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

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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 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 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C43 (650.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C40+ (626.2MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 H max
C42 (642.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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
C45 (666.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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
C39+ (618.2MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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

LB
 H -13dB
C48 (690.0MHz)433mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
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?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
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)Transposer1 km W Burton-on-Trent60 homes
CoalvilleTransposer18 km NW Leicester600 homes
SolihullTransposerLand Rover building400 homes

How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-137 Mar 2018
VHFB E TB E TB E TB E K TW T
C4BBCtvwaves
C33com7
C35com8
C36LOCAL2
C39+ArqBArqB
C40BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves+BBCBBBCB
C42SDNSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C45ArqAArqA
C46BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4
C48_local
C50tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C51tv_offLB
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 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

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent 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. 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.

Comments
Friday, 7 October 2011
B
Billy
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

6:08 PM

Steve:

Forgive first, without re-reading everything again, so forgive if forgot, and been told this, I assume you tried without the booster etc.
Was it fine before the switchover.

If fine before switchover, likely now, may not need the booster and can manage the two Tv's, or maybe only needs some of it, meaning if it boosted say 10db, needs only 5db now etc.
Try attenuator, or, least, say, err, try another connection in line, so means you lose odd db, if that fails, not sure what else to suggest, because if you are on Sutton and all was fine before, hang on, re-check then above, if you made postings before that one.

You say you have lost all the channels, suggests then you had it before, not suddenly new to all this etc.
If had them before switchover and struggling now, still would suggest to me, too much power now, overload etc, but weird, given you feeding two tv's, but like I say, maybe need less again, but still some.
Keep messing, experimenting, cause last thing I HATE to see is you forking out more, or worse still, calling someone out, costing more still.



link to this comment
Billy's 50 posts GB flag
M
M Rawson
8:37 PM

Hi Again, Have tried removing booster, retune with no aerial & then return and also channel tuning all to no effect. I am now conviced reception crashed on switchover and low signal is problem. Second telly works if direct link to aerial not if shared with or without booster. Am using Sutton direct.

link to this comment
M Rawson's 4 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:42 PM

steve: If you are referring to your query made at 8.06PM yesterday, I notice you mention two TV's being used on your system so is the situation the same on both after re-tuning?

The other point is did you try by-passing the booster? or should the booster be a two way splitter type then just take its aerial input lead out and connect it directly onto one of the leads going to a TV then try a further re-tune, making sure that its on the TV that the aerial was linked into.

(The re-tune is essential as you might not have anything stored in the channel memory)

As far as the aerial is concerned, its not so much that a new one might be required, but more the case of a check being made on the connections to the existing one.



link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Saturday, 8 October 2011
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

4:39 AM

M Rawson: Hi, so to clarify, the second set gets all channels OK if connected direct to the aerial, and then doing a full reset & MANUAL install of UHF channels C43,C46,C39,C42,C45 and if it's got an HD tuner C40, yes?
If you look at the information for particular programmes (LCN's) or MUX channels (you may have to go into the menu system for that) - what sort of signal strength & quality is it indicating?

What happens with the first set if you connect it direct and do the same reset and manual install?

What sort of aerial is it, and roughtly how old?
Has the booster got one unit near the aerial and a power unit near a set, or is it one that goes on the aerial lead somewhere, followed by a splitter and a cable to each set?

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

4:46 AM

Keith Ratcliffe: Have you discovered if your neighbours in your flats have then same problems?

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

6:44 AM

steve: Does your booster have an amplifier somewhere near the aerial and a power unit down near a set, or is it one unit somewhere on the cable? If the former you need to be sure to remove the amplifier bit.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
J
jack
3:13 PM

Thanks Billy

This is just ridiculous.
After switchover most channels were about ok.

Whatever they did just this week has killed all BBC and some other channels.

When I say channel 42 I dont just mean TV channel I mean (i think its called) BAND 42

That is frequencies 640 and above (2 blocks of them - loads of TV channels)

I've recorded the signal levels bouncing up and down from zero to 70ish percent both power and quality in an mpeg - I can post
it if theres somewhere to send it - the video clearly shows the other blocks
being quite stable at about 60% power 100% quality so its not an aerial or weather issue nor the fabled cross channels issue because the swing is far too high

The 4 HD channels play OK at about 40-45% power and 100% quality and are stable.

They did something this week and the kids dont get to watch cbeebies as a consequence or any other BBC channel.

Its not as if theres someone you can even report the issue to who can do anything about it.

buyer beware seems to be the "free"view motto

I cant think of anything I can do that could fix this at my end.





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jack's 2 posts GB flag
J
jack
3:16 PM

I've just worked it out - the ones giving problems are PSB1 and BBCA

Incidently - anyone know why the map on this pages loads then vanishes instantly? The overlays stay visible.


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jack's 2 posts GB flag
T
Tony Larner
5:16 PM
Worcester

After years of problems such as pixelization every time it rained or a motorcycle went past my house I live in Worcester have a roof mounted arial,after Sutton went on full power I have perfect reception and no break up from passing traffic I for one am really impressed by the reception I now get,I am aware that this section is mainly for problems,but I just wish to say that many of my neeighbours are also impressed by the reception we are now getting

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Tony Larner's 1 post GB flag
Tony's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
M Rawson
7:59 PM

Hi Chris.SE, The second set only gets the same limted set of channels as the first if connected directly. The boster is powered and takes aerial near sets when connected in. On C 46 intensity 16%, quality 0%. Aerial is old as is cabling to booster, all worked until 21/9 albeit not brilliantly.

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M Rawson's 4 posts GB flag
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