Cardigan transmitting station

The Cardigan transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility located at Penwaun in Pembrokeshire, Wales, about 3 km to the south west of the town of Cardigan, in neighbouring Ceredigion. It was originally built by the BBC,[1] entering service in 1967 acting as a relay transmitter for the now-defunct 405-line VHF television system.

Cardigan

Cardigan transmitting station (Pembrokeshire)
Tower height	45 metres (148 ft)
Coordinates	52.0642°N 4.69454°W / 52.0642; -4.69454
Grid reference	SN154442
Built	1967
BBC region	BBC Wales (1967-1982)

Specifications

The site has a self-standing 45 m (148 ft) lattice tower erected on land that is itself about 180 m above sea level. The television broadcast primarily covered the town of Cardigan and the estuary of the Teifi river.

The 405-line VHF television service closed across the UK in 1985, but according to the BBC's transmitter list[2] and the BBC's internal "Eng. Inf." magazine,[3] Cardigan was due to close early - in the third quarter of 1982. From that point until 1992, the site was used for telecommunications purposes only. The local UHF television relay (analogue and digital) was sited at St. Dogmaels, about 1.5 km north east of the Penwaun site.

Penwaun currently broadcasts a single analogue FM radio station, Radio Ceredigion, serving a very similar area to the one intended for the old 405-line television coverage. This transmission is a relay of the Radio Ceredigion service from Blaenplwyf transmitting station about 50 km to the north east.

Services listed by frequency

Analogue television

6 February 1967 - Third Quarter 1982

Frequency	VHF	kW	Service
51.75 MHz	2	0.044	BBC1 Wales

Analogue radio (FM VHF)

14 December 1992 - January 2012

Frequency	kW	Service
97.4 MHz	0.2	Radio Ceredigion

See also

• List of masts
• List of radio stations in the United Kingdom
• List of tallest buildings and structures in Great Britain

References

1. "CARDIGAN V.H.F. RELAY STATION: SUMMARY OF INSTALLATION" (PDF). BBC. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
2. "405-line television transmitters". Archived from the original on 2012-08-13. Retrieved 2013-11-15.
3. "405 line Transmitters to close" (PDF). 'ENG INF' Spring 1981. BBC. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2013-11-15.

External links

• MB21's page on BBC 405 TV to Wales and the West
• 405 Alive's list of transmitters"
• More details on 405-line BBC transmitters
• The Transmission Gallery: Photographs and Information