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Full Freeview on the Wenvoe (Cardiff, Wales) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.460,-3.282 or 51°27'35"N 3°16'57"Wsa_postcodeCF5 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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Wenvoe (Cardiff, Wales) transmitter.

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

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C41+ (634.2MHz)384mDTG-100,000W
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
 H max
C44 (658.0MHz)384mDTG-100,000W
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
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)384mDTG-100,000W
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
 H -3dB
C42+ (642.2MHz)384mDTG-850,000W
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
 H -3dB
C45+ (666.2MHz)384mDTG-850,000W
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
 H -3dB
C39+ (618.2MHz)384mDTG-850,000W
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

LCF
 H -10dB
C37 (602.0MHz)384mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 22nd September 2014: 8 Made in Cardiff,

DTG-8 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?

regional news image
BBC Wales Today 1.2m homes 4.7%
from Cardiff CF5 2YQ, 6km northeast (42°)
to BBC Wales region - 206 masts.
regional news image
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?

AbergwesynActive deflector7 km N Llanwrtyd Wells20 homes
BarryTransposer10 km SW city centre300 homes
Celtic ManorTransposer5 km E Newport80 homes
PentrebachTransposer3 km S Merthyr Tydfil100 homes
YstradfellteActive deflector30 km NE Port Talbot20 homes

How will the Wenvoe (Cardiff, Wales) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20102010-132013-182013-1715 May 2019
VHFB E TB E TB E TB E TB E K TW TW T
C5BBCtvwaves
C30LOCAL2
C31com7com7
C37com8com8
C39 +ArqB+ArqBArqB
C41ITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves+BBCA+BBCA+BBCABBCA
C42+SDN+SDN+SDNSDN
C44BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4D3+4
C45+ArqA+ArqA+ArqAArqA
C47C4wavesC4wavesC4wavesBBCBBBCBBBCBBBCB
C49tv_off+ArqB
C51tv_offBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesLCFLCF
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_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

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. Wenvoe 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.

Comments
Thursday, 25 July 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:38 AM

Garry:

Premier Sports is not available on Freeveiw, only Sky & Virgin. It does have a sister channel called Freesports and is LCN 64 in the channel list, it's on the COM8 multiplex which is broadcast from Wenvoe if you can get it at your location. Put your postcode into Digital UK - Coverage checker to check predicted reception at your location.

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Chris.SE's 4,394 posts GB flag
Thursday, 29 August 2019
C
Chris
8:28 PM

Why can't I get channel 40 in aberdare

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Chris's 1 post GB flag
Wednesday, 11 December 2019
D
David watkins
11:02 PM

Hello. My name is David,my Post Code is CF399UA and from the direction my aerial is pointing I suppose ithe TX MAST address is above Upper Boat Pontypridd.
I understand that that this TX rebro.is one of this country,s lowest station in program out put i.e.21
Why is that the case???.

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David watkins's 1 post GB flag
Thursday, 12 December 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:50 AM

David watkins:

The Pontypridd transmitter is well to the north of Upper Boat, it's probably better described as being just north of Glyntaff and very close to the east of Coedpenmaen. If you click on Pontypridd it will go to its transmitter page where the map will show its location. It's 10 degrees S of E and about 5km from your location.

There are over 1100+ TV transmitters in the UK of which over 1000+ are "relay" transmitters, the great majority of which are Freeview "Light" transmitters which only transmit the 3 PSB multiplexes. Of these Public Service Broadcast multiplexes, PSB3 is the BBCB HD multiplex for the main HD TV channels which you can only receive if you have a TV with an HD (T2) tuner. The two other multiplexes PSB1/BBCA and PSB2/D3&4 broadcast the SD Standard Definition channels of which there are 21 TV channels and the BBC radio stations. So there is nothing unusual about your situation, it's like many that have to rely on a PSB relay "Light" transmitter.

The main transmitters cannot cover the whole country simply because of it geographic nature which is why we have all the relay transmitters to fill in most of the gaps. Because most of these relay transmitters only cover small populations, the commercial broadcasters don't consider it cost effective to pay for additional transmitters on those sites to provide the other 3 main COM (commercial) multiplexes.

