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Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.237,-2.626 or 51°14'12"N 2°37'33"Wsa_postcodeBA5 3LB

 

The symbol shows the location of the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter which serves 720,000 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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Mendip 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
C32 (562.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) West, 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
C34 (578.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (West), 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 (West), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C35 (586.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 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 max
C48 (690.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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 max
C33 (570.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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 max
C36 (594.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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

LBS
 H -10dB
C30 (546.0MHz)591mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 22nd September 2014: 7 Made in Bristol,

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 Mendip transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 25km north (3°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.
regional news image
ITV West Country News (East) 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS4 3HG, 23km north (11°)
to ITV West region - 61 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

CheddarTransposer15 km E Weston-super-Mare1674 homes
LuccombeActive deflector6 km w Minehead38 homes

How will the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20102010-132013-182013-1727 Feb 2018
C/D EEEC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C30_local
C32BBCA
C33com7com7
C34D3+4
C35com8com8
C36ArqB
C37C5wavesC5waves
C48SDNSDNSDNSDN
C49tv_off BBCABBCA
C51tv_offLBSLBS
C52tv_offArqBArqBArqB
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offArqAArqAArqACOM8tv_off
C58tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C61ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCA
C64BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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 24 Mar 10 and 7 Apr 10.

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

Analogue 1-4 500kW
Analogue 5(-6dB) 126kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
com7(-8.4dB) 72.4kW
com8(-8.6dB) 69.1kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*, LBS(-17dB) 10kW

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

Jan 1958-Jul 1968Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Harlech 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. Mendip 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
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
J
John
2:58 PM
Taunton

My reception is from Mendip transmitter. Will it be necessary to retune from 28th March, or is it just a transmission power increase?

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John's 2 posts GB flag
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A
Adam B
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:20 PM
Dunstable

John:

A retune will be required on 28th March to ensure you still receive all channels.

Hope this helps,
Adam.

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Adam B's 91 posts GB flag
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M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:01 PM

Nicholas Wilmott: The commercial multiplex operators have decided to change to a less-robust, but higher-capacity, mode. They are rolling this out across the country over several months. So that fringe viewers don't lose services when they do change mode, where they had time to prepare it, they are broadcasting at less than the permitted levels. SDN seem to generally be using a 1.5 dB reduction, while Arqiva - at other transmitters - used a 3 dB reduction. At Mendip, ArqA and ArqB are still on low power to reduce interference at Salisbury, and not due to the mode change. ArqB had its mode change last year (8 November) and coverage may have reduced for some people.

If the transmitter started transmitting at final power levels before the mode change decision was made, then the power levels were not reduced.

Therefore, while SDN will increase power to 100 kW on 27 March (according to Digital UK's postcode checker - trade view, shown as 'COM mux FEC change'), this will not increase coverage due to the mode change; for some people the mode change may actually reduce coverage.

The ArqA and ArqB channel changes and power increases are still scheduled for 28 March. ArqA's mode change is expected to occur at the same time.

So far, SDN are only using the increased capacity in Wales, to carry CITV and The Zone. These previously weren't available in Wales, because E4 was carried instead, due to S4C bumping it from the D3&4 multiplex. New services on ArqA and ArqB are likely (in my view) to launch once London has switched over in April. ArqA will be in its final mode at all switched-over transmitters by 1 May, and SDN by 27 June: ArqB fully switched to the new mode on 23 November last year.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
J
John
5:46 PM
Taunton

Thanks for the reply, Adam.

Cheers

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John's 2 posts GB flag
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 9 March 2012
D
David
10:18 AM
Frome

I posted in Jan about receiving the Frown West signal rather than Mendip which my high roof mounted aerial is pointed at-Dave suggested a workaround to plug the aerial in only after 50%of the auto retune, however this did not work despite many attempts, retuning with aerial unplugged first to empty the channels then trying autoretune(only possibility with my equipment) and plugging the aerial in at 25%/50%/75% all still leaving me with a poor quality signal from Frome... any further ideas how I can get back what used to be a good Mendip signal?

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David's 4 posts GB flag
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Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:57 AM

David: You're only 200 or 300 metres from the Frome transmitter, so maybe it is being picked up by the aerial socket (without the aerial plugged in).

Does this sound a possibility? Does it show that some services have been picked up whilst the aerial is unplugged?

If so, then you need to get it such that it doesn't pick up these channels.

I'm not an aerial installer; the pros may have a better suggestion but either:

* take the TV to another room that is further away from the transmitter (i.e. where there are as many walls between the TV and the transmitter (which is on the roof of the telephone exchange), or;

* you need a radio transmitter to hold near the aerial socket whilst it's scanning the channels used by Frome. I'm not sure how effective this might be. A broadcasting cordless phone or mobile phone held close might be sufficient to stop the TV from receiving the Frome signals. You will need to have them transmitting at the time, i.e. making a call.


Once the scan has passed 25% it has passed the channels used by Frome, remove the source of interference. Plug in the aerial at 50%.

If each on their own doesn't work, then you could try both.

As I say, I'm not giving any guarantees as to what will work; I'm just suggesting what I'd try if I were you.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:12 AM

David: When the aerial lead is unplugged during the scan, I wonder if it could it be being held too close to it; i.e. enough for the Frome signal being picked up by the aerial and down the cable to be "heard" by the receiver.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
D
David
11:29 AM
Frome

Thank you Dave for your helpful comments-I will give this a go later-it doesn't show services when unplugged however the tv is close to the aerial socket which is on the same side of the house as the Frome transmitter so will try to get is far from socket as poss...


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David's 4 posts GB flag
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J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:39 AM

Dave Lindsay: Yes, as the close proximity to any transmitter (even in this case of only 2 watts) will always make the local transmitter appear to the receiver as being far stronger than anything distant no matter how high powered the distant one might be, and likewise as you have suggested could well be being sensed by the receiver at a very low level even without the aerial being plugged in.

That said though, when the aerial is plugged in after passing the lower channels used by Frome it could also be the case that the signal level received from the relay is so high that its completely desensitised the receiver from picking up Mendip.

David: Regarding not being able to use manual tuning on your Panasonic, what model of Panasonic is it you have? as most that I have experience of the more recent types all have manual tuning facilities, or is it the DVD etc you are referring to?

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
D
David
11:48 AM
Frome

jb38: there is no manual tune that I can find on the Panasonic TH-42PX60U, that I have nor on the DMR-EZ45V DVD/VHS player both bought around 5 years ago..

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David's 4 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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