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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Wednesday, 28 September 2011
K
Keith Ratcliffe 10:52 AM
Birmingham
Keith Ratcliffe: B30 1ST
Receiving ........ C43 & C46
Lost & not receiving C39 C42 & C45
Anyone know why please
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Keith's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
I
Ian Soady2:42 PM
Birmingham
Aerialman:
We've had excellent reception both standard and HD since doing a full rescan on the 21st. Loft mounted aerial.
Interestingly, I've bought a cheap USB freeview dongle for my laptop with a 15cm whip type aerial and I can even get 30+ Freeview channels on that with the aerial indoors (works much better with the magnetic base on a steel plate for reasons I'm sure someone can explain).
B28 8EF should however be a fairly strong signal area.
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Ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
B
Billy3:27 PM
Thanks Jim, all seems fine now on Lark Stoke, though usual pixel break up, pity channel I want, whether Sutton or Lark Stoke, always on the weakest Mux, go figure.
Keith let me check my last signal takings in the loft on this transmitter:
YUP, how interesting that best channels were 43 and 46, with 95% Signal strength over 100 Quality.
39, one I wanted most, was 80% SS over 100 as are the rest.
Who knows why.
Now on Lark Stoke and even changing to a different amplifier, 23 db gain, still as on sutton get the odd glitch, more a pixel break up and then okay again, but not too often looks like something going to have to live with, cause not buying yet another aerial, got more cable today, throwing more money away and not getting any better really.
Who knows why, unless, and without a recent picture of it, Sutton has them at different heights, meaning channels 43 and 46 are higher at the top, while others are lower down, or the radiating pattern, though one would suspect, it will be all around.
My sympathies as I know all to well, though I enjoy tinkering at times, the annoyance of this darn medium, satellite beats it hands down.
Satellite, (freesat) oh gosh, maybe one glitch in a few hours, rain and I mean VERY heavy rain, lose some channels perhaps.
Freeview, oh gosh, glitch, sound going, playing up, pixel break up, every few minutes if not much less.
But I refuse to give Sky my money and so have no alternative, cheapest option but to have freeview for top up tv nonsense.
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Thursday, 29 September 2011
Stuart O.: A signal overload will cause no damage, just loss of service. The set-top box will implement an "internal fuse" if high signal levels are detected to protect itself.
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Friday, 30 September 2011
M
Mike Dimmick3:10 PM
Stuart O.: The voltages we're talking about are very low. The recommended signal level for analogue was 60 to 80 dBuV - which is 1 millivolt to 10 millivolts. The normal level for the signal on a cable from another piece of equipment, such as SCART, is 1 volt peak-to-peak, 50 to 500 times the size of the signal arriving at the TV.
The problem is that most boosters are simply one transistor, as is the mixer circuit in the tuner. (The mixer downconverts from the frequency arriving on the aerial to a much lower intermediate frequency; it does this by controlling the gain of an amplifier with a local oscillator circuit, that outputs a pure tone at the tuned frequency.) Digital TV requires that any amplification is linear. A transistor's transfer curve is actually exponential - Bipolar Transistor - Characteristic Curves , second diagram down - but if you use a small enough region of it, it's approximately enough linear. If the input is too large, the range of the curve covered becomes larger and it's no longer linear.
For analogue transmissions this didn't actually matter too much - it was noticeable if you knew what to look for, but the transmissions were spaced far enough apart that it didn't really matter. For digital it causes problems both within one multiplex and for adjacent multiplexes - it's a problem called intermodulation.
At extreme high levels it can cause clipping as the amplified signal reaches the upper supply voltage - the maximum that the transistor can switch - or the ground voltage - no current flowing at all. Neither of these cause damage either, and you would notice intermodulation long before clipping was a problem.
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R
Ryan3:33 PM
Freeview ran okay for the first day of switchover, now i'm getting picture break up day in day out.
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J
John Gaunt3:53 PM
in the past few days following the digital switchover I have installed a Freeview recorder which is fine apart from the fact that BBC1 and BBC2 reception is not good from the Sutton Coldfield transmittor.
I have never had any problems receiving TV signals brfore this week
Any ideas?
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B
Billy5:50 PM
I have to stress again mine is in the loft, pointing up, 22 element Log Periodic with 23 db gain mast head amp on.
Now, what is weird, but could be the massive hill in way, is at times on certain muxes we see Signal Strength at 80 to 95% and quality nearly always 100%.
Then suddenly bang, Signal Strength goes as low as 45%, not for long, can yo yo about a bit.
When, as today, not sure if weather, get the glitches, well mostly pixelization, it seems it is not the signal quality, and likely not the strength.
Yesterday I carried out tests watching Sky Sports 1 on channel 39.
In the 2 hours period had about 7 to 8 max interference, mostly pixel thing, might have been one sound, which I think I find more annoying than the picture breaking into pixel blocks for an odd second.
Today was much worse.
Reason again for mentioning all this, is that so many of you, are having trouble.
At the moment, got some unusual weather, more like July, very warm to Hot, might cause trouble.
Since power boosts and seems to have cured mine, need to do a complete factory reset, then automatically search with aerial connection pulled out of the TV or set top box.
Then put it back in and search again.
If allows, which mine does not until I get least one mux in, annoying, do it manually now, if know how, to avoid it picking up any other transmitters.
Try an attenuator as may be signal too strong now as well.
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S
Sean6:45 PM
Coventry
I have a Humax Freeview PVR which has been retuned after switchover several times now (the most recent being last night), and as of this morning is refusing to show Mux BSB1/BBCA.
I have noticed that after retuning, the Humax asks me to choose between another transmitter as well as our normal West Midlands (Sutton Coldfield). It is also giving me multiple copies of channels (up to 4 last night), which I am manually deleting (all this takes ages!)
I have a digital aerial/booster which were fitted a few years ago. All was generally OK until the switchover - no serious problems with the digital channels. Since switchover however, I have had intermittent signal breakup & channels vanishing.
Help, anybody got any ideas?
| link to this comment |
Sean's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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