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Freeview Light on the Backwell (North Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.441,-2.724 or 51°26'28"N 2°43'25"Wsa_postcodeBS48 1NY

 

The symbol shows the location of the Backwell (North Somerset, England) transmitter which serves 4,600 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 Backwell (North Somerset, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Backwell 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
 V max
C25 (506.0MHz)125mDTG-19W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others

PSB2
D3+4
 V max
C28 (530.0MHz)125mDTG-19W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (West), 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 (West), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 V max
C22 (482.0MHz)125mDTG-19W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West, 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

H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Are you trying to watch these 44 Freeview channels?

the effected channels
the effected channels
the effected channels
the effected channels

The Backwell (North Somerset, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: U&Yesterday, 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, DMAX, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, FRANCE 24 (in English), GREAT! action, GREAT! christmas, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, U&Dave, U&Dave ja vu, U&Drama +1, U&W.

If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Backwell transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 8km east-northeast (75°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.
regional news image
ITV West Country News (East) 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS4 3HG, 11km east (90°)
to ITV West region - 61 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (West)

How will the Backwell (North Somerset, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20102010-135 Jun 2019
A K TA K TA K TA K TA K T
C22BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCB
C25ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C28BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesD3+4D3+4
C32C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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 24 Mar 10 and 7 Apr 10.

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

Analogue 1-4 94W
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-6.9dB) 19W

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Mendip transmitter area

Jan 1958-Jul 1968Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Harlech 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. Backwell 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
Monday, 8 April 2024
P
Paul Dursley
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:21 AM
Bristol

BBC 1 West HD and BBC 2 West HD are replaced with BBC Wales channels over the weekend of Storm Kathleen. Re-tuning makes no difference.

Is this an issue with storm Kathleen or something more fundamental?

When will I get back my regional HD channels?

Paul Dursley: 50 Longhthorn, Backwell, BS48 3GY
Tuned to Backwell transmitter

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Paul Dursley's 31 posts GB flag
Paul's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:11 PM

Paul Dursley: There are no reported faults for the Backwell transmitter, so I suspect that your TV has retuned and picked up Welsh channels from Wenvoe (which is predicted to provide a strong signal at your postcode).

Do the West versions appear in the 800s somewhere? Have you checked that your aerial is still attached and pointing in the correct direction? It may have been moved or damaged by the storm. It's also work checking for any loose or damaged cables or connections (start behind the TV and work your way towards the aerial as far as you can safely access).

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StevensOnln1's 3,680 posts GB flag
S
Steve Donaldson
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

3:29 PM

Paul Dursley: It sounds like your TV may have performed an automatic retune of its own accord which has resulted in the wrong regional HD channels. I would be very surprised if the Backwell transmitter is broadcasting the wrong region and think the more likely explanation is that the TV has tuned to Wenvoe, the main transmitter near Cardiff, for these channels.

There are a number of approaches you could take to address the issue. One way is to set preference for the region in the TV's menu. See if there is something like demonstrated in this video: https://youtu.be/XsXBnHF8cDM?t=158

In the video, with respect to regional selection the first selection is 'GBR' (Great Britain). From there it is possible to specify 'Best signal quality (All regions)' or specify a region. You will be looking to select GBR > England > West.

---

Another approach is to wipe the tuning and manually tune the Backwell channels. Being that the TV apparently takes it upon itself to retune itself (which, as in this instance, can be a nuisance), it might do so and select the wrong region again.

The signal strength/information screen should tell you which transmitter you are tuned to, by virtue of the UHF channel number (or frequency). PSB3 multiplex carries all HD programme channels. The UHF channel (C) numbers are as follows:

Backwell:

PSB1 = C25
PSB2 = C28
PSB3 = C22

Wenvoe:

PSB1 = C41
PSB2 = C44
PSB3 = C47

Mendip:

PSB1 = C32
PSB2 = C34
PSB3 = C35

Judging by the fact that there is the hill in the way, I think it's unlikely you will get Mendip, but I've included it just in case. You can use this to see which transmitter it is that you are watching.

