Full Freeview on the Wenvoe (Cardiff, Wales) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.460,-3.282 or 51°27'35"N 3°16'57"W |  | CF5 6SA |
The symbol shows the location of the Wenvoe (Cardiff, Wales) transmitter which serves 360,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.
Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Wenvoe (Cardiff, Wales) mast?
Wenvoe transmitter - Wenvoe transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 11/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Wenvoe transmitter broadcast?
If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Wenvoe transmitter?
BBC Wales Today 1.2m homes 4.7%
from Cardiff CF5 2YQ, 6km northeast (42°)
to BBC Wales region - 206 masts.
ITV Cymru Wales 1.2m homes 4.7%
from Cardiff CF5 6XJ, 1km east-northeast (74°)
to ITV Wales region - 206 masts.
Are there any self-help relays?
| Abergwesyn | Active deflector | 7 km N Llanwrtyd Wells | 20 homes |
| Barry | Transposer | 10 km SW city centre | 300 homes |
| Celtic Manor | Transposer | 5 km E Newport | 80 homes |
| Pentrebach | Transposer | 3 km S Merthyr Tydfil | 100 homes |
| Ystradfellte | Active deflector | 30 km NE Port Talbot | 20 homes |
How will the Wenvoe (Cardiff, Wales) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1950s-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2010 | 2010-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 15 May 2019 | ||
| VHF | B E T | B E T | B E T | B E T | B E K T | W T | W T | ||
| C5 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C30 | LOCAL2 | ||||||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C39 | +ArqB | +ArqB | ArqB | ||||||
| C41 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | +BBCA | +BBCA | +BBCA | BBCA | ||
| C42 | +SDN | +SDN | +SDN | SDN | |||||
| C44 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||
| C45 | +ArqA | +ArqA | +ArqA | ArqA | |||||
| C47 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | ||
| C49tv_off | +ArqB | ||||||||
| C51tv_off | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | LCF | LCF | ||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_off |
tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 3 Mar 10 and 31 Mar 10.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 500kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 100kW | |
| com8 | (-9.7dB) 53.2kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 50kW | |
| com7 | (-10.3dB) 47kW | |
| Mux 1*, LCF | (-17dB) 10kW | |
| Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-20dB) 5kW |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Wenvoe transmitter area
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Tuesday, 9 May 2023
T
TightrTone Keto3:13 PM
I have been reading out many of your stories and i can state
nice stuff. I will surely bookmark your website.
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Thursday, 28 September 2023
M
Mr Dave Thomas5:26 PM
Hengoed
Transmitter engineering: Hi. I have no terrestrial reception on rooftop aerials pointing to Wenvoe. I live in Ystrad Mynach CF82 7BY. Dated 28/9/23. Thank you.
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Mr's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Steve Donaldson6:07 PM
Mr Dave Thomas: As per the post above yours from "Transmitter engineering", there is engineering works at Wenvoe.
Digital broadcasts are pretty much "all or nothing", with little in between. In the days of analogue, with engineering works and the transmitter on low power and/or the reserve antenna being used (rather than the main one), you may have got a grainy but visible picture, whereas with digital you have no picture at all.
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Friday, 29 September 2023
C
Chris.SE12:08 AM
Mr Dave Thomas:
The other thing to remember is IF you have no signal and were correctly tuned before, do NOT retune as this will often clear your correct tuning.
You then have to retune again when signals are back to normal and as you won't know when that is you may have to try several times.
You'll know if some/all of your tuning was cleared as channel numbers will be missing from your channel list.
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Friday, 3 November 2023
T
Tony123410:10 AM
Transmitter engineering: Good morning transmitter engineering Wenvoe.
I am not getting
multiplex PSB3 BBCB Channel 47
or
COM6 ARQB channel 39
and have not done so for over the week I have been working on it. I have done everything they all say on two separate tuning devices. Auto retune with no lead connected to remove all tuning data and then auto retune, alternate same but manual retune. Devices connected each separately together in every combination. Always the same - nothing not a single channel from those two multiplexes.
I am 12 miles west from Wenvoe and can see the upper part of the mast. The lower section of the mast is blocked by terrain. According to all the information for my postcode I should be getting both signals "strong" with no problems. Is there some engineering work going on in respect of those two multiplexes?
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Chris.SE1:34 PM
Tony1234:
Hi again. Transmitter Engineering don't post here directly. The notification is merely a re-direct of engineering info collated by this site, so I'm afraid no update or extra news.
I have checked again just now, and there's no reported faults that I can find, so the assumption is that it's the Planned Engineering.
If you go to the very top RHS of this page and click on the cog-icon there, and enter your full postcode, this might throw some additional light on your predicted reception.
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C
Chris.SE1:43 PM
Tony1234:
Update.
Whilst it will still be useful to know about your predicted reception as mentioned above,
I've just found some further information about what is going on at Wenvoe - work on transmitter mast stays. It talks about engineers working at height and close to the mast and reduced power and shut downs.
Whilst the article is primarily about the FM services, it does give a passing mention to TV at the end of the article. It's pretty obvious that reduced power on some of the TV transmissions may be required when work is so close to the mast. Shame the item isn't more explicit!
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Saturday, 4 November 2023
T
Tony12348:36 AM
Cowbridge
Chris.SE: Many thanks for your two replies. Yes so engineering works - greasing of stays - are ongoing and they have given themselves until the end of November as the current time frame. And these may or may not be causing my problems. When I put my post code in, the results are like just over a week ago - I should be getting good reception on Com6 and PSB3 just like the same as the other mulltiplexes. I see Arquiva have gifted themselves a policy of not dealing with any enquires from the public who pay their wages so I contacted the BBC. They came back after 24 hours to also say engineering works were ongoing but that these should not affect my reception but may do, but they could not be sure. Presumably this is because they have no direct transparency through to Arquiva's works.
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Tony1234's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE4:04 PM
Tony1234:
Hi. This is obviously frustrating.
Whilst the BBC were unable to be certain whether or not your reception may be affected (no doubt at any given time) I doubt very much they have no "transparency" of the work. They will know exactly who to contact at any given time if they need up-to-date information that doesn't get to them automatically.
The difficulty here is that predictions are based on measurements done some while ago across the area with the transmitter operating normally and with the (external) reception aerial 10m above ground level.
They will not know where you aerial is or what the precise likely effect would be for you when on the Reserve Antenna.
However, I still have a niggling feeling something isn't quite right. Where is your aerial? If it's not external on a pole, and it's in a loft, has it been disturbed at all?
Are there any external things on the roof or changes to the roof, such as lead flashing on the line of sight, solar panels near, new electric cables, water tanks, metal flues, scaffolding, etc.
Are there any trees that have grown tall, new tall buildings etc. very nearby or on the line of sight?
Have you altered anything at all or moved any equipment since you last had continuous trouble free reception?
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C
Chris.SE4:06 PM
Tony1234:
Forgot to ask, do you get the Local multiplex UHF C37?
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