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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, 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
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, 15 January 2011
B
Bagpuss6:12 PM
Seems to be a widespread issue on MUX2 (ITV1, C4 et al), Ridge Hill transmitter, mostly daytime/early evening and then settles down. Loss of quality, not strength - 2 decoders here fail to pull anything, the third works but with intermittent pixellation.
It's not an issue on anyone's particular installation since it spreads across Worcestershire (where I am) into Gloucestershire (where the poster above is) and affects other people I know. No work is reported that I can see, but there's clearly something afoot... I presume DSO-related but simply not being mentioned?
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Monday, 17 January 2011
DaveCheltenham
9:20 AM
Blakeney
9:20 AM
Blakeney
Briantist - I have been reliant on Ridge Hill for 21 years now and used to be one of the feedbacks to the control centre at Emily Moor for ITV and Evesham for BBC. The performance record over the years for analogue has been appalling with one fault, (black line flashing) on ITV lasting for 18 months. After a lot of complaints, they eventually traced it to one of the 2 microwave links between Bristol and Ridge Hill; the other hop being from Abingdon to Bristol. Part of the problem was the central monitoring equipment did not show the subtle/intermittent faults.
Channel 4 also had problems with sound hum and this was eventually traced to on one of the receivers, as it relayed Sutton Coldfield. This lasted for about 3 months. The BBC reserve receivers were pointing to Mendip so at a time of high pressure, the local midlands news could flip over to BBC West from Bristol.
The other thing about analogue Ridge Hill was that changeover to the reserve transmitter gave about a 30 second break. My neighbour who worked for EMI was part of the design and build team for the original UHF aerials at Ridge Hill but that is another story.
Early digital transmissions from Ridge Hill did not go well. They started at 5kW for the BBC but later reduced to 2kW much to the anger of viewers who could not receive the transmissions at the reduced power or had to upgrade their aerial.
As from the 6th/20th April with the new transmitters, let's hope all the problems are in the past; we shall see.
Regards
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DaveCheltenham's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
DaveCheltenham: I'm sure everything will be fine by 20th April.
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B
Bagpuss6:33 PM
@Briantist - thanks for the pointer, but I'm not sure that my washing machine or mobile 'phone is responsible for affecting an area of perhaps tens or hundreds of square miles, let alone for a couple of hours at a time... there's clearly an unpublished transmitter issue or a more widespread EMF interference issue if the reports I'm seeing are all true.
I was merely pointing it out for the benefit of other people in case other folks are scratching their heads at a sudden fault on these channels. It may be relevant.
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Bagpuss: OK. If you don't wish to solve YOUR reception issues, that's fine with me.
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Tuesday, 18 January 2011
DaveCheltenham
3:02 PM
Blakeney
3:02 PM
Blakeney
I tend to agree with Bagpuss Brian as I also referred to your helpful guide but to no avail.
Unfortunately, the problem has been more subtle and I certainly would have liked to solve my reception issues. Hears to the 20th April.
Regards
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DaveCheltenham's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
DaveCheltenham: I simply mean that trying to say that "more people than me have a problem" is no way to diagnose what the problem is.
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Saturday, 5 February 2011
R
Robert Foster12:17 PM
Gloucester
£200 for an aerial now after April 20th
existing aerials will work again?
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Robert's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Robert Foster: Yes, your existing aerial will provide the full Freeview service from 20th April, including Freeview HD.
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