PSB1 carries BBC standard definition TV and BBC radio. PSB2 carries ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5 and some ITV and Channel 4 sister channels (all standard definition). PSB3 carries all HD programme channels.

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Steve Donaldson's 261 posts GB flag
P
Paul Dursley
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

6:31 PM

Steve Donaldson:
Hi Steve thanks for the response.
The aerial is still in position and correctly aligned - storm Kathleen was a relative pussycat compared to some of the previous storms we've had.
Trying a manual re-tune to the Backwell multiplexes there is no signal reception at all on (C22); zero Quality and zero Strength. This is the channel that carries all the HD programming.
Conversely PSB1 (C25) and PSB2(C28) are coming through fine.
Sounds to me like an issue with the Backwell Transmitter.
Any further thoughts?

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S
Steve Donaldson
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

6:40 PM

Paul Dursley: Something which I forgot to mention is that PSB3 (C22) uses the DVB-T2 standard whereas the other two are DVB-T.

If the manual tuning screen allows selection of DVB-T or DVB-T2 then select the latter for PSB3.

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P
Paul Dursley
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:20 PM

Steve Donaldson:
There is no option to select DVB-T or DVB-T2 within the manual tuning screen.
When did PSB3 become DVB-T2 or has it always been DVB-T2?
I ask because I've been able to receive the PSB3 multiplex for a significant period of time and I would like to rule out any signal type 'updates' that might make my receiving equipment 'obsolete' - my TV is a relatively old set.....

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Paul Dursley's 31 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:50 PM

Paul Dursley:

Hi, PSB3 has always been T2 so that's a bit of a red herring. Your set is fine.
There still doesn't appear to be any reports of problems with the Backwell transmitter.
Have you tried a manual retune again since and got the channels back? Do check that they aren't up in the 800s on your EPG.

If you are still having a problem, post back with the Signal Strength and Quality figures that your set it giving you for the other two multiplexes, this may give us a clue as to whether interference could be an issue.
Do you have an aerial amp and splitter at all?
You should have received a postcard from Restore TV. Put your postcode into
https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/
You shou

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Chris.SE's 4,393 posts GB flag
P
Paul Dursley
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:21 PM

Chris.SE:
Evening Chris
multiple re-tune attempts but no success. Checked the 800s but only Wenvoe channels hiding there.
received multiplex quality and strength as requested:-
C25 - Quality 10/10: strength 6.5/10
C28 - Quality 5/10; strength 6.5/10
No aerial amp or splitters in the receiving side of my setup
Not obviously seen anything from Restore TV - checked in email spam just in case

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Paul Dursley's 31 posts GB flag
S
Steve Donaldson
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

8:22 PM

Paul Dursley: As Chris.SE says, PSB3 has always been DVB-T2.

To be receiving the HD channels for the Wales region you must have been picking up Wenvoe's PSB3 on C47.

In terms of other possibilities and avenues to explore, the Restore TV one suggested by Chris.SE is a possibility.

BBC Reception [bbc.co.uk/reception] records no faults for either Backwell or Mendip. The BBC reports only on multiplexes it is responsible for, which are PSB1 (known as 'BBC A') and PSB3 (known as 'BBC B').

Freeview does show Mendip as having engineering works:

Planned engineering works | Freeview

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Steve Donaldson's 261 posts GB flag
P
Paul Dursley
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:54 PM

Steve Donaldson:
The Wenvoe signal is strong at my location and has always come through ever since I have lived here (22 years and counting).
However I have been able to select the West region option when tuning the TV allowing the BBC 1 and 2 West HD channels to come through. We have even recently got the upgrade to HD local news which was appreciated.
As the Backwell transmitter is a relay for Mendip maybe their engineering works are causing the service interruption?
I have contacted Restore TV so we'll see if that yields any useful results.
Thanks everyone for your assistance.

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