Rhayader television relay station

The Rhayader television relay station is sited on high ground to the northeast of the town of Rhayader, south Wales. It was originally built in the 1980s as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue television covering the communities of Rhayader and St. Harmon. It consists of a 45 m self-supporting lattice steel mast standing on a hillside which is itself about 345 m above sea level. The transmissions are beamed southwest and northwest to cover its targets. The Rhayader transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva.

Rhayader
Rhayader television relay station (Powys)
Mast height45 metres (148 ft)
Coordinates52.320043°N 3.489833°W / 52.320043; -3.489833
Grid referenceSN985701
Built1980s
Relay ofCarmel
BBC regionBBC Wales
ITV regionITV Wales

Rhayader transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Llandrindod Wells which is itself an off-air relay of Carmel about 60 km to the southwest. When it came, the digital switchover process for Rhayader 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 20 W each.[1]

Channels listed by frequency

1980s - 26 August 2009

Being in Wales, Rhayader transmitted the S4C variant of Channel 4.

Frequency UHF kW Service
487.25 MHz 23 0.1 ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002)
511.25 MHz 26 0.1 BBC Two Wales
?? MHz 0 0.0
567.25 MHz 33 0.1 BBC One Wales

26 August 2009 - 23 September 2009

The UK's digital switchover commenced at Carmel (and therefore at Rhayader and all its other relays) on 26 August 2009. Analogue BBC Two Wales on channel 26 was first to close, and ITV Wales was moved from channel 23 to channel 26 for its last month of service. Channel 23 was replaced by the new digital BBC A mux which started up in 64-QAM and at full power (i.e. 20 W).

Frequency UHF kW Service System
487.25 MHz 23 0.02 BBC A DVB-T
511.25 MHz 26 0.1 ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002) PAL System I
?? MHz 0 0.0 NTSC System I
567.25 MHz 33 0.1 BBC One Wales PAL System I

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
490.000 MHz 23 0.02 BBC A
514.000 MHz 26 0.02 BBC B
538.000 MHz 29 0.02 Digital 3&4
See also: List of digital terrestrial television channels (UK)

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