Full Freeview on the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.997,-2.540 or 51°59'49"N 2°32'25"W |  | HR8 2PG |
The symbol shows the location of the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter which serves 270,000 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 Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) mast?
Ridge Hill transmitter - Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
_______
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 Ridge 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.
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 Ridge Hill transmitter?
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 69km northeast (39°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 69km northeast (39°)
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?
| Whitton | Transposer | 35 km NW Hereford | 40 homes |
How will the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1968-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 1 Mar 2018 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | A K T | A K T | W T | W T | ||||
| C6 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C21 | +SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C22 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C24 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C25 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C27 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C28 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C29 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C30 | _local | ||||||||
| C32 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | com7 | |||||
| C34 | com8 | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C51tv_off | _local | _local | |||||||
| 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 6 Apr 11 and 20 Apr 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-5 | 100kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, PSB2 iw, BBCB | (-7dB) 20kW | |
| com7 | (-9.8dB) 10.5kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 10kW | |
| com8 | (-10.1dB) 9.8kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-17dB) 2kW |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Ridge Hill transmitter area
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldSaturday, 18 December 2021
C
Chris.SE9:52 PM
Lib. :
Hi. Posts don't always appear immediately which can be a bit frustrating if you don't realise that.
Your loss of signal is the weather conditions I'm afraid.
There is currently some moderate to strong temperature inversion/tropospheric ducting conditions affecting large parts of the UK and these weather conditions can disrupt reception for brief or longer periods. The conditions are predicted to last for a few days.
Conditions can change by the second, minute, hour and not all multiplexes may be affected or not even at the same time if more than one. You may have lost your signal and it may have returned several times.
I hope you didn't retune whilst you had no signal as this will likely have just cleared your correct tuning and you could even get tuned to weak interfering signals which eventually disappear.
Current BBC Warning -
"Latest Freeview works and warnings
High pressure impacting TV and Radio services across parts of the UK
Some viewers across parts of the UK might experience short-term interference to BBC television and radio service. This is being caused by a zone of high pressure, which causes problems to the links between transmitters and it also increases interfering signals in specific areas, which results in poor reception.
The conditions can move and change which makes it difficult to know where it will hit next. You can check if the problem is impacting your local transmitter using the transmitter checker tool. If there are no faults displayed it is possible the problem is impacting your radio or television system directly.
The majority of the BBC's transmissions are not affected by this period of interference, as the BBC's networks are engineered to be generally very robust. Television viewers may experience slight occasional pixelation or break-up or loss of service. Radio listeners may experience break-up of their services. Cable and satellite services are not affected.
At these times, there is nothing you can do but wait until the weather changes. You should not re-tune your television or radio when this happens.
If you have retuned your TV and continue to have problems with missing channels, or reception problems, as a result of the high pressure, you'll have to retune again once the weather has cleared. "
For technical explanations, see
https://www.bbc.co.uk/rec….jpg
and How does good weather affect my television? | Help receiving TV and radio
The link in the 2nd one isn't as good an explanation as the.jpg link I've posted.
I hope you can watch Strictly on iPlayer.
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Tuesday, 22 February 2022
S
Steve Walkley2:56 PM
Guys, I am In Cheltenham and on the Ridge Hill TV service. On 17/18th Feb 22 I lost most of my TV channels. Normal service returned from the 19th Feb 2022 and since. I have an indoor loft antenna and suffer poor reception in very heavy rain otherwise I get a full service with good levels and FEC. I'm guessing the weather was at the Ridge Hill end.
To address my general reception problem I bought a TV Amp and installed it. It worked very well but is limited to Channels 48 and below meaning many of my goto channels are missing. About to return the amplifier and I note Ridge Hill Channel 55 is changing because of pressure from 5G. I see this change slated from November 2021 but its now Feb 22 so when. Do I return this amplifier to BnQ or do I hold on?
I have found an alternate amplifier which will cover the current Ch55 at more cost but guess if I buy you will complete the update of Ch55 the next day and I loose out to 5G interference there after.
What exactly happened to your service over 17/18th Feb if anything? It was pants at my end.
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S
Steve Walkley2:57 PM
Guys, I am In Cheltenham and on the Ridge Hill TV service. On 17/18th Feb 22 I lost most of my TV channels. Normal service returned from the 19th Feb 2022 and since. I have an indoor loft antenna and suffer poor reception in very heavy rain otherwise I get a full service with good levels and FEC. I'm guessing the weather was at the Ridge Hill end.
To address my general reception problem I bought a TV Amp and installed it. It worked very well but is limited to Channels 48 and below meaning many of my goto channels are missing. About to return the amplifier and I note Ridge Hill Channel 55 is changing because of pressure from 5G. I see this change slated from November 2021 but its now Feb 22 so when. Do I return this amplifier to BnQ or do I hold on?
