Long Mountain transmitting station

Long Mountain

Long Mountain transmitting station (Powys)
Mast height	52 metres (171 ft)
Coordinates	52.6452°N 3.0865°W / 52.6452; -3.0865
Grid reference	SJ265058
Built	Late 1970s
BBC region	BBC Wales
ITV region	ITV Cymru Wales

The Long Mountain transmitting station is sited on a 400 metres (1,300 ft) ridge about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of Welshpool in Powys, Mid Wales and has been broadcasting UHF terrestrial TV and VHF FM radio services since the late 1970s. The site has a self-supporting 170' (52 metre) high lattice steel mast and was fed with an SHF link from Blaenplwyf via Llangurig. Despite not taking its signal off-air, it was originally classed as a 625-line UHF TV relay of Blaenplwyf.

The transmitter originally radiated 1 kW providing TV and radio to an area including Newtown and Oswestry. Being only 400 metres (1,300 ft) from the England/Wales border, coverage extended to several towns in England – Shrewsbury included.

Long Mountain became re-classed as main transmitter in its own right (albeit a very low power one) with the advent of digital terrestrial TV from the site on 4 November 2009. In addition to this, it currently transmits FM radio and a single multiplex of DAB Digital radio.

Services available

Analogue television

17 September 1976 - 1 November 1982

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

Frequency	UHF	kW	Service
767.25 MHz	58	1	BBC1 Wales
791.25 MHz	61	1	HTV Wales
815.25 MHz	64	1	BBC2 Wales

1 November 1982 - 4 November 2009

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
735.25 MHz	54	1	S4C
767.25 MHz	58	1	BBC1 Wales
791.25 MHz	61	1	HTV Wales
815.25 MHz	64	1	BBC2 Wales

Analogue and digital television

4 November 2009 - 3 December 2009

The UK's digital switchover commenced at this site. Analogue BBC Two Wales closed on channel 64 and ITV1 Wales took over on that frequency for what would be its final 3 weeks of service, vacating channel 61 as it did so. The new BBC A multiplex started up at full power in 64-QAM mode on channel 60 until 19 October 2011.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Service	System
735.25 MHz	54	1	S4C	PAL System I
767.25 MHz	58	1	BBC One Wales	PAL System I
786.000 MHz	60	0.4	BBC A	DVB-T
815.25 MHz	64	1	ITV1 Wales	PAL System I

Digital television

3 December 2009 - 19 October 2011

All the analogue television services closed and the new digital multiplexes took over on parking-frequencies (until October 2011) with name-changes, power increases and a shift to 64-QAM. Unusually, for a digital TV site classed as a main transmitter, Long Mountain only radiates the three public service multiplexes of Freeview.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Operator
722.000 MHz	52	0.4	Digital 3&4
754.000 MHz	56	0.4	BBC B
786.000 MHz	60	0.4	BBC A

19 October 2011 - present

DSO was completed at The Wrekin, and this allowed the Long Mountain multiplexes to take up their final frequencies.

Frequency	UHF	kW	Operator
730.000 MHz	53	0.4	Digital 3&4
762.000 MHz	57	0.4	BBC B
785.833 MHz	60-	0.4	BBC A

Analogue radio (VHF FM)

For its FM radio services, Long Mountain is an off-air relay of Llangollen.

Frequency	kW	Service
89.6 MHz	0.02	BBC Radio 2
91.8 MHz	0.02	BBC Radio Wales
94.0 MHz	0.02	BBC Radio 4
99.2 MHz	0.02	BBC Radio 1
102.8 MHz	0.02	Heart North and Mid Wales
103.6 MHz	0.02	BBC Radio Cymru

Digital radio (DAB)

Frequency	Block	kW	Operator
225.648 MHz	12B	1	BBC National DAB

External links

• MB21's entry for the site