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The Llanddona transmitting station ((; ); ) is a
broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...
and
telecommunications
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
facility, situated at
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, ...
, near
Beaumaris
Beaumaris ( ; cy, Biwmares ) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, of which it is the former county town of Anglesey. It is located at the eastern entrance to the Menai Strait, the tidal waterway separating Anglesey from th ...
, on the isle 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 ...
, Wales (). It comprises 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. 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
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. ...
...
in 1958 to provide a
405-line Band I
Band I is a range of radio frequencies within the very high frequency (VHF) part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The first time there was defined "for simplicity" in Annex 1 of "Final acts of the European Broadcasting Conference in the VHF and U ...
(
VHF) TV service and (later) a VHF (
FM) radio services for north west Wales, including the
Lleyn peninsula, Anglesey and the north Wales coast.
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 ...
's service was provided from the
Arfon transmitting station
The Arfon transmitting station is a facility for FM, DAB digital radio and television transmission near the villages of Nebo and Nasareth in Gwynedd, northwestern Wales (). It includes a guyed mast with antennas attached at various height ...
, approximately 20 miles to the south on the mainland.
In 1967 the site became the area's main station for 625 line colour
UHF TV, starting with just
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 ...
in June of that year. By this time, it was policy to co-site all UHF TV services at the same site, and by 1973 Llanddona was broadcasting
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 and ITV on UHF.
S4C was added later in 1982 in time for its launch.
Though 405-line TV was discontinued in the UK in 1985, it seems that Llanddona shut down its VHF TV a year early.
In the late 1990s, digital TV transmitters were added, carrying all six national multiplexes.
In 2006, digital radio transmitters were added for the BBC's national multiplex and also
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 ...
.
On Wednesday 21 October 2009, the Llanddona group of transmitters underwent the first stage of 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 ...
and on Wednesday 18 November 2009, analogue television was finally turned off from Llanddona and its group of transmitters as it underwent the second stage of the Digital Switchover. Whilst the old analogue channels were in the
UK UHF C/D aerial group, the new DVB channels are now spread over into the E group (presumably to avoid co-channel interference with
Winter Hill transmitter), meaning that some customers may need to replace their aerial to get optimum reception.
Freeview HD
Freeview is the United Kingdom's sole digital terrestrial television platform. It is operated by Digital UK Ltd and DTV Services Ltd, a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky. It was launched on 30 October 2002, t ...
started transmitting using the BBC B multiplex on channel 53 in July 2010.
Llanddona was the site of the first TV, VHF radio, digital TV and digital radio broadcasts for the area.
Coverage area
The coverage area consists of the majority of Anglesey, and a wide range of other parts of the North West Wales coast. As with the service areas of other transmitters in North Wales, such as the
Moel-y-Parc transmitting station
The Moel-y-Parc transmitting station is situated on Moel y Parc, a hill in north-east Wales at the northern end of the Clwydian range, close to the town of Caerwys and several miles (kilometres) north-east of Denbigh. It was built in 1962/1963 b ...
,
signal overspill
Signal overspill is the receiving of a broadcast signal outside of its geographical target area. Radio frequencies have no way of obeying geographical borders and licensing arrangements, and the extent of overspill depends on where broadcast transm ...
from transmitters in
North West England
North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...
and
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...
means that strong radio and television signals from that region (BBC North West and ITV Granada) can be received in North Wales, and strong Welsh signals can be received in North West England also. In the days of analogue TV, some people who received signals from the Llanddona transmitter, but who had no interest in S4C (a Welsh speaking channel) were known to erect a second aerial and receive Channel 4 from
Winter Hill instead.
The transmitter signals were also received across the Irish sea in many parts of the east and south east coast of the Republic of Ireland, mainly in counties Dublin and Wicklow. From 1958 onward, many households in these counties would point their outdoor aerials towards the Irish sea and could receive transmission from this transmitter. When cable television launched in the early 1970s, the Welsh BBC and ITV stations were provided on the cable platform as these channels were mainly received in the Dublin and Wicklow counties.
Services listed by frequency
Analogue television
January 1958 - 3 June 1967
it is unclear when transmissions began. "The Big Tower" claim that 405-line television from Llanddona started in January 1958, and the entrance plaque to the transmitter building certainly agrees that the mast and its building were built in 1958. Oddly, BBC research report 1963-50 does not mention a start date though it does point out that co-channel interference (presumably from
Divis
Divis (; ) is a hill and area of sprawling moorland north-west of Belfast in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. With a height of 1,568 ft (478 m), it is the highest of the Belfast Hills. It is joined with the neighbouring Black Mountain, a ...
in Northern Ireland, about 180 km to the northwest across the
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...
) was "severe". This caused the transmitter's useful service area to be smaller than planned, and forced the building of the
Holyhead relay.
"405 Alive" counter-claim a very precise date of 15 May 1962 for the start of 405-line television.
3 June 1967 - 6 September 1973
The first UHF transmitter at the site entered service.
6 September 1973 - 1 November 1982
ITV's transmissions certainly started on 6 September, but is likely that the BBC 1 Wales UHF service had already commenced before then.
1 November 1982 - January 1984
Channel 4 launched across the UK. Being in Wales, Llanddona transmitted the S4C variant.
January 1984 - 15 November 1998
The 405-line VHF TV transmission was discontinued after 22 years of service.
Analogue and digital television
15 November 1998 - 21 October 2009
21 October 2009 - 18 November 2009
The BBC Two analogue signal was switched off after 32 years of service, and BBC One analogue was moved to channel 63. Multiplex 1 on channel 50 was also discontinued. The new "BBC A" multiplex took over on channel 57 which had just been vacated by BBC One analogue with its full post-DSO
ERP of 20 kW. BBC A is an expanded version of the BBC's multiplexes 1 and B (with several channels, such as BBC Four and radio stations temporarily available on both BBC multiplexes).
Digital television
18 November 2009 - 14 November 2012
All the remaining analogue TV was discontinued, and the new post-DSO multiplexes took over their frequencies plus a couple of new ones. Frequencies above 800 MHz were not re-used as these will be reassigned to
4G mobile phone services.
14 November 2012 - present
As a side-effect of frequency-changes elsewhere in the region to do with clearance of the 800 MHz band for
4G mobile phone use, Llanddona's "Arqiva B" multiplex was moved from channel 50 to channel 40, and "D3&4" on channel 60 gained a negative frequency offset.
*Aerial group: W
*Polarisation: horizontal
Analogue radio
1960 - Early 1990s
VHF FM radio was in service by October 1960 as evidenced by a BBC research report.
Early 1990s - present
Radio 1 got its own frequency and National Radio 4 was added to the set. Additionally, the frequencies for the original three services were increased by 200 kHz each.
Digital radio
See also
*
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 ...
References
External links
MB21's page on BBC 405 TV to Wales and the WestThe Transmission Gallery: Llanddona Transmitter photographs and information The Transmission Gallery: TV Coverage MapThe Transmission Gallery: FM Coverage Map
{{portal bar , United Kingdom , Wales
Buildings and structures in Anglesey
Transmitter sites in Wales
Llanddona