Is it me, or is terrestrial TV in Wales appalling?

Yes I have NTL. I rarely watch BBC for anything though, only Doctor Who and Holby.

Out of interest, in the North West which ITV region would I receive on 850?

None, due to the fact that NTL in the North West is the old Cable & Wireless network, most NTL customers in the North West don't really overlap, we just have the channels that NTL added later on such as the BBC Nations and ITV & C4 London, but thats for Audio Description.

I don't think the lack of anything above the normal 4 channels in Wales is due to anything other than the same reason that that's all I can get here, 10 miles away from Emley Moor - the local geography.

The UHF channel allocations were done on the basis of accommodating 4 channels - this was in the 1960's, some 20 years or so before C4/S4C came on the scene. Adding C5 and DTT required these services to be shoehorned in wherever they could be added without causing interference elsewhere.

In Wales there are, as you know, lots of hills and valleys, so large areas of the country are served by relay stations, often relatively close together. So finding available frequencies for additional services which won't interfere is difficuilt.

Also consider that many of these valleys are served by chains of relays - allegeldy up to 5 deep - so getting a decent signal into these stations is tricky.

Just think of all those caravan parks/hotels etc all over the UK that will to fork out for digi boxes of some description in a few years time.

I remember stopping in Tenby in a caravan park(Near the railway line if anybody knows it! a few years back, & being restricted to 1 to S4C !

There was also a Travelodge type place just east of Portsmouth, that, besides the regular TV channels also piped through some radio channels including the local Beeb (Solent?).

A few years ago we had an awful School trip to the Menai Centre on Anglessey, and in the TV room we could only get 1 to S4C like you, even after Channel 5 started, on one dreary night it was awful due to the fact the same Rugby match was being shown on BBC2 Wales and S4C, leaving only BBC1 Wales and HTV, which weren't showing anything spectacular.

They did have Granada stored on the TV, but the reception was appaling, ironic being that it was the same standard of picture if I tried to recieve a Welsh channel here in England.