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Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.324,0.520 or 51°19'25"N 0°31'13"Esa_postcodeME5 9RD

 

The symbol shows the location of the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter which serves 200,000 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 Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) mast?

Bluebell Hill transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/11/2024 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 Bluebell Hill 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)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South East, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 16 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C34 (578.0MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (East micro region)), 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 (Meridian south coast), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C45+ (666.2MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South East, 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
C40 (626.0MHz)242mDTG-820,000W
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
C43+ (650.2MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
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
C46 (674.0MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
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

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Bluebell Hill transmitter?

regional news image
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 28km southwest (218°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
regional news image
ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 5km south-southeast (155°)
to ITV Meridian (East) region - 36 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford

How will the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20122012-1319 Jul 2018
EEEW TW T
C21_local
C28_local
C32com7
C34com8
C39+ArqA
C40BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCBSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4ArqA
C45SDNBBCB
C46BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCAArqB
C54tv_offArqB
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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 13 Jun 12 and 27 Jun 12.

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

Analogue 1-4 30kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-1.8dB) 20kW
com8(-7.8dB) 5kW
com7(-8.1dB) 4.7kW
Mux 1*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-10dB) 3kW
Mux 2*, Mux A*(-11.8dB) 2kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Bluebell Hill transmitter area

Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Thames†
Jul 1968-Dec 1981London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Meridian
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. Bluebell Hill 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
Friday, 5 October 2012
K
Ken Collyer
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:26 PM
Gillingham

Dave. If your mother is only getting trouble on ArqB I doubt the problem is the Rouncefall transmitter as that only transmits PSB1, 2 and 3. On the other hand I have had trouble with ArqB. After the September 19th re-tune all at first appeared OK so I set my PVR up to record an early morning radio program, as I had before. When I came to listen to it there was nothing there so I went the station live and low and behold, nothing. So I tried one of the TV stations on ArqB and both sound and picture were breaking up. I decided that I'd do re-tune and see what happened, and it's been fine since. I don't know why that should be but it worked so I'm happy just to have an unanswered question rather than a problem.

link to this comment
Ken Collyer's 24 posts GB flag
Ken's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
Ken Collyer
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:35 PM
Gillingham

Dave; Just to clarify; the re-tune that cleared the fault I had was a manual re-tune of ArqB only which from Bluebell Hill is channel 54.

link to this comment
Ken Collyer's 24 posts GB flag
Ken's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 16 October 2012
M
maxine
11:50 PM
Maidstone

Hi, i am hoping someone can help me with a problem that occurred around 3days after the dave, yesterday etc channel number reshuffle. I didnt do a retune and so the channels were displaying wrongly as would be expected. My tv picture was perfect tho and i had no problems. Went to bed around 3am, freeview working fine, next day no signal whatsoever on any channels. After checking connections etc, i did a first time install rescan by uplugging ariel to erase all channels, then did another first time install with ariel reconnected (this worked after dso when i lost all signal). Still nothing. Am now using a set-top ariel and can get all channels but picture breakup, blackouts etc are frequent. My main ariel is in my loft and was working fine before channel reshuffle.

My set-top ariel is using the bluebell hill transmitter - postcode ME16 0AW - and i assume my loft ariel was too, but am wondering why my set-top ariel is picking up channels without probs as such and my loft ariel has suddenly stopped working. Could the lead between ariel wall socket and tv be faulty? Has my loft ariel suddenly stopped woking - have checked it and hasnt moved and cabling in good condition. Has the channel reshuffle caused this? Am pretty broke and dont want to spend money if something more simple could be wrong.

Please help coz its doing my head in and altho im quite technically minded, this has got me stumped! Many thanks :)


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maxine's 1 post NO flag
maxine's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
J
John Breeds
4:36 PM

Why do I keep losing all of my BBC transmissions even though I still have all of the others? I have had to re-tune my T.Vs three times over the last two days to get BBC programmes back. I do understand that I am a fair distance from the transmitter (TN37) but I have not had this problem since the switch.

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John Breeds's 1 post GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:04 PM

John Breeds: I will make one observation which you could perhaps be unaware of and that is that the new Bexhill relay transmitter is co-channel with Bluebell Hill's PSBs.

TN37 is obviously a large area and how likely it might be a problem will vary across the area.

The Bexhill transmitter is horizontally polarised, like Bluebell Hill. It is on the roof of the Hastings Direct building.

link to this comment
Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
L
Lee
7:43 PM

I keep losing signal on certain channels, yesterday, dave, e4

Is this just due to the weather lately or not? I thought when we switched to digital signal it was supposed to cure all these problems that we had when it was analogue?

link to this comment
Lee's 7 posts GB flag
Monday, 5 November 2012
K
Ken Collyer
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:44 PM
Gillingham

On September 19 we had all the fuss of a re-tune because some stations were being give new numbers including the "News" channels and the "Childrens" channels, but here we are in November and I'm still getting Childrens channels on 70, 71, and 72, and News on 80, 81, 82, 83 and 84. So can someone tell me what's going on.

link to this comment
Ken Collyer's 24 posts GB flag
Ken's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 8 November 2012
G
Geoff Redsell
8:23 PM

I have just installed a Televes DAT45 aerial (with a 12v PSU) and pointed it to Bluebell Hill. Whilst I get good quality and max signal level on 4 of the 5 channels (43, 45, 39 & 54) it is poor quality on C46. Could this be an alignment problem (or possibly "something else)?
My postcode is DA12(Gravesend) and the aerial was set up to approximately 130 ('ish) degrees.

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Geoff Redsell's 1 post GB flag
Sunday, 11 November 2012
S
steve canham
9:03 PM

Why does my new Panasonic DVD recorder keep pestering me for uploads but my Phillips box doesn't,when they are both plugged into the same aerial?

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steve canham's 1 post GB flag
Thursday, 15 November 2012
K
kevin rose
9:48 PM
Herne Bay

We and neighbours lost signal from bluebell hill totally. Couple weeks ago, midweek(most of day/eve for two days or so).

During footy yesterday eve and most of today, same thing happening. Keeps cutting out, and if u retune it picks up further tv transmitters like London and Anglia even befordshire area.
Towards later eve bluebell signal is back but weak and pixelated. (yes we have a wide band ariel)

Any transmission errors or faults being kept quiet?
Or is someone bleeding and blocking signal area with some new radio mast perhaps.

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kevin rose's 1 post GB flag
kevin's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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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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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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