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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
Saturday, 6 April 2013
Michael Perry
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:24 PM

To jb38: I never said it was the 'bee's knees' and at that price it was bound to be limited (decent ones are around £4000!). You need sufficient signal strength first and then decent quality (freedom from reflected signals, co-channel noise, etc) to allow in-built error correction to get a usable signal (strength and quality) for each Mux. Even an £8 device can show if your signal is too weak and can help correct alignment. It's not the final answer though,just a starting point.

To Chloe and Rob, et al: There cannot be a fault at the transmitter as more than 1,000,000 viewers are receiving all BBC programmes, but some (it seems they are largely to the south and south west of the transmitter site, but not always) are having problems resolving the new Muxs. Hotels, flats, some urban low-lying areas, etc may have communal aerial systems and these filter what channels are distributed and may well need adjusting (the large firm I worked for before retiring had many contracts with hotels and they all had that type of distribution equipment). Some Freeview equipment is not as well designed as we might hope and some cope poorly with the adjustments made to get 4G space. Some group C/D aerials may not be as good in the Ch 48 and 49 region as they ought to be. Some receivers need to be completely reset and all memory of what channels they used to have removed before doing a full retune as if starting from initial installation again.
So Rob: If your fellow flat dwellers are having the same problem get your housing agents to have the aerial distribution system corrected (the filters probably need resetting) and then do the full retune. (BTW, I live near Lyneham)

On a general point, can anyone shed light on why so many of the people reporting here are in the areas to the south or south west of the Mendip service area? Huntshaw Cross, in North Devon just south of Barnstaple, shares three channels, 48 52 and 56, but not 49 so I doubt that is a cause. Any ideas?

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Michael Perry's 3,056 posts GB flag
B
Bizman
3:04 PM

@Geoff, your licence fee doesn't entitle you to good reception any more than a marriage licence entitles you to a good wife. I expect over the years the wording has changed, but at one time it was simply for ownership of the receiving apparatus (whether it works or not).

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Bizman's 20 posts GB flag
Michael Perry
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:10 PM

I have written to BBC Radio and Television Reception, www.bbc.co.uk/reception, in the hope that they might come up with some help for people still having problems - I'm not holding my breath though.

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

7:58 PM

Michael Perry: Well on having twice read over my reply I cant honestly say that I noticed anything said by me that could even remotely be interpreted as inferring that you had made that claim for the device, nor if it comes to it criticising anything said by you, but just simply pointing out to anyone "other than yourself" who may also have been viewing the posting and likewise thinking about purchasing the device to beware of its limitations as well as the reason for, as its an important aspect and which I am quite sure is not brought into the equation by many, and who although in past years may have been perfectly proficient at setting up aerials used for analogue reception but though not being fully aware of the pitfalls that's liable to be experienced with digital reception, and especially so when its being received under difficult conditions, this being the main point of my reply.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

9:25 PM

Michael Perry: The odd thing about the reception problems which are mainly in the Taunton direction is the number of cases that report poor reception currently on C48 which did not give problems prior to C49 being adopted for BBCA. Makes one wonder if just maybe there is a problem with the radiation towards the southwest. Among the countless thousands of viewers who have no problems there could still be a significant difference between the strengths of the signals being received. I agree with the other points you make, additionally viewers who have interference on C49 might have always had it but of course not noticed it. Equipment that has the RF modulator set to C49/50 and radiation from poor quality HDMI cables could be factors for some viewers.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
Sunday, 7 April 2013
C
chloe
10:11 AM

As Taunton seems to be having such issues and no one is taking it seriously I'm going to have to get used to watching BBC channels on the iplayer!

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chloe's 7 posts GB flag
Michael Perry
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:55 AM
Winchester

To KMJ, Derby (and Chloe). That's what I suspect as well and hence contacting BBC Reception for them to be aware of it and hopefully investigate. Arqiva only give a postal facility (Arqiva, Crawley Court, Winchester, SO21 2QA, or phone their main switchboard +44 (0)1962 823434) and no means for a viewer to contact them by email, webmail, etc!
To jb38. Aerial alignment used to be easier in analogue days as you could see the effects of reflected signals, as 'ghost' images, and align for enough signal with minimum 'ghosting' (by minimising back/side lobe reception). But that is not possible with a digital system even though the reflections may be a significant cause of poor signal quality. Hence the need first to ensure sufficient signal strength before looking at the quality of that signal, either on a professional test instrument (expensive) or the receiver's own software systems. Most TV viewers only want to watch the programmes and not be troubled by the technicalities, so one should start by following the KISS principle. Check the simplest/most obvious first then if that doesn't reveal the cause investigate further. Remember that many who post here are/were not in the business but concerned viewers who have lost the ability to watch favourite programmes due to the changes made at Mendip (and the potential for problems glossed over by the regulators) and are seeking help and guidance.


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Michael Perry's 3,056 posts GB flag
Michael's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Alison
12:18 PM
Shepton Mallet

Update: Here in Shepton Mallet still waiting for communal aerial to be configured while using internal aerial - otherwise still nothing on C48 or C49.
Alison


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Alison's 5 posts GB flag
Alison's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chloe
2:30 PM

To Michael Perry, I have taken your advice and contacted the BBC reception, lets hope someone can at long last help us in the Taunton area.

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Chloe's 7 posts GB flag
E
EL
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:28 PM
Bristol

Not sure whether this may help anyone, but I thought someone asked about reception in Bristol.

For once I've not had trouble with the latest changes, at BS4 4DN. I'm receiving the BBC channels (and CH48) with no trouble, on both LG LED HD TV (signal & quality both showing 100% for CH48 and CH49) and Panasonic DMR-EX75 (signal c. 8/10, quality 10/10 for both CH48 and CH49). This is on a wide gain roof aerial with mast-top amplifier left over from the days when Mendip was transmitting at reduced power.

Interestingly, I think the Panasonic managed to pick up PSB2 from the Barton House relay (somewhere behind the aerial!), although the LG hasn't.

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EL's 23 posts GB flag
EL's: mapE's Freeview map terrainE's terrain plot wavesE's frequency data E's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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