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Full Freeview on the Hannington (Hampshire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Hannington (Hampshire, England) transmitter which serves 470,000 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 Hannington (Hampshire, England) mast?

Hannington transmitter - Hannington 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 Hannington 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
C45 (666.0MHz)362mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South, 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
C42 (642.0MHz)362mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian/Central (Thames Valley micro region)), 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 (Meridian south coast),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C39+ (618.2MHz)362mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South, 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

COM4
SDN
 H -3dB
C40 (626.0MHz)362mDTG-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
C43 (650.0MHz)359mDTG-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
C46 (674.0MHz)359mDTG-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

DTG-8 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 Hannington transmitter?

regional news image
BBC South Today 1.3m homes 4.9%
from Southampton SO14 7PU, 46km south-southwest (194°)
to BBC South region - 39 masts.
regional news image
ITV Meridian News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Whiteley PO15 7AD, 48km south (179°)
to ITV Meridian/Central (Thames Valley) region - 15 masts.
Thames Valley opt-out from Meridian (South). All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian+Oxford

How will the Hannington (Hampshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20122012-1318 Apr 2018
EEEB E TW T
C32com7
C34com8
C35C5wavesC5waves
C39BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCBBBCB
C40SDN
C41SDN
C42ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C43ArqA
C44ArqA
C45BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C46ArqB
C47ArqB
C51tv_off_local
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C66C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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 8 Feb 12 and 22 Feb 12.

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

Analogue 1-4 250kW
Analogue 5(-6.2dB) 60kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 50kW
com7(-8.3dB) 36.7kW
com8(-9.8dB) 26.2kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 25kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*(-11dB) 20kW
Mux C*, Mux D*(-14dB) 10kW

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

Aug 1958-Jan 1992Southern Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Dec 2006Meridian
Dec 2006-Feb 2009ITV Thames Valley
Feb 2009-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. Hannington 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
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:07 PM
Reading

Andy: my understanding is that the work over the last few weeks was moving *analogue* transmissions from the reserve aerial back to the new main aerial. There might have been occasional periods of reduced digital power if men were working on the mast.

Hannington has never transmitted digital signals to the east: the whole sector from south-east to north-east is omitted because they would interfere with the analogue signals from the Guildford transmitter. Protecting analogue transmissions was the priority when the low-power digital signals were added.

The new main aerial is omnidirectional (to the best of our knowledge - it has to provide much the same coverage area for analogue as the old one did) and will provide high-power digital service starting in February 2012.

If you've had a reduction in performance over the last few weeks, the most likely culprit is that signals from distant interferers have been travelling further due to the weather conditions. As far as the broadcasters are concerned, though, you're out of coverage (at least from Hannington). Signals should be less susceptible to these weather conditions after switchover.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
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T
Tim
10:07 PM
Fleet

Evening still bad reception. Until last week got 60+ channels including itv etc but now down to about 10:( clearly a problem with the area.

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Tim's 5 posts GB flag
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Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
A
Andy
12:37 PM

I am confused.

Brian says that there is no work ongoing at Hannington, but Mike refers to work on the analogue ariel.

We are also told that Hannington is not broadcasting a digital signal, but the whole of this discussion thread is on a page headed "Freeview on the Hannington transmitter"...

I have been living in Basingstoke for years and have had good freeview reception from the day I first got a freeview box. I have always been told that the signals are coming from Hannington... that was always proved to me by the fact that most people on the west side of basingstoke would get itv meridian and bbc south-west, but those on the London-facing side would get itv and BBC London... even on freeview.

I just don't understand why the digital reception could be fine for so long, and then suddenly drop so dramatically. Weather seems like a "leaves on the line" excuse - sorry, no disrespect intended!

Oh well. Since I'm not supposed to be able to watch freeview (along with all the inhabitants of Basingstoke), I guess I'll just have to put up with it until 2012. Sorry for sounding frustrated.

