Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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51.237,-2.626 or 51°14'12"N 2°37'33"W

BA5 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.

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 11/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C32 (562.0MHz)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	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)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	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)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C48 (690.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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)	591m	DTG-12	10,000W
	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?

BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 25km north (3°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.

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?

Cheddar	Transposer	15 km E Weston-super-Mare	1674 homes
Luccombe	Active deflector	6 km w Minehead	38 homes

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

	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2010	2010-13	2013-18	2013-17	27 Feb 2018
	C/D E	E	E	C/D E	C/D E T	W T	W T
C30							_local
C32							BBCA
C33						com7	com7
C34							D3+4
C35						com8	com8
C36							ArqB
C37		C5_waves	C5_waves
C48				SDN	SDN	SDN	SDN
C49_{tv_off}					BBCA	BBCA
C51_{tv_off}						LBS	LBS
C52_{tv_off}				ArqB	ArqB	ArqB
C54_{tv_off}	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	D3+4	D3+4	D3+4
C55_{tv_off}							com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}				ArqA	ArqA	ArqA	COM8_{tv_off}
C58_{tv_off}	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB
C61	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA
C64	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves

_{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

Local transmitter maps

Mendip Freeview Mendip DAB Mendip AM/FM Mendip TV region BBC West West

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

Jan 1958-Jul 1968	Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	Harlech Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:43 AM

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

When don't display (i.e. "") and it is not caused by a change of by the , 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

M

MAPMAN
11:59 PM

Dave Lindsay.
Thanks for your helpful response of 16 April. Will try yet another bout of retuning when next in .
Mapman

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MAPMAN's 4 posts GB flag

B

Ben Ward

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

9:46 PM
Melksham

Thanks Dave, I will give those things a try.

Ben

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Ben Ward's 28 posts GB flag

Ben's: B's Freeview map B's terrain plot B's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage

T

Tigger
9:50 PM

I live in & have just moved home - was fine before but now I cannot get my box to work after 3pm - just when I want to see it at night it will not even switch on!!
Any ideas please?

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Tigger's 1 post GB flag

J

JohnM
2:31 PM

Why does the and it's relays transmit ITV on ITV1+1. This doesn't make a lot of sense when the majority of users are in the ITV1 area. Why transmit different stations for ITV1 and ITV1+1??? If you miss the local programmes on ITV1 you can't get them on the +1 . Can anything be done about this ---- and soon?

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JohnM's 1 post GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:41 PM

JohnM: There are less ITV1+1 regions due to the cost of creating +1 feeds for all ITV1 regions. For the same reason there are limited ITV1 HD regions and similarly the BBC does not provide regional BBC One HD feeds.

If missing local ITV1 programmes is that much of an issue, then set them on your PVR and you can watch them back at any time. I didn't realise that there was that much local programming left on ITV1....for cost reasons.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:47 PM

JohnM: ITV plc have recently obtained broadcast licences for ITV1+1 ( and /), so hopefully this indicates they will be launching soon.

Each +1 service requires time-shifting equipment, capacity on satellite, and monitoring to ensure that any content that isn't licensed for timeshifting or can't be timeshifted for legal reasons (for example, the roulette games on The Zone overnight) are blacked out. If something happened in a live event that would cause compliance problems (e.g. a guest swearing) they would want to be able to block that.

The six original +1 regions were chosen to match advertising 'macroregion' boundaries. The limit was six because that's all they could fit on satellite at the time. Now that 1N is in service, there's space for 10, one for all legacy English regions, except for Border which will still get the service. Those regions that still have sub-regional news , e.g. Meridian South vs Meridian South-East, will still have half the getting the 'wrong' service.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

G

grahame baker
3:37 PM

hi from 2 may my hd kept comming and going breaking up it is now the 4 may and it is still the same i have retuned my but there is no diffrence, has anyone else had that problem

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grahame baker's 3 posts GB flag

M

Mark Fletcher

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

4:04 PM
Halifax

Grahame Baker.If you provide a full postcode preferably or a nearby location as such,we should provide more valuable to you !

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Mark Fletcher's 673 posts GB flag

Mark's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

B

Ben Ward

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

11:49 AM
Melksham

grahame baker, I have precisely the same problem, so you are not alone! The folk on this site have been very helpful but I have not yet sorted all the problems out.

Ben

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Ben Ward's 28 posts GB flag

Ben's: B's Freeview map B's terrain plot B's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Page 66

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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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