Ystalyfera transmitting station

The Ystalyfera television relay station is sited on high ground to the south of the towns of Ystalyfera and Gurnos in the middle Swansea Valley. It was originally built in the 1980s as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue television covering the communities of Ystalyfera, Gurnos, Ystradgynlais and parts of Seven Sisters. It consists of a 55 m self-supporting lattice steel mast standing on a hillside which is itself about 350 m above sea level. The transmissions are beamed northeast to cover all these targets. The Ystalyfera transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva.

Ystalyfera

Ystalyfera transmitting station (Neath Port Talbot)
Mast height	55 metres (180 ft)
Coordinates	51.756°N 3.769662°W
Grid reference	SN779078
Built	1977
Relay of	Carmel
BBC region	BBC Wales
ITV region	ITV Wales

Ystalyfera transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Carmel about 30 km to the west. When it came, the digital switchover process for Ystalyfera 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 10 W each.[1]

Channels listed by frequency

1 July 1977 - 1 November 1982

The Ystalyfera transmitting station entered full programme service on 1 July 1977.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Service
615.25 MHz	39	0.05	BBC Wales (BBC Cymru Wales until 1981)
663.25 MHz	45	0.05	BBC2 Wales
695.25 MHz	49	0.05	HTV Wales

1 November 1982 - 26 August 2009

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

Frequency	UHF	kW	Service
615.25 MHz	39	0.05	BBC Wales (1981-1985) BBC1 Wales (1985-1991) BBC Wales On 1 (1991-1997) BBC One Wales (from 1997)
639.25 MHz	42	0.05	S4C
663.25 MHz	45	0.05	BBC2 Wales (1981-1991) BBC Wales On 2 (1991-1997) BBC Two Wales (from 1997)
695.25 MHz	49	0.05	HTV Wales (ITV1 Wales from 2002)

26 August 2009 - 23 September 2009

The UK's digital switchover commenced at Carmel (and therefore at Ystalyfera and all its other relays) on 26 August 2009. Analogue BBC Two Wales on channel 45 was first to close, and ITV Wales was moved from channel 49 to channel 45 for its last month of service. Channel 49 was replaced by the new digital BBC A mux which started up in 64-QAM and at full power (i.e. 1 W).

Frequency	UHF	kW	Service	System
615.25 MHz	39	0.05	BBC One Wales	PAL System I
639.25 MHz	42	0.05	S4C	PAL System I
663.25 MHz	45	0.05	ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002)	PAL System I
698.000 MHz	49	0.01	BBC A	DVB-T

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
642.000 MHz	42	0.01	Digital 3&4
666.000 MHz	45	0.01	BBC B
698.000 MHz	49	0.01	BBC A

References

1. "Freeview on Ystalyfera TV transmitter". ukfree.tv. Retrieved 2012-04-20.

External links

• The Transmission Gallery: Ystalyfera