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Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.237,-2.626 or 51°14'12"N 2°37'33"Wsa_postcodeBA5 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 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
Thursday, 4 April 2013
Mike
9:20 PM
Cinderford

MIke (Perry

We did that. NBG. We live in quite an exposed location and I think the prevailing winds may have degraded the aerial connections more as each day passes.

When I first looked to see what could be done we were getting sufficient signal for all channels (even the BBC ones appeared occasionally), but somehow the set was not clearing the channels completely and would not hold the new ones in its memory. My neighbour spoke to a help line and was told to do what you suggested - tune it with no antenna attached.

The last time I looked I noticed the signal strength was briefly displayed as 4.9% I had not seen that displayed before.

We are now quite resigned to the fact that we will need to get a new aerial - or at least get the existing connections checked by an engineer. The TV model is a Ferguson F1603LVD2 16" HD Ready Digital LCD TV + DVD. We have the manual.

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Mike's 8 posts GB flag
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 5 April 2013
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:42 AM

Mike: Purely on the issue of the TV not holding channels, according to info seen that model should have a "first time installation" option in the set up menu (manual page 19) that has the effect of returning the TV back to its default settings, was this tried?

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Mike
8:15 AM

Jb38. Yes first time installation was tried many times, with & without cable plugged in. As I said I think our difficulties were exacerbated by by a co-incidental problem with a degradation of signal due to the increasing failure of the cable and set up at our end. We will sometime get an engineer in to check that side of things.

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Mike's 8 posts GB flag
Mike Perry
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:10 AM

For those who think their aerial may be suspect, you can test the signal strength using a simple meter, such as a Philex SLx - 27867R Digital TV Signal Strength Meter. Look on Amazon if you like (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philex-SLx-27867R-Digital-Strength/dp/B001GXQUNQ). It seems none of the meters available now can differentiate between the different signals broadcast for DTV so won't tell you if some are weaker than others.
Might be worth a try for some.

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Mike Perry's 3,056 posts GB flag
J
john
9:11 AM

Glad to see It's not just me.
Since the retune, I too have lost all BBC progs. I only get a usable signal from 52, 54 and 56. 48 and 49 both give a very faint unusable signal. Humax box and Sharp Aquos TV both give the same result. Nobody seems to be listening, 'no reported problems' despite the fact that I and doubless many others have reported the problem.

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john's 5 posts GB flag
J
john
9:33 AM

Here's a list of what my Humax box gives

ch 56 signal 71% quality 100% 18 channels
ch 54 signal 72% quality 100% 8 channels
ch 52 signal 55% quality 100% 30 channels
ch 49 signal 27% quality 10% 0 channels
ch 48 signal 17% quality 10% 0 channels

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john's 5 posts GB flag
R
Rob
10:17 AM

Since the retune i've lost all BBC channels. perfect signal on all ITV, Channel 4 and remaining freeview channels. have reported to Digital UK via email and on the phone. My partners pub (a mile down the road) has also suffered the same problem.

The repsonse? There are no reported problems! Been advise that I can contact the BBc directly and they will send out an engineer but they will charge for this service!

Great! Why is it that the only TV service I actually pay for (the licence fee) is the only one I cannot watch?

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Rob's 3 posts GB flag
Michael Perry
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:48 PM

To Rob and John
Did this only appear after the transmitter work early morning on March 27th?
Might be receivers not recognising that BBCA Mux has moved (my Hauppauge lost BBCA and had to be completely reset) so worth trying a full retune as if you are doing a fresh install but you may need to do a factory reset as well before the retune. Doesn't always work though.
Another possibility if it has always been poor on COM4 channels (see top of page) then you may have aerial/feeder problems so that reception of Chs 48 & 49 are too poor to be decoded properly.
Can you both indicate where you are in relation to the transmitter as Huntshaw Cross is known to cause some problems if in same line of sight.

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Michael Perry's 3,056 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:17 PM

Mike: Well although I did realise that you had already replied to Michael Perry with regards to having tried everything in the manual I just wanted to verify that this also included the "first time installation" option as you hadn't actually mentioned that, as this is about the only action that can be taken on that model guaranteed to wipe the tuners memory free of anything that may have previously resisted deletion.

However, I do agree that the aerial system referred to certainly requires to be checked out for any possible defects, as judging by the indications seen on the terrain indicator (Megalithia) no-one in your area can afford to have any deficiencies in the aerial department, because even excluding recent events I would expect reception for those who reside in the area to be of a variable nature at some time during the year, as on checking the signal path over the 39 miles or so from the transmitter its seen pass over ground at a relatively low angle from about 4 miles out as well as finally experiencing a blockage at 2.5 miles or so from your location, but with these indications excluding trees as well as man made objects the result of that indicated could actually be worse.

Reception under these type of circumstances will also usually suffer from being affected by seasonal changes related to climatic conditions as well as vegetational reasons such as trees, and even although a person might well "appear" to be having good reception the actual signal / quality level is likely to be sitting at not far above their receivers cut off threshold level, but with this fact not really being noticed if the quality is reasonably stable even although the actual signal strength might be weak.



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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
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