Brechfa
Brechfa transmitting station is located in Carmarthenshire
Brechfa
Brechfa
Carmel
Carmel
Mast height12 metres (39 ft)
Coordinates51°56′20″N 4°10′37″W / 51.9389°N 4.1769°W / 51.9389; -4.1769
Grid referenceSN504289
Built1980s
Relay ofCarmel
BBC regionBBC Wales
ITV regionITV Cymru Wales

The Brechfa television relay station is sited on high ground to the east of the village of Brechfa to the northeast of Carmarthen. It was originally built in the 1980s as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue colour television covering the communities of Brechfa, Horeb and Aber Goleu. It consists of a 12 m self-supporting lattice steel mast standing on a hillside which is itself about 290 m above sea level. The transmissions are beamed northeast to cover all these targets. The Brechfa transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva.

Brechfa transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Carmel about 30 km to the south. When it came, the digital switchover process for Brechfa 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 3.6 W each.[1]

Channels listed by frequency

Analogue television

1980s - 26 August 2009

Brechfa (being in Wales) transmitted the S4C variant of Channel 4.

Frequency UHF kW Service
471.25 MHz 21 0.018 BBC One Wales
495.25 MHz 24 0.018 S4C
519.25 MHz 27 0.018 BBC Two Wales
551.25 MHz 31 0.018 ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002)

Analogue and digital television

26 August 2009 - 23 September 2009

The UK's digital switchover commenced at Carmel (and therefore at Brechfa 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. 3.6 W) on that same channel.

Frequency UHF kW Service System
471.25 MHz 21 0.018 BBC One Wales PAL System I
495.25 MHz 24 0.018 S4C PAL System I
522.000 MHz 27 0.0036 BBC A DVB-T
551.25 MHz 31 0.018 ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002) PAL System I

Digital television

23 September 2009 - present

The 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+ 0.0036 BBC B
498.000 MHz 24 0.0036 Digital 3&4
522.000 MHz 27 0.0036 BBC A

References

  1. ↑ "Freeview on Brechfa TV transmitter". ukfree.tv. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
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