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

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

Google Streetview

Google map

Bing map

Google Earth

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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter.

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

_______

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?

S

Sean
3:01 PM

Hi for some reason I cant receive any of the from ..
All Freeview channels are working fine, just not the HD ones..
strength on tv is showing as 100%.
Can anyone me..
Ps The tv is a Samsung UE40D6100..

Best Wishes

link to this comment

Sean's 3 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:40 PM

Sean: Did it work before, or have you only just bought this TV?

The HD is at half the power of the other transmissions, but require the same signal-to-noise ratio as Mux 2, which carries ITV1 and C4 plus other related . It is transmitted from , where C5 comes from, rather than , and aimed only into Birmingham to reduce the risk of to anyone else. They are also on a lower , lower than the traditional analogue group, and your might not pick up as much signal as for the SD multiplexes.

We really need a full postcode to see what the situation might be for you.

At , at the end of September, the HD transmission moves to Sutton Coldfield, where it will be on a clear channel, broadcast in all directions, and at the same power level as BBC One (etc), as well as being within the range of all UHF aerials that have been used here. (It replaces the BBC Two analogue service.).

link to this comment

Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

S

Sean
6:10 PM
Walsall

Hi Mike....
I previously had 2 samsungs (Model 5100) which were ...
I purchsed the first one Jan 1st 2011 and then approx a month back every channel to do with the BBC (1,2,3,4 Cbeebies etc...) were all showing as corrupt..
I plugged in an external freeview box to check and all the worked perfectly. Went back to the tvs freeview and back to corrupt signals.. Every other channel apart from the bbc ones were perfect..
Took the tv back to the shop and they said heres a brand new one... All worked perfectly for a week then the same thing happened again..
The shop gave me a full refund.
So then I went on the Amazon site and notice this new 3d tv for a good price so i bought this... scenned all the channels in and so far had it 2 weeks and is perfect apart from lack of HD channels..
My postcode is WS2 7DS..
Thanks for any info you can provide.
Best Wishes
Sean

link to this comment

Sean's 3 posts GB flag

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

A

Andy
7:01 PM
Nottingham

Just posting this again on the off chance:

Hi, I don't know if anybody can explain but for well over a week now (after 3 and a half years of near perfect ) we have had serious (and worsening) interferece on all Mux 2 and have now lost Mux D completely. We live in flats in but receive from . Have reviewed all the help sections mentioned but none appear to explain the issue (though I cannot check the ). Numerous resets & restores of factory settings have not helped. Any clues?

link to this comment

Andy's 3 posts GB flag

Andy's: A's Freeview map A's terrain plot A's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage

S

Sean
8:21 PM

Just Mike.....
I've retuned the tv to just the and the picture on Channel 5 is none existant....
The ones on 1,2, itv and C4 are watchable but have slight lines in them...
you can

link to this comment

Sean's 3 posts GB flag

J

Josh
1:04 AM
Solihull

loss on all

link to this comment

Josh's 1 post GB flag

Josh's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

Markh
1:12 AM

I too lost all about 19 mins ago. Im near Birmingham center.

link to this comment

Markh's 1 post GB flag

J

JayGee
1:21 AM
Wolverhampton

no , no , no nothing, the only time i get to watch tv aswell...

link to this comment

JayGee's 1 post GB flag

JayGee's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

Michael Tomson
1:45 AM
Tamworth

at all not the first time this has happened around this night at night

link to this comment

Michael Tomson's 1 post GB flag

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

A

ash
2:14 AM
Birmingham

yup nothings showing. it happened a while back too. the only time i watch television too... i noticed all bbc are showing as off air on the bbc page. .something about it being related whatever that is

link to this comment

ash's 2 posts GB flag

ash's: A's Freeview map A's terrain plot A's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Page 56

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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

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.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.
Your comments
Your name
Your email
Your site or @twitter
Email me updates
Save my details

Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.