The Haverfordwest transmitting station is a broadcasting and telecommunications facility located at Woodstock about to the north east of the town of Haverfordwest, in Pembrokeshire, Wales (). It was originally built by the BBC, entering service in early 1964 acting as a main transmitter for the 405-line VHF television system, and as a repeater for Band 2 VHF FM radio received off-air from Blaenplwyf transmitting station. It is now owned and operated by Arqiva.
The site has a guyed steel lattice mast erected on land that is itself about above sea level. The radio broadcasts cover the majority of Pembrokeshire, except the north eastern part of the county. The signals also can reach the outskirts of Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.
It currently carries seven analogue FM radio stations, including BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio Wales and Radio Pembrokeshire.
When UHF analogue television was added in 1990, those services were provided only at very low power and only designed to cover the small villages of Puncheston, Castlebythe, Little Newcastle and Rosebush, which are all located within about of the mast.
It currently carries three digital television multiplexes at twice the ERP of the analogue services that they replaced, thus providing digital TV to a much larger area than had been served before.
The mast had its aircraft warning lights upgraded in October 2006, from white xenon discharge flashers to red lamps employing arrays of ultrabright LEDs.
Services listed by frequency
Analogue television
17 February 1964 - January 1985 FrequencyVHFkWService410BBC1 Wales
January 1985 - 18 July 1990 The 405-line VHF television system closed down permanently across the UK, and from then until Summer 1990, the site transmitted no television signals, just VHF (FM) radio.
18 July 1990 - 19 August 2009 Colour TV was added very late: Haverfordwest became a UHF relay of Presely. Being in Wales, this transmitter radiated the S4C variant of Channel 4.
FrequencyUHFkWService—520.05BBC1 Wales—560.05HTV Wales—660.05BBC2 Wales—680.05S4C
Analogue and digital television
19 August 2009 - 16 September 2009 Digital Switchover started at Haverfordwest, mirroring the changes at its parent transmitter at Presely. BBC2 closed on UHF 66 and HTV Wales switched to that channel for its final three weeks of service. The BBC multiplex A started up on UHF 56 vacated by ITV.
FrequencyUHFkWServiceSystem520.05BBC1 WalesPAL System I560.1BBC ADVB-T660.05HTV WalesPAL System I680.05S4CPAL System I
Digital television
16 September 2009 - 31 October 2012 All the remaining analogue TV services closed and were replaced with the standard three multiplexes of Freeview Lite. Notice that unusually, the digital TV services are broadcast at twice the ERP that had been provided in the analogue TV days. At most sites, the digital services are broadcast at a fifth the ERP of the old analogue channels.
FrequencyUHFkWTelevision Viewers Guide 2009Operator480.1BBC B520.1Digital 3&4560.1BBC A
31 October 2012 - present 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, Haverfordwest's "BBC B" multiplex was moved from channel 48 to channel 47. Additionally, all the transmissions at the site gained a +3 dB power boost.
FrequencyUHFkWOperator470.2BBC B520.2Digital 3&4560.2BBC A
Analogue radio (FM VHF) FrequencykWRadio Listeners Guide 2010Service89.3 MHz20BBC Radio 291.5 MHz20BBC Radio 393.7 MHz20BBC Radio Cymru95.9 MHz20BBC Radio Wales98.9 MHz20BBC Radio 1102.5 MHz20Radio Pembrokeshire104.9 MHz20BBC Radio 4
See also List of masts List of radio stations in the United Kingdom List of tallest buildings and structures in Great Britain
References
External links MB21's page on BBC 405 TV to Wales and the West 405 Alive's list of transmitters" More details on 405-line BBC transmitters The Transmission Gallery: Photographs and Information The Transmission Gallery: FM Coverage Map