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Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.237,-2.626 or 51°14'12"N 2°37'33"Wsa_postcodeBA5 3LB

 

The symbol shows the location of the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter which serves 720,000 homes. The bright green areas shown where the signal from this transmitter is strong, dark green areas are poorer signals. Those parts shown in yellow may have interference on the same frequency from other masts.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Mendip (Somerset, England) mast?

Mendip transmitter - Mendip transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 11/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Mendip transmitter broadcast?

If you have any kind of Freeview fault, follow this Freeview reset procedure first.

Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C32 (562.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C34 (578.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (West), 4 Channel 4 (SD) South ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (West), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C35 (586.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H max
C48 (690.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C33 (570.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C36 (594.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LBS
 H -10dB
C30 (546.0MHz)591mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 22nd September 2014: 7 Made in Bristol,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Mendip transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 25km north (3°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.
regional news image
ITV West Country News (East) 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS4 3HG, 23km north (11°)
to ITV West region - 61 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

CheddarTransposer15 km E Weston-super-Mare1674 homes
LuccombeActive deflector6 km w Minehead38 homes

How will the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20102010-132013-182013-1727 Feb 2018
C/D EEEC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C30_local
C32BBCA
C33com7com7
C34D3+4
C35com8com8
C36ArqB
C37C5wavesC5waves
C48SDNSDNSDNSDN
C49tv_off BBCABBCA
C51tv_offLBSLBS
C52tv_offArqBArqBArqB
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offArqAArqAArqACOM8tv_off
C58tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C61ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCA
C64BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 24 Mar 10 and 7 Apr 10.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4 500kW
Analogue 5(-6dB) 126kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
com7(-8.4dB) 72.4kW
com8(-8.6dB) 69.1kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*, LBS(-17dB) 10kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Mendip transmitter area

Jan 1958-Jul 1968Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Harlech Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Mendip was not an original Channel 3 VHF 405-line mast: the historical information shown is the details of the company responsible for the transmitter when it began transmitting Channel 3.

Comments
Saturday, 12 June 2021
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:34 PM

Paul hudson:

If you mean Hill Rd. in WSM then you stand a chance BUT that's a guess on my part, we do need a full postcode to look at the predicted reception. If you look at the coverage map above with Pro-mode enabled and zoom in, you can see the general difficulties in the WSM area, but do not take the map as 100% accurate, these things aren't always the case (nor are predictors) but they give a general idea.

Which way are you neighbours aerials pointing? Are the rods (or squashed Xs) horizontal or vertical? If they are horizontal and pointing roughly ESE (although depending on location Hutton maybe roughly the same direction but vertical rods) then you may get Mendip, but a full postcode will give a far better idea.

If you want all multiplexes from Mendip, you'd need a Group T/Wideband aerial BUT if predicted reception (especially of COM7) isn't good, you might be better with a Group A and forget COM7 (but again you might get that off the back of the aerial from Wenvoe. Whatever, do not be tempted to buy one of these "baco-foil" aerials from certain DIY outlets, the first pigeon or two to land on it will bend things all over the place!
Once we know what the predicted reception might be and what your neighbours are getting, we should be able to give some sensible choices.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag
Sunday, 13 June 2021
B
bruce james tearle
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:16 PM

hi

what channel in the new news program 236 being broadcast on?

thanks
bruce

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bruce james tearle's 57 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:54 PM

bruce james tearle: GB News is broadcast on the COM6 multiplex, which is on UHF channel 36 from Mendip.

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StevensOnln1's 3,670 posts GB flag
Monday, 14 June 2021
B
bruce james tearle
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:10 PM

Thanks for info, will refresh my box.

bruce

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bruce james tearle's 57 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 16 June 2021
K
Kelvin Smith
1:02 PM
Stonehouse

I live in Stonehouse No7 GL10 3QP and have a new roof top wide band aerial pointing at the Mendip transmitter but have bad signal quality on all the HD channels.
Using my TV signal information I get;
Ch Sig Quality BER
32 94% 100% 0
33 92% 76% 0
34 92% 50% 0
35* 92% 40% 1268
36 92% 48% 0
37 0% 0% 2,000
48 100% 100% 0
55 96% 0% 2,000

I get a slightly better HD pictures if I tune into Wales, but cannot move C5HD & C5HD to 104 & 105;
Ch Sig Quality BER
47 93% 70% 0

Should I change the aerial to Group B to try and get some more gain in signal strength? Other thoughts?


