Llansawel transmitting station

The Llansawel television relay station is sited on high ground to the north of the village of Llansawel in Carmarthenshire, South Wales. It was originally built in 1986 as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue television. It consists of a 17 m wooden telegraph pole standing on a hillside which is itself about 160 m above sea level. The transmissions are beamed southwards. The Llansawel transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva.

Llansawel

Llansawel Carmel
Mast height	17 metres (56 ft)
Coordinates	52°00′46″N 4°00′52″W
Grid reference	SN618368
Built	1986
Relay of	Carmel
BBC region	BBC Wales
ITV region	ITV Wales

Llansawel transmitter is classed as an indirect off-air relay of Carmel. It re-radiates a signal received off-air from Talley about 5 km to the southeast, which itself is a direct off-air relay of Carmel. When it came, the digital switchover process for Llansawel 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 2 W each.[1]

Channels listed by frequency

Analogue television

Spring/Summer 1986 - 26 August 2009

Llansawel entered service in late spring/early summer 1986,[2] and (being in Wales) transmitted the S4C variant of Channel 4.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Service
479.25 MHz	22	0.006	BBC One Wales
503.25 MHz	25	0.006	ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002)
527.25 MHz	28	0.006	BBC Two Wales
559.25 MHz	32	0.006	S4C

Analogue and digital television

26 August 2009 - 23 September 2009

The UK's digital switchover commenced at Carmel (and therefore at Llansawel and all its other relays) on 26 August 2009. Analogue BBC Two Wales on channel 28 was first to close, and was replaced by the new digital BBC A mux which started up in 64-QAM and at full power (i.e. 2 W).

Frequency	UHF	kW	Service	System
479.25 MHz	22	0.006	BBC One Wales	PAL System I
503.25 MHz	25	0.006	ITV1 Wales	PAL System I
530.000 MHz	28	0.002	BBC A	DVB-T
559.25 MHz	32	0.006	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	0.002	BBC B
506.000 MHz	25	0.002	Digital 3&4
530.000 MHz	28	0.002	BBC A

References

1. "Freeview on Llansawel TV transmitter". ukfree.tv. Retrieved 2012-02-17.
2. http://www.bbceng.info/Eng_Inf/EngInf_25.pdf

External links

• The Transmission Gallery: Llansawel