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The Arfon transmitting station is a facility for FM,
DAB digital radio Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services. Types In digital broadcasting syst ...
and
television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
transmission near the villages of Nebo and
Nasareth Nasareth (named for the biblical Nazareth), is a hamlet in the Nantlle Valley in Gwynedd, Wales. The Councillor for Nasareth is Owen Pennant Huws, which covers Llanllyfni Llanllyfni () is a village and a community in Gwynedd, Wales. It is ...
in
Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...
, northwestern
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
(). It includes a
guyed mast A guyed mast or guyed tower is a tall thin vertical structure that depends on guy lines (diagonal tensioned cables attached to the ground) for stability. The mast itself has the compressive strength to support its own weight, but does not ha ...
with
antennas In radio engineering, an antenna or aerial is the interface between radio waves propagating through space and electric currents moving in metal conductors, used with a transmitter or receiver. In transmission, a radio transmitter supplies a ...
attached at various heights. The mast is surmounted by a television transmitting antenna, which brings the total height of the structure to , making it the tallest structure in Wales.Gwynedd Council : Track & Trace Planning Applications : Application Details
/ref> It 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 ...
.


History

The station was built by the ITA in the early 1960s to provide a
405-line The 405-line monochrome analogue television broadcasting system was the first fully electronic television system to be used in regular broadcasting. The number of television lines influences the image resolution, or quality of the picture. It was ...
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
Band III Band III is the name of the range of radio frequencies within the very high frequency (VHF) part of the electromagnetic spectrum from 174 to 240 megahertz (MHz). It is primarily used for radio and television broadcasting. It is also called high-b ...
( VHF) TV service for north west Wales. Unlike the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, which served the area from
Llanddona Llanddona (; ); ) is a village and community noted for its sandy beach in the Welsh county of Anglesey. Located between Benllech and Beaumaris, it is popular as a holiday destination, particularly for families. Llanddona has no shops; however, ...
(on the island of
Anglesey Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...
), Arfon gave better
coverage Coverage may refer to: Filmmaking * Coverage (lens), the size of the image a lens can produce * Camera coverage, the amount of footage shot and different camera setups used in filming a scene * Script coverage, a short summary of a script, wri ...
to some areas. The tower was completed in 1962 and began broadcasting on 9 November of that year. In October 1975 the site became a medium power UHF analogue
colour television Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white t ...
relay of Llanddona, at the time carrying
BBC One 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, p ...
,
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
and
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
. S4C was added in 1982. 405-line TV was finally discontinued in the UK in 1985, but it appears that Arfon's VHF transmitters were decommissioned a year early in 1984 and More recently, Police and Ambulance communications have been added, in addition to mobile (cellular) telephone antennas. In 1993, Classic FM began using the site for FM coverage of north west Wales in preference to Llanddona (the BBC's regional FM site), partly due to a dispute over BBC charges for sharing fees of its transmitter masts and antennas, but more because Arfon, in conjunction with Great Orme's Head (near Llandudno) gave Classic FM better coverage than the BBC sites. On 16 November 1998, local commercial radio station
Champion 103 Capital Cymru is a local Welsh-language radio station owned and operated by Global. The station broadcasts to Gwynedd and Anglesey from studios in Gwersyllt, Wrexham via the Arfon transmitting station. Previously, the station formed part of t ...
launched from studios in Bangor with its transmitter at Arfon. The mast had its
aircraft warning lights Aviation obstruction lighting is used to enhance the visibility of structures or fixed obstacles which may conflict with the safe navigation of aircraft. Obstruction lighting is commonly installed on towers, buildings, and even fences located i ...
replaced in Summer 2006 to red lamps employing arrays of ultrabright
LEDs A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...
. On 18 July 2006, national digital radio network
Digital One Digital One is a national commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, owned by Arqiva. , the multiplex covered more than 90% of the population from 137 transmitters. Coverage was extended to Northern Ireland in July 2013. It cont ...
began broadcasting from the station.


