Moel-y-Parc Transmitting Station
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The Moel-y-Parc transmitting station is situated on
Moel y Parc Moel y Parc (sometimes written as Moel-y-Parc) is a hill on the border between Denbighshire and Flintshire in Wales. It is one of the Clwydian Hills, rising above sea level and is located at OS . There is a television mast near the summit. ...
, a hill in north-east
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 ...
at the northern end of the Clwydian range, close to the town of
Caerwys Caerwys is a town in Flintshire, Wales. It is just under two miles from the A55 road, A55 North Wales Expressway and one mile from the A541 road, A541 Mold, Flintshire, Mold-Denbigh road. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census, the popula ...
and several miles (kilometres) north-east of Denbigh. It was built in 1962/1963 by the IBA to bring
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 ...
VHF
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 ...
television to North Wales and it has been on the air since 1963. Its original height of made it the tallest structure in North Wales and it stands on land that is itself about above sea level. In 1965, VHF television transmissions from 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. ...
...
commenced from the site. With the addition of the UHF aerials in 1969, the mast height increased to high. Its official coverage area includes parts of
Flintshire , settlement_type = County , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms of Flint ...
,
Denbighshire Denbighshire ( ; cy, Sir Ddinbych; ) is a county in the north-east of Wales. Its borders differ from the historic county of the same name. This part of Wales contains the country's oldest known evidence of habitation – Pontnewydd (Bontnewy ...
and
Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...
(although the majority of Wrexham is in a blindspot of direct transmission from Moel-y-Parc, its analogue transmissions were relayed via the
Wrexham-Rhos transmitting station The Wrexham-Rhos transmitting station is a digital television relay of Moel-y-Parc, and forms part of the Wales television region. Despite its name, the station is situated in Moss Village and serves the city of Wrexham, the northern area of Wre ...
). A network of relay stations extends television coverage as far as
Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay ( cy, Bae Colwyn) is a town, community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic county of Denbighshire. Eight neighbouring communities are incorpo ...
in the west and Bala in the south. VHF television services from both BBC and ITV were discontinued in January 1985 as the 405-line TV system was switched off across the UK as a whole. Moel-y-Parc's UHF channel allocation made it a "Group B" transmitter, but with the roll-out of the UK's first digital TV services in 1998, a "Group W" wideband aerial was needed. The site reverted to being a "Group B" transmitter at
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 ...
(DSO). Technically, with the advent of the temporary MUXES 7 and 8 Moel Y Parc became a K group, and is due to remain so at its 700 MHz clearance. However most B group aerials will still work on all Moel's transmitted DTT channels (se
graph
. The site is currently administered 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 ...
.


Channels listed by frequency


Analogue television


28 January 1963 - 28 October 1965

The ITV 405-line television service commenced with Teledu Cymru / Wales (West and North) on 28 January 1963. One year later, Wales (West and North) Limited had collapsed financially, and the ITA awarded the franchise to provide the service from 27 January 1964 for the West and North Wales region to Television Wales and West, the holder of the franchise for the South Wales and West of England region.


28 October 1965 - 5 July 1969

BBC 405-line TV was added, obtaining its signal from an SHF link on the
Great Orme The Great Orme ( cy, Y Gogarth) is a limestone headland on the north coast of Wales, north-west of the town of Llandudno. Referred to as ''Cyngreawdr Fynydd'' by the 12th-century poet Gwalchmai ap Meilyr, its English name derives from the Old N ...
which picked up the signal 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
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 ...
. Until the mid-1960s, it had been common practice for BBC and ITV transmitters to be hosted from different masts. Moel-y-Parc had been engineered to take both services and be capable of the UHF transmission when they arrived. Additionally (and unusually) the BBC's VHF television transmissions were on Band III as were the ITV's transmissions. Having both services on the same mast meant that the region's viewers only needed one aerial. This was the final BBC VHF television "main station" to be commissioned. The BBC published a technical report on the mast and its aerials.