I have found an alternate amplifier which will cover the current Ch55 at more cost but guess if I buy you will complete the update of Ch55 the next day and I loose out to 5G interference there after.
What exactly happened to your service over 17/18th Feb if anything? It was bad at my end.
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S
Steve Walkley3:08 PM
Re-Try with "Email me Updates" OFF.
Guys, I am In Cheltenham and on the Ridge Hill TV service. On 17/18th Feb 22 I lost most of my TV channels. Normal service returned from the 19th Feb 2022 and since. I have an indoor loft antenna and suffer poor reception in very heavy rain otherwise I get a full service with good levels and FEC. I'm guessing the weather was at the Ridge Hill end.
To address my general reception problem I bought a TV Amp and installed it. It worked very well but is limited to Channels 48 and below meaning many of my goto channels are missing. About to return the amplifier and I note Ridge Hill Channel 55 is changing because of pressure from 5G. I see this change slated from November 2021 but its now Feb 22 so when. Do I return this amplifier to BnQ or do I hold on?
I have found an alternate amplifier which will cover the current Ch55 at more cost but guess if I buy you will complete the update of Ch55 the next day and I loose out to 5G interference there after.
What exactly happened to your service over 17/18th Feb if anything? It was pants at my end.
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C
Chris.SE3:15 PM
Steve Walkley:
To be clear it's not "our" TV service, this is an Independent free technical helpsite.
Firstly COM7, UHF C55 always has been a temporary mux and now that the 700MHz frequencies have been sold to MNOs, it's scheduled to close by the end of June 2022 under the terms of the current licence. C48 will be the top channel for UHF DTT.
2ndly the Ridge Hill transmitter is currently listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels".
If your installation really needs an amplifier, I would hold onto the one you have as one that also includes the 700MHz frequencies could be more trouble than it's worth if a new 4G or 5G mobile mast operating in the 700MHz band sets up very near you.
Unfortunately not all the information above is 100% accurate as the site owner hasn't found time to update everything since the 700 MHz Clearance program.
Note, Ridge Hill's UHF channels are -
C28, C25, C22, C21, C24, C27, C55 for multiplexes BBCA/PSBs1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ArqA/COM5, ArqB/COM6, COM7.
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which channels are carried on which multiplex.
No information has been made available about what will happen to the channels currently on COM7.
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C
Chris.SE3:18 PM
Steve Walkley:
FYI, your earlier posts did appear (now on the previous page) unfortunately posts sometimes take an inordinate amount of time to appear on this site, so it's best to wait several minutes before trying again. That error message also crops up from time to time and can often be ignored as the post will usually appear eventually.
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Wednesday, 23 February 2022
S
Steve Walkley12:32 PM
Chris.SE:
Thanks for the detail and apologies for the multiple posts. Assumed "Fatal Error" was definitive and the post had failed. Looking forward to yet another annoying re-tune.
Lost the last episode of Dr Who Daemons on Ch55 to my new amplifier Ch48 limit..
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Friday, 31 March 2023
R
Richard Sutton8:49 AM
My issues with the Ridge Hill continue to plague me after all these years even though it is the recommended transmitter for my location. I've tried Sutton Coldfield but that also has issues due to my specific location and the surrounding hills.
Anyway, over the last couple of weeks I've lost a few channels so decided to do a manual rescan on both the TV and the Humax. An auto scan never works as, for some reason, my devices always tune to C29 rather than C25 and C29 is unwatchable at my location.
Anyway this is my current channel reception figures:
C21: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
C22: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
C24: Strength 90%, Quality 0%
C25: Strength 98%, Quality 100%
C27: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
C28: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
As you can see, there is zero reception (blank screen on TV) on C24 even though the strength shows as 90%.
Can anyone suggest why I cannot receive any of the Arqiva A programmes from Ridge Hill.
Many thanks
Richard
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C
Chris.SE10:45 PM
Richard Sutton:
My immediate reaction to those figures is either some interference centred around C24, or some quirk of your system that's affecting primarily C24 but having a slight effect on C25.
I'm going to take a closer look at the information here and that you've given before to see what comprehensive checks you might do to find the cause.
But first there's one obvious check - do you have any old analogue devices like games consoles or VHS recorders etc., that have an RF output, connected to your system? If so, what RF channel are those tuned to?
As for autotune always picking C29 instead of C25, do those devices on initial setup ask which region (or postcode)? If so did you select West instead of Central? If it's doing it based on your correct postcode (very strange) try picking any postcode nearer Birmingham - that ought to resolve any "region" issue (he said hopefully)!
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