a fire on July 15th, 2011. Rebuilding of that tower started in late 2011 and is planned to be complete around August 2012; the replacement structure will also be a partially guyed tower.
The tower is named after Pieter Gerbrandy, Prime Minister of the Netherlands during World War Two.
Nearby, there is another remarkable antenna: the KNMI-mast Cabauw, a mast used for meteorological measurements.
Another nearby antenna, the 196m high mediumwave transmitter Lopik, was demolished on September 4th, 2015.
On July 15th, 2011 there was a small fire in the Gerbrandy tower. Only hours later, a similar tower in Smilde caught fire and collapsed, after which all transmitters in the Gerbrandy tower were shut down as a precaution, leaving large parts of the Netherlands without FM-radio and digital TV (DVB-T) reception.
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