Carmel transmitting station


The Carmel transmitting station, located half a mile SSW of the village of Carmel in Carmarthenshire, has been broadcasting terrestrial TV and radio services since the mid-1970s. The TV coverage area for the Carmel transmission station includes most of Carmarthenshire, the southern and eastern parts of Pembrokeshire; the southern fringes of Powys and Ceredigion; the northern part of Swansea. The Carmel signal is also receivable in parts of Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend and Rhondda Cynon Taff. Places as far away as Merthyr Tydfil and the north Devon coast are also able to receive signals from Carmel.
Carmel started to switch over to digital terrestrial TV broadcast services on 26 August 2009.

Services available

Analogue television

21 May 1973 - 1 November 1982

Carmel never did broadcast VHF television, and went live with the UK's three national UHF television services.
FrequencyUHFkWService
57100BBC1 Wales
60100HTV Wales
63100BBC2 Wales

1 November 1982 - 15 November 1998

The UK's fourth national television service joined the set transmitted from the site. Being in Wales, the S4C variant was broadcast.
FrequencyUHFkWService
53100S4C
57100BBC1 Wales
60100HTV Wales
63100BBC2 Wales

Analogue and digital television

15 November 1998 - 26 August 2009

The initial rollout of digital television in the UK involved radiating the signals at low power in between the existing analogue channels.
FrequencyUHFkWServiceSystem
53100S4CPAL System I
552.5BBC DVB-T
57100BBC One WalesPAL System I
59-5SDN DVB-T
60100ITV Wales PAL System I
62-2.5BBC DVB-T
63100BBC Two WalesPAL System I
65-2.5Digital 3&4 DVB-T
661Arqiva DVB-T
671Arqiva DVB-T

26 August 2009 - 23 September 2009

The UK's digital switchover commenced at this site. Analogue BBC Two Wales closed on channel 63 and ITV1 Wales took over on that frequency for what would be its final 3 weeks of service, vacating channel 60 as it did so. The new BBC A multiplex started up at full power in 64-QAM mode on channel 60, and Mux 1 on channel 55 closed.
FrequencyUHFkWServiceSystem
53100S4CPAL System I
57100BBC One WalesPAL System I
59-5SDN DVB-T
6020BBC ADVB-T
62-2.5BBC DVB-T
63100ITV WalesPAL System I
65-2.5Digital 3&4 DVB-T
661Arqiva DVB-T
671Arqiva DVB-T

Digital television

23 September 2009 - present

All the analogue television services closed and the new digital multiplexes took over their frequencies with name-changes, power increases and a shift to 64-QAM.
FrequencyUHFkWOperator
5320Digital 3&4
5410SDN
5720BBC B
5810Arqiva A
6020BBC A
6110Arqiva B

May 2013

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, Carmel's "Arqiva B" multiplex will have to be moved from channel 61 to channel 49 and the "BBC A" multiplex will get a negative offset.
FrequencyUHFkWOperator
4910Arqiva B
5320Digital 3&4
5410SDN
5720BBC B
5810Arqiva A
60-20BBC A

Analogue radio (VHF FM)

Digital radio (DAB)