menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Freeview

 

 

Click to see updates

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

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.324,0.520 or 51°19'25"N 0°31'13"Esa_postcodeME5 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.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) mast?

Bluebell Hill transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/03/2024 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
_______

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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C32 (562.0MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
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)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
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),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C45+ (666.2MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 H max
C40 (626.0MHz)242mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C43+ (650.2MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C46 (674.0MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 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?

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

1984-971997-981998-20122012-1319 Jul 2018
EEEW TW T
C21_local
C28_local
C32com7
C34com8
C39+ArqA
C40BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCBSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4ArqA
C45SDNBBCB
C46BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCAArqB
C54tv_offArqB
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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

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

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

Comments
Saturday, 3 July 2021
M
Martin Grant
9:41 AM

On Friday 2nd July the euro football and every other hd channel was unwatchable due to a very bad signal. I just kept getting a no signal message. As the euros are only on every 4 years I was very angry that this was happening.If this was due to engineering work at bluebellhill it was totally out of order!

link to this comment
Martin Grant's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

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?

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

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 reception 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 interference from transmitters in Europe.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Sunday, 4 July 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:46 PM

Bluebell Hill transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 05/07/2021 Possible Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Monday, 12 July 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

2:47 PM

Bluebell Hill transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 12/07/2021 Possible Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 3 August 2021
L
Laurence A May
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:58 PM

Whats happened to 5select, was on channel 55

link to this comment
Laurence A May's 30 posts US flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:14 PM

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

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,605 posts GB flag
Monday, 6 September 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:23 AM

Bluebell Hill transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 06/09/2021 Screen may go black on all or certain channels [DUK]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Monday, 13 September 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:23 AM

Bluebell Hill transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 13/09/2021 Screen may go black on all or certain channels [DUK]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Friday, 17 September 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

10:47 AM

BLUEBELL HILL transmitter - DAB: Slightly reduced power due to a fault from 16 Sep 03:49 until 16 Sep 12:28. Slightly reduced power due to a fault from 15 Sep 19:18 until 15 Sep 23:05. Slightly reduced power due to a fault from 15 Sep 09:23 until 15 Sep 11:05. . [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 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.