Wrexham-Rhos transmitting station

Wrexham-Rhos
Height of mast	45 metres (148 ft)
Grid reference	SJ3000153762
Built	1977
Relay of	Moel-y-Parc
BBC region	BBC Wales
ITV region	ITV Wales

The Wrexham-Rhos transmitting station is a digital television relay of Moel-y-Parc, and forms part of the Wales television region. Despite its name, the station is situated in Moss Village and serves the town of Wrexham, the northern area of Wrexham County Borough and south-western Flintshire. It is a free-standing lattice tower structure serving around 85,000 homes which are unable to receive broadcasts from Moel-y-Parc due to Hope Mountain.

This area is traditionally served by English transmitters at Winter Hill and The Wrekin, which have historically provided English-language channels Channel 4 and Channel 5, plus the digital terrestrial services ONdigital/ITV Digital (from 1998 to 2002) and Freeview from 2002 onwards. Wrexham-Rhos was constructed to coincide with the 1977 National Eisteddfod in Wrexham, initially providing S4C and BBC One Wales,^[1] later joined by HTV Wales and BBC Two Wales in 1997.^[2]

Services available

Analogue television

1977 - 1 November 1982

1 November 1982 - 1997

1997 - November 1998

November 1998 - 28 October 2009

Prior to analogue switch-off, Wrexham-Rhos broadcast four of the five national terrestrial stations. Channels 1 to 3 were broadcast at 200 W ERP, while S4C was broadcast at 400 W. In 1998, due to the upcoming launch of ONdigital from neighbouring transmission site, Winter Hill, S4C from the relay was required to change frequency (from UHF Channel 67). A message was displayed telling viewers to re-tune their televisions of the channel were carried for a couple of months. When the original frequency was switched off, the power on the newer version was increased.

Analogue and digital television

28 October 2009 - 25 November 2009

Digital television

25 November 2009 - present

At present, the station broadcasts three of the six national digital terrestrial television multiplexes on the "Freeview Lite" service. The station switched over to digital transmissions from analogue throughout November 2009, and remaining analogue services ceased at midnight on 25 November 2009. BBC A and Digital 3&4 broadcast using MPEG2 compression on DVB-T standards, whilst the HD multiplex, BBC B, uses DVB-T2.

Analogue radio (FM VHF)

Digital radio (DAB)

† Awarded but not yet on air^[3]

See also

• Winter Hill transmitting station
• The Wrekin transmitting station

References

External links

• mb21 - The Transmission Gallery - photographs
• ukfree.tv Shutdown plans for Wrexham-Rhos

v t e Television transmitter and major relay sites in the United Kingdom England East Mendlesham Sandy Heath Sudbury Tacolneston East Midlands Belmont Chesterfield Waltham Greater London Alexandra Palace Croydon Crystal Palace North East Berwick-upon-Tweed Burnhope Chatton Pontop Pike North West Caldbeck Sandale Storeton West Kirby Winter Hill South East Bluebell Hill Chillerton Down Dover Frémont Point (Channel Islands) Hannington Heathfield Membury Midhurst Oxford Rowridge Whitehawk Hill South West Beacon Hill Caradon Hill Huntshaw Cross Mendip North Hessary Tor Redruth Stockland Hill Washford West Midlands Lichfield Ridge Hill Sutton Coldfield The Wrekin Yorkshire and the Humber Bilsdale Emley Moor Halifax Holme Moss Oliver's Mount Sheffield Scotland Angus Balgownie Black Hill Bonchester Bridge Bressay Craigkelly Darvel Durris Eitshal Eyemouth Galashiels Hawick Jedburgh Keelylang Hill Kirk o'Shotts Knock More Meldrum Mounteagle Rosemarkie Rumster Forest Selkirk Skriaig Tay Bridge Yetholm Wales Arfon Blaenplwyf Carmel Ferryside Flint Haverfordwest Kilvey Hill Llanddona Moel-y-Parc Preseli St Hilary Storeton Wenvoe Wrexham-Rhos Northern Ireland Black Mountain Brougher Mountain Divis Limavady Strabane Italics denotes a transmitter no longer used for transmitting television signals.

Coordinates: 53°04′34″N 3°02′42″W / 53.0762°N 3.0450°W / 53.0762; -3.0450