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Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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 25/03/2024 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 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C32 (562.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C35 (586.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 H max
C48 (690.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C33 (570.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C36 (594.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LBS
 H -10dB
C30 (546.0MHz)591mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
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?

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

CheddarTransposer15 km E Weston-super-Mare1674 homes
LuccombeActive deflector6 km w Minehead38 homes

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

1984-971997-981998-20102010-132013-182013-1727 Feb 2018
C/D EEEC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C30_local
C32BBCA
C33com7com7
C34D3+4
C35com8com8
C36ArqB
C37C5wavesC5waves
C48SDNSDNSDNSDN
C49tv_off BBCABBCA
C51tv_offLBSLBS
C52tv_offArqBArqBArqB
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offArqAArqAArqACOM8tv_off
C58tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C61ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCA
C64BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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

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

Jan 1958-Jul 1968Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Harlech Television
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. 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.

Comments
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
K
K.Barrett
12:40 PM

Reason for hoping XMas day would be good was no one working so no industrial electrical noise and no taxi transmissions but then there isn't much near here anyway.

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K.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
K
K.Barrett
1:00 PM

Odd this morning. Retuned the PVR and it has ignored Chiseldon (I have both aerials diplexed) and it has locked all channels to Mendip showing 68% strength 100% quality.
When tuned yesterday it selected the low frequency MUX (Chiseldon) as the primary ones and put all the duplicates (Mendip) at channel 800 and above.
Today the signal strength is lower AT 68% when it is usually 72% - 75%, picture is rock solid and it has ignored Chiseldon.

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K.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
K
K.Barrett
4:54 PM

Now 16:50: picture suddenly freezing and breaking up every few seconds. Signal down to 45% and quality fluctuating between 25 and 75%

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K.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
K
K.Barrett
4:59 PM

Retuned and BBC channels are now from Chiseldon repeater. Picture slightly better but still intermittently freezing. To me this proves that the repeater is receiving and rebroadcasting a poor signal as the Mendip signal is still fluctuating all over the place but, despite freezing, Chiseldon is solid at 72% strength and 100% quality.
This seems to be a repeat of yesterday; OK(ish) through the day but deteriorating in the evening.

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K.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:05 PM

K.Barrett: I think that the far more likely cause is some electrical interference that is present, whether around your aerial, around the receiver or somewhere along the aerial cable.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:39 PM

K.Barrett: Well, what you are experiencing is unfortunately not that abnormal in situations such as you have described, and if a signal is always worse on a clear relatively cloud free day then its an indication that the reception at a particular location is dependant on reflective elements, something which certain types of clouds can be rather good at.

All DTT receivers operate on a threshold level whereby the spec of the tuners circuitry determines the minimum level that a signal can be decoded at, and with this level being variable between different brands of equipment, and so if an auto-tune is carried out and the scanning circuitry detects any signals, then even if they are sitting at just a fraction under the threshold level for the particular receiver being used they will either be ignored or maybe placed up in the 800 ranges dependant on how sophisticated the receiver might be.

The other and misleading (for some) aspect of this system being, that if its intended to carry out a manual tune whereby its usual to see the signal strength / quality being indicated as soon as the channel number that's intended to be scanned is entered into the box, this being seen "before" search or scan is pressed, then should it be subsequently discovered that after having pressed same that nothing had been picked up then this is caused by the threshold level circuitry referred to, and is because that as soon as search (or scan) is pressed the threshold circuitry comes into play whereas it wasn't before, as prior to pressing scan etc the tuner was just acting like a "free of restrictions" signal sniffer and why using this facility is a superior way on monitoring signal levels during any alterations being made to the aerial, i.e: by the very fact of continuous indications being seen no matter how low the signal drops to.

Taking this explanation into account you will probably have sussed out why you do not always get the same results during any tuning exercises carried out, i.e: because of you experiencing variable levels of signals from Mendip whereby Chiseldon might take the lead as far as strength is concerned on some occasions.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:52 PM

K.Barrett: Just noticed that Dave Lindsay has also replied from another angle, and which if you discover that you are the only person thats having the problem could well apply, the problem possibly caused by either water having entered a junction box or even slight corrosion having developed on one of the connections, although I do appreciate that you have already indicated that you have checked on all of these possibilities.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
K
K.Barrett
8:57 PM

Dave Lindsay / JB38: I don't think it is aerial or corrosion or even local interference especially as my wife and kids remind me that we had very similar problems through certain times in the winter of last year and I had forgotten that. Also why be perfect for 6 hrs today and then give problems from about 17:00?
I guess it could be water ingress but, with exception of connection at roof aerial, I have checked all cables and there isn't any corrosion or water ingress.
Also when connection to the loft aerial facing Chiseldon that is new cable top to bottom.
I have, as above, tried turning on and off all electrical appliances including heating appliances, mobile phones, dimmer switches etc.
Thank you for the current advice but I am now banking on checking with the neighbours unless there are more thoughts.
If I do concede poor aerial connection as a possibility and get an installer in to look at the aerial connection (I am not going onto the actual roof myself - told old for that now) I will upgrade the aerial and get all new double insulated foam down cable.

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K.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:05 PM

K.Barrett: The answer to your question will come should the source of any interference be found. In general, any interference is likely to be when the noisy appliance is switched on and not all appliances are on at all times!

I don't understand your reasoning for thinking that it isn't local interference, especially as you say it happened before which makes me think that it is more likely to be and that whatever is generating it is only used at this time of year.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:33 PM

K.Barrett: I really think that you should consider it as priority with regards to making some checks with your neighbours, because unless its known if they are also experiencing the same type of problems as yourself there really isnt any point in you carrying out any further tests more than you have already done, which I may say is seemingly quite comprehensive.



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