Full Freeview on the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 50.676,-1.369 or 50°40'35"N 1°22'7"W |  | PO30 4HT |
The symbol shows the location of the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter which serves 620,000 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 Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter._______
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
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Rowridge 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
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 Rowridge transmitter?
BBC South Today 1.3m homes 4.9%
from Southampton SO14 7PU, 26km north (354°)
to BBC South region - 39 masts.
ITV Meridian News 0.9m homes 3.6%
from Whiteley PO15 7AD, 24km north-northeast (20°)
to ITV Meridian (South Coast) region - 39 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford
Are there any self-help relays?
| Portsmouth Docks | Transposer | 2 km N city centre | 50 homes Estimate. Group of houses' |
How will the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1950s-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 2 May 2018 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | A K T | A K T | A K T | W T | ||||
| C3 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C21 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C22 | +ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C24 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C25 | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C27 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C28 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C29 | LSO | ||||||||
| C31 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | com7 | |||||
| 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 7 Mar 12 and 21 Mar 12.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 500kW | |
| PSB1||, PSB1≡, PSB2||, PSB2≡, PSB3||, PSB3≡ | (-4dB) 200kW | |
| COM4≡, COM4||, COM5≡, COM5||, COM6≡, COM6|| | (-10dB) 50kW | |
| com7≡ | (-13.1dB) 24.4kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-14dB) 20kW | |
| com8≡ | (-14.3dB) 18.4kW | |
| LSO≡ | (-17dB) 10kW |
Local transmitter maps
Rowridge Freeview Rowridge DAB Rowridge TV region BBC South Meridian (South Coast micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Rowridge transmitter area
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Friday, 8 July 2022
V
Victor Delta2:59 PM
Chris.SE
Many thanks. Don't worry, not a problem!
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Saturday, 9 July 2022
Tuesday, 12 July 2022
A
Annie Bevis11:55 AM
How old is the list of Freeview channels? Looking at my TV, CBS Justice, CBSJustice+1 is now closed and so is 5USA+1, Justice+1, Forces TV, RT all these channels are gone.
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S
StevensOnln12:01 PM
Annie Bevis: The site owner hasn't been able to keep up with all of the changes taking place, although to be fair most of those you mentioned have only happened a couple of weeks ago.
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Monday, 5 September 2022
C
Chris.SE10:59 PM
Brenda:
Without some further details, we can only provide some general advice.
The Transmitter has been listed for Planned Engineering for a few weeks with "Screen may go black on all or certain channels". However this is usually "short term" at any given instance. The transmitter is working and no faults are currently reported! Do NOT retune if you were previously correctly tuned and have no signal as this will usually just clear all correct tuning.
Without a full postcode we can't advise your predicted reception which may also be affected by Current Weather conditions - Tropospheric Ducting - causing interference from more distant transmitters in Europe or the UK. This can be very variable and is usually short term at any instant but conditions have been persisting for several days, different parts of the UK are being affected at different time. Not all multiplexes will be affected at the same time or at all.
Both Freeview and the BBC have issued warnings about short term interference to reception.
Again do NOT retune if you have badly pixellated pictures or no signal.
If you did retune, then your correct tuning has probably been cleared and you will have to repeat a retune when signals are normal. You may have to try several times as you can't be sure when that may be.
Check that your aerial is still pointing in the correct direction (compare to neighbours). Make sure the downlead isn't flapping in the wind and just check your coax connections behind the TV etc.
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Friday, 9 September 2022
E
Elaine11:49 AM
Fareham
Chris.SE:
Same problem as Brenda.
PO16 0LE, aerial in roof of block of flats (no access to residents) - pixelation getting worse over time but particularly over the last week, and since yesterday ALL channels are unwatchable. Done all advised here and on the net but no change. Getting a new aerial cable hoping that this is the problem, also checking with other residents to see if they have Freeview and are having problems. Fingers crossed.
