Full Freeview on the Darvel (East Ayrshire, Scotland) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 55.579,-4.291 or 55°34'45"N 4°17'26"W |  | KA16 9LS |
The symbol shows the location of the Darvel (East Ayrshire, Scotland) transmitter which serves 150,000 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 Darvel (East Ayrshire, Scotland) mast?
Darvel transmitter - Darvel transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 Screen may go black on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Darvel 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.
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 Darvel transmitter?
BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 31km north (1°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.
STV News 1.3m homes 4.8%
from Glasgow G51 1PQ, 31km north (2°)
to STV Central (Glasgow) region - 94 masts.
Are there any self-help relays?
| Craigie Gardens | Transposer | 1 homes 90 caravans | |
| Inversnaid | Active deflector | 35 km N Dumbarton | 8 homes Hotel caravan park |
How will the Darvel (East Ayrshire, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 5 Sep 2018 | |||||
| A K T | A K T | A K T | A K T | W T | |||||
| C22 | -BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C23 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | SDN | |||||
| C25 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||||||
| C26 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | ArqA | |||||
| C28 | BBCB | BBCB | |||||||
| C29 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | ArqB | |||||
| C30 | _local | ||||||||
| C31 | com7 | ||||||||
| C32 | SDN | ||||||||
| C33 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ||||||
| C34 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | ArqB | ||||||
| C37 | com8 | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_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 11 May 11 and 25 May 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-5 | 100kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 20kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 10kW | |
| com8 | (-10.9dB) 8.19kW | |
| com7 | (-11.2dB) 7.5kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B* | (-14dB) 4kW | |
| Mux C*, Mux D* | (-17dB) 2kW |
Local transmitter maps
Darvel Freeview Darvel DAB Darvel AM/FM Darvel TV region BBC Scotland STV Central (Glasgow micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Darvel transmitter area
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldWednesday, 30 March 2022
I
Ian Davidson9:47 AM
Mauchline
I have just changed my aerial to a Labgear LAB450T and am unable to pick up the channels on the com7 multiplex from the Darvel transmitter. My postcode is KA55AT. All other channels have great signal strength and quality. Is com7 broadcast on Ch 55 from Darvel or Ch 31 as I
'm unsure from the information I can gather from this website? I am picking up 5 channels on Ch 31Freq 554000kHz but none of them are from com7 multiplex. According to the site Darvel does not broadcast on Ch 31
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Ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln110:04 AM
Ian Davidson: COM7 is broadcast as a single frequency network (SFN) on UHF channel 55 from 25 transmitters (including Darvel) however it is predicted to be weaker at your postcode than the main multiplexes. UHF channel 31 is the local multiplex from Darvel which carries That's Scotland and a handful of other channels, which is predicted to have a stronger signal than COM7 at your postcode so it makes sense that you are receiving the local mux without difficulty.
COM7 is due to close when it's multiplex licence expires on 30th June 2022 so I wouldn't suggest spending too much time, effort or money trying to receive something which will be gone within 3 months.
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I
Ian Davidson12:17 PM
Mauchline
StevensOnln1:
Thank you for the timely reply. Will the channels I cannot receive at the moment be moved to another multiplex e.g.BBC News HD after com7 closes?
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Ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE1:31 PM
Ian Davidson:
There's been no announcements about what will happen to any of the channels currently on COM7. Most of us are expecting a lot of them will just close. There is very very limited space on other multiplexes for SD channels and the carriage fees will be higher, some broadcasters will not bother. There MAY be space on BBCB HD/PSB3 but whether the BBC will choose to put one of their COM7 HD channels there remains to be seen.
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Wednesday, 8 June 2022
G
Grant 7:03 PM
Kilmarnock
Help, I've just started to lose signal on most of the channels. I believe its the trees in the distance filling out with leaves in the summer. Where I live is a low area surrounded by hills. The direct path to the Darvel transmitter has trees on the horizon. KA3 5JL
It's been getting worse each year. Do I have to just give up on terrestrial tv and switch to satellite?
I have bought a high gain Group A aerial and a longer pole to put it on I already have a mast head amp on the current wideband aerial.
My question is am I just wasting money or can i improve it enough.
I did think about switching to the blackhill transmitter 45Km away. But that seemed ludicrous.
Any help appreciated
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Grant's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln110:37 PM
Grant: Darvel is coming up as the only transmitter predicted to cover your postcode, so I wouldn't expect much success with Black Hill. The Group A aerial on a longer pole may well improve things, but chances are the trees will cause the same problem again in the long run. You may well be better off installing Freesat, perhaps consider having a dish installed at the same time if you go ahead with replacing your existing aerial.
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C
Chris.SE11:29 PM
Grant :
Just firstly to mention, if you got a fatal error message when trying to post then ignore it, there's a bug in the site software, just wait several minutes to check if your post appears - they normally do.
Your locale is generally predicted to get good reception from Darvel. There are some spots that may get some sort of signal from Black Hill but it's likely to be unreliable, variable at best for the PSBs and poor for the COM multiplexes, so as mentioned by StepvensOnln1 I wouldn't expect success.
You mention reception has been getting worse each year, but no mention of how old your wideband aerial installation is. As you say that these trees are on the "horizon" so I'd be surprised if they were having that much of an impact. Any degradation of your existing aerial installation - water getting into the aerial connector or coax, masthead amp etc. to have a far greater impact. It's also possible the masthead amp may have degraded.
What sort of signal strength and quality figures (or BER/Error figures) are you getting in your TV tuning section for each UHF channel multiplex?
A Group A aerial is likely to perform better for you, but their gain will vary from make to make and model. You should make sure you replace all your coax with high quality double screened coax cable (eg.WF100 or equivalent).
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Thursday, 16 June 2022
G
Grant1:54 PM
All,
Thanks for the help I've gone for a YAGI 18 A band. on a longer pole replacing the cable outside while I fit. I will do this next week and see if this makes any difference. On the coverage map above it shows green all around a grey spot where my house is. I think therefore its possibly freesat for me if this fails.
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C
Chris.SE7:25 PM
Grant:
Thanks for the update, if you need further help, do post back.
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Tuesday, 21 June 2022
G
Grant2:27 PM
Well, Thats the A group Aerial up and working 70% signal and 100% quality for most channels with the exception of COM 7 all the channels on Com 7 have gone. I've obviously misread that com 7 and 8 were moving to Channels 31 and 37. And Com 7 is still on Channel 55. Is it likely to move or will I just give up?
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