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

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"Wsa_postcodeB75 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 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 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C43 (650.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 H max
C42 (642.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
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)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
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)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
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)433mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
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?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
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)Transposer1 km W Burton-on-Trent60 homes
CoalvilleTransposer18 km NW Leicester600 homes
SolihullTransposerLand Rover building400 homes

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

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-137 Mar 2018
VHFB E TB E TB E TB E K TW T
C4BBCtvwaves
C33com7
C35com8
C36LOCAL2
C39+ArqBArqB
C40BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves+BBCBBBCB
C42SDNSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C45ArqAArqA
C46BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4
C48_local
C50tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C51tv_offLB
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_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

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield 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. 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.

Comments
Thursday, 14 April 2011
B
Bob
10:58 AM

Many thanks Briantist for your response. As this wasn't an issue before Tuesday, could it be that the aerial has moved and caused the pick-up of another transmitter (then I can get the building managers to come and look at it) ?

link to this comment
Bob's 2 posts GB flag
C
Christopher Pugh
11:51 AM

Briantist: I've no doubt that a more modern set-top box will work correctly. I was hoping to make this one last until the elderly cathode ray tube TV to wich it is connected needs replacing.The Alba box is now working OK.

link to this comment
Christopher Pugh's 4 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:11 PM

Bob: It's probably because this is the first time you've retuned since the BBC services at Ridge Hill went high-power, and moved to a much lower channel. I'm afraid a lot of boxes store the first version of the channel that they find, rather than the best version. Signals are now loud enough from Ridge Hill to be decodable, but not usable.

The problems are likely to increase next week when the other multiplexes at Ridge Hill go to high power. The predictions are actually reasonably good for service from Ridge Hill *if* you have the right aerial, oriented the right way. As it is you're clearly getting just barely decodable results.

Rotating the aerial slightly away from Ridge Hill may help, but it's then reasonably likely to pick up The Wrekin instead. This is on a lower frequency even than Ridge Hill.

(The angles are Ridge Hill at 210°, Brierley Hill at 228°, The Wrekin at 300°.)

All we can really suggest is deleting all channels and manually tuning the frequencies you want. See the Brierley Hill page for details. Another approach is to unplug the aerial connection before starting a scan, and only plug in once it gets past half-way.

The only permanent solutions are to replace the box with one that stores the best quality signals, or for the communal system to filter out the unwanted transmissions.

Some advice for tenants can be found at PARAS - Professional Aerial Riggers Against The Sharks

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
J
John Finnis
2:12 PM
Southam

from yesterday 13.4.11 signals from Midlands East are stronger than from Sutton Coldfield (BBC West Midlands)- the Midlands ones have moved to the 800 series channels and have become de-graded - several re-tunes have not solved the probelem so switching to Freesat

link to this comment
John Finnis's 1 post GB flag
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
D
Dave Bennett
2:34 PM
Sutton Coldfield

Post code B75 5AG, within 1/2 mile of Sutton Coldfield transmitter and 7 miles Lichfield.
Last Thursday 7th April the HD Channels suffered from poor signal and eventually disappeared from Ch 34 completely. I've tried retuning but still they remain absent. Any ideas anyone?

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Dave Bennett's 2 posts GB flag
Dave's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
B
brendafoxall
4:23 PM
Stourbridge

Post Code DY8 5JE. Why am I needing to retune my digital tv, twice this week? Is there work being done.

link to this comment
brendafoxall's 1 post GB flag
brendafoxall's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:56 PM

brendafoxall: You're likely using the Brierley Hill relay transmitter, where there has been engineering work for the past three days. There was one day of warning for the first two days, no notice at all for today.

If you're lucky they've now finished. If not it could be off again tomorrow. It's probably dependent on the weather.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
J
janet vardy
7:31 PM
Nottingham

NG17 8LL
I have retuned my TV and Freeview box since the switchover on 13/04/2011 and now I cannot get all the ITV channels without them being pixilated. I cannot see the picture at all - just lots of green. What on earth can I do? This is ridiculous.

link to this comment
janet vardy's 1 post GB flag
janet's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
R
Ryan
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:47 PM
Alfreton

Not sure if you saw my post, Mike.

My post code is DE55 7DG (You asked a few days back).

Thanks.

link to this comment
Ryan's 39 posts GB flag
Ryan's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Carl
7:50 PM
Belper

We have lost all MUXs on Sutton circa yesterday, and haven't been able to get anything back despite frequent retunes on two boxes. We did get some of the BBC channels appear briefly tuning into the 800's for a bizarre reason.

We live in Duffield (N Derby) DE56 4FS, and know that the signal is pretty marginal and wondered if any of the power increases on other transmitters may have caused interference resulting in us not able to receive the marginal signal from Sutton.

Prior to the last couple of days we were able to receive all MUXs with only signal dropout issues on ITV in the evenings.

The aerial has not moved and the cables are all OK. Just seems bizare that a number of others have noted signal strength drops.

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Carl's 4 posts GB flag
Carl's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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