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Full Freeview on the Kilvey Hill (Swansea, Wales) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.629,-3.920 or 51°37'45"N 3°55'12"Wsa_postcodeSA1 7BL

 

The symbol shows the location of the Kilvey Hill (Swansea, Wales) transmitter which serves 120,000 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 Kilvey Hill (Swansea, Wales) mast?

Kilvey Hill transmitter - Kilvey Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 14/10/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
_______

Which Freeview channels does the Kilvey Hill 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 V max
C21 (474.0MHz)243mDTG-2,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Wales, 2 BBC Two Wales, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 14 others

PSB2
D3+4
 V max
C24 (498.0MHz)243mDTG-2,000W
Channel icons
5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Wales), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 V max
C27 (522.0MHz)243mDTG-2,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Wales, 102 BBC Two HD Wales, 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 110 Channel 4 HD (Wales), 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 V max
C25 (506.0MHz)243mDTG-82,000W
Channel icons
 E4 (Wales), 20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 V max
C22 (482.0MHz)243mDTG-82,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 V max
C28 (530.0MHz)243mDTG-82,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

The Kilvey Hill (Swansea, Wales) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .

If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Kilvey Hill transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Wales Today 1.2m homes 4.7%
from Cardiff CF5 2YQ, 50km east-southeast (108°)
to BBC Wales region - 206 masts.
regional news image
ITV Cymru Wales 1.2m homes 4.7%
from Cardiff CF5 6XJ, 49km east-southeast (113°)
to ITV Wales region - 206 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

New Inn C/pTransposer8 km NE Tenby1 homes 100 caravans

How will the Kilvey Hill (Swansea, Wales) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20092009-1317 Jul 2019
VHFA K TA K TA K TA K TA K T
C2BBCtvwaves
C21BBCA
C22ArqAArqA
C23ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCA
C24D3+4
C25SDNSDN
C26BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesD3+4
C27BBCB
C28ArqBArqB
C29C4wavesC4wavesC4wavesBBCB
C30_local
C33BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C34_local
C35C5wavesC5waves

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 12 Aug 09 and 9 Sep 09.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-5 10kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 2kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux B*(-12.2dB) 600W
Mux A*(-15.2dB) 300W
Mux C*, Mux D*(-20dB) 100W

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Kilvey Hill transmitter area

Jan 1958-Jul 1968Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Harlech Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Kilvey Hill was not an original Channel 3 VHF 405-line mast: the historical information shown is the details of the company responsible for the transmitter when it began transmitting Channel 3.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Radiation patterns withheld

Comments
Tuesday, 4 February 2020
G
gareth williams
11:57 AM

we live in the kilvey hill reception area, we have no signal at all, have tried all of your info to get back on track but to no avail see my info below

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gareth williams's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:55 PM

gareth williams:

There is Planned Engineering at Kilvey Hill this week with "Possible service interruptions".
If you retuned earlier whilst the transmitter was off-air, it will have cleared all your previous tuning.
Repeat a retune, by now the transmitter may be back on air, but there could be further interuptions tomorrow.

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Chris.SE's 4,335 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 1 July 2020
P
Paul
10:19 PM

Since they people responsible for the "freq" change I've found that i either have lost channels or have to mover around my home to watch some stations. I have two digital Ariel's both have booster boxes. If / when I can get more then six stations the all seem to break up around 18:00 hrs. Some days I can't even get one station.
If you have / give me an asnwer, please DON'T use Techno Babble.

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C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:39 PM

Paul:

This is an independent help site and we can certainly try to help you with your reception problems, but we do need a full postcode to look at the predicted reception at your location.
It'd be helpful if you could say which way your aerials are pointing (rough compass bearing) and whether the rods on the aerial are horizontal or vertical.

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Chris.SE's 4,335 posts GB flag
Thursday, 4 March 2021
D
Dave Jones
2:32 PM

Reception on the Gower peninsular is appalling - only the main BBC channels are reliable.
This is not a temporary weather issue, it has been true for 6 months.
Transmitter power has been reduced and reduced. Its now a postcode lottery.

