Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter
 | 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.
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 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
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 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.
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 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C33 | com7 | ||||||||
| C35 | com8 | ||||||||
| C36 | LOCAL2 | ||||||||
| C39 | +ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C40 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C42 | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C43 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C45 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C46 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C48 | _local | ||||||||
| C50tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | ||||||
| C51tv_off | LB | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_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
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Thursday, 22 September 2011
D
Dan Walters7:24 PM
Dave Adams: Hi Dave, no I am down by the Guarlford straight.
I have now done some more work on this. I can pick up all the HD channels if my aerial down cable is plugged directly into my HDTV. But if I connect via my freeview (non HD PVR) box loop through then I lose all HD channels. I was also losing some signal quality, breaking pictures etc, so I have replaced the cable from my freeview box loop through to the tv. This has cured the picture problems but still no HD channels.
I am now going to hold fire until I replace my aerial at the weekend. This was planned work anyway and if the problem is still there then I shall get a splitter and feed a cable directly to my TV and to my freeview (non HD) PVR.
Initially I shall also aim my new aerial installation at the Malvern repeater and check the results before re-aligning to Sutton Coldfield (if needed).
Dan
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Stuart O.
9:02 PM
Wrexham
9:02 PM
Wrexham
JohnB: Like I said, I did have problems earlier but resolved them BEFORE posting on this page.
In the end, I did not need to turn off any loop-through with any of my recording devices. All I needed to do was to just use one of my two amplifiers I previously used at the same time, the one amplifier with the variable gain I needed to use which was previously set at maximum gain and lower it down a few turns so the gain was reduced to now probably giving out around one-half to two-thirds of the maximum gain.
This means it now has caused the very strong signals signal strengths to lower slightly and the signal quality of the very strong signals to increase.
Also the signals strengths of the weaker signals have now increased and the signal quality of the weaker signals have also increased.
And I no longer experience any interference caused on the RF out picture of my Sky+ box with removing one of the amplifiers and reducing the gain of the other one I still required.
So, all round a complete success.
But like I asked previously:
Over time, is it possible for your TV or box's tuner to get damaged with 100% Strength and 100% Quality always receivable on some of your channels?
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Stuart's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb389:08 PM
Stuart O: In answer to your latter question, most definitely NO!
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Stuart O.
9:38 PM
Wrexham
9:38 PM
Wrexham
jb38: It's a perfectly reasonable question to have asked. No-one else ever seems to have asked and I feel people need to know.
Brian talks about how you can overload your TV and set-top box tuner with too high a signal but he never says anything about damage.
So I put 2 and 2 together and also quite reasonably assumed that a prolonged exposure to very high strong signals on a tuner of a TV or set-top box could eventually result in tuner damage.
So I would like Brian's view on this.
Thanks.
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Stuart's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Matt9:39 PM
Brian: No other electrical equipment around the tv, wideband in use already.
BBC 2 analogue was one of the better analogue's we had, we are 20 miles from SC, so top picture considering we are using a loft mounted aerial.
I get the most signal 'strength' on this multiplex with 88%, could the BER of 50-55% be due to much signal, even though its showing 88%?
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Friday, 23 September 2011
P
Paul Evans1:00 AM
Wolverhampton
Before the change on the 22nd Sept, I could get all chennels. But since then when I scan I get all channels but, after switching off the freeview box and turning it back on I loose ITV1, Channel4, Channel5, ITV2, Channel4+, E4. I'm using the Sutton Coldfield transmitter and there has been no change in equipment or location of the arial.
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Paul's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
B
Billy6:24 AM
Very Interesting:
Box adds channels from other transmitter itself.
Having discovered that I can actually get Sutton in the loft, in a huge dip with hill in way some 17 miles away, I obviously, only wanted those channels, not Allesley Park.
Factory reset and unplugged aerial at back and so on.
Interesting that, unless and it did once, had to do again, it still logged in Allesley Park one, that it should not have happened second time round.
Yet it still seems that it appears it is putting itself on there, which is rather strange.
I think though not 100% sure, manual kinda suggests as such as well.
This might be happening when one of the muxes is not being picked up, some how switching to another one.
Reason for mentioning this is it seems some of you also having problems where factory reset, scan channels in, even manually, and then seems to be picking up another channel/s.
By the way, signals vary on one channel at times, but on the whole, got 80% signal strength and 100% quality, log periodic in loft, high up, pointing upwards, 25 db masthead amp, aerial rated 7.5 db gain tops, so chuffed really.
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N
Neil10:46 AM
I little advice for people that may help!
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Make sure the aerial goes to the digibox first!
Then remove any "OLD" coax leads that go to old analoge tuners for vidoes, DVD players etc.
The old tuners cause poor digital signal quality and a mizzly picture on the TV if connected.
If your TV is a old type with no digi box inside then the lead can be removed that goes from the digi box to the TV.
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A
Aerialman12:17 PM
Now that Sutton Coldfield is now fully switched,with allocated channel numbers/full powers,When will Arqiva B,Winter Hill go to full power(from 12.5Kw to 100Kw) on ch 55?
When will Moel-y-Parc,SDN ch51,Arqiva A ch 52,go to full powers.(from 2.5Kw to 10Kw)?
Dates please?
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Aerialman: 28th September 2011 I think - the dates are Switchover events September- December 2011 | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
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