St Dogmaels television relay station

The St Dogmaels television relay station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility located just above the village of St Dogmaels in Pembrokeshire, Wales, about 2 km to the south west of the town of Cardigan, in neighbouring Ceredigion(grid reference SN165452). It was originally built by the IBA as a 625-line analogue UHF television relay, entering service in early 1978. Since then it has been converted to transmit the main three multiplexes of the DVB-T digital television system.

St Dogmaels
St Dogmaels
Preseli
Mast height25 metres (82 ft)
Coordinates52°04′30″N 4°40′42″W
Built1978
Relay ofPreseli
BBC regionBBC Wales
ITV regionITV Wales

The builders of this UHF relay chose not to re-use a nearby existing site with a 45 metres (148 ft) lattice tower built by the BBC in 1967 as a relay for the 405-line VHF TV system. This despite it being only about 1.5 km to the south west and on higher ground.

The site has a self-standing tower erected on land that is itself about 100 meters above sea level. The television broadcasts primarily cover St Dogmaels itself plus the town of Cardigan and the upper estuary of the Teifi river.

The transmissions from this relay come off-air from the Preseli transmitter about 20 km to the south.

Services listed by frequency

Early 1978 - 1 November 1982

At the time this relay was built, the UK only had three UHF networks.

Frequency UHF kW Service
487.25 MHz 23 0.015 HTV Wales
511.25 MHz 26 0.015 BBC2 Wales
567.25 MHz 33 0.015 BBC1 Wales

1 November 1982 - 19 August 2009

The new Channel 4 network arrived in 1982. Being in Wales, St Dogmaels carried the Welsh variant S4C.

Frequency UHF kW Service
487.25 MHz 23 0.015 ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002)
511.25 MHz 26 0.015 BBC Two Wales
535.25 MHz 29 0.015 S4C
567.25 MHz 33 0.015 BBC One Wales

19 August 2009 - 16 September 2009

The digital switchover started on this relay's parent transmitter at Preseli. BBC Two Wales was shut down. ITV1 Wales moved to the old BBC Two Wales frequency, freeing up channel 23 which then became this site's first digital transmission.

Frequency UHF kW Service System
490.000 MHz 23 0.003 BBC A DVB-T
511.25 MHz 26 0.015 ITV1 Wales PAL System I
535.25 MHz 29 0.015 S4C PAL System I
567.25 MHz 33 0.015 BBC One Wales PAL System I

16 September 2009 - present

With the completion of the digital switchover at Preseli on 16 September, all analogue television from this site ceased forever. The site now only delivers DVB-T digital television.

Frequency UHF kW Operator
490.000 MHz 23 0.003 BBC A
514.000 MHz 26 0.003 Digital 3&4
538.000 MHz 29 0.003 BBC B

See also

References
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