Thank you for your very useful website.
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Elaine's: mapE's Freeview map terrainE's terrain plot wavesE's frequency data E's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 10 September 2022
C
Chris.SE12:49 AM
Elaine:
You should have absolutely no problem with reception from Rowridge in your location, and all Planned Engineering has been suspended in the present circumstances and signals should be normal as no transmitter faults are being reported.
Is this your own aerial or a shared aerial provided by the management of the flats?
You say you are getting a "new cable". Is this the cable from the aerial or a "fly-lead" that's one from the coax outlet to your set (and/or between say a recorder and set). Fly-leads can go faulty often noticed when you move them about.
If your neighbours are having similar problems and it's a shared aerial, then there could be a system fault and you'd need to chase the management of the flats to get it fixed. From your description it doesn't sound like the weather conditions are the cause of your problem.
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Monday, 19 September 2022
G
Graham5:54 PM
Wimborne
Hi,
Post Code BH21 2PG
Same poor Freeview issues as others above. HD over the past week is almost unwatchable. Standard definition is better but with pixalation still apparant.
Have two TVs giving the same probems fed from a loft aerial & amplifier which have been unchanged for seven years.
The TVs show 100% signal but 20% quality - so this seems to be the issue.
I suggest a transmitter engineer should check transmission even if no faults are present.
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Graham's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE10:40 PM
Graham:
The previous posters above do not have the same problem as you. One is so close to the transmitter, even IF it were operating on reduced power (which it isn't) reception would still be fine. That problem sounds like a problem with a distribution system for the flats. The other would not be caused by the transmitter otherwise there would be thousands of complaints and the BBC would certainly have logged a fault as also it would if your issue was related to transmission.
You on the other hand are some distance from the transmitter and if using horizontal polarisation then your predicted reception from Rowridge is not the best for all multiplexes and you could possibly be more likely to be affected by Current Weather conditions - Tropospheric Ducting - causing interference from more distant transmitters in Europe or the UK. This can be very variable and is usually short term at any instant but conditions have been persisting for over a week, different parts of the UK are being affected at different time. Not all multiplexes will be affected at the same time or at all.
Both Freeview and the BBC have issued warnings about short term interference to reception.
Do NOT retune if you have badly pixellated pictures or no signal.
You are correct in that the 20% quality figure seems to be the issue. There are generally two likely causes of this.
One is interference, as just mentioned due to weather conditions. As the interference increases the quality drops until the point the receiver struggles to decode the wanted signal, you get pixellation and eventually the signal will quickly drop to zero as the set sees nothing but noise, or the interfering signal is so strong you start to decode that instead. As the elevation of your locale is quite good, also implied by some predicted reception from the Mendip and Stockland Hill main transmitters, this could make interference more likely in the sort of weather conditions mentioned.
The other, is too much signal which can cause overload of the receiver tuner. As you have mentioned 100% signal (using an amplifier) then this could well be a cause. You may be fine most of the time, but then a marginal increase in signal which can also be caused by the weather conditions mentioned means the quality then starts to drop.
A quick test you can do here, if the amplifier has a gain control, turn it down a bit, say to 95% strength across the multiplexes, you do not need 100% signal. See if the quality returns to 100%.
Or otherwise, unplug the aerial from the amplifier (and switch it off) and connect it directly to your main TV. If the quality returns to 100% but drops again when you reconnect via the amplifier then too much signal is most likely OR the amplifier has gone faulty (less likely if it's giving gain).
Earlier I mentioned your predicted reception using horizontal polarisation. Rowridge is one of very few transmitters that also uses vertical polarisation and your predicted reception for all multiplexes is very good if you have your aerial set with it's rods (or squashed Xs) vertical. BUT you will need to turn the gain down a bit (or add attenuators) if you change to vertical (assuming you aren't already using it).
By the way, your aerial should be pointing at compass bearing 108 degrees, that's 18 degrees south of due E.
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