Transmission tower (Houtem, Veurne, Belgium)
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General information about Jump Trading's transmission tower
Houtem 's transmitter mast is not "just" the first, the best transmitter mast. It is a whopping 243.5 meters high and, since 2013, owned by the American company Jump Trading LLC (based in Chicago). The site 38025/838 SV is 1 hectare, 31 ares 66 cents in size.
They bought, through a company based in the UK, the tower of the Ministry of Finance for 5 million euros on December 19, 2012. The deal was made public on January 9, 2013 without, however, mentioning who the buyer was. That was to remain a secret at the time. It had become much more than the initially approved bid of "only " 255,000 EUR for what ended up being just a piece of farmland for many.
The Ministry of Finance had obtained the tower from the Belgian Army. The transmitter tower used to be a transmission tower for NATO and known by the name "HOUTEM RADIO RELAY SITE." You can see it listed in this 1999 U.S. Army inventory, among other things: "Base Structure Report" (PDF file). The Americans had signed a treaty with the Kingdom of Belgium in 1963 to be allowed to install and operate such transmitter installations on Belgian territory. A first transmitter installation was then planned in Flobecq. Construction of the transmitter mast in Houtem was presumably completed at the end of 1973. However, the Americans decided in 2006 that communication would no longer be done by transmitters but rather by fiber optics. As a result, this high transmitter mast was no longer useful for military purposes.
The name of the current owner, "Jump Trading," itself gives it away: the mast is now being used to enable particularly fast stock market transactions in the financial world (more specifically between the Frankfurt and London stock exchanges) via radio links.
Did you know that... microwave connections are faster than fiber because of 2 reasons:
1) because you're with straight connections between transmitter and receiver. Optical fibers can sometimes make a detour via several intermediate stations, which means you lose some time because, due to this detour, the distance to be covered is just a bit longer; and
2) because microwaves travelling through the air do so at a speed of about 300,000 km/s and light signals in a fiber optic at only about 200,000 km/s, which is obviously a very big difference 33% slower!) To make it concrete for a moment: for every 300 kilometers the signal has to travel you gain rounded 1 millisecond, enough to get ahead of your exchange competitors. London is about 635 km away from Frankfurt. The time gain is about 1 millisecond in one direction, so a roundtrip is about 2 ms faster.
As an aside, an article in De Morgen states that in this particular case the time gain would be 0.000 004 seconds: barely 4 microseconds. In my opinion, this is a factor of 1000 wrong: 4 millisecondswould be much more realistic. Perhaps "gazette talk"... 😉
The map below clearly shows you that the transmission tower is very well located between London and Frankfurt. Why they don't connect London and Frankfurt without an intermediate station in Houtem ? Very simple: the Earth is round. For London, Frankfurt is below the horizon (and vice versa). By choosing a very high intermediate station you can solve the problem of the curvature of the Earth. Well seen huh 😉
However, this is the "principle." I presented it somewhat simplified at first. In reality, Houtem's transmission tower will not speak in one direct link to London, nor to Frankfurt. It will do so using several other intermediate links. This is because a microwave antenna can only typically radiate 40 to 60 km far. In the case of a high mast, this can be increased to 70 to 90 km, possibly even up to 100 km (if that mast is still on a hill, which is not the case in the case of Houtem: the polders there are even just slightly below sea level). Too short, then, to reach London or Frankfurt from Houtem in one trip. The total distance London-Frankfurt is about 650 kilometers. So several intermediate stations will have to be used. Houtem's transmission tower is only one link in a much larger chain connecting the two exchanges.
Another fact: Microwaves have wavelengths ranging from 1 m (at a frequency of 300 MHz) to 1 mm (at a frequency of 300 GHz), i.e. UHF, SHF and EHF.
Also consider this: how far is the horizon when someone is at x meters above the Earth's surface? Well:
distance from the horizon in km = 3.57 x square root (height in meters).
For the mast of Houtem, which is almost 244 meters high, we obtain a distance to the horizon of 56 km. Know that you cannot see behind the horizon. Suppose the other communication mast, the receiver, is also about 244 meters high, then in theory you can bridge a distance of up to 2 x 56 = 112km. In a straight line, London is 201 km from Houtem (Frankfurt is at least 350 km away), so you just can't get there in one go (because of the curvature of the Earth, and even with antennas that are 244 meters high). So you have to include other intermediate stations. That's really how the story works. 😉
Here we enter the realm of so-called "flash trading" or also called "High Frequency Trading" (abbreviated as HFT). Read more about this in this VRT article or Knack article. Flash trading came into a negative light via the book "Flash Boys" by former bond trader Michael Lewis.
