The Carmarthen transmitting station (Welsh: Gorsaf drosglwyddo Caerfyrddin) was originally built by the BBC in 1964/65 as a relay for VHF radio and television.[1] The site was built on a 135 m ridge to the north of Carmarthen itself, and entered service on 15 March 1965. The transmission station is now owned and operated by Arqiva.
UHF 625-line colour television was never radiated from this site: the main transmitter at Carmel (20 km to the east) provided that service to the town from 1973 when it opened.
The 405-line VHF television service closed across the UK in 1985, but according to the BBC's transmitter list[2] and the BBC's internal "Eng. Inf." magazine,[3] Carmarthen was due to close early - in the first quarter of 1982. From that point onwards the site just relayed FM radio until 6 June 2011[4] when a single multiplex of DAB radio was added.
Channels listed by frequency
Analogue television
15 March 1965 - First Quarter 1982
The site provided BBC 405-line VHF television to the towns of Carmarthen and Abergwili which, being sited in a river estuary, could not reliably receive a signal from Wenvoe, 85 km to the east.
The three original radio services were still on their original frequencies as late as January 1973,[5] but ERPs had been slightly increased to 10 W per channel by then. By May 1978 all three transmission frequencies had been moved by 400 kHz [6] and all three were transmitting in stereo by that time.