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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Friday, 14 October 2011
B
Billy7:26 PM
Okay, how badly, and deadly serious are you Jack, meaning wanting it sorted etc, no promises.
Cause I can open another email at hushmail and you can contact me and we can get in touch, I have a car and obviously a few things, box and amps and what not and attenuator and so on, also a signal strength meter, not much good to me, cost like 15 pounds, etc.
Lastly I apologize, I seriously missed this:
I'm using a 64 element wideband aerial with a 21dB mains amp
Now think, I'm 17.4 miles from Sutton, log periodic 22 element, max gain is 7.5 db, amp on it, is now only 13 db gain and I get 80 over 100% on channel 38.
You are how far from Sutton and using what, WOW I'm using a 64 element wideband aerial with a 21dB mains amp
Despite what you said and tried and not saying you telling lies, no way, but that seems, huge.
But then you claim, no difference in power since change over, weird, something major, wrong, well you know that.
Let me know, I'm in Coventry, so no worries and yes, likely do it for nothing, lol, kinda guy I am, make me a cuppa, no, kidding, goes in one end and out the other.
If I came round and could help, pay my petrol money is all, if I came around and could not get it, you owe me nothing, win win for you then, lol.
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B
Billy7:48 PM
Okay, Jack, you said you removed the amp, assume we on about a masthead one, need cable straight from aerial to box or tv then.
Or need a join, assume you know this.
I'm still convinced and think, not 100% sure, that if well over loaded, it goes backwards, so one thinks, look at it, 30%, used to get 80%, gotten worse, need more power, but no, you don't.
I remain convinced, all else being well, cable, connections and so on, you got all okay before, then you needed the 21 db gain amp, and 64 element aerial, as it was a pathetic 8,000 kws, now it is 200,000, so, oh gosh, hang on, increase in what, err 14db, going by the above on this page.
See I guessing your aerial like has, what, 13 to 14 db gain and 21 db gain amp, outside, no hills.
I have massive hill it goes through, passing Allesley Park one etc. in loft, only 7.5 dg gain aerial and 13 db gain amp, and so lets add them up:
You: lets say 13 db then and 21 34 db gain then. No hills, not sure of your distance, but if less than 20 miles, no worries, easy.
Me: 7.5 db max and 13 db - 20.5 db, massive hill in way, in loft, at top, pointing upwards, mostly, 80% Signal strength over 100% quality.
34 db, nothing
20.5 db and hill and loft.
You at a guess need now, just the aerial itself, or, I'd say, 10db amp only with it, maybe then attenuator of about 6db, should be spot on, that fails, scrap it, go freesat, amen, :).
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Saturday, 15 October 2011
J
jack2:22 PM
I found someone and started shouting - the following day it started working - for 5 days. I cant prove any connection but it is suspicious.
Some things for certain:
1. Power is NOT overloading my box.
2. There was little or zero increase in power registered on switchover. The claims for that are clearly absurd. Even allowing for inverse square laws before anyone pipes up.
3. I am starting to understand my nutty neighbour who threw all his freeview gear in the bin before switchover - I just assumed it would be fixed when the power went up and waited.
4. There is no problem whatsoever with my installation.
Billy- Sadly the power has not increased at switchover no matter what they claim.
Because I had to have this huge aerial and amp I watched the power quite closely.
I no longer trust any claims made for freeview or any technical information.
We used to get a great analogue picture with a bent coathanger stuffed in the back of a TV - now we cant get a reliable picture at all.
This is service degradation not improvement.
I've seen more complaints about freeview than any other product or service in history.
Not just here (Funny how the sutton thread is always top of the pops here)
I dont know how far away sutton is but I'd guess less that 15 miles - this is ridiculous. You can transmit around the globe on 1Kw (Albeit not tv)
today HD started playing up for the first time.
I've swapped aerials swapped boxes and box manufacturers more than once - the early boxes were a total bugridden con. as I'm sure many know.
As far as I (and others around here) can see
freeview is an expensive degradation of TV broadcasting.
Thank you all for your time - I can only assume it works great in patches - somewhere.
It seems to me TV as a whole is getting to be far too much trouble to bother with. If its not the signal its the pointless and annoying rubbish being broadcast on every channel. And thats before you consider the outrageously excessive advertising.
