Full Freeview on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter
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The symbol shows the location of the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter which serves 770,000 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 Waltham (Leicestershire, England) mast?
Waltham transmitter - Waltham transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
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 Freeview channels does the Waltham 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.
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 Waltham transmitter?
BBC East Midlands Today 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Nottingham NG2 4UU, 28km northwest (306°)
to BBC East Midlands region - 17 masts.
ITV Central News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 83km west-southwest (244°)
to ITV Central (East) region - 17 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (West)
Are there any self-help relays?
| Braunstone | Transposer | 5 km SW Leicester city centre | 170 homes |
How will the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 4 Mar 2020 | |||
| C/D E | E | E | W | W T | W T | W T | |||
| C26 | LNG | LNG | |||||||
| C29 | SDN | SDN | SDN | SDN | |||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C32 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C34 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | BBCB | ||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C41 | _local | ||||||||
| C49tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C54tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | COM8tv_off | |||||
| C57tv_off | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | ||||||
| C58tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | |||
| C61 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCA | |||||
| C64 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
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 17 Aug 11 and 31 Aug 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-5 | 250kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 50kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 25kW | |
| com8 | (-12.7dB) 13.4kW | |
| com7 | (-13.9dB) 10.2kW | |
| Mux 1* | (-14dB) 10kW | |
| Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B* | (-14.9dB) 8kW | |
| Mux C*, Mux D*, LNG | (-17dB) 5kW |
Local transmitter maps
Waltham Freeview Waltham DAB Waltham AM/FM Waltham TV region BBC East Midlands Central (East micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Waltham transmitter area
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Monday, 3 December 2012
C
Calgacas12:02 PM
I have exactly the same problems (at the same times) as John Sands and I'm in LE3.
What's more pretty much everyone on the street has the same problems and its not a minor issue. These "engineering works" have been causing several mux to disappear completely from scans for days at a time for well over a month now.
That's an unacceptable level of disruption IMHO. Telling people (as one guy on the street has been told) to point the aerial at Sutton Coldfield is no answer at all as you lose all your local programming.
No point in talking about aerials or amps - the source is clearly at the Tx and its clearly ongoing work to deal with 4G/LTE interference on C61 (and arguably all the way down to C56).
Just so we're clear here, there are people around this area with large aerials (bought during the analogue+digital period) who now can't receive mux that they could prior to analogue switchover. That's the effect of these "engineering works".
If this is what its like with reduced signal power then a large chunk of Leicester is going to be stuffed when 4G/LTE arrives anyway and a £10 filter isn't going to help.
So its goodbye to DVB-T for me - in retrospect its been an ongoing trainwreck in the UK and shows few signs of improving. I just wish someone would pay me the cash spent on DVB-T freeview stuff as its been a waste of money.
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I havent had that many problems using Waltham, but there always seams to be some kind of "work" going on. Satellite just seams much more reliable and you can chose any BBC/ITV region you want.
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Ian's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 6 December 2012
G
Giles Williams10:54 AM
I live 15 miles south of Sleaford and I am having precisely the same issues as described here. For a couple of weeks the TV has been unwatchable until approximately 10am and then unwatchable again after approximately 6pm. I am right on the boundary between Waltham and the Lincoln transmitter. Hopefully this will clear up soon as until these last few weeks, our reception has been first class from Waltham.
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Friday, 7 December 2012
S
Symon10:46 AM
Derby
The signal strength coming out of Waltham on the BBC channels C61 (E.Mids) C43 (W.Mids) is and has been a joke for the last 2 months...
All the BBC respond with is "There's engineering works in progress". I'm running short of patience..
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Symon's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Symon: C43 is from Sutton Coldfield rather than Waltham.
If you are able to turn your aerial to face it, it will also be facing the Waltham relay which is inline and is located at the Fire Service HQ.
The relay used to broadcast BBC One and ITV analogue and is intended for those who cannot receive directly from Waltham but can do so from Sutton Coldfield. Since switchover it has relayed Waltham's three PSB channels. Using it in conjunction with Sutton Coldfield's COMs will provide the full complement of Freeview channels along with East Midlands programming.
It may be necessary to use manual tuning to get the correct regional programming.
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S
Symon11:40 AM
Derby
I am aware that 43 is being transmitted from SC, although my aerial is currently pointed towards Waltham. I had someone out to move it to point at SC a few weeks ago but that made no difference to the signal being transmitted on C43 or 61.
I currently get a higher signal strength (approx 30% from 43) as opposed to Waltham (no more than 10%) but both have high error rates on the signal and both are unwatchable.
C61 was up until all this "engineering work" started a few months ago providing perfect picture (even off a 25% signal strength with maybe 1-2% error).
I assume as Calgacas pointed out, this is all down to 4g/LTE as C57 (also high 700s Mhz)is also non existent.
I kid you not the amount of money I've spent on engineers trying to sort out reception is a joke.
Why they don't move that particular MUX to a lower frequency that isn't affected is beyond me (they should stick all the Bid TV/porn/shopping channels and other crap up in that frequency).
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Symon's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Symon: As the goverment has not auctioned them off, there are not yet any 4G services in the "800MHz band".
The EE 4G services, which have not started in your area yet are in the 1800MHz band.
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Symon: The Derby relay at the Fire HQ broadcasts BBC on C48. This will give you East Midlands programming (assuming that its signal from Waltham isn't affected by the engineering works!).
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C
Calgacas5:37 PM
Briantist - the engineering work IS to move mux away from the 800Mhz band assigned to 4G/LTE for deployment in early 2013.
That is the reason for the ongoing reduced power levels.
Anyway, last post here for me as I'm on Freesat now. I note that currently in LE3 the following MUX are unavailable regardless of what aerial/set top box/amplifier you have :
PSB1; PSB3; COM5 and COM6.
Not a lot left after that and frankly since its all commercial TV I see zero reason why anyone in LE3 on DVB-T should pay the BBC tax when they can't receive ANY BBC channels for 4 days out of 7 (if they're lucky).
Anyway best of luck to you all, if you use Waltham you will most certainly need it.
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Calgacas: The changes at Waltham are going to happen in May 2013 ( see 2012/13 Freeview changes to clear C61 and C62 for 4G mobile | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice ).
Looking at the listed engineering work, the BBC signal has been weak for SIXTEEN minutes in the last few days
"Freeview BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 11:33 yesterday to 11:49"
It seems quite likley your signal problems are local to you, and perhaps stop extrapolating to others.
See Single frequency interference | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice .
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