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Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.324,0.520 or 51°19'25"N 0°31'13"Esa_postcodeME5 9RD

 

The symbol shows the location of the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter which serves 200,000 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 Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Bluebell 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C32 (562.0MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South East, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 16 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C34 (578.0MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (East 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), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C45+ (666.2MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South East, 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 max
C40 (626.0MHz)242mDTG-820,000W
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
C43+ (650.2MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
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
C46 (674.0MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
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

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 Bluebell Hill transmitter?

regional news image
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 28km southwest (218°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
regional news image
ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 5km south-southeast (155°)
to ITV Meridian (East) region - 36 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford

How will the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20122012-1319 Jul 2018
EEEW TW T
C21_local
C28_local
C32com7
C34com8
C39+ArqA
C40BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCBSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4ArqA
C45SDNBBCB
C46BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCAArqB
C54tv_offArqB
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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 13 Jun 12 and 27 Jun 12.

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

Analogue 1-4 30kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-1.8dB) 20kW
com8(-7.8dB) 5kW
com7(-8.1dB) 4.7kW
Mux 1*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-10dB) 3kW
Mux 2*, Mux A*(-11.8dB) 2kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Bluebell Hill transmitter area

Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Thames†
Jul 1968-Dec 1981London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Meridian
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. Bluebell Hill 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, 26 April 2011
S
Steve
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:22 PM
Maidstone

Just got a reply from Digital UK


"Thank you for your email dated 26 April regarding digital reception.

We would expect you to receive your digital service from the Bluebell Hill transmitter. The reception from this transmitter would be variable on some of the digital services. Both of the UHF channel numbers you mention are the ones affected. This would mean that broadcasts on these frequencies are prone to break up and loss of service.

The Sandy Heath transmitter is out with the range of your area and would be unlikely to be able to interfere with reception to your address. As the prediction is for a variable reception on these channels this would be reason you are having difficulty in getting some channels."

Their reason doesn't explain 4 years of excellent reception and now rubbish, (which I let them know is what has happened), but Briantist's does.

I just think they do not want to admit that the upgrading is not being handled properly so they do not have to do anything.

Steve

link to this comment
Steve's 21 posts GB flag
Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:33 PM

Steve: "I just think they do not want to admit that the upgrading is not being handled properly so they do not have to do anything. "

Technically this is correct, the provision of the broadcast services only have to be at the contracted levels, the responsibility for reception is down to the householder.

link to this comment
Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:51 PM

Steve: The problem is simply the very slow roll-out across the country. By deciding to increase power at some locations before others, it causes problems for digital reception at the transmitters that are yet to switch over. (They're trying harder to avoid interference to analogue transmissions, which generally isn't hard because they're reusing the analogue frequencies where possible, which were *designed* not to overlap.)

They have also decided to increase power at all sites by more than is really required, which is causing more interference from digital signals than from the analogue signals that previously occupied those channels.

link to this comment
Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
S
Steve
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:41 AM
Maidstone

So since Bluebell Hill is almost the last transmitter to be switched we can expect the situation to get far worse before it gets finally sorted?

One wonders why they chose the most densely populated areas to be left till last.

Steve

link to this comment
Steve's 21 posts GB flag
Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
A
Alan Hicks
5:20 PM

I have a freeview box upstairs and one fitted in the receiver downstairs, we have a high gain wideband aerial fitted on the chimminy stack. At the moment some of the stations are appearing at different numbers on each set we are due to be switched over in 2012 and some we cannot receive at all namely channel 5. The set top box has scanned the london transmitter at crystal palace. I hope you can help

link to this comment
Alan Hicks's 1 post GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:29 PM

Steve: "can expect the situation to get far worse before it gets finally sorted?"

Yes, certainly no better.

"One wonders why they chose the most densely populated areas to be left till last. "

The areas done first were those with the least cross-over into other regions.

Those planned last are the areas close to international borders (SE England, Northern Ireland).

link to this comment
Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Sunday, 1 May 2011
B
brian
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:50 PM

I have just read through two weeks worth of misery about loss of D24+D27 channels during high pressure weather systems.
Brian(tist) , Mike and all, you all do a great job trying to explain things. Fancy giving you (late night) abuse when all you are trying to do is help people..
Just a thought here digital ITV/CH4 fans but you could always try switching to analogue for a few hours when the signal drops out. I am on Bluebell Hill and that is what I do..

link to this comment
brian's 32 posts GB flag
Saturday, 7 May 2011
L
Levett
10:54 AM
St. Leonards-on-sea

TN37 7PP like others in this area I am only now able to get BBC1&2,Dave and a few others on freeview,no ITV,C4 or C5 etc for 6 weeks now.We live in a wooden chalet single storey, the new digital aerial is on the roof pointing towards bluebell.Can I do anything to improve matters?I have tried returning to factory setting with no improvement,I have also had Sky out who tell me they cannot pick up a satelite signal here.

link to this comment
Levett's 1 post GB flag
Levett's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:34 AM

Levett: You are predicted to get a much better service from the Dover transmitter. Please move your aerial to point there.

link to this comment
Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
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