5 July 1969 - 1973


1973 - 1 November 1982


1 November 1982 - 3 January 1985


3 January 1985 - 15 November 1998

405-line television was switched off across the UK and both Moel-y-Parc's VHF transmitters ceased operation after 20 and 22 years of service for the BBC and ITV respectively.


Analogue and digital television


15 November 1998 - 28 October 2009


28 October 2009 - 25 November 2009


Digital television


25 November 2009 - 14 November 2012

As part of the digital switchover, analogue BBC Two Wales ceased transmission on 28 October 2009, followed by analogue BBC One Wales, ITV1 Wales and S4C on 25 November 2009. They were replaced by higher powered digital transmissions.


14 November 2012 - 26 February 2019

In coordination with changes to transmission frequencies elsewhere in the UK arising from the clearance of the 800 MHz band for 4G mobile phone use, Moel-y-Parc's "Digital 3&4" multiplex was moved from channel 49+ to channel 39+.


26 April 2017

The transmission of the local television "LOC1" multiplex (DVB-t system with
QPSK Phase-shift keying (PSK) is a digital modulation process which conveys data by changing (modulating) the phase of a constant frequency reference signal (the carrier wave). The modulation is accomplished by varying the sine and cosine inputs at ...
modulation) from Moel-y-Parc on UHF channel 56 with ERP of 2 kW commenced. Although a licence had been issued in January 2014 to Bay TV Clwyd (subsequent to the launch of
Bay TV Liverpool Local TV Liverpool (typeset as LOCAL TV Liverpool) is a local television station serving Liverpool City Region and surrounding areas. The station is owned and operated by Local Television Limited and forms part of a group of nine LOCAL TV stat ...
) to start a local television service for North East Wales from studios in
Mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal seco ...
, it was not until 26 April 2017 that the successor company Made TV which had taken over the operations of bankrupt Bay TV, was able to launch the local television "LOC1" multiplex to carry the "Made in North Wales TV" service. Local reaction to the launch was highly critical because production of programing was no longer to be in Mold within the licensed service area, but at the studios of "Made in Liverpool" in
Toxteth Toxteth is an inner-city area of Liverpool in the historic county of Lancashire and the ceremonial county of Merseyside. Toxteth is located to the south of Liverpool city centre, bordered by Aigburth, Canning, Dingle, and Edge Hill. The area w ...
, Liverpool.


27 February 2019 - 11 August 2020

In coordination with changes to transmission frequencies elsewhere in the UK arising from the clearance of the 700 MHz band for 5G mobile phone use, the following changes were implemented. The local TV "LOC1" multiplex (carrying North Wales TV) was moved from UHF channel 56 to UHF channel 27, and the transmission ERP increased from 2 kW to 3 kW. The "Arqiva A" multiplex was moved from UHF channel 52 to UHF channel 36. The national "COM7" multiplex was moved from UHF channel 32 to UHF channel 55 and the transmission ERP increased from 14 kW to 16 kW. With the changes on 27 February 2009, the corresponding frequency of each public service multiplex transmitted from Storeton was also changed to the same as that transmitted from Moel-y-Parc, thereby making each site a constituent part of a
single-frequency network A single-frequency network or SFN is a broadcast network where several transmitters simultaneously send the same signal over the same frequency channel. Analog AM and FM radio broadcast networks as well as digital broadcast networks can operate ...
(SFN), resulting in a significant improvement in reception quality at locations where signals were being received from both sites but where neither was consistently adequate.


June 30, 2020

The transmission of the national "COM8" multiplex from Moel-y-Parc on UHF channel 34 ceased. A commercial decision had been taken by Arqiva to discontinue transmission of the national "COM8" multiplex having failed to obtain a response from Ofcom concerning the duration of the future availability of the transmission frequencies used.


12 August 2020 - present

In coordination with changes to transmission frequencies elsewhere in the UK arising from the clearance of the 700 MHz band for 5G mobile phone use, Moel-y-Parc's "SDN" multiplex was moved from UHF channel 51 to UHF channel 33.


