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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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter.

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, 23 August 2013
L
lindsey
8:11 AM
Chatham

we have had little or no signal for bbc 1 and 2 for the last couple of days we can get itv and all those channels .have checked everything and everything seems fine could it be a problem with the mast i live in chatham kent me4 5hy

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lindsey's 1 post GB flag
lindsey's: ...
Wednesday, 4 September 2013
J
Jeanne Gunning
3:19 PM
Herne Bay

ct6 6eg

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Jeanne Gunning's 2 posts GB flag
Jeanne's: ...
J
Jeanne Gunning
3:25 PM

The trouble always seems to start at around 2l.00 hrs. The picture begins to break up and then disappear. Last evening, 3rd September, all channels apart from BBC1 and Channel 3 showed "No Signal". I have just purchased a new T.V. and have an aerial booster. Where does my signal come from? Have you any advice?
Many thanks.

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Jeanne Gunning's 2 posts GB flag
Friday, 27 September 2013
L
lynne
9:53 PM

I have constant problem where the tv loses the signal i live in Herne bay is there any thing i can do to make the signal better just seem so daft that in 2013 we are still having signal problems

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lynne's 2 posts GB flag
Saturday, 19 October 2013
M
martin Crabtree
1:32 PM
Maidstone

hello

We are currently not receiving any TV signal in East Street Hunton for over 2 hours. Is there currently a problem with the Blue Bell Hill transmitter ?

link to this comment
martin Crabtree's 1 post GB flag
martin's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 2 November 2013
L
LouiseB
3:28 PM
Gillingham

Have recently turned my loft aerial towards Bluebell Hill after all reception from Crystal palace was becoming unwatchable (was ok until 6 days ago, last staw was losing PCB1!, used to receive over 100 channels without a booster previously).
I'm in area ME7 5HY and from Bluebell Hill I am not receiving any channels from ArqA or ArqB. I've tried clearing all channels and retuning more than once, sometimes I seem to pick up enough signal for the ArqA channels to be put in the 800's on my TV (Samsung TV with built in tuner). I have tried a separate freeview tuner and it is reporting poor to no signal for ArqA and no signal at all for ArqB. Meanwhile as I type, the wind outside has picked up and I'm experiencing a lot of interference with the channels I can receive (PSB1 is blank with broken sound, and SDN is juddering and popping, it was OK this morning). I don't understand how can I have such poor reception from my local transmitter.

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LouiseB's 8 posts GB flag
LouiseB's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:54 PM

LouiseB: Looking at your street, there are going to be few, if any, locations where reception from Bluebell Hill within the loft "might" be a possibility.

The row of houses are in line with the signal! That is, the houses run a little clockwise of being north to south and the signal is coming from just clockwise of south.

It's likely that the signal path will be through a neighbour's roof space and that's aside from the question of whether there are trees and other obstructions in the way.

The hospital and trees around it quite clearly cause difficulty with TV reception from Bluebell Hill as the houses which are closer to it tend to be using Crystal Palace.

Quite frankly, I think that you have been lucky to have ever been able to receive Crystal Palace with a loft-fitted aerial, bearing in the mind that you are low down with higher ground in the way.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
L
LouiseB
4:46 PM

Dave: Thanks again, have replied to your comments on the Crystal Palace page. Google maps doesn't show the terrain as well as I had hoped, as I always thought I was on fairly high ground - as there's quite a climb up from the valley that Chatham and Rochester are in - so the next high ground in view/sight is cuxton/shorne country park. Looks like I'll have to put the aerial back to Crystal Palace for now. Just wish I knew why the reception had deteriorated so much since the storm on 28th October as I said it was mostly watchable before that.

link to this comment
LouiseB's 8 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:05 PM

LouiseB: I think that your difficulty with Bluebell Hill is caused by a combination of the hospital and the fact that the houses run in line with the signal. It's likely to be a waste of time if, on pointing the aerial at Bluebell Hill, it's being directed through a neighbour's loft space.

At least with Crystal Palace the house is perpendicular to the signal path (from the transmitter).

If your aerial is Group A (red tip) then it isn't so suited to Bluebell Hill. Group A is the bottom third of TV frequencies. Bluebell Hill's channels are Group B, which is the middle third.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Sunday, 3 November 2013
L
LouiseB
5:12 PM

Dave: Thanks, I've been learning a lot in the last 24 hours, all useful. I've been given the suggestion to try a test with a set-top aerial, which I will try as soon as I can borrow one. A friend of mine in Maidstone (uses either Bluebell Hill or Tonbridge transmitter, I'm not sure) has recently bought a new aerial from Asda with a 3G/4G filter and has said her reception has improved significantly. So I have a few things I can try/test before I start thing about replacing my whole set-up.

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LouiseB's 8 posts GB flag
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