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 town of Wrexham, the northern area of Wrexham County Borough and south-western Flintshire. It is a free-standing lattice tower structure serving around 85,000 homes which are unable to receive broadcasts from Moel-y-Parc due to Hope Mountain.
Wrexham-Rhos transmitting station (Wrexham) | |
Mast height | 45 metres (148 ft) |
---|---|
Coordinates | 53.0762°N 3.045°W |
Grid reference | SJ3000153762 |
Built | 1977 |
Relay of | Moel-y-Parc |
BBC region | BBC Wales |
ITV region | ITV Wales |
This area is traditionally served by English transmitters at Winter Hill and The Wrekin, which have historically provided English-language channels Channel 4 and Channel 5, plus the digital terrestrial services ONdigital/ITV Digital (from 1998 to 2002) and Freeview from 2002 onwards. Wrexham-Rhos was constructed to coincide with the 1977 National Eisteddfod in Wrexham, initially providing S4C and BBC One Wales,[1] later joined by HTV Wales in 1997 and BBC Two Wales in 1999.[2]
Services available
1977 - 1 November 1982
Frequency | UHF | kW | Service |
---|---|---|---|
615.25 MHz | 39 | 0.2 | BBC Wales (BBC Cymru Wales until 1981) |
839.25 MHz | 67 | 0.4 | HTV Wales |
1 November 1982 - 1997
Frequency | UHF | kW | Service |
---|---|---|---|
615.25 MHz | 39 | 0.2 | BBC Wales (1982-1985) BBC1 Wales (1985-1991) BBC Wales On 1 (from 1991) |
839.25 MHz | 67 | 0.4 | S4C |
1997 - 1999
Frequency | UHF | kW | Service |
---|---|---|---|
559.25 MHz | 32 | 0.2 | HTV Wales |
615.25 MHz | 39 | 0.2 | BBC One Wales |
839.25 MHz | 67 | 0.4 | S4C |
1999 - 2000
Frequency | UHF | kW | Service |
---|---|---|---|
527.25 MHz | 28 | 0.2 | BBC Two Wales |
559.25 MHz | 32 | 0.2 | HTV Wales |
615.25 MHz | 39 | 0.2 | BBC One Wales |
839.25 MHz | 67 | 0.4 | S4C |
2000 - 28 October 2009
Prior to analogue switch-off, Wrexham-Rhos broadcast four of the five national terrestrial stations. Channels 1 to 3 were broadcast at 200 W ERP, while S4C was broadcast at 400 W. In 1998, due to the upcoming launch of ONdigital from neighbouring transmission site, Winter Hill, S4C from the relay was required to change frequency (from UHF Channel 67) two years later. A message was displayed telling viewers to re-tune their televisions of the channel were carried for a couple of months. When the original frequency was switched off, the power on the newer version was increased.
Frequency | UHF | kW | Service |
---|---|---|---|
503.25 MHz | 25 | 0.4 | S4C |
527.25 MHz | 28 | 0.2 | BBC Two Wales |
559.25 MHz | 32 | 0.2 | ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002) |
615.25 MHz | 39 | 0.2 | BBC One Wales |
28 October 2009 - 25 November 2009
Frequency | UHF | kW | Service | System |
---|---|---|---|---|
503.25 MHz | 25 | 0.4 | S4C | PAL System I |
527.25 MHz | 28 | 0.08 | BBC A | DVB-T |
559.25 MHz | 32 | 0.2 | ITV1 Wales | PAL System I |
615.25 MHz | 39 | 0.2 | BBC One Wales | PAL System I |
25 November 2009 - present
At present, the station broadcasts three of the six national digital terrestrial television multiplexes on the "Freeview Lite" service. The station switched over to digital transmissions from analogue throughout November 2009, and remaining analogue services ceased at midnight on 25 November 2009. BBC A and Digital 3&4 broadcast using MPEG2 compression on DVB-T standards, whilst the HD multiplex, BBC B, uses DVB-T2.
Frequency | UHF | kW | Operator |
---|---|---|---|
482.000 MHz | 22 | 0.08 | Digital 3&4 |
506.000 MHz | 25 | 0.08 | BBC B |
530.000 MHz | 28 | 0.08 | BBC A |
Analogue radio (FM VHF)
Frequency | kW | Service |
---|---|---|
88.0 MHz | 1.4 | Heart North Wales |
95.4 MHz | 0.7 | BBC Radio Wales |
103.4 MHz | 1.4 | Capital North West and Wales |
Digital radio (DAB)
Frequency | Block | kw | Operator |
---|---|---|---|
215.072 MHz | 10D | 3kW | MuxCo North East Wales & West Cheshire† |
On air date March 2013f[3]
References
- mb21 The Transmission Gallery - Wrexham-Rhos
- https://web.archive.org/web/20070930034741/http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/itc/uploads/HTV_APR_text.doc ITC: WALES AND THE WEST OF ENGLAND: HTV (archived copy from Internet Archive)
- Radio Listeners Guide 2010