Kilvey Hill transmitting station

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The Kilvey Hill transmitting station was originally built at the summit of

Kilvey Hill Kilvey Hill ( Welsh: ''Mynydd Cilfái'' or ''Y Bigwrn'') is a hill in South Wales, to the east of Swansea. Kilvey Hill is high and is classed as a Sub Marilyn. The top of Kilvey Hill enjoys panoramic views of Swansea city centre, Swansea Do ...

in Swansea,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, by the

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in 1967 as a relay for VHF and UHF television. VHF television came on air a few months before the UHF services. As built, the station did not radiate VHF FM radio, this was added later. Currently, the hill's transmitters cater for viewers and listeners in the Swansea and

Neath Port Talbot Neath Port Talbot ( cy, Castell-nedd Port Talbot) is a county borough in the south-west of Wales. Its principal towns are Neath, Port Talbot, Briton Ferry and Pontardawe. The county borough borders Bridgend County Borough and Rhondda Cynon Taf ...

area. The transmission station located on top of

is owned and operated by

Arqiva Arqiva () is a British telecommunications company which provides infrastructure, broadcast transmission and smart meter facilities in the United Kingdom. The company is headquartered at the former Independent Broadcasting Authority headquart ...

Freeview Freeview may refer to: * Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia * Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand *Freeview (UK), ...

digital terrestrial TV was already available at low power from this transmitter before the

digital switchover The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is conv ...

process began, with the first stage taking place on Wednesday 12 August 2009. The second stage was completed on Wednesday 9 September 2009, with the transmitter becoming the first in Wales to complete digital switchover. After the switchover process, analogue channels ceased broadcasting permanently and the Freeview power increased from 383 W ERP to 2 kW ERP, a 7 dB power increase.

Channels listed by frequency

Analogue television

December 1967 - 17 February 1968

Kilvey Hill provided BBC 405-line VHF television to the Neath and Port Talbot area which is strongly shielded by local hills from the

Wenvoe Wenvoe ( cy, Gwenfô) is a village, community and electoral ward between Barry and Cardiff in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. Nearby are the Wenvoe Transmitter near Twyn-yr-Odyn and the site of the former HTV Wales Television Centre at Culverhouse ...

transmitter just to the west of Cardiff. Kilvey Hill was a relay of the Wenvoe transmitter. Despite being sited at Swansea, no effort was made to provide the VHF TV signal to Swansea itself - the town was already deemed to be well served by Wenvoe.

17 February 1968 - 28 January 1972

A BBC R&D report details the coming of 625-line UHF television to the Kilvey Hill site. This again was with the station acting as an off-air relay of Wenvoe, which was (at that point) only transmitting BBC 2 (in colour) on 625-lines. This time, the northern parts of Swansea were intended to be covered by the signal as local hills (including Kilvey Hill itself) shielded those parts of the town from the UHF signal from Wenvoe.

28 January 1972 - 1 November 1982

BBC 1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

and

HTV Wales ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom. There is no channel, past or present, named "ITV Wales ...

came on air from Wenvoe in April 1970, but it was nearly two years later before Kilvey Hill started to relay those channels.

1 November 1982 - Second Quarter 1983

Channel 4 launched across the UK in 1982. Kilvey Hill (being in Wales) transmitted the S4C variant.

Second Quarter 1983 - 15 July 1997

405 line television was discontinued early, and from then onwards TV transmissions were on UHF only.

15 July 1997 - 15 November 1998

During 1997, Channel 5 gained an analogue channel from some transmitters and Kilvey Hill was one of them. The site radiated all five UK terrestrial analogue television services at 10 kW until digital switchover was completed on 9 September 2009.

Analogue and digital television

15 November 1998 - 12 August 2009

The initial rollout of digital television in the UK involved radiating the signals at low power in between the existing analogue channels. The apparent use of channels "21" and "22-" for muxes "C" and "2" respectively might look like a mistake, but is confirmed by OFCOM's site.

12 August 2009 - 9 September 2009

The UK's

commenced with Kilvey Hill on 12 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. With it went Mux 1 from channel 25- to be replaced by the new BBC A mux which started up in 64-QAM and at full power (i.e. 2 kW) on channel 23 which had just been vacated in the shuffle.

Digital television

9 September 2009 - 17 Jul 2019

The remaining analogue TV services were closed down, the digital multiplexes took over their original frequencies (and a few new ones) with a power increase and a move to 64-QAM encoding. The service covers Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, and parts of South Wales including Cowbridge and the Vale of Glamorgan where the Wenvoe Transmitters’ signals are shielded by hills.

17 Jul 2019 - present

Services have moved to different frequencies.

Analogue radio (VHF FM)

30 September 1974 - Early 1980s

The first FM radio from the site was Wales' first independent radio station, Swansea Sound.

Early 1980s - 1989

Swansea Sound changed frequency to 96.4 MHz as required by a new bandplan for Band II broadcasting which placed BBC stations below 96 MHz and

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...

stations above that. The band limit was 98 MHz at that point. BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio Cymru commenced from the site sometime before 1988 as the BBC's Service Area map of 1988 shows.

1989 - 30 September 1995

The 1988 bandplan for Band II raised the upper limit for broadcasting to 100 MHz and Radio 1 gained its own frequency.

30 September 1995 - 1997

Swansea Sound changed its name first to "96.4 Sound Wave" then (quickly) to

96.4 The Wave The Wave is an Independent Local Radio station based in Swansea, Wales, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, East Carmarthenshire and South West Wales. As of September 20 ...

1997 - present

Classic FM came on air in 1997, the other new services have joined at various times since then. Radio Cymru has moved to 104.2 MHz with BBC Radio Wales taking over the vacated 93.9 MHz slot.

Digital radio (DAB)

The digital radio signal covers Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, and parts of South Wales including Cowbridge and the Vale of Glamorgan where the Wenvoe Transmitters’ signals are shielded by hills.

References

External links

Kilvey Hill transmitter infoThe Transmission Gallery: Kilvey Hill
{{Kilvey Hill UHF DVB Transmitter Group Transmitter sites in Wales Wenvoe VHF 405-line Transmitter Group Wenvoe UHF 625-line Transmitter Group Mass media and culture in Swansea Media and culture in Neath Port Talbot 1967 establishments in Wales Towers completed in 1967