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Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.237,-2.626 or 51°14'12"N 2°37'33"Wsa_postcodeBA5 3LB

 

The symbol shows the location of the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter which serves 720,000 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 Mendip (Somerset, England) mast?

Mendip transmitter - Mendip 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 Mendip 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)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) West, 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
C34 (578.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (West), 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 (West),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C35 (586.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West, 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
C48 (690.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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 max
C33 (570.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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 max
C36 (594.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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

LBS
 H -10dB
C30 (546.0MHz)591mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 22nd September 2014: 7 Made in Bristol,

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 Mendip transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 25km north (3°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.
regional news image
ITV West Country News (East) 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS4 3HG, 23km north (11°)
to ITV West region - 61 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

CheddarTransposer15 km E Weston-super-Mare1674 homes
LuccombeActive deflector6 km w Minehead38 homes

How will the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20102010-132013-182013-1727 Feb 2018
C/D EEEC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C30_local
C32BBCA
C33com7com7
C34D3+4
C35com8com8
C36ArqB
C37C5wavesC5waves
C48SDNSDNSDNSDN
C49tv_off BBCABBCA
C51tv_offLBSLBS
C52tv_offArqBArqBArqB
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offArqAArqAArqACOM8tv_off
C58tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C61ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCA
C64BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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 24 Mar 10 and 7 Apr 10.

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

Analogue 1-4 500kW
Analogue 5(-6dB) 126kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
com7(-8.4dB) 72.4kW
com8(-8.6dB) 69.1kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*, LBS(-17dB) 10kW

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

Jan 1958-Jul 1968Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Harlech 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. Mendip 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, 16 August 2011
J
Jim F
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

10:16 PM

jason carter: Two coax cables attached to one aerial is not normal or recommended (the mismatch will give significant signal loss).
Use one coax cable from the aerial to feed a passive two way (or however many ways you need) splitter. That will maintain the 75 ohm match and minimise your signal loss.
At around 16km from Mendip, you don't need a big aerial - though signal loss through roof tiles can vary substantially. Mendip is group C/D (and stays that way after the retune event on 28th September), so either a C/D aerial or a wideband should work fine.
Signal strength readings can be a combination of strength (power) and quality - its the quality that matters more than the power

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Jim F's 141 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
P
PETER
9:48 PM

I have found that a logpereodic antena is the best solution in 90% of recption problems.Its not the amount of signal that is received but how clean the signal is in to the tv receiver. You can get a good picture on low signal as long as the signal is clean. Most rigers will do a good job.

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PETER's 1 post GB flag
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
K
Kevin
10:11 PM
Devizes

Aerial is on roof, however we are missing channels on both the TV & the HDD recorder, but different channels on each! On retuning both the TV & the HDD recorder we "only" get about 80 to 85 channels on each. We seem to be loosing more channels over the last few weeks.

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Kevin's 4 posts GB flag
Kevin's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Thursday, 1 September 2011
G
Gary
10:14 AM
Swindon

I live in SN25 1RE. The recept off Mux A, Com6 ArqB is poor / non existent. showing 46% or lower on the TV Rx levels. PSB1-3 is 70%, others average 55%. Is the power due to be turned up on A & Com6? if not what are the options? I've had my signal checked and Mendip is the best reception for my area.

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Gary's 1 post US flag
Gary's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:14 PM

Gary: Yes, power levels on the COM multiplexes are low at Mendip due to channel clashes with Oxford and Huntshaw Cross. There is a retune and power up on the SDN (Mux A/COM4) and ArqB (Mux D/COM6) multiplexes on the 28th; at the same time, ArqA (Mux C/COM5) will move to ArqB's present location and power level.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
J
JPWarner
3:51 PM

re. No TV signals from Mendip since July 8th, despite dozens of retunes: Update to my previous post: I've now spoken to the BBC's engineers and interference teams. Both insist that Mendip is 100% (and 100kW) for BBC signals so don't know why I'm not receiving any TV signals in Marlborough (SN8) after 5 years. This seems to contradict Briantist's comments re lower power from this transmitter. Don't want to lash out on Freesat until I'm sure about this. Any advice welcome!

link to this comment
JPWarner's 2 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 7 September 2011
E
Elaine
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:05 PM

JPWarner: There's lower power (shown on the signal strength bars at the top of this page) for the commercial multiplexes - A, C and COM6. However, the ones that the main BBC channels are on (i.e. the public service multiplexes) are broadcasting at 100%.

Can't help you with why the broadcast doesn't seem to be reaching you, though :(

link to this comment
Elaine's 23 posts GB flag
J
Jim F
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

5:29 PM

JPWarner: You're nearly 64km from Mendip, but receiving the Arq A MUX (which is one of the ones on reduced power). This would suggest that you should be able to receive all the others. Without knowing what your aerial installer has done, I'm wondering if you have a masthead amplifier fitted. This would require 12V power fed to it via the coax cable from a small power supply inside the house. Could you advise if you have a masthead amp, and whether there is any kind of joint in the coax cable on the mast (typically wrapped in black tape)? If rain gets into a joint like that, it can take voltage away from the masthead amplifier by forming a leakage path, giving the effect you describe. Unplugging the 12V power supply for a few seconds and then reconnecting it typically results in a good signal for a few seconds, before the water starts to conduct again (reducing the voltage to the masthead amplifier). You can observe this on the TV menu showing signal strength / quality.
I'm a little concerned when your installer claims that everything has been checked - you should expect to receive a reasonable signal at your location, and your installer's meter should tell him what's happening (low power / low quality & signal levels either side of a masthead amp.).

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Jim F's 141 posts GB flag
Saturday, 10 September 2011
J
James C
1:29 PM
Highbridge

I get my service from the main Mendip transmitter. I see something is changing on September 28th, but I am not sure what.

Will I need to retune?

link to this comment
James C's 11 posts GB flag
James's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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