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Andy's 3 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
T
Tim
8:14 PM
Fleet

Evening. Have spoken to several neighbours, who have all lost itv1,2, channel 4 5 etc seems to be multiplex 2 is gone and low on many others. Happened a week or so ago so assume as Brian has said maybe weather. Seems to have effected big area ie Basingstoke, fleet etc. Roll on 2012;)

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Tim's 5 posts GB flag
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Thursday, 17 March 2011
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:56 PM
Reading

Andy: Weather conditions can cause transmissions to travel further than expected. The fact that a number of transmitters in the north and west of the country have already switched over means that there is now something to interfere with the transmissions, where there wasn't before. (Other digital transmissions on the same channel seem to cause more problems than analogue transmissions on the same channel.)

In addition, sites on the continent are now broadcasting digital only in the UHF band, where many analogue channels used to be broadcast at lower frequencies. It all adds up to a noisier environment than a few years ago.

On top of that, there may be periods where power has to be reduced slightly, if men are working on the mast, though this should only happen during daylight.

The 'analogue' aerial has pride of place at the top of the mast, has plenty of gain, and is able to handle plenty of power. The 'digital' transmission panels are bolted to the west side of the mast, and point due west, slightly west of north, and slightly west of south. To get the full coverage and power levels, digital signals move to the main aerial at switchover - this is why the transmitters are off-air for about six hours on the switchover days!

Just as your receiving aerial isn't really 'analogue' or 'digital', nor are the transmitting aerials. They're tuned to work best in one area of the UHF frequency band (for Hannington, between channel 35 and 68), but otherwise it just broadcasts whatever is fed to it.

The old 'analogue' aerial was erected in 1969 and had reached the end of its useful life at 41 years. Technology has moved on and the new designs can direct more power to ground level rather than up in the air. So a 'reserve' aerial was added in July 2010 to handle analogue transmissions temporarily, and the old main aerial replaced in October. However, I don't think there was time before the weather turned to get all the cables replaced and the new main aerial into service. That's what I think they've been doing over the last few weeks.

As for 'dropping dramatically' - digital requires a certain amount of signal quality to work, but above that level, you get no improvement. We call the amount of signal you have above this minimum level the 'headroom'. Deterioration in equipment and increases in noise reduce this 'headroom', but you won't notice a thing. Then it drops below the minimum required level, it starts to block and break up, and rapidly just goes to NO SIGNAL. Most digital boxes do not measure the headroom - their signal quality meters only report *uncorrectable* errors. This makes them completely useless.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 19 March 2011
K
KIERAN
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:13 PM

last night i was watching come and dine with me but it all went out i live up warik road and use an indoor boosed one for all flat aerial i use freeview in my room analog was gone aswell i rescand i only got heart i pointed my aerial at crystle palace and nothing is my aerial broken or is it the aera i live in peas help me and my aerial is fine it is my aera all ny naburs had the same thing happen and theay had an outdoor aeril

pleas reply

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KIERAN's 32 posts GB flag
D
Derek Twigg
6:19 PM
Farnborough

My post code is GU14 7AZ, which is a block of 26 flats. The building has a common coax system fed by an aerial pointed at the Hannington transmitter; seemingly this has been chosen by most buildings nearby because of the topography. Because of the unacceptable Freeview reception using the aerial system, half of the flats have paid to have a Freesat system set up.
Q1. Are we on the correct transmitter?
Q2. When Hannington goes fully digital/Freeview, should we be able to ditch Freesat with its cable rental costs and get the full Freeview set of signals?

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Derek Twigg's 2 posts GB flag
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D
Dan
9:01 PM
Reading

Just to confirm, here in Reading (specifically Caversham) we now have poor reception on ITV1/C4 etc., and have done so since early March. So clearly something has degraded the service from Hannington.

BBC channels are all still fine.

I'm not really sure about the comments regards Hannington only transmitting digital signals to the west, both the Freeview website and this one all state that in our location, Hannington is our digital TV transmitter.

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Dan's 1 post GB flag
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K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

9:57 PM

Derek Twigg: The Digital UK postcode checker does not currently show any results for reception from Hannington, but after switchover predicts good reception using this transmitter on all six muxes for your area. At present Crystal Palace is shown as offering variable to poor reception for Freeview, after switchover this becomes good reception on the PSB muxes and variable reception on the COM muxes.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
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