Long Mountain transmitting station


The Long Mountain transmitting station is sited on a ridge about 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' 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 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 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.
FrequencyUHFkWService
581BBC1 Wales
611HTV Wales
641BBC2 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.
FrequencyUHFkWService
541S4C
581BBC1 Wales
611HTV Wales
641BBC2 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.
FrequencyUHFkWServiceSystem
541S4CPAL System I
581BBC One WalesPAL System I
600.4BBC ADVB-T
641ITV1 WalesPAL 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 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.
FrequencyUHFkWOperator
520.4Digital 3&4
560.4BBC B
600.4BBC A

19 October 2011 - present

DSO was completed at The Wrekin, and this allowed the Long Mountain multiplexes to take up their final frequencies.
FrequencyUHFkWOperator
530.4Digital 3&4
570.4BBC B
60-0.4BBC A

Analogue radio (VHF FM)

For its FM radio services, Long Mountain is an off-air relay of Llangollen.
FrequencykWService
89.6 MHz0.02BBC Radio 2
91.8 MHz0.02BBC Radio 3
94.0 MHz0.02BBC Radio 4
99.2 MHz0.02BBC Radio 1
102.8 MHz0.02Real Radio N. & M. Wales
103.6 MHz0.02BBC Radio Cymru

Digital radio (DAB)