Abercraf transmitting station

Abercraf
Abercraf
Carmel
Height of mast 45 metres (148 ft)
Grid reference SN851123
Built 1980s
Relay of Carmel
BBC region BBC Wales
ITV region ITV Wales

The Abercraf television relay station is sited on high ground to the east of the village of Abercraf in the upper Swansea Valley, though it is actually closer to Coelbren than to Abercraf itself. It was originally built in the 1980s as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue colour television covering the communities of Abercraf, Coelbren, Penycae and Ynyswen. It consists of a 45 m self-supporting lattice mast standing on a hillside which is itself about 270 m above sea level. The transmissions are beamed southwest and northwest. The Abercraf transmission station is owned and operated by Crown Castle.

Abercraf transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Carmel about 20 km to the west. When it came, the digital switchover process for Abercraf 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 18 W each.[1]

Channels listed by frequency

Analogue television

1980s - 26 August 2009

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

Frequency UHF kW Service
479.25 MHz 22 0.125 BBC One Wales
503.25 MHz 25 0.125 ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002)
527.25 MHz 28 0.125 BBC Two Wales
559.25 MHz 32 0.125 S4C

Analogue and digital television

26 August 2009 - 23 September 2009

The UK's digital switchover commenced at Carmel (and therefore at Abercraf and all its other relays) on 26 August 2009. Analogue BBC Two Wales on channel 28 was first to close, and ITV Wales was moved from channel 25 to channel 28 for its last month of service. Channel 25 was replaced by the new digital BBC A mux which started up in 64-QAM and at full power (i.e. 25 W).

Frequency UHF kW Service System
479.25 MHz 22 0.125 BBC One Wales PAL System I
506.000 MHz 25 0.025 BBC A DVB-T
527.25 MHz 28 0.125 ITV1 Wales PAL System I
559.25 MHz 32 0.125 S4C 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
482.000 MHz 22 0.025 BBC B
506.000 MHz 25 0.025 BBC A
530.000 MHz 28 0.025 Digital 3&4

References

  1. ↑ "Freeview on Abercraf TV transmitter". ukfree.tv. Retrieved 2012-02-17.

External links

Coordinates: 51°47′53″N 3°40′01″W / 51.797966°N 3.666888°W