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 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 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?

M

Mark Fletcher

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

10:58 PM
Lytham St. Annes

Bernie,Bristol.
I would look up "" as a likely cause.

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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

L

Lordgeous

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

1:43 PM
Bath

SORTED! Finally decided to get the professionals in and it turned out my distribution amp had failed! Last thing I thought of as some still had a strong , but now I realise that weaker channels were borderline and were'nt making it. A few minutes with a signal strength meter made this apparent. This explains why all was well until a few weeks ago which is when it must have gone up the spout! JOY! Can strongly recommend local ariel guy (if I'm allowed to post their details on here).

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Lordgeous's 25 posts GB flag

Lordgeous's: L's Freeview map L's terrain plot L's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage

B

Ben Ward

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

6:14 PM
Melksham

Ben Ward: jb38 I have been away and only seen your informative postings today. I will get back on to this tomorrow!

Thanks again.

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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

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:25 PM

Ben Ward: OK! and will keep a look out for any posting you might make, although the main thing for you to check is whether or not the Humax has its facility disabled, because if it has then that points towards the problem being with the Panasonic TV.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

B

Ben Ward

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

10:08 PM
Melksham

Ben Ward: Lordgeous, it might be very handy for me anyway if you could post the details of your local ariel guy in case I needed to call on him. Not sure if that's allowed on here, and there doesn't seem to be a PM system.

Thanks.

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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

B

Ben Ward

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

10:15 PM
Melksham

Thank you jb38 - the situation is that the Humax selector is now set to OFF; it was indeed switched ON when I checked. It doesn't seem to have affected the situation with the Panasonic (or indeed a Sony VTX-D800U I am using) however, still non-existant.

Cheers

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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

L

Lordgeous

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

11:53 AM
Bath

OK Ben, its Wilts Ariels and his name's Kevin on 07817 212 508. (£45 call out charge). Good luck.

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Lordgeous's 25 posts GB flag

Lordgeous's: L's Freeview map L's terrain plot L's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:40 PM

Ben Ward: Thanks for that update, but before you call out anyone I would like if you could carry out another or two based on you having previously mentioned that you were getting a 100% strength and indication on the Humax, the first being that I would like you to try the same test again now that you have turned off the Humax's supply facility, because if the signal indicated on the Humax is not now 100% nor anywhere near it, then that's liable to indicate that there is a powered in line.

Further advice dependant on the result.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

B

Ben Ward

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

10:00 PM
Melksham

Will do, jb38 my posting about the helpful service engineer was just in case I ended up in a deadend. Will respond to your new question tomorrow (I'm out right now)

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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

B

Ben Ward

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

8:59 PM

OK, I repeated the I did before. Humax strength is about 75-80% and is 100%. power is off.

Transferring the aerial to the Panasonic and doing those tests again showed that strength varies from/flickers between 0-20% at best; quality varies from 85-100% which is pretty much what it was before when antenna power was on, on the Humax.

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Ben Ward's 28 posts GB flag

Page 71

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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