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Dave Jones's 1 post GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:59 PM

Dave Jones: The output power has not been reduced at any transmitter, except for short periods of time during planned engineering works or due to a fault, and certainly not lasting for several months. It's far more likely that there is a fault in your aerial system somewhere, perhaps some bad weather over the winter has damaged it. Start by checking for any loose or damaged cables or connections behind your TV, then follow the cable as far as you can safely access back towards the aerial.

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StevensOnln1's 3,663 posts GB flag
Saturday, 25 September 2021
C
Carl Lewis
12:12 PM

I live at postcode CF320PJ (Ogmore by sea) and have always received a good signal from the Kilvay Hill transmitter (my arial is obviously pointed at this transmitter) Recently, after getting interferance, I retuned the TVs but now find that I am receiving BBC south west not wales. Any ideas welcome

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Carl Lewis's 2 posts US flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:13 PM

Carl Lewis:

You should never retune when you have interference or loss of signal due to that, or Planned Engineering or transmitter faults that cause pixellation or no signal. In most instances this just clears the correct tuning of the affected multiplexes and you end up with nothing or tuned to the wrong (more distant) transmitter.
If you are correctly tuned, do NOT retune it serves no purpose.
The only instance where a retune may be suggested (usually advised by an on-screen pop-up) is where a commercial operator changes one of their channels on one of the COM multiplexes. If you happen to be in an "awkward" reception area then a manual retune on the UHF channel(s) for the affected multiplex(es) is usually the best suggestion.

Your predicted reception at your locale is not the best, although it could depend on where you are within your postcode as it could be variable, even poor or good! for some multiplexes.
This is because you might receive signals from other more distant transmitters (and there are several in parts of Devon, Cornwall, also parts of S.Wales) that use the same frequencies and in normal conditions it wouldn't be a problem. Matters will be made worse in weather conditions that enable the TV signals to travel a lot further than normal - we have had such conditions of late. When there is very strong "Tropospheric Ducting" even signals from Europe can be received (see How does good weather affect my television? | Help receiving TV and radio and the links on those pages for a simplistic explanation). Not all multiplexes will be affected at the same time or for the same lengths of time. A lot of aerials have "side-lobes" which can receive signals from directions other than the one the aerial is pointing.

Checking that your aerial is intact with no missing elements, is pointing in the correct direction (bearing 314 degrees - NW at your locale) with the rods (or squashed Xs) vertical.

The best thing to do will be to do a Manual retune for Kilvey Hill as follows - first, unplug the aerial and do a full automatic retune. This should clear all previous (and incorrect) tuning.
Plug the aerial back in, and in the TV's tuning section, do a manual for each UHF channel -
For Kilvey Hill it's C21, C24, C27, for the PSB1/BBCA, PSB2/D3&4, PSB3/BBCB HD multiplexes and C25, C22, & C28 for the COM4/SDN, COM5/ArqA & COM6/ArqB multiplexes, also C34 for the Local (Swansea) multiplex.
(C means UHF channel).

You may have to repeat that procedure a few times whilst/if interfering conditions persist over the weekend which some predictions suggest.


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Chris.SE's 4,335 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 10 October 2023
S
Susan Rees
4:58 PM
Burry Port

Problems since saturday 7th october no tv at all and intermittent tv during weekend also week commencing 9th october similar issues. Postcode sa16 0hl

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Susan Rees's 1 post GB flag
Susan's: ...
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:04 PM

Susan Rees :

Apart from the Planned Engineering which will not help (and they never provide details of the work or duration) I'm afraid it's down to current weather conditions -

They have been causing Tropospheric Ducting affecting much of the south coast and southern parts of the country on Saturday and now extending into the Midlands and North of the country through Sunday including East Anglia, now currently affecting Wales and England. This causes interfering signals from distant transmitters in Europe or the UK to affect reception of your wanted signals. This can periodically last, seconds, minutes and sometimes much longer - Do NOT Retune.
There is nothing you can do about this apart from wait for conditions to change, or use online streaming if available.

IF you did retune, you'd be best manually retuning the UHF channels for your transmitter, as detailed in the top section of this page.

The BBC and Freeview have issued warnings -
High pressure weather conditions impacting TV & Radio services - from 07 October | Help receiving TV and radio
High pressure could affect reception across parts of the UK this week | Freeview

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Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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