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Full Freeview on the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.790,-1.179 or 51°47'25"N 1°10'46"Wsa_postcodeOX3 9SS

 

The symbol shows the location of the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmitter which serves 410,000 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 Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) mast?

Oxford transmitter - Oxford transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 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 Oxford 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
C41+ (634.2MHz)295mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South (Oxford), 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C44- (657.8MHz)295mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian/Central (Thames Valley micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) South ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Central west), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)295mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South (Oxford), 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 104 Channel 4 HD South 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 -3dB
C29 (538.0MHz)295mDTG-850,000W
Channel icons
20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -3dB
C37- (601.8MHz)319mDTG-850,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -3dB
C31 (554.0MHz)319mDTG-850,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LOX
 H -10dB
C46 (674.0MHz)295mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 22nd December 2014: 7 That's Oxford,

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 Oxford transmitter?

regional news image
BBC South (Oxford) Today 0.4m homes 1.6%
from Oxford OX2 7DW, 6km west-southwest (258°)
to BBC South (Oxford) region - 6 masts.
BBC South (Oxford) Today shares 50% content with Southampton service
regional news image
ITV Meridian News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Whiteley PO15 7AD, 102km south (182°)
to ITV Meridian/Central (Thames Valley) region - 15 masts.
Thames Valley opt-out from Meridian (South). All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian+Oxford

How will the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-1723 May 2018
VHFC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C2BBCtvwaves
C29SDN
C31com7com7
C37com8com8
C41BBCA
C44D3+4
C46_local
C47BBCB
C49tv_offC5wavesC5waves
C50tv_off SDNSDN
C51tv_offLOXLOX
C53tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves+BBCA+BBCA+BBCA
C55tv_offArqBArqBArqBcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C57tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C59tv_off-ArqA-ArqA-ArqA
C60tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves-D3+4-D3+4-D3+4
C62SDN
C63BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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 14 Sep 11 and 28 Sep 11.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4 500kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 50kW
Analogue 5(-11dB) 40kW
com8(-14.7dB) 17.1kW
com7(-14.8dB) 16.4kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, LOX(-17dB) 10kW
Mux C*, Mux D*(-18dB) 8kW
Mux A*, Mux B*(-19.2dB) 6kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Oxford transmitter area

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Dec 2006Central Independent Television
Dec 2006-Feb 2009ITV Thames Valley
Feb 2009-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. Oxford 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
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
M
Mark
12:01 AM

Briantist: Thanks.

Out of interest, how wide a band do these communal system boosters cover?

The reason that I ask is that ArqA and SDN are also on new frequencies (C59 & C62) and they are working fine. There were channels on C60 and C63 before though, so I guess there are probably boosters for these adjacent channels.

In contrast, the closest previous frequencies to ArqB's C55 were C53 & C57.

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Mark's 2 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

9:07 AM

Mark: You would normally expect there to be one for each required frequency.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
N
Norman
6:24 PM

jb38: Thanks for your helpful comments. The Freeview box is a Philips DTR220, I believe.

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Norman's 10 posts GB flag
S
Simon
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

6:42 PM
Buckingham

Thanks Jb and David for your comments.

I think David may well be right, we are in a dip here and I also notice we're right on the border for the Oxford and Sandy Heath transmitters. They are sending out C59 and C67 respectively on very low power. Hopefully when the signal is boosted it will all be resolved.

I don't have another box to check the channel with at this time, and may just watch my missing channels on the Internet until April.

Thanks for your help

All the best, Simon

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Simon's 21 posts GB flag
Simon's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:30 PM

Simon: Yes, David's perfectly correct insomuch that these COM multiplexes are on very low power, and which I was aware of, but my only reason for suggesting you try and borrow another box was because of you reporting that you received a good signal from Mux Ch55 whereas Mux Ch59 was very erratic.

