menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Freeview

 

 

Click to see updates

Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"Wsa_postcodeB75 5JJ

 

The symbol shows the location of the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter which serves 1,870,000 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 Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter.

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

Which Freeview channels does the Sutton Coldfield 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
C43 (650.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) West Midlands, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 19 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C46 (674.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Midlands ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Midlands ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Central west), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C40+ (626.2MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West Midlands, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 104 Channel 4 HD Midlands 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
C42 (642.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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
C45 (666.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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
C39+ (618.2MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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

LB
 H -13dB
C48 (690.0MHz)433mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 31st October 2014: 7 Big Centre TV,

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 Sutton Coldfield transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 15km south-southwest (201°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)

Are there any self-help relays?

Burton (shobnall)Transposer1 km W Burton-on-Trent60 homes
CoalvilleTransposer18 km NW Leicester600 homes
SolihullTransposerLand Rover building400 homes

How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-137 Mar 2018
VHFB E TB E TB E TB E K TW T
C4BBCtvwaves
C33com7
C35com8
C36LOCAL2
C39+ArqBArqB
C40BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves+BBCBBBCB
C42SDNSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C45ArqAArqA
C46BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4
C48_local
C50tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C51tv_offLB
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off

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 7 Sep 11 and 21 Sep 11.

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

Analogue 1-4 1000kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 200kW
com7(-10.5dB) 89.2kW
com8(-10.7dB) 86kW
LB(-20dB) 10kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-21dB) 8kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent 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. Sutton Coldfield 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
Friday, 12 February 2021
J
JOHN MORRIS
9:03 PM

Hi ,We are getting a poor reception on ITV and BBC terrestrial channels could it be the transmitter ,(we are using Sutton Coldfield ) or the aerial on the roof.

link to this comment
JOHN MORRIS's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:11 PM

JOHN MORRIS:

Again Sutton Coldfield is currently listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible weak signal" so it's quite likely this may be the cause of the problem you are seeing. If you provide a full postcode, we may be able to comment further.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,344 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 17 February 2021
P
Phil Dalton
3:07 PM
Warwick

I have noticed over the last few weeks that the quality of HD transmissions from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter has been diminishing. HD channels became pixelated initially at the weekends only, but now pixelation occurs every day, meaning only SD channels can be watched.

I have just retuned, before writing these comments, with the following results in terms of signal quality:-
Ch39 = 1, Ch42 = 10, Ch43 = 10, Ch45 = 1,Ch46 = 5, Ch55 = 1
Having retuned, if I select BBC1 HD or ITV1 HD the screen displays a message stating that the channel does not exist. Prior to the reduction of signal quality I had noticed that for the above HD channels the signal quality = 7.

My postcode is CV35 9LX
Something needs to be done on the transmitter to return signal quality of the HD channels.

link to this comment
Phil Dalton's 2 posts GB flag
Phil's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:55 PM

Phil Dalton:

The Sutton Coldfield transmitter has for several recent weeks been listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible weak signal", so it's highly probable that is the reason for what you have been seeing. The BBCB HD/PSB2 multiplex is on UHF C40 from Sutton Coldfield, which in light of your comments is unsurprisingly missing from your list.
(The full list of multiplexes is in my post above on p310, 26tyh Dec.). You are not predicted to get the Local L-BRM multiplex at your location (doesn't mean your won't!), your aerial should be pointing at a bearing of 339 degrees (~NNW) rods/squashed x's horizontal.

The transmitter isn't listed this week, but that doesn't mean that some work may not be continuing, we've seen many cases where the lists have not be accurate. No faults are currently listed.
Try a manual retune on UHF C40.
Also worth checking all your coax plugs and connections, make sure your downlead isn't flapping in the wind etc. Also check that you don't have any HDMI leads close to any aerial or flyleads, especially if the aerial and flyleads aren't high quality double screened types. HDMI is known to sometimes cause interference, especially to C55 (COM7)

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,344 posts GB flag
Monday, 19 July 2021
M
Mike wilson
7:32 PM

Can you not boost the signal for DVB-T 746.00MHz CH55 as this is the only channel I have problems with. All the other (7 channels) are fine. Thanks

Mike

link to this comment
Mike wilson's 5 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:21 PM

Mike wilson: No the signal cannot be boosted, firstly this is an independent technical help website which has nothing to do with any broadcaster or transmitter company, so nobody reading or posting on this website had any means to make any kind of change to any transmitter. COM7 is a Single Frequency Network (SFN) so increasing the broadcast power of one transmitter would lead to more interference with other transmitters, which would therefore cause problems for viewers in other areas. COM7 is a temporary multiplex which is due to close within the next 12 months so it is very unlikely that any major technical changes will be made at this point. Nothing has been announced regarding what will happen to any of the channels currently on COM7 when the multiplex closes.

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,667 posts GB flag
Thursday, 12 August 2021
T
Tracey Loasby
9:56 PM

When will the engineering works be completed on the Sutton Coldfield transmitter

link to this comment
Tracey Loasby's 3 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:31 PM

Tracey Loasby:

I'm afraid that Freeview and Arqiva very rarely (often never) provide that information, it will depend on the exact nature of the work being done - that information is usually never provided either. We have to wait and see if the transmitter disappears off the Planned Engineering list, and sometimes even then the work hasn't finished!

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,344 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 24 August 2021
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:44 PM

Steven Ernest Woolley:

A little more information could be useful!
When did you lose them, a full postcode so we can look at predicted reception at your locale and which transmitter(s) and multiplexes you might receive.
Whilst Sutton Coldfield is no longer listed for Planned Engineering, experience says that work might still be going on and the list may not be accurate.
I can't find any current listing of any faults nor any reported affecting the HD channels in the last 5 days.

There is also adverse weather conditions periodically affecting reception in some parts of the country resulting in interference because signals from other transmitters are traveling further.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,344 posts GB flag
Select more comments

Your comment please
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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.








Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.