Two other HD multiplexes COMs 7&8 are not broadcast from all Main transmitters because of technical limitations and cost effectiveness. In any event we are expecting those to be closed by around 2022 when the frequencies may be required for 5G mobile use. Whether the commercial broadcasters and transmitter operators will at that time consider it cost effective to start converting any of the remaining multiplexes to T2 (HD) which can then accommodate more channels, remains to be seen.

According to the Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker, you could receive signals from 5 transmitters at your location - 4 Welsh, and the 5th is Mendip (West of England main transmitter) but the reliability of signals from all but the 3 very local Relay transmitters will be variable to poor for most of the multiplexes.
The 3 local transmitters are Porth about 0.7km to the NW of you, Trebanog just over 1km to the SW, and Pontypridd. Trebanog is very low power (2W), Porth is also very low power (12W) and Pontypridd is low power 400W where you are likely to get your most reliable signals from even though all 3 are predicted to give good reception.
See Problems with Freeview reception? | RTIS to give you more of a feel for reception of these Welsh transmitters.

If you want to receive more TV channels (including some not broadcast on Freeview), you could consider Freesat which is subscription free, otherwise the other options are Sky, or Cable if available in your area.


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Chris.SE's 4,394 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:10 AM

David watkins:

To add to my last, if you have a decent broadband connection with unlimited usage, you could consider a more modern "smart" TV that can connect to the Internet where you can "stream" some additional channels, also make use of "catch-up" services, and many of these sets are now UHD (4k) definition (limited streaming services available for UHD at present) and a number of sets will also have satellite tuners built-in so you only need a dish and LNB to get Freesat.

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Chris.SE's 4,394 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 18 December 2019
T
Tim Phipps
1:30 PM

The channel listings for Wenvoe seem off. I can't see BBC1 HD on any mux yet I can recieve it OK, PLus I can't get BBC Four HD yet it is listed here.

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Tim Phipps's 1 post GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:32 PM

Tim Phipps:

The listings here are not currently being maintained as the site owner is unabkle to do so at present.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Thursday, 19 December 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:37 AM

Tim Phipps:

Whilst the listings here haven't been maintained as MikeP has mentioned, up-to-date and (usually) correct information can be obtained from Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free
BBC1 HD etc is on the BBCB/PSB3 multiplex which is transmitted by all transmitters, but BBC4 HD is on the COM8 multiplex (see Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free corporate/platform-management/channel-listings ) That mux is not transmitted by all transmitters, but it is by Wenvoe if it is Wenvoe you are receiving. To help/assist you with why not/or if you can get the COMs7&8 multiplexes, we will need a full postcode.

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Chris.SE's 4,394 posts GB flag
Monday, 30 December 2019
H
Hywel clatworthy
7:22 PM
Abertillery

Is anyone else having problemswith wenvoe tv reception in NP13 2AY ?
Its been up and down this afternoon, a retune has not helped

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Hywel clatworthy's 2 posts GB flag
Hywel's: mapH's Freeview map terrainH's terrain plot wavesH's frequency data H's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:49 PM

Hywel clatworthy:

There are unusually high levels of "Tropospheric propagation" at present, often associated with High Pressure weather systems.
These levels of propagation are unusual at this time of year - they cause signals from more distant transmitters to travel a lot further than normal. It is currently affecting different parts of the country by varying degrees and signals can change by the second or remain stable for much longer periods.
In the old "analogue" days there was a lot of talk about "continental" interference often in the summer months, but the interference can come from transmitters anywhere in the UK or Europe and even further afield. At the moment some people are getting DAB radio from the Netherlands and FM Radio from France as well as the interference to DTV.

It is predicted to continue for a couple more days, and you are advise NOT to retune as you will likely lose the correct tuning that you had. The "propagation" can be very frequency dependent, and it can only affected one frequency or several, but it can/will be different for others.

People will however have noticed the unusually mild weather which the Met office is referring to as a "Foehn effect" but it's not helpful that it seems none of the major broadcasters are making any reference to the interference being caused to TV and Radio reception! So it's no surprise that people wonder what is going on and think there is a transmitter problem.

For those that have retuned and lost correct tuning, you will have to try again and it could be hit and miss whilst the unusual propagation continues. If you are able to do a manual tune for the correct UHF channels, you may still receive interference or the wrong programmes.

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Chris.SE's 4,394 posts GB flag
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