Carmel transmitting station

The Carmel transmitting station, located half a mile SSW of the village of Carmel in Carmarthenshire, has been broadcasting terrestrial TV and radio services since the mid-1970s. The TV coverage area for the Carmel transmission station includes most of Carmarthenshire, the southern and eastern parts of Pembrokeshire; the southern fringes of Powys and Ceredigion; the northern part of Swansea. The Carmel signal is also receivable in parts of Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend and Rhondda Cynon Taff. Places as far away as Merthyr Tydfil and the north Devon coast are also able to receive signals from Carmel.
Carmel started to switch over to digital terrestrial TV broadcast services on 26 August 2009.

Services available

Analogue television

21 May 1973 - 1 November 1982

Carmel never did broadcast VHF television, and went live with the UK's three national UHF television services.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Service
	57	100	BBC1 Wales
	60	100	HTV Wales
	63	100	BBC2 Wales

1 November 1982 - 15 November 1998

The UK's fourth national television service joined the set transmitted from the site. Being in Wales, the S4C variant was broadcast.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Service
	53	100	S4C
	57	100	BBC1 Wales
	60	100	HTV Wales
	63	100	BBC2 Wales

Analogue and digital television

15 November 1998 - 26 August 2009

The initial rollout of digital television in the UK involved radiating the signals at low power in between the existing analogue channels.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Service	System
	53	100	S4C	PAL System I
	55	2.5	BBC	DVB-T
	57	100	BBC1 Wales	PAL System I
	59-	5	SDN	DVB-T
	60	100	HTV Wales	PAL System I
	62-	2.5	BBC	DVB-T
	63	100	BBC2 Wales	PAL System I
	65-	2.5	Digital 3&4	DVB-T
	66	1	Arqiva	DVB-T
	67	1	Arqiva	DVB-T

26 August 2009 - 23 September 2009

The UK's digital switchover commenced at this site. Analogue BBC2 Wales closed on channel 63 and HTV took over on that frequency for what would be its final 3 weeks of service, vacating channel 60 as it did so. The new BBC A multiplex started up at full power in 64-QAM mode on channel 60, and Mux 1 on channel 55 closed.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Service	System
	53	100	S4C	PAL System I
	57	100	BBC1 Wales	PAL System I
	59-	5	SDN	DVB-T
	60	20	BBC A	DVB-T
	62-	2.5	BBC	DVB-T
	63	100	HTV Wales	PAL System I
	65-	2.5	Digital 3&4	DVB-T
	66	1	Arqiva	DVB-T
	67	1	Arqiva	DVB-T

Digital television

23 September 2009 - present

All the analogue television services closed and the new digital multiplexes took over their frequencies with name-changes, power increases and a shift to 64-QAM.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Operator
	53	20	Digital 3&4
	54	10	SDN
	57	20	BBC B
	58	10	Arqiva A
	60	20	BBC A
	61	10	Arqiva B

May 2013

As a side-effect of frequency-changes elsewhere in the region to do with clearance of the 800 MHz band for 4G mobile phone use, Carmel's "Arqiva B" multiplex will have to be moved from channel 61 to channel 49 and the "BBC A" multiplex will get a negative offset.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Operator
	49	10	Arqiva B
	53	20	Digital 3&4
	54	10	SDN
	57	20	BBC B
	58	10	Arqiva A
	60-	20	BBC A