As these two multiplexes are allegedly on the same power, then the "only" way of determining the exact cause of the problem and possibly eliminating your updated Sharp TU-160H, was by trying another box that wasn't known to suffer from possible offset problems, as if Ch59 was also received poor on another box then that's inclined to indicate a problem out with your control "if" you have already tried various aerial positions within the loft.

No need to acknowledge as I was just clarifying a point.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
A
Andrew Wilkins
2:41 PM

The Oxfrord Mail carries the followeing report that may explain some off problems reported here:
DIGITAL UK has admitted for the first time that some households in Oxfordshire will struggle to get all television channels until next April.

Although the county went digital in September, Digital UK has confirmed some fringe households may have to wait until the switchover has completed in London before they get extra Freeview channels.

The move to digital has left some residents fed up, claiming their viewing has been made worse, not better.

Eric Sheppard, of Lower End, Piddington, near Bicester, said despite getting a new TV and digital box, his picture is more like a broken jigsaw puzzle.

He said the problem was intermittent but affected all channels on both televisions in their home at different times.

Electrical store Wadleys, in Market Square, Bicester, confirmed it had been getting up to five complaints a day for the past 10 days about problems with picture quality.

But Digital UK said broadcasting in Oxfordshire is as expected, and the switchover completed successfully.

Mr Sheppard said: It was going okay until the switchover and now you get a broken jigsaw puzzle where the picture is cracking on screen.

What happens is you are sitting watching TV and the picture freezes. It can last for 30 seconds and then the rest of the evening it could be okay.

We get it five days out of seven.

Its annoying because if you want to record something you dont know if it will have interference.

I expected to have a better picture after the switchover, but its not what it should be, plus we havent got some Freeview channels.

I was told it will be next year until it gets sorted out its not good enough.

Dick Brown, of Charlton Road, Wantage contacted the Oxford Mail to say his TV was fine, but he could not record BBC programmes without the signal breaking up.

Keith Wadley, of Wadleys, said: The official line from Digital UK is the Oxford transmitter has been put on reduced power which is whats causing the problem.

He advised people to replace or adjust aerials, which could help improve the signal.

But Digital UK denied the transmitter is operating on reduced power.

A spokesman said: Now that switchover has been completed in Oxfordshire, all homes served by the Oxford transmitter can receive Freeview including the main channels funded by the licence fee.

However, some homes on the fringes of coverage may struggle to receive all available commercial services until switchover has been completed in London next April.

Once this happens, the power and coverage of these channels can also be increased.

It is difficult to comment on individual reception problems without more information as these can have a number of causes, from equipment issues to misaligned aerials.

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Andrew Wilkins's 3 posts GB flag
Thursday, 17 November 2011
M
Matt Crowther
3:04 AM
Aylesbury

Exactly my problems in that article quoted. Done stuff I've seen on the site but still happens. I don't record on Film4 as that breaks up bad now and same with ITV4 sometimes. Sit tight until April I guess.

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Matt Crowther's 11 posts GB flag
Matt's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
John J
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:48 PM
Aylesbury

I live in Aylesbury, postcode HP21 9TZ. All my channels work fine with 80% strength and 100% quality except the C62 group, i.e. ITV3, ITV2+1 etc. Those channels show a jumping signal and are often unwatchable. Has anyone got any ideas why just one group would be weak?

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John J's 29 posts GB flag
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 18 November 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

6:30 AM

Andrew Wilkins: Yes, that's why it says "SDN, ArqA and ArqB restricted to 12.5kW after switchover until further notice." above.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
J
John J
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:28 PM

I think I finally fixed my problem today! After reading through a lot of other peoples posts on this site it struck me that we all seem to be having different variations of the same problem so I used a signal meter on the incoming aerial lead which showed 'weak' signal. I then installed a mast amplifier on the aerial pole and the new reading showed 'strong' signal. I turned the amplifier adjusting screw slightly down and now have a 'good' signal and no problems on any channels. I wish I did this months ago - total cost £15 and an hour to install it.
I posted this as it may help others who are struggling with the loss of only some of the channels.

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John J's 29 posts GB flag
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