Wrexham-Rhos transmitting station

Wrexham-Rhos
Mast height 45 metres (148 ft)
Coordinates 53°04′34″N 3°02′42″W / 53.0762°N 3.045°W / 53.0762; -3.045Coordinates: 53°04′34″N 3°02′42″W / 53.0762°N 3.045°W / 53.0762; -3.045
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

Frequency UHF kW Service
615.25 MHz 39 0.2 BBC1 Wales

1 November 1982 - 1997

Frequency UHF kW Service
615.25 MHz 39 0.2 BBC1 Wales
839.25 MHz 67 0.4 S4C

1997 - November 1998

Frequency UHF kW Service
527.25 MHz 28 0.2 BBC Two Wales
559.25 MHz 32 0.2 HTV Wales
615.25 MHz 39 0.2 BBC One Wales
839.25 MHz 67 0.4 S4C

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.

Frequency UHF kW Service
503.25 MHz 25 0.4 S4C
527.25 MHz 28 0.2 BBC Two Wales
559.25 MHz 32 0.2 ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002)
615.25 MHz 39 0.2 BBC One Wales

Analogue and digital television

28 October 2009 - 25 November 2009

Frequency UHF kW Service System
503.25 MHz 25 0.4 S4C PAL System I
527.25 MHz 28 0.08 BBC A DVB-T
559.25 MHz 32 0.2 ITV1 Wales PAL System I
615.25 MHz 39 0.2 BBC One Wales PAL System I

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.

Frequency UHF kW Operator
482.000 MHz 22 0.08 Digital 3&4
506.000 MHz 25 0.08 BBC B
530.000 MHz 28 0.08 BBC A

Analogue radio (FM VHF)

Frequency kW Service
88.0 MHz 0.7 Heart North Wales
95.4 MHz 0.7 BBC Radio Wales
103.4 MHz 1.4 Capital North West and Wales

Digital radio (DAB)

Frequency Block kW Operator
215.072 MHz 10D — MuxCo North East Wales & West Cheshire†

† Awarded but not yet on air[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ mb21 The Transmission Gallery - Wrexham-Rhos
  2. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20070930034741/http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/itc/uploads/HTV_APR_text.doc ITC: WALES AND THE WEST OF ENGLAND: HTV (archived copy from Internet Archive)
  3. ↑ Radio Listeners Guide 2010
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