The Carmel transmitting station, located half a mile (0.8km) 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.[1]
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.
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.
All the analogue television services closed and the new digital multiplexes took over their frequencies (and two new ones) with name-changes, power increases and a shift to 64-QAM.
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,[2] 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.[3]
