Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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51.324,0.520 or 51°19'25"N 0°31'13"E

ME5 9RD

The symbol shows the location of the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter which serves 200,000 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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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Which Freeview channels does the Bluebell Hill 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C32 (562.0MHz)	242m	DTG-	20,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) South East, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 16 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C34 (578.0MHz)	242m	DTG-	20,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (East micro region)), 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 (Meridian south coast), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C45+ (666.2MHz)	242m	DTG-	20,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South East, 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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C40 (626.0MHz)	242m	DTG-8	20,000W
	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	C43+ (650.2MHz)	245m	DTG-8	20,000W
	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	C46 (674.0MHz)	245m	DTG-8	20,000W
	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

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

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

BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 28km southwest (218°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.

ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 5km south-southeast (155°)
to ITV Meridian (East) region - 36 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford

How will the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2012	2012-13	19 Jul 2018
	E	E	E	W T	W T
C21					_local
C28				_local
C32					com7
C34					com8
C39				+ArqA
C40	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	+BBCB	SDN
C43	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	ArqA
C45				SDN	BBCB
C46	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	ArqB
C54_{tv_off}				ArqB
C55_{tv_off}					com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}					COM8_{tv_off}
C65	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves

_{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 13 Jun 12 and 27 Jun 12.

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

Analogue 1-4	30kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-1.8dB) 20kW
com8	(-7.8dB) 5kW
com7	(-8.1dB) 4.7kW
Mux 1, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-10dB) 3kW
Mux 2, Mux A	(-11.8dB) 2kW

Local transmitter maps

Bluebell Hill Freeview Bluebell Hill DAB Bluebell Hill TV region BBC South East Meridian (East micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Bluebell Hill transmitter area

Sep 1955-Jul 1968	Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	Thames†
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1982-Dec 1992	Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004	Meridian
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Bluebell Hill 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

P

Peter Martin
8:57 PM

Sorry, the computer said there had been a fatal error when sending to the site so that is why it appears 3 times.

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Peter Martin's 3 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:00 PM

Peter Martin:

As has been mentioned many times around this site, unfortunately the site owner has not had the time to do all the that have resulted from the Clearance programme, there are 1200 or so UHF transmitters in the UK. If you read my post prior to yours (bottom of p113) you'll see all the correct UHF for are listed.

In addition, unfortunately broadcasters do periodically change the channels and they provide, that's primarily COMs4-7 and the Local . See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for what is usually an up-to-date list of the channels and which multiplexes carry them. It was last updated on the 29th April, see Channel changes and launches, Now 70's, 80's and GB News | Freeview for the changes.

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

P

Paula mcmaster
5:45 PM
Rochester

I live in the me1 2he area of Rochester have had a terrible on my tv , hardly any , is there any information you could give me of work etc being done.

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Paula mcmaster's 1 post GB flag

Paula's: ...

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:10 PM

Paula mcmaster: According to the post above yours, there has been work taking place at the transmitter this week, unfortunately it doesn't say when the work is due to be completed. Do not attempt to retune as this will just delete your correctly tuned and search for them again, the missing channels will start working again once the returns. If you have already retuned, you will need to wait for the engineering work to be completed before retuning again to restore the missing channels.

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StevensOnln1's 3,672 posts GB flag

M

Martin Grant
9:41 AM

On Friday 2nd July the euro football and every other hd was unwatchable due to a very bad signal. I just kept getting a message. As the euros are only on every 4 years I was very angry that this was happening.If this was due to work at bluebellhill it was totally out of order!

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Martin Grant's 1 post GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:03 PM

Martin Grant:

I'd guess that Arqiva would argue that they can't stop essential maintenance work just because of what programmes happen to be on. Quite a lot of such work cannot be done in the winter for example because the weather is unsuitable.
Were you not able to stream using either iPlayer or ITV Hub?

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:16 PM

Martin Grant:

Just to add to the above, There's also been some variable "Tropospheric Ducting" with the recent weather conditions which has been affecting of some multiplexes for some viewers at different times.
See Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | Help receiving TV and radio for a simplistic explanation.
This may persist on and off for a few days. You should not retune when such conditions persist.
Reception in the south and east of the UK is often more vulnerable to such from transmitters in Europe.

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

L

Laurence A May

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

5:58 PM

Whats happened to 5select, was on 55

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Laurence A May's 32 posts US flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:14 PM

Laurence A May: 5Select moved to the PSB3 a few weeks ago, so it can now only be received if you have the HD on 101-105. If you can receive the HD channels, a retune should restore 5Select on 55.

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StevensOnln1's 3,672 posts GB flag

R

Robert warnock
4:04 PM
Sheerness

We have at on sea. ME12 2HB.
It comes on for a few seconds then goes off again. This is all .
Is their a problem at your end.

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Robert warnock's 1 post GB flag

Robert's: R's Freeview map R's terrain plot R's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Page 71

Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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