The Bronwydd Arms television relay station is sited on high ground to the west of the village of Bronwydd to the north of Carmarthen. It was originally built in mid 1989[1] as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue colour television covering the village of Bronwydd Arms and the surrounding community. It consists of a 14 m wooden telegraph pole standing on a hillside which is itself about 85 m above sea level. The transmissions are beamed east to cover the target. The Bronwydd Arms transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva.
Mast height | 12 metres (39 ft) |
---|---|
Coordinates | 51°53′23″N 4°18′19″W / 51.8897°N 4.3053°W |
Grid reference | SN414237 |
Built | 1989 |
Relay of | Carmel |
BBC region | BBC Wales |
ITV region | ITV Cymru Wales |
Bronwydd Arms transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Carmel about 30 km to the southeast. When it came, the digital switchover process for Bronwydd Arms duplicated the timing at Carmel with the first stage taking place on 26 August 2009 and with the second stage being completed on 23 September 2009. After the switchover process, analogue channels had ceased broadcasting permanently and the Freeview digital TV services were radiated at an ERP of 2 W each.[2]
Channels listed by frequency
editAnalogue television
edit5 June 1989 - 26 August 2009
editBronwydd Arms entered service on the same day as did the nearby repeater at Cynwyl Elfed.[3] Being in Wales, both transmitted the S4C variant of Channel 4.
Frequency | UHF | kW | Service |
---|---|---|---|
471.25 MHz | 21 | 0.008 | BBC One Wales |
495.25 MHz | 24 | 0.008 | S4C |
519.25 MHz | 27 | 0.008 | BBC Two Wales |
551.25 MHz | 31 | 0.008 | ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002) |
Analogue and digital television
edit26 August 2009 - 23 September 2009
editThe UK's digital switchover commenced at Carmel (and therefore at Bronwydd Arms and all its other relays) on 26 August 2009. Analogue BBC Two Wales on channel 27 was first to close, replaced by the new digital BBC A mux which started up in 64-QAM and at full power (i.e. 2 W) on that same channel.
Frequency | UHF | kW | Service | System |
---|---|---|---|---|
471.25 MHz | 21 | 0.008 | BBC One Wales | PAL System I |
495.25 MHz | 24 | 0.008 | S4C | PAL System I |
522.000 MHz | 27 | 0.002 | BBC A | DVB-T |
551.25 MHz | 31 | 0.008 | ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002) | PAL System I |
Digital television
edit23 September 2009 - present
editThe remaining analogue TV services were closed down and the digital multiplexes took over on the original analogue channels' frequencies.
Frequency | UHF | kW | Operator |
---|---|---|---|
474.166 MHz | 21+ | 0.002 | BBC B |
498.000 MHz | 24 | 0.002 | Digital 3&4 |
522.000 MHz | 27 | 0.002 | BBC A |
References
edit- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 January 2009. Retrieved 23 April 2012.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Freeview on Bronwydd Arms TV transmitter". ukfree.tv. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
- ^ "Press Release: Bronwydd Arms television relay station now open" (PDF). BBC. 5 June 1989. Retrieved 24 May 2012.