Full Freeview on the Wenvoe (Cardiff, Wales) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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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 14/10/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C41+ (634.2MHz)	384m	DTG-	100,000W
	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)	384m	DTG-	100,000W
	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)	384m	DTG-	100,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H -3dB	C42+ (642.2MHz)	384m	DTG-8	50,000W
	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)	384m	DTG-8	50,000W
	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)	384m	DTG-8	50,000W
	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)	384m	DTG-12	10,000W
	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?

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	BBCtv_waves
C30								LOCAL2
C31							com7	com7
C37							com8	com8
C39						+ArqB	+ArqB	ArqB
C41		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	+BBCA	+BBCA	+BBCA	BBCA
C42					+SDN	+SDN	+SDN	SDN
C44		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	D3+4	D3+4	D3+4	D3+4
C45					+ArqA	+ArqA	+ArqA	ArqA
C47		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB
C49_{tv_off}					+ArqB
C51_{tv_off}		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves			LCF	LCF
C55_{tv_off}								com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}								COM8_{tv_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

Local transmitter maps

Wenvoe Freeview Wenvoe DAB Wenvoe TV region BBC Wales Wales

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Wenvoe transmitter area

Jan 1958-Jul 1968	Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	Harlech Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

S

Steve Donaldson

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

4:30 PM

Tony1234: I am wondering whether something has changed along the path, within a short distance from your property.

You have said you can see the top of the but not the lower part. This terrain plot suggests that anything up to around mile out could be in the first Fresnel zone:

Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location

There is the line-of-sight and the Fresnel zone, the area around the line-of-sight in which objects could "potentially" affect . This is indicated on the plot with the purple line, line-of-sight being the yellow line. So being able to see the isn't necessarily a guarantee of good reception. This isn't to say anything in the area "will" affect reception, just that it could potentially do.

With the plot we can see that up to around a mile out, the line-of-sight and first Fresnel are close to the ground and therefore anything on the ground could be in the Fresnel zone. Furthermore, the distance I have said is to around one mile out, this according to the plot. The plot samples ground heights at intervals and may therefore not be exactly accurate.

Additionally, I tried a few points along Trepit Road, finding that the terrain isn't flat and that the distance out from the location which the terrain may be within the Fresnel zone (i.e. line-of-sight close to the ground) varies.

With this in mind, I was wondering whether something has been built or changed somewhere along the line between you and the transmitter, up to about a mile, but in particular closer to you. I haven't been able to find anything definite. On looking at the image, my eye was drawn to the houses on St. James Road as they appeared new, although examination of the local planning registry suggests to me that these may be in the of five or so years old, the original planning application dated December 2014.

That said, particularly if you are to the north of Trepit Road then they do look to be on the signal path (the line between you and the transmitter). I can't but wonder whether they could be causing some level of degradation in reception, being that they may be in the Fresnel zone for Dryslwyn House and neighbouring properties, particularly on that side of the road.

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Steve Donaldson's 246 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:37 PM

Steve Donaldson:

Thanks for that excellent detailed analysis Steve. I was contemplating taking a closer look but thought I'd wait and see what Tony1234 said in response to my queries.

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Chris.SE's 4,335 posts GB flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

10:47 AM

- Wenvoe transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 07/10/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 708 posts GB flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

5:11 AM

- Wenvoe transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 14/10/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 708 posts GB flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

5:11 AM

- Wenvoe transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 14/10/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 708 posts GB flag

Page 29

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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If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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