Bwlch Mawr is not a site used for direct broadcasting, but was an important BBC link site carrying analogue BBC1 and BBC2 from Blaenplwyf to Llanddona, and is still used to carry the BBC Nicam distribution for BBC radio to Llanddona.
As seen from the pictures, it is only a hop skip and jump from the Arfon site, which raises the question why the latter site was not used. In fact Bwlch Mawr pre-dates Arfon by a good few years, and also probably has a better view of Blaenplwyf than Arfon would have.
When originally opened, in 405-line days, it was used as a Band I off-air receiving site off Blaenplwyf, followed by a single-hop SHF link to Llanddona. This state of affairs continued when UHF arrived, but subsequently the off-air hop was replaced by a fully engineered SHF link.
As can be seen, there are two receive paraboloids off Blaenplwyf, presumably used in some sort of diversity mode. This path is mostly over the sea, hence subject to tidal fading effects if some such dodge is not employed. |
