The Llansawel television relay station is sited on high ground to the north of the village of

Llansawel Llansawel is a village and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales, about ten miles north of Llandeilo. It covers an area of . The community is bordered by the communities of: Pencarreg; Cynwyl Gaeo; Talley; Llanfynydd; Llanfihangel Rhos-y-Corn; and ...

Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire ( cy, Sir Gaerfyrddin; or informally ') is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as ...

South Wales South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...

. It was originally built in 1986 as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue television. It consists of a 17 m wooden telegraph pole standing on a hillside which is itself about 160 m above sea level. The transmissions are beamed southwards. The Llansawel transmission station 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 headquarters ...

. Llansawel transmitter is classed as an indirect off-air relay of Carmel. It re-radiates a signal received off-air from

Talley Talley ( cy, Talyllychau, historically cy, Tal y Llychau, label=none) is a community and small village in Carmarthenshire, Wales.The population taken at the 2011 census was 494. The community is bordered by the communities of: Llansawel; Cynw ...

about 5 km to the southeast, which itself is a direct off-air relay of Carmel. When it came, 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 for Llansawel 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 2 W each.

Channels listed by frequency

Analogue television

Spring/Summer 1986 - 26 August 2009

Llansawel entered service in late spring/early summer 1986, and (being in Wales) transmitted the

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speaking ...

variant of Channel 4.

Analogue and digital television

26 August 2009 - 23 September 2009

The UK's

commenced at Carmel (and therefore at Llansawel and all its other relays) on 26 August 2009. Analogue BBC Two Wales on channel 28 was first to close, and was replaced by the new digital BBC A mux which started up in 64-QAM and at full power (i.e. 2 W).

Digital television

23 September 2009 - present

The remaining analogue TV services were closed down and the digital multiplexes took over on the original analogue channels' frequencies.

References

External links

The Transmission Gallery: Llansawel
{{Television transmitters in the UK Transmitter sites in Wales Carmel UHF 625-line Transmitter Group