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Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Mendip (Somerset, England) mast?

Mendip transmitter - Mendip 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 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),

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 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
C33 (570.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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
C36 (594.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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

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
Thursday, 12 April 2012
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:18 PM

The Wakefield: If the problems started at the last retune/power up, chances are that the combined signal strength of all the services is now too large. If you have an amplifier or booster, try removing it or turning it down. If not, you should try adding an attenuator to reduce the overall signal levels.

If you're using an amplified splitter to feed more than one TV, consider replacing it with a passive splitter instead.

link to this comment
Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:31 PM

Dave Lindsay: Yes, I mean C31-C37.

'What will it be used for?'

That's really the question.

The issue that has come up is that there is now pressure, mostly from other countries, to release C48-C60 for mobile phone use. This range of frequencies ('700 MHz band') has already been released for LTE in the USA and Japan. Countries without a developed wired telephone and broadband network are interested in also using it, but at the moment it's not permitted anywhere in ITU Region 1 (Europe, Middle East and Africa).

Making mobile phone/wireless broadband 'co-primary' with broadcasting has now officially been put on the agenda for the next World Radiocommunications conference, scheduled for 2015. This was one of the last decisions at WRC12 in February. Ofcom have responded by consulting on what the future of UHF spectrum is. The consultation is framed very much on the idea of clearing the channels for wireless data.

Clearly there are a lot of transmitters using the 700 MHz band, and Mendip is one of the major ones. If this happens, *all* Mendip muxes would have to move somewhere. Thanks to the clearances at DSO, there is a gap from C31-C38 but that's only 8 channels and we have to clear 12. So a complete replan may be on the cards.

DVB-T is now quite old technology - 15 years, nearly - and we could get greater capacity per multiplex with DVB-T2, and also reduced bitrates (for the same resolution and picture quality) with MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 rather than MPEG-2. It would be possible to get the same number of channels into fewer muxes with DVB-T2, but of course everyone would have to get a Freeview HD box to replace their old box, or to add to their non-compatible TV. HD gear is selling quite well but it'll be a few years before it's near saturation and DVB-T could be switched off.

Ofcom's consultation is at Ofcom | Securing long term benefits from scarce spectrum resources - A strategy for UHF bands IV and V and Arqiva's high-level thoughts on how to replan are at http://stakeholders.ofcom….pdf .

The extra three muxes are still listed as a possibility, but the chances are we wouldn't be able to secure international clearance to do it - our neighbours generally only have 8 layers or fewer, and us seeking to replan our eight (which includes cleared channels at many locations, so really six) to nine won't be popular.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
Friday, 13 April 2012
T
The Wakefield
7:33 AM

Hello there, Mike Dimmick! ^_^ I go through periods of more than enough signal to periods of barley any signal (Mostly affecting channels 61 & 56) at completely random times of day, (There's been no pattern that I've been able to deduce) but I didn't start getting signal problems until a few days after the retune. Is that a symptom of too much amplification as I understood that too much amplification gave you no signal at all and not sporadic signal? ^_^;

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The Wakefield's 6 posts GB flag
T
The Wakefield
7:47 AM

I've just tried my primary TV with less amplification, Mike Dimmick, and it just resulted in less signal than I already had. ^_^;

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The Wakefield's 6 posts GB flag
Sunday, 15 April 2012
M
Mower Man
9:31 AM

Wakefield, we are in the centre of the levels with clear line of sight to the menip mast and we have the same problem with channel 61 dropping in and out from strong signal to almost none. Mostly it is in the morning but not always.

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Mower Man's 1 post GB flag
Monday, 16 April 2012
M
MAPMAN
12:09 AM

Hello
Earlier this week visited elderly relations in Clevedon. They are heavy users of FREEVIEW and are very nearly within sight of Mendip transmitter. They use new aerial. Despite frequent retunes on one TV and two Freeview boxes they have never had very good Freeview reception - fairly frequent picture drop outs on BBC and ITV channels and recently have lost Channel 11 and Sky News completely (No signal). Six months ago was informed that problems were because of low power transmissions on several MUXs but I believe this has now been rectified. Problems are exactly the same when old aerial used and cables interchanged. I see others are also having these problems - any advice please on what can be done ? We do not have these problems in Hampshire even though transmitter is further away and signals are weaker.

Thanks

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MAPMAN's 4 posts GB flag
T
The Wakefield
4:28 AM

Thanks for confirming that this isn't all just me going mental, Mower Man! ^_^; What's the Signal Strength of you Channel 56 like now compared to how it was on Channel 67?

I'm narrowing things down then because this isn't an Aerial problem, an Amplification problem, a Cabling problem, an equipment problem, and from what I can tell there aren't any other Transmitters close to us broadcasting on the same Channels to cause a Signal Overlap. Does anyone think that sacrificing a Goat to Satan would do anything for me? ^_^;

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The Wakefield's 6 posts GB flag
B
Ben Ward
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

11:17 AM
Melksham

Thanks for the supportive comments, chaps.

Getting an attentuator hasn't helped me, unfortunately. I am still inclined to think that its the equipment; the Humax receiver works fine, the other 3 receivers are in fact getting worse, with a scrambled signal, or no signal at all...



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Ben Ward's 28 posts GB flag
Ben's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:32 AM

Ben Ward: It's possible that other leads are interfering with the signal carried along the aerial lead. Notably HDMI and USB leads

If they are in close proximity, try moving them away from one another and see if the signal improves.

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

11:43 AM

MAPMAN: The loss of Pick TV, Sky News and other services on ArqA was expected as it changed channel and increased transmission power on 28th March. Thus, a retune was necessary in order to restore it.

When channels don't display (i.e. "no signal") and it is not caused by a change of frequency by the transmitter, then one of the worst things you can do is retune. All you can ever achieve is loss of those services from the TV's memory or they appear as they were before. Thus the affect can only be negative or neutral and this is therefore a waste of time.

Have you considered that it may be too high a signal level and a bit of attenuation could be required? See

Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
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