The border town of Chepstow is situated in the gorge at the end of the Wye Valley in South Wales. The relay itself stands on the English side of the river in an area known as Sedbury, but the service area is the part of the town located in the shadow of the hills on the Welsh side. The transmitter site is in the grounds of a local school and leisure centre, and of course I had to pick games day to visit, which led to many funny looks as I wandered around camera in hand taking pictures of steel masts! It is a low power 2W relay with a pair of crossed vertically polarised TX log periodics pointing towards the town. A single horizontal log periodic RX antenna points towards Mendip, with a stacked pair of horizontal yagis pointing at Wenvoe.
Originally an IBA landlord site, Chepstow entered service on 9th July 1984 with BBC 1 & 2 relaying Wenvoe and ITV & Ch4 relaying Mendip. ITV was changed to relay Wenvoe in August 2009, prior to DSO at Mendip & Wenvoe. Chepstow now relays Wenvoe for all three multiplexes. |
