Wrexham-Rhos transmitting station

{{Short description|Television and radio broadcast facility in Wales}}

{{Infobox UK transmitter

|name = Wrexham-Rhos

|image =

|map_name = Wales Wrexham

|coordinates = {{coord|53.0762|-3.045|type:landmark_region:GB|display=inline,title}}

|height = {{convert|45|m|ft|0}}

|gridref = SJ3000153762

|built = 1977

|demolished =

|collapsed =

|relay = Moel-y-Parc

|BBC = BBC Wales

|ITV = ITV Cymru Wales

}}

The Wrexham-Rhos transmitting station is a digital television relay of Moel-y-Parc, and forms part of the Wales television region. Despite its name, the station is situated in Moss Village and serves the city of Wrexham, the northern area of Wrexham County Borough and south-western Flintshire. It is a free-standing lattice tower structure serving around 85,000 homes which are unable to receive broadcasts from Moel-y-Parc due to Hope Mountain.

This area is traditionally served by English transmitters at Winter Hill and The Wrekin, which have historically provided English-language channels Channel 4 and Channel 5, plus the digital terrestrial services ONdigital/ITV Digital (from 1998 to 2002) and Freeview from 2002 onwards. Wrexham-Rhos was constructed to coincide with the 1977 National Eisteddfod in Wrexham, initially providing S4C and BBC One Wales,{{Cite web |title=mb21 - The Transmission Gallery |url=http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/gallerypage.php?txid=966&pageid=1846 |access-date= |website=tx.mb21.co.uk}} later joined by HTV Wales in 1997 and BBC Two Wales in 1999.https://web.archive.org/web/20070930034741/http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/itc/uploads/HTV_APR_text.doc ITC: WALES AND THE WEST OF ENGLAND: HTV (archived copy from Internet Archive)

The DAB digital radio transmitter on the site was switched on in 2013.{{Cite news |date=2013-04-18 |title=Digital radio: More stations for north east Wales listeners |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-22205304 |access-date=2023-04-06}} It had a temporary outage in 2017.{{Cite web |title=Rhos transmitter outage takes some Sunday television off air |url=https://www.wrexham.com/news/rhos-transmitter-outage-takes-some-sunday-television-off-air-139890.html |access-date=2023-04-06 |website=Wrexham.com |language=en}}

Services available

=Analogue television=

==1977 - 1 November 1982==

class="wikitable sortable"

!{{no2}}Frequency

!{{no2}}UHF

!{{no2}}kW

!{{no2}}Service

{{UK System I|ch=39}}

|39

|0.2

{{UK System I|ch=67}}

|67

|0.4

==1 November 1982 - 30 March 1997==

class="wikitable sortable"

!{{no2}}Frequency

!{{no2}}UHF

!{{no2}}kW

!{{no2}}Service

{{UK System I|ch=39}}

|39

|0.2

{{UK System I|ch=67}}

|67

|0.4

==30 March 1997 - 1999==

class="wikitable sortable"

!{{no2}}Frequency

!{{no2}}UHF

!{{no2}}kW

!{{no2}}Service

{{UK System I|ch=32}}

|32

|0.2

{{UK System I|ch=39}}

|39

|0.2

{{UK System I|ch=67}}

|67

|0.4

==1999 - 2000==

class="wikitable sortable"

!{{no2}}Frequency

!{{no2}}UHF

!{{no2}}kW

!{{no2}}Service

{{UK System I|ch=28}}

|28

|0.2

{{UK System I|ch=32}}

|32

|0.2

{{UK System I|ch=39}}

|39

|0.2

{{UK System I|ch=67}}

|67

|0.4

==2000 - 28 October 2009==

Prior to analogue switch-off, Wrexham-Rhos broadcast four of the five national terrestrial stations. Channels 1 to 3 were broadcast at 200 W ERP, while S4C was broadcast at 400 W. In 1998, due to the upcoming launch of ONdigital from neighbouring transmission site, Winter Hill, S4C from the relay was required to change frequency (from UHF Channel 67) two years later. A message was displayed telling viewers to re-tune their televisions of the channel were carried for a couple of months. When the original frequency was switched off, the power on the newer version was increased.

class="wikitable sortable"

!{{no2}}Frequency

!{{no2}}UHF

!{{no2}}kW

!{{no2}}Service

{{UK System I|ch=25}}

|25

|0.4

{{UK System I|ch=28}}

|28

|0.2

{{UK System I|ch=32}}

|32

|0.2

{{UK System I|ch=39}}

|39

|0.2

=Analogue and digital television=

==28 October 2009 - 25 November 2009==

class="wikitable sortable"

!{{no2}}Frequency

!{{no2}}UHF

!{{no2}}kW

!{{no2}}Service

!{{no2}}System

{{UK System I|ch=25}}

|25

|0.4

|PAL System I

{{UK System I|ch=28}}

|28

|0.08

|BBC A

{{UK System I|ch=32}}

|32

|0.2

|PAL System I

{{UK System I|ch=39}}

|39

|0.2

|PAL System I

=Digital television=

==25 November 2009 - present==

At present, the station broadcasts three of the six national digital terrestrial television multiplexes on the "Freeview Lite" service. The station switched over to digital transmissions from analogue throughout November 2009, and remaining analogue services ceased at midnight on 25 November 2009. BBC A and Digital 3&4 broadcast using MPEG2 compression on DVB-T standards, whilst the HD multiplex, BBC B, uses DVB-T2.

class="wikitable sortable"

!Frequency

!UHF

!kW

!Operator

{{UK DVB-T|ch=22}}

|22

|0.08

{{UK DVB-T|ch=25}}

|25

|0.08

|BBC B

{{UK DVB-T|ch=28}}

|28

|0.08

|BBC A

=Analogue radio (FM VHF)=

class="wikitable sortable"

!Frequency

!kW

!Service

88.0 MHz

|1.4

|Heart North and Mid Wales

95.4 MHz

|0.7

|BBC Radio Wales

103.4 MHz

|1.4

|Capital North West and Wales

=Digital radio (DAB)=

class="wikitable sortable"

!Frequency

!Block

!kw

!Operator

215.072 MHz

|10D

|3kW

|MuxCo North East Wales & West Cheshire†

On air date March 2013Radio Listeners Guide 2010

See also

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

[http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/wrexham-rhos.php mb21 - The Transmission Gallery - photographs]
[http://www.ukfree.tv/shutdowndetail.php?tx=SJ301537 ukfree.tv Shutdown plans for Wrexham-Rhos]

{{Transmitter sites in Wales}}

{{FM radio transmitter sites in Wales}}

{{Television transmitters in the UK}}

{{Moel-y-Parc UHF 625-line Transmitter Group}}

{{Moel-y-Parc UHF DVB Transmitter Group}}

Category:Buildings and structures in Wrexham County Borough

Category:Transmitter sites in Wales