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 18/11/2024 Screen may go black 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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Thursday, 25 July 2019
C
Chris.SE11:38 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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Thursday, 29 August 2019
Wednesday, 11 December 2019
D
David watkins11:02 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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Thursday, 12 December 2019
C
Chris.SE2:50 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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C
Chris.SE3:10 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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Wednesday, 18 December 2019
T
Tim Phipps1:30 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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MikeP
8:32 PM
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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Thursday, 19 December 2019
C
Chris.SE8:37 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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Monday, 30 December 2019
H
Hywel clatworthy7:22 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's: mapH's Freeview map terrainH's terrain plot wavesH's frequency data H's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE10:49 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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