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Full Freeview on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter which serves 770,000 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 Waltham (Leicestershire, England) mast?

Waltham transmitter - Waltham 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
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Which Freeview channels does the Waltham 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)442mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) East Midlands, 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
 H max
C34 (578.0MHz)442mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (East micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Midlands ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Midlands ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Central west),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C35 (586.0MHz)442mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD East Midlands, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 104 Channel 4 HD Midlands 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 -3dB
C29 (538.0MHz)442mDTG-825,000W
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 -3dB
C37 (602.0MHz)449mDTG-825,000W
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 -3dB
C31 (554.0MHz)449mDTG-825,000W
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

LNG
 H -10dB
C41 (634.0MHz)442mDTG-125,000W
Channel icons
from 27th May 2014: 7 Notts TV,

DTG-8 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 Waltham transmitter?

regional news image
BBC East Midlands Today 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Nottingham NG2 4UU, 28km northwest (306°)
to BBC East Midlands region - 17 masts.
regional news image
ITV Central News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 83km west-southwest (244°)
to ITV Central (East) region - 17 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

BraunstoneTransposer5 km SW Leicester city centre170 homes

How will the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-174 Mar 2020
C/D EEEWW TW TW T
C26LNGLNG
C29SDNSDNSDNSDN
C31com7com7
C32BBCA
C34D3+4
C35C5wavesC5wavesBBCB
C37com8com8
C41_local
C49tv_off BBCABBCA
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offArqAArqAArqACOM8tv_off
C57tv_offArqBArqBArqB
C58tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C61ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCA
C64BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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 17 Aug 11 and 31 Aug 11.

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

Analogue 1-5 250kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 50kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 25kW
com8(-12.7dB) 13.4kW
com7(-13.9dB) 10.2kW
Mux 1*(-14dB) 10kW
Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*(-14.9dB) 8kW
Mux C*, Mux D*, LNG(-17dB) 5kW

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

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent 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. Waltham 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, 8 January 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

9:24 AM

ian: There are no changes at all the the transmitter parameters. The only effect is a separate switchover date.

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Rich Martindale
2:42 PM
Newark

Briantist. Many thanks for your reply. Having done some further research, it seams that the aerial has masthead amplification (Fringe Electronics masthead power unit P1235 located in the lounge). I don't think I can bypass this to check out the un-amplified signal quality? I guess it may be worth having an engineer come out to make an assessment. However, I don't really want to pay out unnecessarily if the DSO scheduled for Waltham in August 2011 is likely to improve things? Post DSO will channels such as Sky Sports and BBC4 still be on 540MHz? I really appreciate your help and advice on this. Kind regards. Rich

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Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

3:08 PM

Rich Martindale: A masthead amplifier is fine, don't worry about that.

The Sky Sports channels are on ArqA, which is on C56 at switchover.

It is quite possible your problems are due to weather-related damage to your external aerial.

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Rich Martindale
3:46 PM
Newark

Briantist. Again, many thanks for your reply. You may be right because the more I think about it, the reception problems got worse during the snow in Nov/Dec. I think I will get an engineer out to make an assessment. However, can you explain what moving to C56 means? Is that on a different frequency to 570MHz and is there any way of predicting likely reception strength/quality at my location? Best regards and many thanks. Rich

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Rich Martindale
8:03 PM
Newark

Brian. Thanks for your help with this. Can't say that I totally understand what is going to happen at DSO. All I can say is that the aerial is pointing at the Waltham transmitter and that the reception for all channels on 570MHz is now worse than it was at the end of November. Whilst I accept that weather related aerial damage may be the cause, why would this only significantly impact on one frequency? What I am really trying to avoid is calling out an expensive engineer only to find that following DSO things change again meaning no reception on the sports channels or more work required! Any advice would be very gratefully received! Regards and thanks

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J
jb38
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:05 PM

Rich Martindale - Apologies for intruding on Briantists replies to you, but being fairly knowledgeable of the Newark area I can say that certain areas in and around Newark have always experienced reception problems, that also applying to analogue right from when it first started transmission.

Even in a couple of villages slightly South of the town where friends of mine reside, tests I carried out last year proved the DTT signals received from Belmont were far in a way better than Waltham, this to the extent that when the former switches to high power I may possibly have to by-pass the internal amplifiers located within the log periodic aerials I had fitted up for them when they went digital.

Regarding Waltham, I also get quite variable performance from there, and even on Mux1&2 with virtually 80 /100% quality indication (Panasonic & Humax devices) this can suffer from an occasional dive to about 20% every now and again, and although I am in no way line of sight I don't feel its just happening due to atmospheric reasons, albeit of course its quite correct that it could.

I do feel though that when Waltham goes over to high power most of the problems presently experienced will likely disappear, that is as much as can be expected with digital reception of a terrestrial nature.

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Rich Martindale
9:22 PM
Newark

jb38 - thank you for your message. We have just moved in to Farnsfield where it seams that all the aerials are aimed at Waltham? I think that I will cancel my sports subscription until after Waltham is switched over (September?) then revisit this. However, if you know of any good engineers in the local area, a recommendation would be much appreciated. Cheers. Rich

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Sunday, 9 January 2011
J
jb38
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:54 PM

Rich (Martindale) - Well my personal opinion on your situation is, that if you don't have any great problems whilst viewing the other main channels then its maybe best policy to wait until after the changeover before making any decisions, as judging by what I have read in various places it seems to be that there is quite a number of people forking out money for the type of upgrades that I know is very likely to only result in a fractional difference in reception, when if they were prepared to wait until after switchover occurs their present problems would most likely to a great extent just about vanish.

Regarding the signal strength you reported as getting on Ch33 (570Mhz) which does seem to be a bit on the low side although the quality diving is the real killer, that being said though as far as strength is concerned the level being indicated for a given aerial signal input level can vary by quite a large degree depending on how enthusiastic the scale is designed on the particular brand of reception device being used, as in my own case my Humax PVR indicates 65% strength & 100% quality on MUX1 (Ch49) whereas the same signal input on my Panasonic G20B TV indicates the level as being 100% on both S&Q, however purely out of curiosity I would be interested to know what strength / quality you get on Ch49 (698Mhz) - Ch23 (490Mhz) & Ch26 (514Mhz) as if "some" channels are not considerably higher (excluding 26) then it could possibly indicate a problem.

Two clarifications - (1) re- Briantist mentioning Ch56 after changeover, it simply means that the programme operator Aquiva that Sky sports is on will then be using Ch56 (754Mhz) @ 25Kw output rather than what they are presently on @ 8Kw output, although at changeover everyone will have to retune their equipment as all the MUX transmitters are changing their channel positions.

(2) Regarding your mast head amplifier, to check if its still operating all you require to do is unplug its mains connection whilst you are watching a programme, if you are on DTT (DVB on some sets) the picture will vanish, and likewise if you are viewing analogue the picture will fade to snow, because if the amplifier wasn't working unplugging it would not make any difference and the fact that it does somewhat proves its OK.




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Rich Martindale
7:27 PM
Newark

jb38 - Many thanks again. Regarding signal on the other frequencies requested; 698MHz (64% strength, 100% quality); 490MHz (62% strength, 50-100% quality); 514MHz (64% strength, 100% quality); 570MHz (44-50% strength, 0-20% quality); all taken from the BT Vision box.

Regarding masthead amplification, I ran the tests you suggest on DTT and my picture vanished, so I think it is working.

As suggested, I am inclined to leave it until after switchover but it is frustrating that this has happened after a decent start (SSP1 was good in late November/early December!!!). Anyways, any thoughts/recommendations would be very gratefully received. Regards. Rich

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