Efail Fach television relay station

The Efail Fach television relay station is sited on a hill west of the villages of Efail Fach, Cwm Pelenna and Tonmawr. It was originally built in the 1980s as a fill-in relay for UHF analogue colour television serving all of those settlements. It consists of a 15 m self-supporting lattice mast standing on a hill which is itself about 160 m above sea level. The transmissions are beamed to the east towards the Pelenna valley. The Efail Fach transmission station is owned and operated by Arqiva.

Efail Fach
Efail Fach television relay station is located in Neath Port Talbot
Efail Fach
Efail Fach
Kilvey Hill
Kilvey Hill
Mast height15 metres (49 ft)
Coordinates51°38′54″N 3°45′19″W
Grid referenceSS786958
Built1980s
Relay ofKilvey Hill
BBC regionBBC Wales
ITV regionITV Cymru Wales

The "Transmission Gallery" site claims[1] that the Efail Fach transmitter re-radiates the signal received off-air from Cilfrew television relay station near Neath, itself a repeater of Kilvey Hill at Swansea. However, Efail Fach used the same frequencies as Cilfrew in the analogue TV days, and shares two frequencies with Cilfrew in the digital TV era.

OFCOM claims[2] that the site re-radiates Kilvey Hill directly. Efail Fach does indeed have a clear line-of-sight to Kilvey Hill (which is about 11.6 km away at a bearing of 259.5°).

When it came, the digital switchover process for Efail Fach duplicated the timing at the Kilvey Hill parent station, with the first stage taking place on Wednesday 12 August 2009 and the second stage was completed on Wednesday 9 September 2009, with the Kilvey Hill transmitter-group becoming the first in Wales to complete digital switchover. 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.[3]

Channels listed by frequency

1980s - 12 August 2009

Efail Fach (being in Wales) transmitted the S4C variant of Channel 4.

Frequency UHF kW Service
615.25 MHz 39 0.008 BBC One Wales
663.25 MHz 45 0.008 BBC Two Wales
695.25 MHz 49 0.008 ITV1 Wales (HTV Wales until 2002)
719.25 MHz 52 0.008 S4C

12 August 2009 - 9 September 2009

The UK's digital switchover commenced at Kilvey Hill (and therefore at Efail Fach and all its other relays) on 12 August 2009. Analogue BBC Two Wales on channel 45 was first to close, and ITV1 Wales was moved from channel 49 to channel 45 for its last month of service. Channel 49 was replaced by the new digital BBC A mux which started up in 64-QAM and at full power (i.e. 2 W).

Frequency UHF kW Service System
615.25 MHz 39 0.008 BBC One Wales PAL System I
663.25 MHz 45 0.008 ITV1 Wales PAL System I
698.000 MHz 49 0.002 BBC A DVB-T
719.25 MHz 52 0.008 S4C PAL System I

9 September 2009 - present

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

Frequency UHF kW Operator
666.000 MHz 45 0.002 Digital 3&4
698.000 MHz 49 0.002 BBC A
722.000 MHz 52 0.002 BBC B

13 March 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,[4] Efail Fach's "BBC B" multiplex will have to be moved from channel 49 to channel 39.[5]

Frequency UHF kW Operator
618.000 MHz 39 0.002 BBC A
666.000 MHz 45 0.002 Digital 3&4
722.000 MHz 52 0.002 BBC B
See also: List of digital terrestrial television channels (UK)

References
  1. "mb21 - The Transmission Gallery". Archived from the original on 2009-04-22.
  2. http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/transmitternetwork/tools__and__resources/almanac/installer_newsletters_transmitter_groups2009_pdfs/Installer_Newsletter_Kilvey_Hill__1_month_out_FINAL_24_July_09.pdf%5B%5D
  3. "Freeview on Efail Fach TV transmitter". ukfree.tv. Retrieved 2012-02-21.
  4. "EU States Must Allow 4G on Analogue TV Spectrum". 15 February 2012.
  5. "Digital UK confirms further Freeview 4G clearance retune dates for South Wales | a516digital". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
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