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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Saturday, 8 October 2011
C
Chris.SE6:44 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.
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J
jack3:13 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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J
jack3:16 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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T
Tony Larner5:16 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's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
M Rawson7:59 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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Sunday, 9 October 2011
B
Billy12:11 PM
Jack:
Yes, same here, but assumed was cause in loft and behind the big hill in Allesley Park, hmm, weird.
I did testing, aerial only and was two joins in it, f connector sorts, so assumed maybe 1 db loss for each and so aerial then would be about 4 to 5 db gain only.
Best I got was around 30% to 35% on signal strength, red, even though using old black and white portable tv, can tell.
Next I tried, or maybe before that actually, anyway, tried a 13 db amp, so down 10 db gain on what I was using.
At first was 70% instead of 80%, but then id go up to 80%.
Weird, shows how strong and robust it is, or so you might think, tests carried out on channel 39.
One more in the 40's is okay, the other one not.
I am getting interference from stuff turned on and off as well etc.
I do not understand it though, assumed was hill, cause can be sitting there and if it plays up more than just a quick glitch, pixels going for a split second, I check the signals.
I see still 100% mostly on the quality.
However the signal strength has now dropped to 30% red, then might mess about, up and down, as if some van going up hill inbetween signal, lol, or grrrr, as case may be.
Then back up again and even 95% now, go figure.
So conclusion:
See, I assumed, only me would be affected by this, so hard for me to help.
Unless, unless you are also in similar boat, meaning aerial in loft and obstacles in the ways etc.
But it is weird as to why, unless badly affected by weather and guess satellite not matter at what symbol rate 2/3 or 3/4 or 5/6, but seems in this mode, terrestrial, it does, meaning though less channels, perhaps 16 Qam, was better, now got 64 Qam, not so.
Otherwise I'm baffled as to what is going on with some of you, as to why, like me, but I have in loft and hill, if you don't, are having signals falling away, similar to myself and then coming back again etc.
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J
jack2:24 PM
Billy (and others)
I'm using a 64 element wideband aerial with a 21dB mains amp. Everything worked until last week so its not hills. (Unless there was a volocano eruption I havn't heard about in Sutton.)
Nothing at my end has changed.
I'm monitoring using a Humax HDR-Fox T2 and the power on these channels is clearly 30% of what it was before last week. IE rubbish.
HOWEVER to see the bouncing around you have to go to the signal detection section in the Menu/settings options on the Humax at which point you can see its constantly all over the place.
I think the main level/quality bars must be averaged and dont show rapid changes shorter than a few seconds.
There is also now interference from planes and household equipment as Billy mentioned which again I didnt get before last week.
I notice this page still says engineering work without dates "over the next week" can someone clarify - once again please?
Is this last weeks engineering work or are they doing more next week?
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D
David4:12 PM
Any idea why my Philips HDD/DVD recorder (DVDR7260H) has stopped finding all channels that appear to be on PSB1 and PSB2? It knows what and where they should be in the channel listing, but just doesn't 'find' them anymore, no matter how many times I retune. The other channels are ok.
I live in the west of Derby and get most of my channels from Sutton Coldfield, plus BBC East Midlands from the Derby relay. My tv receives all the channels totally fine.
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J
jb385:47 PM
David: You should be aware that this is a known defect in these boxes but which only ever really affected BBC channels, this problem being in existence even prior to any transmission changes made at switchover, so switchover isn't the issue, however I have since heard that some owners of these devices are finding that ITV channels have now failed as well, this being backed up by what you have reported.
To my knowledge no solution to the problem has been found as yet, although should anyone know anything to the contrary I would certainly like to know about it, as I am aware that some 7260H models suffering from this problem having been lying in two separate workshops for a considerable time now, with Philips being less than helpful to say the least, the preset channel memory being suspected as having developed a fault, but with spares (tuner) not being readily available because of the devices age.
Philips did publish (on their website) a few software updates to allegedly overcome some of the other problems that these recorders suffer from, however it certainly had no effect on this particular one.
By the way the software they published was to enable a software upgrade CD to be burnt, the file being a ZIP format type to enable an ISO file to be extracted and burnt.
Models applicable being DVDR 7250H 05 / 31 / 58 and the DVDR 7260H 05 / 31 / 58.
There could of course be another reason all together for your problem, but it sounds suspiciously like another case of the aforementioned.
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C
Chris.SE5:56 PM
jack: First, it is a bit difficult to provide ongoing constructive help when it isn't possible to backtrack through someone's previous posts. If when you post you could you make sure the 'Save my details' box is checked, at the bottom of the posting box, also that your email is not different each time, you should only need to put it in once if Save my details is checked - other posters such as me cannot get to see it, and also don't delete any cookies for this site.
The Engineering work is NOT on Digital TV, it is on FM Radio, and I can only assume it is on the Antenna which is why TV is "Liable to Interuption". An update for next week hasn't been provided by Digital UK yet, but you can check yourself -
Digital UK - Planned Engineering Works and select the "Planned Engineering Works by Region" tab and click on Central.
The power at Sutton Coldfield has increased to 200Kw since DSO, that's a 14dB or so increase. Brian has already suggested to you that you may have too strong a signal.
I am led to believe that the Humax HDR-Fox T2 is an extremely sensitive receiver, there are reports of people in Oxford picking up Crystal Palace (London) which is only on 20Kw.
From the description of you aerial/booster you are extremely likely to be suffering gross overload. Any DTR that is suffering overload will not give reliable or correct signal strength or quality reports and reading will go all over the place with the slightest change eg. an aircraft giving a reflection. When you know you have a good signal strength or quality low/zero/poor etc are a clear indicator of overload.
If your booster has variable gain turn it right down until you get acceptable results, or try removing it from circuit and see what the results are.
One thing is for sure, with an aerial in the loft and a hill in the way getting consistent results is going to be very tricky.
Do a full reset/autoscan with the aerial unplugged to clear all the previous settings/channels, and then with the booster turned down or removed to a MANUAL tune (UHF channel numbers at the top of this page).
PS. If you enter your postcode in the box on the top RHS of the page, a set of links to the right of your post will appear where you/we can check various information about reception.
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