Coverage area

The primary television service area includes most of Anglesey and central parts of the
Llŷn Peninsula The Llŷn Peninsula ( cy, Penrhyn Llŷn or , ) extends into the Irish Sea from North West Wales, south west of the Isle of Anglesey. It is part of the historic county of Caernarfonshire, and historic region and local authority area of Gwynedd. Mu ...
, however many viewers in south
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
and north
County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ga, Contae Chill Mhantáin ) is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by t ...
can also receive Arfon's broadcasts. The radio service area is slightly larger, reaching further down
Cardigan Bay Cardigan Bay ( cy, Bae Ceredigion) is a large inlet of the Irish Sea, indenting the west coast of Wales between Bardsey Island, Gwynedd in the north, and Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire at its southern end. It is the largest bay in Wales. Geograp ...
towards Tonfanau near
Tywyn Tywyn (Welsh: ; in English often ), formerly spelled Towyn, is a town, community, and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd, Wales. It was previously in the historic county of Merionethshire. It is famous as the loc ...
br>


Channels listed by frequency


Analogue television


9 November 1962 - October 1975

Initially, Arfon was a relay of Preseli transmitting station, Preseli, receiving its 405-line VHF transmission off-air on channel 8 and rebroadcasting it on channel 10.


October 1975 - 1 November 1982

With the coming of colour TV on 625 lines, Arfon acted as a relay of Llanddona, whilst continuing to relay Preseli's VHF transmission.


1 November 1982 - January 1984

1982 saw the rollout of the UK's 4th planned UHF television channel. As with all Welsh transmitters, Arfon was required to carry S4C instead of
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
which is broadcast to the rest of the United Kingdom.


January 1984 - 21 October 2009

After 22 years of VHF television from this site, the service was discontinued in January 1984. On UHF, Arfon was destined only ever to transmit the originally-planned four of the eventual five analogue
terrestrial television Terrestrial television or over-the-air television (OTA) is a type of television broadcasting in which the signal transmission occurs via radio waves from the terrestrial (Earth-based) transmitter of a TV station to a TV receiver having an ant ...
channels.


Analogue and digital television


21 October 2009 – 18 November 2009

There never was a pre- DSO digital TV service from Arfon. DSO for the repeaters of
Llanddona Llanddona (; ); ) is a village and community noted for its sandy beach in the Welsh county of Anglesey. Located between Benllech and Beaumaris, it is popular as a holiday destination, particularly for families. Llanddona has no shops; however, ...
occurred between 21 October & 18 November 2009. In preparation for this, the transmitting antenna at the top of the Arfon mast was replaced in March 2008. This new antenna is slightly taller than the previous one, resulting in the mast's total height increasing to from its previous height of . On 21 October, BBC2 Analogue was switched off, and ITV1 Wales took over its frequency for its final three weeks of service. BBC Mux A took over channel 41 that had just been vacated by ITV.


Digital television


18 November 2009 - present

The analogue television transmissions from Arfon ceased and were replaced by digital transmissions. Unusually for the UK, the digital transmissions from this site are considerably more powerful than is usual practice considering the ERP of the analogue services that they replace.


Analogue radio (FM VHF)


Digital radio (DAB)

† MuxCo North west Wales is on this transmitter carrying both the Welsh language Capital Cymru and the English Capital North Wales coast. Also carries Smooth radio. Nation Radio Wales and Dragon radio.


See also

* :Transmitter sites in the United Kingdom *
List of masts The tallest structure in the world is the Burj Khalifa skyscraper at . Listed are guyed masts (such as telecommunication masts), self-supporting towers (such as the CN Tower), skyscrapers (such as the Willis Tower), oil platforms, electricity ...
*
List of tallest buildings and structures in Great Britain This list contains all types of structures in height or more, which is the accepted criterion for a building to qualify as a skyscraper in the United Kingdom. Entries in ''italics'' denote approximate figures. Structures taller than 300 ...
*
List of radio stations in the United Kingdom This is a list of radio stations in the United Kingdom. National analogue and digital (DAB) stations This list does not include stations which broadcast on numerous local digital multiplexes or MW licences to achieve near-national coverage. DAB ...


References


External links


MB21's page on 405 TV to Wales and the West





The Transmission Gallery: Photographs and Information

The Transmission Gallery: Coverage Map
* http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?b54126

{{Llanddona UHF DVB Transmitter Group Buildings and structures in Gwynedd Transmitter sites in Wales