I've ordered virgin cable. At least the kids will get their cbeebies next week.
I wish you all well and thank you again.
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J
jb389:07 PM
jack: Having read everything that's been said regarding your problem, I would like to point out that it should be appreciated that when any signal received is that strong that its hovering on the verges of grossly overloading a tuners input then the symptoms seen by the viewer are "exactly" the same as a weak signal that keeps dropping out of the box by it falling down "under" the reception threshold.
The difference being, that when a picture is observed to be jumping on or off / breaking up etc when in areas relatively close to a transmitter, its happening because the "over the top" signal is causing intermittent instability to occur in the tuner, and "not" because the signal is going down in strength, quite the reverse! albeit that the boxes indicators might make it appear that way.
The reason for this is that the signal strength / quality indication circuitry in digital equipment gets completely swayed by over powerful inputs and is prone to giving totally incorrect readings, these usually always being very low, the indications seen being quite different when viewed on various brands of equipment, as no two devices responds in the same way to overload situations, sensitive sets being worse for obvious reasons.
I will say though, that reception underneath a transmitter mast can in some cases be somewhat less than would be expected because of an umbrella effect, but this usually happens within a couple of miles or so of a mast and is unlikely to be applying at your distance of 8 miles away.
That said, the power increased massively at switchover and that's an indisputable fact, and if there are no massive hills (I haven't checked!) between the station and you then your aerial system is grossly excessive for the distances involved, as a simple DM log (or DM18) with no booster should be perfectly suffice at your distance.
Have you tried a simple set top aerial? as I don't see this having been mentioned as already done.
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Tuesday, 18 October 2011
B
Billy12:02 PM
To Jack.
Hate to say it, I agree with what jb38.
Why?
You said it yourself, used to get analogue tv on what, a coathanger.
The problem was what, 1 million kwats as opposed to the awful 8,000, didn't ondigital start at 4,000 even on sutton, forget now, as certainly 4 and 5,000 on Waltham.
Anyway, massive difference, even given that they claim it can be the same with 7db less.
Whoever then installed your system was asking for trouble later.
This is why I said it has been a huge disaster and I'm sure one that is much worse surely then we are hearing about.
Surprised not on watchdog or something, not that I watch it hardly ever, so....
I worry equipment is not messed up, damaged, or something happening.
I would still say experiment, loft aerial.
I keep reminding you Jack, and hence the reason for Allesley Park Transmitter, cause my mom claims back in the day, kicked up a fuss, because not get analogue from Sutton, bad ghosting, because of the hill, right in a dip, why years ago, went 42 plus miles to Waltham, glitch, glitch, lol.
You have told me, no hills, nothing, 15 miles likely away.
I have log periodic, 22 elements, only meant for strong, medium areas, because of the hill, i'd class me as weak to poor.
I'm 17.4 miles, so bit further still than you.
I can use a 13 db amp, in the loft and get what 80% over 100%.
You are 15 miles, massive x type high gain aerial, LOL, laughable now, cause that alone should be connected to the box, no boosters, no amps.
Gosh, I'd say it could likely feed more than one set up, :).
As confirmed by jb38, because one gets too much signal, it goes backwards, awful, because the unwary, now believe they have a worse set up, not getting enough signal, weak, breaking up, bad.
You said yourself, fine before, FINE before switchover, not perfect, but fine.
Went from 8,000, pathetic, to massive 200,000 kws, equal to the 1 million analogue, which you said what, and I quote:
''We used to get a great analogue picture with a bent coathanger stuffed in the back of a TV - now we cant get a reliable picture at all.''
I'd even test it with aerial to box, no amps and 6 db attenuator, or another connection in line.
HOWEVER, having said all that, pure speculation, maybe wrong word, in the sense that you know your setup.
We do not, not seen the cable, connections, facing aerial, what sort it is like and so on.
So can be really hard to say.
If you do not want cheaper way to get sky sports and top up tv, go with Sky, freesat that is.
Virgin do my heads in, sick of them bugging me, and not sure how true it is, was said, read that, you know, pry into things, can not be trusted, still if have nothing to hide.
Like Top UP TV, woman suddenly asks what sports I like, Golf I said, should have said all sorts.
I hope now, not later bugged my more phone calls about whatever, to do with golf etc.
We have to be careful, desperate depression times, not recession, that's a con also, they get worse and will push us into things for more money.