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Kelvin Smith's 5 posts GB flag
Kelvin's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
Kelvin Smith
1:05 PM
Stonehouse

I live in Stonehouse No7 GL10 3QP and have a new roof top wide band aerial pointing at the Mendip transmitter but have bad signal quality on all the HD channels.
Using my TV signal information I get
Ch Sig Qty BER
32 94 100 0
33 92 76 0
34 92 50 0
35 92 40 1268
36 92 48 0
37 0 0 2,000
48 100 100 0
55 96 0 2,000

I get a slightly better HD pictures if I tune into Wales, but cannot move C5HD & C5HD to 104 & 105;
Ch Sig Quality BER
47 93 70 0

Should I change the aerial to Group B to try and get some more gain in signal strength? Any other thoughts?


link to this comment
Kelvin Smith's 5 posts GB flag
Kelvin's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:44 PM

Kelvin Smith: If the figure of 96 for UHF channel 55 indicates a signal strength of 96% then you have a plenty strong enough signal for COM7 already, so fitting a grouped aerial is unlikely to help. BER of 2,000 would suggest that you have a high error rate so you are getting interference from somewhere. Do you have any HDMI cables close to your aerial lead? Poorly screened HDMI leads are a common source of interference and seem to particularly effect UHF channel 55, so try to keep them as separated as possible.

The Freeview detail coverage checker predicts that Ridge Hill would give a stronger signal on all multiplexes, which is the transmitter commonly used in Stonehouse, as Mendip is blocked by the hills in much of the surrounding area, so it may be worth considering realigning your aerial on a bearing of 328 degrees.

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StevensOnln1's 3,670 posts GB flag
B
bruce james tearle
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

2:57 PM

following a successful retune of my box earlier in the week, channel 35 [gbnews] was dropping out this morning.

was this weaher relayed?

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bruce james tearle's 57 posts GB flag
Thursday, 17 June 2021
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:24 AM

bruce james tearle:

I think that was a typo there bruce, you meant C36 and yes, one of the predictors was showing quite strong Tropospheric Ducting this morning which will likely have resulted in quite a bit of co-channel interference. This should have subsided now, are your signals back to normal?

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:20 AM

Kelvin Smith:

As StevensOnln1 says fitting a grouped aerial will not help, especially a B, as you will most likely see a major reduction in Signal for C55 and possibly C32.

As StevensOnln1 has also said, you have adequate signal strength there on all channels - except C37 which is not a Mendip transmission, that's the Local multiplex from Wenvoe and it's also possible you may get sufficient signal from an Oxford multiplex that uses C37 rendering Quality useless.

As has already been mentioned, as you have plenty of signal but low quality - high BER, then interference is the most likely cause. Especially if your aerial and flyleads aren't high quality double screened types, then if you have any HDMI leads near them this can cause interference.

Now there are two other possibilities, interference from other transmitters due to the Tropospheric Ducting that's been around for a few days, but as mentioned to bruce should now be cleared - are your figures any better? You should have 100% quality on all channels - which you should even still have if the signal was lower.

That leads me to the second possibility. Do you have any aerial amplifier/distribution system. If so, it could be you have too much gain. I find it strange that the signal the predictor gives that's likely to be your worst from Mendip (by some margin) is C48, yet your figures show it as the best!
Too much signal/gain will give the sort of numbers you are seeing. Once there is front end overload, the actual strength numbers on the set can decrease, as will the quality. So turn the gain control down and see what figures you then get. The strength figures could go quite low and yet you still get 100% Quality and a very low BER.
If you have no variable gain control, try the aerial direct to your main set and post the numbers.

As for Ridge Hill, although you can get ITV West on a separate multiplex from ITV Central, BBC1 and regional variations are Central, not West, so it'll depend which region you prefer.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag
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