Cynwyl Elfed transmitting station

The Cynwyl Elfed television relay station is sited on high ground to the east of the village of Cynwyl Elfed 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 Cynwyl Elfed and the surrounding community. It consists of a 14 m self-supporting lattice steel mast standing on a hillside which is itself about 115 m above sea level. The transmissions are beamed west to cover the target. The Cynwyl Elfed transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva.

Cynwyl Elfed
Cynwyl Elfed
Preseli
Mast height12 metres (39 ft)
Coordinates51°55′15″N 4°21′49″W
Grid referenceSN375273
Built1989
Relay ofPreseli
BBC regionBBC Wales
ITV regionITV Wales

Cynwyl Elfed transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Preseli about 20 km to the west. When it came, the digital switchover process for Cynwyl Elfed duplicated the timing at Preseli with the first stage taking place on 19 August 2009 and with the second stage being completed on 16 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

5 June 1989 - 19 August 2009

Cynwyl Elfed entered service on the same day as did the nearby repeater at Bronwydd Arms.[3] Being in Wales, both transmitted the S4C variant of Channel 4.

Frequency UHF kW Service
479.25 MHz 22 0.004 BBC One Wales
503.25 MHz 25 0.004 ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002)
527.25 MHz 28 0.004 BBC Two Wales
559.25 MHz 32 0.004 S4C

19 August 2009 - 16 September 2009

The UK's digital switchover commenced at Preseli (and therefore at Cynwyl Elfed and all its other relays) on 19 August 2009. Analogue BBC Two Wales on channel 28 was first to close, and ITV1 Wales was moved to that channel for its final three weeks of service. The new digital BBC A mux then started up in 64-QAM and at full power (i.e. 2 W) on channel 25 which had been vacated in the shuffle.

Frequency UHF kW Service System
479.25 MHz 22 0.004 BBC One Wales PAL System I
506.000 MHz 25 0.002 BBC A DVB-T
527.25 MHz 28 0.004 ITV1 Wales PAL System I
559.25 MHz 32 0.004 S4C PAL System I

16 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
482.000 MHz 22 0.002 Digital 3&4
506.000 MHz 25 0.002 BBC A
530.000 MHz 28 0.002 BBC B
See also: List of digital terrestrial television channels (UK)

References
  1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2012-05-25.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Freeview on Cynwyl Elfed TV transmitter". ukfree.tv. Retrieved 2012-04-20.
  3. "Press Release: Cynwyl Elfed television relay station now open" (PDF). BBC. 5 June 1989. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
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