The transmitter mast in Houtem is a "guyed mast " - that is, a tall metal tower stabilized by 48 steel cables (also called "guy-wires") anchored in the ground. The mast is narrow at the bottom: everything rests on a ring, with a diameter of barely 20 cm, on a concrete block. We counted 4 times 2, so 8 anchor points: these are very large concrete blocks. Per anchor point there are 6 guy ropes. These blocks go up to 15 meters deep into the ground which is also necessary given the wet ground. The Moeren were once swamps, but afterwards they were largely drained, but still.
Reportedly, the transmitter mast originally would have been even some 30 meters higher: 274 meters in total. With its current 244 meters, this mast is now in 5th place of the highest masts in Belgium(FR - EN). So only 4 are higher.
Did you know ... on Aug. 30, 2025, this mast was still in the news when a 17-year-old young Frenchman climbed up to 180 m into the transmitter mast? Read more about it on HLN' s website.
Visitor tips the transmission tower of Jump Trading
General tips:
1) if you are looking for other nearby attractions, consult our Tourist map of Top.Vlaanderen.
2) You can consult our overview lists: by category ( e.g. timeline, size, ...) or by region
3) You can also always consult tourist services: see our overview of tourist services
Tip 1: You obviously can't climb the transmitter mast. If you want a nice view of the region, you can go to the Saint-Nicolas tower of Veurne and the IJerztoren in Diksmuide.
Tip 2: If you like mills, know that there are 3 mills not so far away from this transmission tower: the Noordmeulen (Hondschoote, France), the Saint Charles Mill and the Sint-Gustaafsmolen (both in De Moeren, Belgium).
Geographical information
Address: Reigersstraat, Houtem, West Flanders, Belgium
Geographical coordinates:
- Google Maps: Latitude = 51.0105002 - Longitude = 2.573033
- Open Street Maps: Latitude = 51.010525 - Longitude = 2.578152
- Altitude h = -2 m
Indication of Jump Trading's transmitter mast on:
Tourist map of Top.Vlaanderen - Google Maps - OpenStreetMap.
Route to Jump Trading's transmitter mast: Route via Google Maps
Meteo
7°C
| Day | Condition | Temperature | Precipitation | Rain Chance | Wind | Humidity | Pressure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Today
22:00
|
 cloudy
|
6° | 7°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 10 Km/h | 95 % | 1019 mb |
|
Tomorrow
22:00
|
 cloudy
|
4° | 9°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 10 Km/h | 91 % | 1020 mb |
|
Mon Jan 26
10:00 p.m.
|
 slightly cloudy
|
3° | 9°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 13 Km/h | 92 % | 1019 mb |
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Tue Jan 26
10:00 p.m.
|
slightly cloudy
|
5° | 10°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 12 Km/h | 92 % | 1020 mb |
|
Wed Jan 26
10:00 p.m.
|
partly cloudy
|
3° | 8°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 25 Km/h | 92 % | 1011 mb |
| Hour | Condition | Temperature | Precipitation | Rain Chance | Wind | Humidity | Pressure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Today
10:00
|
cloudy
|
7° | 7°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 9 Km/h | 95 % | 1015 mb |
|
Today
13:00
|
cloudy
|
9° | 11°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 10 Km/h | 86 % | 1016 mb |
|
Today
16:00
|
cloudy
|
10° | 10°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 7 Km/h | 87 % | 1017 mb |
|
Today
19:00
|
cloudy
|
8° | 8°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 8 Km/h | 93 % | 1018 mb |
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Today
22:00
|
cloudy
|
8° | 8°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 10 Km/h | 91 % | 1019 mb |
|
Tomorrow
01:00
|
cloudy
|
7° | 7°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 8 Km/h | 88 % | 1020 mb |
|
Tomorrow
04:00
|
cloudy
|
7° | 7°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 9 Km/h | 91 % | 1019 mb |
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Tomorrow
07:00
|
cloudy
|
6° | 6°°C | 0 mm | 0% | 10 Km/h | 90 % | 1019 mb |
Starry sky above Jump Trading's transmission tower
Internet information from and about Jump Trading's transmission tower
Wikipedia information about:
- Flash Trading / High Frequency Trading (HFT)(NL - FR - EN)
- Zendmast(NL - FR - EN)
- Microwave(NL - FR - EN)
Article about the history of the Moeren and the former military transmitting facility: article dated March 26, 2019 "4 - Les Moëres English Version" by Alexandre Laumonier. In January 2019, his book entitled "4" on radio networks built for HFT was published (112 p. ISBN 978 293 0601 36 6).
Website with all antennas in Belgium listed (including all conformity certificates): zendmast.be. Only public mobile operator antennas are listed there, so not this transmitter mast of Houtem.
Our photos about Jump Trading's transmission tower
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Photos from the visit on Nov. 28, 2025
Photos from the visit on Nov. 22, 2025
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