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Full Freeview on the Craigkelly (Fife, Scotland) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Craigkelly (Fife, Scotland) transmitter which serves 430,000 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 Craigkelly (Fife, Scotland) mast?

Craigkelly transmitter - Craigkelly 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 Craigkelly 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
C27 (522.0MHz)311mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Scotland, 2 BBC Two Scotland, 7 BBC Alba HD, 23 BBC Three, 24 BBC Four (Scotland SD), 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 13 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C24 (498.0MHz)311mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 STV (SD) (STV Central (Edinburgh micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Scotland ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Scotland ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (STV Edinburgh), 35 STV+1 (STV Edinburgh),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C21+ (474.2MHz)311mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Scotland, 102 BBC Two HD Scotland, 103 ITV 1 HD (STV West), 103 STV HD (STV West), 104 Channel 4 HD Scotland ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 108 BBC Scotland HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H -3dB
C29 (538.0MHz)311mDTG-810,000W
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
C31 (554.0MHz)311mDTG-810,000W
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
C37+ (602.2MHz)311mDTG-810,000W
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

LEH
 H -6dB
C32 (562.0MHz)311mDTG-125,000W
Channel icons
from 30th June 2014: 8 STV Edinburgh,

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 Craigkelly transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 70km west-southwest (252°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.
regional news image
STV News 0.5m homes 1.7%
from Edinburgh EH3 9QG, 14km south (174°)
to STV Central (Edinburgh) region - 8 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

DullaturTransposer20 km NE Glasgow40 homes
EdinburghTransposerSighthill area167 homes

How will the Craigkelly (Fife, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-133 Oct 2018
A K TK TK TK TW T
C21C4wavesC4wavesC4waves+BBCBBBCB
C24ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C27BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C29SDN
C30LEH
C31BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesArqA
C32_local
C33com7
C34com8
C37ArqB
C39+ArqB
C42SDN
C45ArqA
C48C5wavesC5waves
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 1 Jun 11 and 15 Jun 11.

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

Analogue 1-4 100kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 20kW
com7, com8(-9.7dB) 10.8kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 10kW
LEH(-13dB) 5kW
Analogue 5, Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*(-14dB) 4kW
Mux C*, Mux D*(-17dB) 2kW

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

Aug 1957-Jun 1997Scottish Television
Jun 1997-Dec 2014STV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Craigkelly 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
Saturday, 18 June 2011
K
kenny swan
8:56 AM
Burntisland

i bought a goodmans freeview hd box on the 6th june to enjoy the hd channels when they arrive on the 15th june(the last digi change over for my area.all channels were their but from 15th june lost(stv,ch4,5,itv2and a few more)my hd ones were their.i have noticed that my hd box is telling me there is two transmitter both called central scotland on the box.one with 99 channels the other with 15 channels.99 one has hd channels and the few channels that are missing but the transmitter with 15 has the channels that are missing on it.so i,ve got a new aerial with booster and wideband to see if it helps.got the lower transmitter up to
59 channels but still can,t get the missing ones.their is no way of getting my channels from both transmitters at the same.aerial is in the best position in the livingroom.am i needing to wait for blackhill transmitter to have its last change over on the 22 june for everything to be fixed.thanks for any kind of help or information received from use cheers

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kenny swan's 1 post GB flag
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J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:28 AM

Staff: On having a further check on your location I feel that you "may" possibly be in the same situation as many people are in the Northern sides of Cumbernauld, that of being a bit too close to the hill that separates them from the transmitter.

What I suggest you do is this, rather than wait until after the 22nd try the test now on one of your sets but just using 46 & 43, or alternatively have a look in the 800 ranges of your sets EPG as you may find that BBC channels etc from Blackhill have already been stored there, and if you do see them check the signal strength (+ Ch number) they are being received at, this done within the TV's tuning menu area.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
S
staff
11:46 AM
Falkirk

JB38. Thanks for the info. I tried manually tuning ch43 - ch46 as you suggested and it looks like i pick up ch46. ch43 signal strength is much lower at the moment from Blackhill and with my aerial pointing in the opposite direction that would explain why i am not recieving it. I will wait til after 22nd and re-tune and hopefully i will be sorted out. I am glad someone out htere knows what they are talking about. I tried the helpline number at digitaluk but it seems they are only good at explaining how to re-tune your receiving eqpt!

