Two distinct Independent Television services were provided in Wales and the West of England.

• South Wales and the West of England were served by the Authority's St Hilary (Channel 10) station which was opened in 1958; and a relay station which opened on I3th May 1968 to provide an improved service in the Bath area.

• The ITV service for Wales is broadcast from the Authority's four transmitters at St Hilary (Channel 7 since 1965), Presely and Arfon (since 1962), and Moel-y-Parc (since 1963); the service was extended by six small relay stations at Abergavenny, Bala, Brecon, Ffestiniog, Llandovery and Llandrindod Wells. The Bala station came into service on 26th July 1967 and Llandovery on 30th August 1968.

South Wales and the West

The Authority's St Hilary (Channel 10) station was sited at St Hilary Down, on the Welsh side of the Severn Estuary between Cardiff and Swansea and 413 ft above sea level. It serves the area surrounding the estuary and the Bristol Channel, including the densely-populated areas of South Wales and Monmouthshire, Somerset, and parts of Gloucestershire and other counties.

The Authority would have preferred a mast height of 1,000 ft. but because of nearby Rhoose Airport the height had to be restricted to 750 ft. The e.r.p. is 200 kW omnidirectional.

Since its opening for programme service on 14th January 1958 St Hilary (Channel 10) gave the high grade of service predicted, but the fundamental limitations of Band III transmission and reception in mountainous terrain when compared with Band I led to some public disappointment about the comparative grades of service in some shielded locations in the deep valleys of South Wales and also in low-lying parts of the cities of Bristol and Bath. The use of well-designed receiving aerials and of more sensitive 'fringe' area receivers has in part overcome the low signal strength and the 'ghost' images experienced in such localities. The Bath relay station came into service on I3th May 1968.

Wales

The Presely station was at Foel Drych in Pembrokeshire, 1,100 ft above sea level. The aerial radiated a narrow beam of 80 kW to the north to provide a reliable programme link to the Arfon relay station; a beam of 100 kW to the south-east linked the coverage contours with those of the St Hilary service area; and a broad lobe of 50 kW to the south-west served Pembrokeshire. Several severe power restrictions had to be met to avoid co-channel interference.

The unattended Arfon station, which rebroadcast he Presely transmissions, was at Nebo, eight miles north-east of Pwllheli. A 1,000 ft mast is used to 'see' over the mountains of Portmadoc to the coast of Cardigan Bay from Harlech to Barmouth and to ensure a link-up with the service area of Presely. A directional aerial was again necessary. 10 kW is radiated to the north and south-west, 5 kW east and south-east, and 2 5 kW to the west.

At the Moel-y-Parc station a 750 ft mast was needed to reach the coastal resorts from Conway to Prestatyn, shielded by mountains close to the coast. The radiation pattern was approximately semi-circular, 25 kW being radiated from south-east to northwest with reduced power north and east so as to cover the Welsh areas but avoid overlap with English areas already served. Moel-y-Parc rebroadcasts transmissions from Arfon, conveyed to it by an 'off the air' pick-up at Nebo, in Anglesey, and an ITA microwave link.

At St Hilary it was desirable that the Welsh service on Channel 7 should be broadcast from the existing mast to reproduce as far as possible the Channel 10 coverage of Wales. Because of the power limitations to prevent co-channel interference, and the need to mount the Channel 7 transmitting aerial below that of the Channel 10 aerial (no increase in mast height was permissible because of aeronautical factors), the actual grade of service on Channel 7 was not in some areas as good as that on Channel 10.

The Presely, Arfon and Moel-y-Parc stations were all in programme service by early 1963, St Hilary (Channel 7) in February 1965, Bala in July 1967 and Llandovery in August 1968.