Anyway, wish you all the best. :).
Billy
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M
Mike Dimmick2:06 PM
jb38: The only thing I'll add is that the transmitting antennas always have a vertical component to the radiation pattern, the main lobe being aimed at or slightly below the horizon - this is termed the 'beam tilt'. The more tiers in the broadcasting aerial, the narrower this main lobe is. Efforts are made to ensure that there are no nulls.
The beam tilt is basically there to reduce the reflections off the upper atmosphere, causing signals to travel far further than designed - it's also a huge waste of power if much of the transmitted power escapes the intended service area!
The old main antenna at Sutton Coldfield is described in BBC Research Technical Report 1967/19 BBC RD - Publications - R&D Report 1967-19 : UHF transmitting aerial for the Sutton Coldfield television station . The VRP on the south-east face (appropriate for Jack's location) is on p15. At 12km away the angle is about 1.5° below horizontal. At this angle I guess (by eyeball) it delivered about 65% of full strength, which would be about 3.74 dB down (field strength is expressed as a voltage, not power, so multiply the log by 20, not 10). Because it's linear, the graph exaggerates the level of attenuation with increasing angle.
The attenuation in free space is much greater than this, though - using the calculator at Field Strength Calculator gives a value of 12.4 dB difference in path loss for distances of 12 km and 50 km, on C40. Net, the actual field strength at 12 km away is still 8.66 dB greater than at 50 km away.
Of course, we don't know what the VRP of the new aerial is. It may or may not be similar, depending on exactly what coverage area was targetted. Each aerial was a custom build to Arqiva specifications: we know this due to the lead time on the second new aerial at Oxford, after the first was destroyed by fire. They are manufactured by RFS from PHP panels, four to a tier, and standard array patterns are given at the end of http://www.rfsworld.com/d….pdf (the top-mast is two independent 6-tier arrays, one for the PSB multiplexes and one for the COMs).
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Sky Sports still keeps disappearing or is very pixelly (can't think of a better description). Beats me if the signal is too strong or two weak. All I know was there was absolutely nothing wrong with it until the switchover. Waltham switched and we lost it altogether then Sutton Coldfield switched and it was fine for about 3 weeks, now it as bad as it was when Waltham first switched.
All I know is the whole thing has been extremely irritating! And I just wish someone would sort it out because there seem to be loads of people having problems.
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Chris's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick11:40 PM
Chris Onion: At that postcode, there is a poor prediction for the ArqB multiplex - which carries Sky Sports 1 and 2 - from Waltham. The prediction for Sutton Coldfield is very good.
Digital UK never explain their predictions in detail, but there are a number of relays in the vicinity (Bolehill, Repton, Winshill) that transmit on C57. Levels of signal both from the wanted transmitter and from interfering transmitters do vary over time and not necessarily in line with each other.
If your aerial points south-east to Waltham, you may get better results by pointing south-west to Sutton Coldfield. You would still get East Midlands BBC One and ITV1 from the Derby relay - providing East Midlands service to people better covered by Sutton Coldfield is the reason that it exists.
In both cases you should check that the box has actually tuned in services from the wanted transmitter. See Digital Region Overlap for more information.
Given that the prediction from Sutton Coldfield is 99% across the board, and that you say it was OK before switchover, chances are that if there is a signal level problem, it's too much rather than too little.
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Wednesday, 19 October 2011
M
Mike6:07 PM
My new LG receiver picks up all the HD channels 50,51,52 and 54, but in the TV pages I see that several ITV channels and FILM4 are marked as being available also in HD. How does one receive these channels?
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Mike Dimmick: My aerial does point at Sutton Coldfield and I get BBC One East Midlands from the Derby transmitter. This is why I can't understand why I have problems.
How do I check the box has tuned in services for the wanted transmitter? It is a BT Vision box.
The trouble is, we didn;t suffer from the 'digital overlap' issue until the switchover. You would have thought they would have done something to prevent this. We have had a new (massive aerial) fitted by the HA and it was working perfectly until switchover.
Sorry I am a big believer in if it ain;t broke, don;t fix it. This has caused problems for loadsof people in the middle where they get more than one transmitter.
Any help to check that the box has tuned in to services for the wanted transitter would be great. Can I block the Waltham signal?
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Chris's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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