Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter

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

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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

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C43 (650.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) West Midlands, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 19 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C46 (674.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Midlands ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Midlands ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Central west), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C40+ (626.2MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West Midlands, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 104 Channel 4 HD Midlands 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	C42 (642.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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	C45 (666.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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	C39+ (618.2MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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
LB	H -13dB	C48 (690.0MHz)	433m	DTG-12	10,000W
	from 31st October 2014: 7 Big Centre TV,

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 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	BBCtv_waves
C33						com7
C35						com8
C36						LOCAL2
C39					+ArqB	ArqB
C40		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C42					SDN	SDN
C43		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C45					ArqA	ArqA
C46		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C48						_local
C50_{tv_off}		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves
C51_{tv_off}						LB
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_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

Local transmitter maps

Sutton Coldfield Freeview Sutton Coldfield DAB Sutton Coldfield AM/FM Sutton Coldfield TV region BBC West Midlands Central (West micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area

Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004	Central Independent 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. Sutton Coldfield 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?

H

Humax man
11:03 PM

WV16 postcode area, town centre.

Yes, compared both LG and Humax to check they are both tuned to the same MUX.

The problem as far as I can be sure has only started in the last few days and is more prominent in the evening. Owned the Humax for around 3 months with no problems until now.

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Humax man's 3 posts PL flag

H

Humax man
11:50 PM

Ah, all happy now. Traced to a failing splitter in the . Originally, we only fed one TV from the in the loft, but as we've added more sets, I've piggy backed a couple of cheap splitters. One had begun to fail.

I've replaced it, and now have 82% strength, 100% .

Thanks both.

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Humax man's 3 posts PL flag

M

Mr phillips
2:37 PM

Im in and my arial is on the gable end its a its been set up two years and all this week out keeps pixilating engineer says every thing is fine . So it must be suttons . We sould never have moved from anolog as in 28 year we never had a problen !

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Mr phillips's 1 post GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

10:23 PM

Mr phillips: Given the other 1,869,999 homes using the are having no problems, I would suggest the problem is likley to be at your end. I would have a look at Freeview reception has changed? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

D

David Pound
9:07 PM
Daventry

I have an HD TV with built in , and a Panasonic HDD recorder. I get good and I understand that my is (I get Midlands Today on BBC1). But I cannot get any HD programmes. Ch 50 and 54 do not come up on the "Guide" on the Recorder nor when I try to enter them with the TV alone. How can I get these ?
I should add that I am at present getting messages about a re-tune needed tomorrow (9 May) which seems to refer to .

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David Pound's 4 posts GB flag

David's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:54 PM

David Pound: Are you sure that the TV in question is not an "" device? as if it is than cannot receive HD transmissions, if you have the manual for the set have a look in the specifications section / tuner and check if you see either DVB-T or DVB-T2 mentioned, as if its the former it cannot receive HD, if though you do not have the manual then if you provide the model number of the TV this can be checked out.

The re-tune message for tomorrow is because SDN is moving from ch31 to ch51 and increasing in to 170kw, other than that nothing else is changing.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

D

David Pound
8:20 AM
Daventry

Thank you jb38. The TV (Hitachi 19LD4550U) does indeed say "". My my understanding of that phrase is that it means the set is capable of receiving HD when that becomes available. That was certainly one reason I bought it. If it doesn't mean that, what does it mean?
I cannot see any mention of either DVB-T or DVB-T2 in the instruction manual. It does however have an HDMI input socket.

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David Pound's 4 posts GB flag

David's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

R

Rob
9:38 PM

... HD ready - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (ST57SZ)

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Rob's 2 posts GB flag

D

David Pound
9:59 AM
Daventry

"It DOES NOT mean that the set can pick up , HD, HD or Virgin Media HD without a set-top box."

Quite so. But the TV DOES have a box - or rather it has a built in Freeview box. So why can I not get the HD chanells?

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David Pound's 4 posts GB flag

David's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:06 AM

David Pound: Its simply because that the tuner fitted in TV's is only capable of receiving DVB-T coded transmissions and doesn't recognise anything other than type of signal, whereas tuners in genuine HD receivers are capable of recognising DVB-T2 transmissions as well as DVB-T, the "T2" being the thing that differentiates between the two.

I, right from the start, have always disagreed with trading standards allowing "HD Ready" to be used on TV's that can only display a Hi-def image via an external source as this misleading statement was guaranteed to cause problems, which of course it did at the time and still does.

By the way, its because that a DVB-T2 transmission is in effect invisible to a DVB-T tuner that a "" indication is always seen on any attempt to manually tune in an HD mux.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

Page 136

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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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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