Long Mountain transmitting station

The Long Mountain transmitting station is sited on a 400 metres (1,300 ft) ridge about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of Welshpool in Powys, Mid Wales and has been broadcasting UHF terrestrial TV and VHF FM radio services since the late 1970s. The site has a self-supporting 170' (52 metre) high lattice steel mast and was fed with an SHF link from Blaenplwyf via Llangurig. Despite not taking its signal off-air, it was originally classed as a 625-line UHF TV relay of Blaenplwyf.

Long Mountain
Long Mountain transmitting station is located in Powys
Long Mountain transmitting station
Long Mountain transmitting station (Powys)
Mast height52 metres (171 ft)
Coordinates52°38′43″N 3°05′11″W / 52.6452°N 3.0865°W / 52.6452; -3.0865
Grid referenceSJ265058
BuiltLate 1970s
BBC regionBBC Wales
ITV regionITV Cymru Wales

The transmitter originally radiated 1 kW providing TV and radio to an area including Newtown and Oswestry. Being only 400 metres (1,300 ft) from the England/Wales border, coverage extended to several towns in England – Shrewsbury included.[1]

Long Mountain became re-classed as main transmitter in its own right (albeit a very low power one) with the advent of digital terrestrial TV from the site on 4 November 2009. In addition to this, it currently transmits FM radio and a single multiplex of DAB Digital radio.

Services available

edit

Analogue television

edit

17 September 1976 - 1 November 1982

edit

Long Mountain never did broadcast VHF television, and went live with the UK's original three national UHF television services.

Frequency UHF kW Service
767.25 MHz 58 1 BBC1 Wales
791.25 MHz 61 1 HTV Wales
815.25 MHz 64 1 BBC2 Wales

1 November 1982 - 4 November 2009

edit

The UK's fourth national television service joined the set transmitted from the site. Being in Wales, the S4C variant was broadcast.

Frequency UHF kW Service
735.25 MHz 54 1 S4C
767.25 MHz 58 1 BBC1 Wales
791.25 MHz 61 1 HTV Wales
815.25 MHz 64 1 BBC2 Wales

Analogue and digital television

edit

4 November 2009 - 3 December 2009

edit

The UK's digital switchover commenced at this site.[2] Analogue BBC Two Wales closed on channel 64 and ITV1 Wales took over on that frequency for what would be its final 3 weeks of service, vacating channel 61 as it did so. The new BBC A multiplex started up at full power in 64-QAM mode on channel 60 until 19 October 2011.[3]

Frequency UHF kW Service System
735.25 MHz 54 1 S4C PAL System I
767.25 MHz 58 1 BBC One Wales PAL System I
786.000 MHz 60 0.4 BBC A DVB-T
815.25 MHz 64 1 ITV1 Wales PAL System I

Digital television

edit

3 December 2009 - 19 October 2011

edit

All the analogue television services closed and the new digital multiplexes took over on parking-frequencies (until October 2011) with name-changes, power increases and a shift to 64-QAM.[4] Unusually, for a digital TV site classed as a main transmitter, Long Mountain only radiates the three public service multiplexes of Freeview.

Frequency UHF kW Operator
722.000 MHz 52 0.4 Digital 3&4
754.000 MHz 56 0.4 BBC B
786.000 MHz 60 0.4 BBC A

19 October 2011 - present

edit

DSO was completed at The Wrekin, and this allowed the Long Mountain multiplexes to take up their final frequencies.[5]

Frequency UHF kW Operator
730.000 MHz 53 0.4 Digital 3&4
762.000 MHz 57 0.4 BBC B
785.833 MHz 60- 0.4 BBC A

Analogue radio (VHF FM)

edit

For its FM radio services, Long Mountain is an off-air relay of Llangollen.

Frequency kW Service
89.6 MHz 0.02 BBC Radio 2
91.8 MHz 0.02 BBC Radio Wales
94.0 MHz 0.02 BBC Radio 4
99.2 MHz 0.02 BBC Radio 1
102.8 MHz 0.02 Heart North and Mid Wales
103.6 MHz 0.02 BBC Radio Cymru

Digital radio (DAB)

edit
Frequency Block kW[6] Operator
225.648 MHz 12B 1 BBC National DAB

References

edit
  1. ^ UK Free TV - Freeview on the Long Mountain transmitter
  2. ^ "About us" (PDF).
  3. ^ "About us" (PDF).
  4. ^ "About us" (PDF).
  5. ^ "About us" (PDF).
  6. ^ Radio Listeners Guide 2010
edit