Analogue radio (FM VHF)


Digital radio (DAB)

On air date March 2013
† Relay of Winter Hill


Reception area

In terms of land area and population, Moel-y-Parc delivers a receivable signal to a greater area, and a greater number of potential viewers, 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 ...
than in its intended
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 ...
area of north-east Wales. Transmissions can be received using standard aerials in most of
Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...
, parts of
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 ...
, parts of
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
as far north as
Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
, and Wales-facing coastal areas of
Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...
and the
Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...
. In the past, some English viewers have erected a second aerial for Moel-y-Parc in order to receive a slightly increased choice of viewing, although this practice has declined with the introduction of satellite television and the reduction in schedule variations between different ITV regions. Liverpool is located directly between the Winter Hill transmitter and Moel-y-Parc. Many homes across Merseyside county obtain an adequate signal through their TV aerial from Moel-y-Parc, even though the aerial is pointing at Winter Hill. With the advent of digital television, this has resulted in television tuners detecting the multiplexes broadcast from Moel-y-Parc on the lower frequencies before those on the higher frequencies from Winter Hill during the scanning/retune operation, and without viewer intervention where software allows region selection or by manual re-ordering, placing the Welsh variants on the allocated Freeview EPG logical channel number entries. The Welsh variations of services (BBC One Wales, BBC Two Wales, ITV Wales) transmitted from Moel-y-Parc contend with the North West variations of services (BBC One North West, BBC Two, ITV Granada) transmitted from Winter Hill, which can also be received in the Wrexham area and along the
North Wales , area_land_km2 = 6,172 , postal_code_type = Postcode , postal_code = LL, CH, SY , image_map1 = Wales North Wales locator map.svg , map_caption1 = Six principal areas of Wales common ...
coast. Until 28 January 1963 and the start of transmissions of Teledu Cymru/WWN (Wales West and North Television) on VHF channel 11 from Moel-y-Parc, the only official ITV providers for North East Wales were
Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...
(in Manchester) during the week and
ABC Television ABC Television most commonly refers to: *ABC Television Network of the American Broadcasting Company, United States, or *ABC Television (Australian TV network), a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia ABC Television or ABC ...
at the weekend, both transmitted on VHF channel 9 from Winter Hill. Pressure for a distinctly Welsh TV station was one of the driving forces behind the construction of the Moel-y-Parc mast, along with the need to deliver television to the more mountainous interior of Wales, which was out of range of English transmitters. As late as the 1980s, Granada Television continued to claim parts of North Wales as within its editorial coverage area, in competition with HTV Cymru Wales, who had been awarded the franchise for the whole of Wales since 1968. However, after a series of mergers in the 1990s following deregulation of commercial television, Granada and HTV Cymru Wales were subsumed into
ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc is listed on the ...
, and thus there is no longer commercial competition between the two services. ITV Granada no longer provides any regional news, weather or local interest programmes related to North Wales. Whereas in times past the official ITV Regions map distinctly showed areas of North Wales as being part of the ITV Granada region, the only known publicly accessible official ITV map showing the borders of the ITV regions, th
ITV Regional Advertising
map, shows the boundary between ITV Granada and ITV Wales as lying on the national boundary line between England and Wales. For many homes across North East and Mid Wales, it is also possible to receive the
ITV Central ITV Central, previously known as Central Independent Television, Carlton Central, ITV1 for Central England and commonly referred to as simply Central, is the Independent Television franchisee for the Midlands. It was created following the rest ...
(West) service from
The Wrekin Transmitter The Wrekin transmitting station is a telecommunications and broadcasting facility on The Wrekin, a hill in the county of Shropshire, England. It includes a tall free-standing lattice tower with transmitting antenna (radio), antennas attached a ...
. Unlike what was once the case for ITV Granada, these areas were never included in ITV Central's editorial coverage area for regional news, weather, or local interest programmes.


