Pontardawe television relay station: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 11:15, 16 February 2012
Mast height | 46 metres (151 ft) |
---|---|
Coordinates | 51°43′05″N 3°50′10″W / 51.7181°N 3.8362°W |
Grid reference | SN732037 |
Built | 1975 |
BBC region | BBC Wales |
ITV region | ITV Wales |
The transmitter at Pontardawe was originally built in 1974/1975 as a relay for UHF television. It consists of a 45 m self-supporting lattice mast standing on a hillside at about 170 m above sea level (about 100 m above the town). Currently, the transmitters cater for most of the digital terrestrial TV subscribers in the towns of Pontardawe and Alltwen and in the nearby villages of that section of the Tawe valley. The transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva.
Pontardawe transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Kilvey Hill about 15 km to the south. The digital switchover process duplicated the timing at the parent station, with the first stage taking place on Wednesday 12 August 2009 and the second stage was completed on Wednesday 9 September 2009, with the transmitter-group becoming the first in Wales to complete digital switchover. After the switchover process, analogue channels had ceased broadcasting permanently and the Freeview digital TV services were radiated at an ERP of 25W each.[1]
Channels listed by frequency
Analogue television
Early 1975 - 1 November 1982
Pontardawe mast was needed because the signal from Kilvey Hill was unreliable (or unobtainable) for the communities at river level.
Frequency | UHF | kW | Service |
---|---|---|---|
767.25 MHz | 58 | 0.05 | BBC One Wales |
791.25 MHz | 61 | 0.05 | ITV1 Wales |
815.25 MHz | 64 | 0.05 | BBC Two Wales |
1 November 1982 - 12 August 2009
Channel 4 launched across the UK in 1982. Pontardawe (being in Wales) transmitted the S4C variant. The power levels on all four UHF channels were increased to 125 W.
Frequency | UHF | kW | Service |
---|---|---|---|
767.25 MHz | 58 | 0.125 | BBC One Wales |
791.25 MHz | 61 | 0.125 | ITV1 Wales |
815.25 MHz | 64 | 0.125 | BBC Two Wales |
847.25 MHz | 68 | 0.125 | S4C |
Analogue and Digital television
12 August 2009 - 9 September 2009
The UK's Digital Switchover commenced at Kilvey Hill (and therefore at Pontardawe and all its other relays) on 12 August 2009. Analogue BBC Two Wales on channel 64 was first to close, and ITV Wales was moved from channel 61 to channel 64 for its last month of service. Channel 61 was replaced by the new digital BBC A mux which started up in 64-QAM and at full power (i.e 25 W).
Frequency | UHF | kW | Service | System |
---|---|---|---|---|
767.25 MHz | 58 | 0.125 | BBC One Wales | PAL System I |
791.25 MHz | 61 | 0.025 | BBC A | DVB-T |
815.25 MHz | 64 | 0.125 | ITV1 Wales | PAL System I |
847.25 MHz | 68 | 0.125 | S4C | PAL System I |
Digital television
9 September 2009 - Present Day
The remaining analogue TV services were closed down and the digital multiplexes took over the original channel 58 frequency vacated by BBC 1 Wales and a new allocation of channel 54. This was done as part of the Europe-wide tactic of clearing Band V above 800 MHz so as to make space for a future 4G mobile phone service.
Frequency | UHF | kW | Operator |
---|---|---|---|
738.000 MHz | 54 | 0.025 | BBC B |
770.000 MHz | 58 | 0.025 | Digital 3&4 |
794.000 MHz | 61 | 0.025 | BBC A |
References
- ^ "Freeview on Pontardawe TV transmitter". ukfree.tv. Retrieved 2012-02-16.
External links
51°43′05″N 3°50′10″W / 51.718111°N 3.836224°W{{#coordinates:}}: cannot have more than one primary tag per page