Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"W

B75 5JJ

The symbol shows the location of the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter which serves 1,870,000 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 Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) mast?

Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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Which Freeview channels does the Sutton Coldfield 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C43 (650.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) West Midlands, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 19 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C46 (674.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (West 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), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C40+ (626.2MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West 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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C42 (642.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C45 (666.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C39+ (618.2MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others
LB	H -13dB	C48 (690.0MHz)	433m	DTG-12	10,000W
	from 31st October 2014: 7 Big Centre 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 Sutton Coldfield transmitter?

BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.

ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 15km south-southwest (201°)
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?

Burton (shobnall)	Transposer	1 km W Burton-on-Trent	60 homes
Coalville	Transposer	18 km NW Leicester	600 homes
Solihull	Transposer	Land Rover building	400 homes

How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1950s-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2011	2011-13	7 Mar 2018
	VHF	B E T	B E T	B E T	B E K T	W T
C4	BBCtv_waves
C33						com7
C35						com8
C36						LOCAL2
C39					+ArqB	ArqB
C40		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C42					SDN	SDN
C43		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C45					ArqA	ArqA
C46		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C48						_local
C50_{tv_off}		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves
C51_{tv_off}						LB
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_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 Sep 11 and 21 Sep 11.

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

Analogue 1-4	1000kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 200kW
com7	(-10.5dB) 89.2kW
com8	(-10.7dB) 86kW
LB	(-20dB) 10kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-21dB) 8kW

Local transmitter maps

Sutton Coldfield Freeview Sutton Coldfield DAB Sutton Coldfield AM/FM Sutton Coldfield TV region BBC West Midlands Central (West micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area

Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004	Central Independent Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Sutton Coldfield 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

R

Richard
10:04 PM
Alcester

Hi, the has reduced from level 10 to 6 for all BBC over the last few months causing pixelation, stuttering,etc I have reset tuner but to no avail, can you? B504BE thanks

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Richard's 1 post GB flag

Richard's: R's Freeview map R's terrain plot R's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage

S

sue brown
5:10 PM
Stoke-on-trent

i live at st10 1xs & have recently brought a icecrypt + hd box & have used hdmi cables but don't seem to be able to get any of the hd which is why i brought the thing! can you?

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sue brown's 1 post GB flag

sue's: S's Freeview map S's terrain plot S's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:11 PM
Reading

sue brown: Your TV may not cover the used by the early HD transmissions, which actually come from at the moment, because it's a lower frequency than the group used by other transmissions from . At , in September, they will move to Sutton Coldfield, on BBC Two's current analogue ().

Another good indicator is whether you get C5 analogue reliably, because this also is on a lower frequency () and comes from Lichfield.

If the aerial did cover , Digital UK expect that HD should be about as reliable as ITV1, C4 and C5.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

Mike's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

S

Steve
7:31 PM
Tamworth

We have a Humax recorder in our lounge & a cheap Goodmans set top box in our bedroom. They are both conected to the same . Why are we getting different signals? The Goodmans is better. I know there is work being carried out on the . Any ideas????

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Steve's 1 post GB flag

Steve's: S's Freeview map S's terrain plot S's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

Matt

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

2:57 PM
Hinckley

Hi
To anyone who has the knowledge,

We get what seems like really bad electrical .

We have a televes 'infinito' mounted in the attic (not possible to put on ) feeding a televes distribution amp.

We have 3 TV's connected to the amp, all with double screened coax. yet we still get electrical interference from appliances, the heavily used road outside and anything else.

My question is would a (MRD) Margin rising device attached to the help in anyway. Are the MRD accessories significantly better than the accessory? Would this go some way to solve the problem?

Thank you for your time.

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Matt's 22 posts GB flag

Matt's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

AlexG

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

3:23 PM

signals should never be split... and really shouldn't be amplified either. You're just adding noise and amplifying from other sources. In the ideal world, you should really have one clean feed per TV... or get .

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AlexG's 27 posts EU flag

P

Peter Cook
6:45 PM

Peter from Stourport on Severn, why is my on BBC2 stating "please wait", then changing to BBC1? been doing all day.

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Peter Cook's 3 posts GB flag

I

ian, notts

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

8:05 PM

alex g .... what would you recommend for a 7 bedroom house with a tv in kitchen and consevetory? 10 aerials? and why have amps + distributters if they dont work? what do you do in weak areas? you have misread something mate?

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ian, notts's 253 posts GB flag

LutonFan

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

8:06 PM

Peter Cook- Is your equipment a Humax box by any chance? If so, there seems to be an issue at the moment with these boxes. I will post further as soon as any further info comes my way.

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LutonFan's 382 posts GB flag

N

Nigel
9:36 PM

My wife reports that BBC2 has been doing the "please wait" bit and flicking back to BBC1 all day.

Chester area BTW (though we have to also contend with the "WELSH" too.

Humax integrated twin tuner in a Humax TV as well!

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Nigel's 1 post GB flag

Page 24

Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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