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staff's 3 posts GB flag
staff's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:53 PM

staff: No problem staff, pleased to have been of assistance. The reason I made the addition to my original posting was that I remembered when driving along the M9 and looking across Falkirk (towards the Westerglen radio transmitters) that the Blackhill mast was screened behind the hill, this being why that even although it's nearly half the distance away from you compared to Craigkelly it didn't take up the main EPG positions on your TV, that is even although it's transmitting at 100Kw compared to Craigkelly's 20Kw, at least on the MUX's you do receive, as the ones you don't are only on 10KW.

Anyway maybe after the 22nd of the month you could come back with your findings, especially on channels 41,44 & 47, as if they are all around the same strength as 43 & 46 and appear to be stable at these levels, then swinging the aerial around to face Blackhill would give you maximum channels.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
W
Will
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:13 PM

Colin Brown: I can only assume that if Craigkelly swapped a channel with Durris, there would be a clash with another transmitter.

I agree that Digital UK has provided poor information on the Craigkelly DSO. I think a lot of us could see this coming. In their adverts, they kept saying that people would receive more channels after DSO but failed to mention that a lot of people would need to replace their group A aerial with a wideband aerial for this to be the case. Naturally, a lot of people are now asking why they have now lost channels.

As you say, aerial installers in Edinburgh will be laughing as they exploit this confusion.

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Will's 39 posts GB flag
Les Nicol
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:20 PM

Richard - If the Blackhill option doesn't. resolve much for you and you state your in open country,but can't put a dish on a listed building,you could explore a ground site as an option. Dishes can also be had that are made of clear perspex and are considerably more asthetic than those that are glaringly obvious and mounted on buildings.
I reside in Dumfries & Galloway,this area covered by the Border ITV region. Switch over was anything but satisfactory here - (this was the first area to go digital) - unless able to receive direct transmissions from Caldbeck or Selkirk. Most of Dumfries & Galloway is covered by relay "lite" transmitter output thus giving very much a second rate service. Similarly this applies to large areas of Cumbria inspite of the fact that Caldbeck is a main transmitter for the North West of England. In short, for many to obtain a satisfactory service the optionsa are SKY pay per view or the FSFS - freesat from Sky or the supported "Freesat" non subscription service offered by the BBC and ItV which does give overall a much improved option over the limited terrestrial digital service in this area.
It seems to me that not much has been learnt from the earlier presenting problems that have been thrown up as the switch over has progressed to other broadcasting regions. Publicity in terms of likely issues and how to resolve these if at all possible at a subscriber level has been frankly very lacking and but for independently run sites like this -thanks to Brian Butterworth and others - has left many people out in the cold. From the many comments I see on this site has left many frustrated and angry people trying to make sense of the ongoing switch over process.

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Les Nicol's 991 posts GB flag
T
Trevor
5:31 PM
Edinburgh

Today I and several people I have spoken to have warnings of low signal strength especially on stv and break up of picture - why is this - is it permannet

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Trevor's 1 post GB flag
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Les Nicol
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:09 PM

In my previous post it was amiss of me not to example presenting problems that should have been more widely publicised after the initial switch over. e.g:- The impact of Masthead and or domestic plugin boosters on digital transmission reception Fit for purpose issues with some "Freeview" receivers, doesn't seem ( I'll stand corrected on this one if I'm wrong) to have been the same quality control standards applied as there has been with "Freesat" on receiver manufacturers prior to release of same. Little or no information on the more critical line of site aspect with digital transmissions over terrestrial. In this area no balanced Satellite reception options SKY in relation to "Freesat" Sky very much promoted over "Freesat" by Digital UK.

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Les Nicol's 991 posts GB flag
S
scott
7:43 PM
Edinburgh

Missing all the ARQB channels since the rescan.Using a Samsung SIR-200IM box.

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scott's 1 post GB flag
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B
brian
8:04 PM
Broxburn

Hi there in Broxburn here, I have a loft arial, prior to switch over I received all channels from Craigkelly transmitter, now we no longer receive stv, 4, 5, sky news and the HD channels and possibly few others. Would my best bet be to wait until 22nd and try Blackhill also? Or will I have to consider buying a wideband arial? Pretty disappointing it has to be said.

Brian

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