Reception difficulties

The Moel-y-Parc transmitter service area has always suffered from out of area reception from a number of adjacent transmitters or relays with overlapping coverage, or intermittent extended coverage due to atmospheric conditions, namely the transmissions from Llanddona, Storeton, Fenton, Sutton Coldfield and The Wrekin B. During the time of analogue television, parts of Greater Manchester were subject at times to co-channel interference from Moel-y-Parc because the
Saddleworth Saddleworth is a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and hamlets as well as suburbs of Oldham on the west side of the Pennine hills. Areas include Austerlands, Del ...
relay of Winter Hill transmitted on the same frequencies, UHF channels 42, 45, 49 and 52, although mitigated by transmissions from Moel-y-Parc being horizontally polarized and those from Saddlweworth being vertically polarized. Parts of the North East Wales coast where reception of Moel-y-Parc is obscured by the Clwyd Hills were served by relays of Moel-y-Part at
Bagillt Bagillt (; ) is a market town and community in Flintshire, Wales. The town overlooks the Dee Estuary and is between the towns of Holywell and Flint. At the 2001 Census the population was recorded as 3,918, increasing to 4,165 at the 2011 census ...
,
Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
, and
Holywell Holywell may refer to: * Holywell, Flintshire, Wales * Holywell, Swords, Ireland * Holywell, Bedfordshire, England * Holywell, Cambridgeshire, England * Holywell, Cornwall, England * Holywell, Dorset, England * Holywell, Eastbourne, East Susse ...
. Following analog to digital television switchover, these relays were closed, and the Welsh regional variants of multiplexes PSB1, PSB2, and PSB3 are now broadcast to this area from
Storeton Storeton is a small village on the Wirral Peninsula, England. It is situated to the west of the town of Bebington and is made up of Great Storeton and Little Storeton, which is classified as a hamlet. At the 2001 Census the population of Storeto ...
, with Storeton being line-fed these multiplexes by fibre optic cable. There are nineteen othe
Moel-y-Parc relays
broadcasting the Welsh regional variants of multiplexes PSB1, PSB2, and PSB3 received off-air from Moel-y-Parc.


Digital switchover problems

By December 2009, more than 6,000 complaints concerning interference from the Moel-y-Parc television transmitter had been received following the changeover from analog to digital television in the Ofcom designated "Granada" (viz. North West England) region. Many residents in Wirral and west Cheshire found the Welsh variants of television services with regional content, namely BBC One Wales and BBC Two Wales from
BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, BBC Cymru Wales is ...
and
ITV Wales ITV Cymru Wales, previously known as Harlech Television and HTV Wales, is the ITV (TV network), ITV franchise for Wales. The new separate licence began on 1 January 2014, replacing the long-serving dual franchise region serving Wales and the Wes ...
on the Freeview logical channel numbers displayed at the start of the EPG listing, instead of BBC One North West, BBC Two, and
ITV Granada ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...
.
Digital UK Digital UK is a British television communications company owned by the BBC (1922), ITV (1955), Channel 4 (1982) and Channel 5 (1997) which supports Freeview viewers and channels. It provides information about receiving terrestrial TV and advi ...
, the organisation responsible for the switchover, responded by telling consumers to retune their systems manually. This problem arises because the multiplexes transmitted from Moel-y-Parc with the Welsh regional content are on lower frequencies than those of the multiplexes transmitted from Winter Hill with the North West regional content. Thus when the TV tuner scans the UHF spectrum searching each UHF channel for the presence of a signal for a DVB multiplex, it finds the Welsh variants first and without the software offering the viewer a choice of which regional variant to use, it uses the first transmitter group of multiplexes detected to populate the
EPG Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...
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), ...
LCN entries, and places any alternatives or duplicates on LCNs beginning at 700, regardless of the viewer's preferred regional content or signal quality.


See also

*
Wales West and North Television Wales (West and North) Television, known on screen as (, Welsh for "Wales Television") and often abbreviated to WWN, was the Welsh " Independent Television" (commercial television) contractor awarded the franchise area serving North and West W ...
*
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 ...


References


External links


The Transmission Gallery: photographs, information and coverage mapsPictures and info of Moel Y Parc including co-receivable transmitters
{{Moel-y-Parc UHF DVB Transmitter Group Buildings and structures in Flintshire Transmitter sites in Wales Radio masts and towers in Europe