Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"W

B75 5JJ

The symbol shows the location of the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter which serves 1,870,000 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 Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, 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 Sutton Coldfield 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C43 (650.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) West Midlands, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 19 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C46 (674.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Midlands ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Midlands ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Central west), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C40+ (626.2MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West Midlands, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 104 Channel 4 HD Midlands ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C42 (642.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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	C45 (666.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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	C39+ (618.2MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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
LB	H -13dB	C48 (690.0MHz)	433m	DTG-12	10,000W
	from 31st October 2014: 7 Big Centre TV,

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 Sutton Coldfield transmitter?

BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.

ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 15km south-southwest (201°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)

Are there any self-help relays?

Burton (shobnall)	Transposer	1 km W Burton-on-Trent	60 homes
Coalville	Transposer	18 km NW Leicester	600 homes
Solihull	Transposer	Land Rover building	400 homes

How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1950s-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2011	2011-13	7 Mar 2018
	VHF	B E T	B E T	B E T	B E K T	W T
C4	BBCtv_waves
C33						com7
C35						com8
C36						LOCAL2
C39					+ArqB	ArqB
C40		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C42					SDN	SDN
C43		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C45					ArqA	ArqA
C46		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C48						_local
C50_{tv_off}		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves
C51_{tv_off}						LB
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_off}

_{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 7 Sep 11 and 21 Sep 11.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4	1000kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 200kW
com7	(-10.5dB) 89.2kW
com8	(-10.7dB) 86kW
LB	(-20dB) 10kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-21dB) 8kW

Local transmitter maps

Sutton Coldfield Freeview Sutton Coldfield DAB Sutton Coldfield AM/FM Sutton Coldfield TV region BBC West Midlands Central (West micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area

Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004	Central Independent Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Sutton Coldfield 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

D

Dave Hagen.
5:45 PM

Dave Lindsay:
Cheers Dave,I already have a aerial fitted so should be ok.I can see the top of the from our cul-de-sac so it should be a strong ,I think we are about 8 or 9 miles from the site.

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Dave Hagen.'s 19 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:56 PM

Dave Hagen.: I agree. At that distance and with line-of-sight you shouldn't have a problem at all!

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

S

Syd
6:12 PM

I cannot find all the BBC HD . Only BBC1 and BBC2 are working as normal. I live three miles from the () . Have redone installation on a Humax box several times.
When will the new HD channels be available on the Redruth transmitter ????

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Syd's 3 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:23 PM

Syd: Unfortunately they're not coming to , at least not before the end of 2018.

You should now have BBC Three HD and CBBC HD as they're on all transmitters because they're on the existing country-wide PSB3 .

If you are on high ground perhaps you can receive them from . However, the transmission will be, according to UK, 11.2kW as against 100kW/50kW for the other channels. The multiplex from Caradon will start some time in 2014.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

S

Syd
6:29 PM
Camborne

Thanks for the information Dave. Guess I'll have to wait until 2018 and stick with SD for now.

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Syd's 3 posts GB flag

Syd's: S's Freeview map S's terrain plot S's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:45 PM

Dave Lindsay: With knowlegde of your location, I think we can safely say you're unlikely to be able to enjoy stable from .

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

S

Syd
6:53 PM
Camborne

Dave Lindsay:
Yes Dave, you are correct as I.ve already tried to get from . My is only a small yagi which is OK for my proximity to . Even a crewdriver in the aerial socket works fine ! I may try a larger aerial in the spring/summer and see if I can get a signal from Caradon Hill.

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Syd's 3 posts GB flag

Syd's: S's Freeview map S's terrain plot S's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:06 PM

Syd: A terrain plot is here:

Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location

The is 43 miles away and at 24 miles from you is Hensbarrow Beacon. Near to you there are more obstructions in the form of the terrain and objects on the ground.

For lots of information, see:

Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial

A , or semi-wideband yagi aerial isn't as good on Group A , which uses exclusively.

Rowridge Transmitter

Also, in the future could potentially use Group A channels, this being after 2018 when frequencies are replanned in order to clear more for use by mobile phone/broadband .

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

K

KEVIN GARDINER

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

10:34 PM
Stourbridge

I understand what you are saying with regards to HD coverage in the uk. However, I've been checking the very latest viewing figures for both and HD versions of a particular programme being broadcast, and the viewing figures tell a different story. The latest viewing figures available are for the week ending December 8th. And the most viewed programme on ITV1 that week was " I'm a celebrity, get me out of here " Sunday show. It has a total viewing audience of 11,922,000. of this total, 1,731,000 watched it in HD. My argument is this, if HD coverage is 98.5 % of the Uk and equipment take up is above 50%, then why are viewers watching the tv in standard Freeview when they have the ability to watch the programme in HD? Either take up of Hd equipment is low, or the Uk public can't be bothered to watch it in Hd even if they have a HD compatible tv. Hence my opinion that the BBC etc need to get an advertising campaign going demonstrating the benefits of HD.

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KEVIN GARDINER's 68 posts GB flag

KEVIN's: K's Freeview map K's terrain plot K's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

MikeB

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:01 PM

KEVIN GARDINER: I think this subject has been discussed elsewhere on this site, but I think your looking at current figures, rather than the trend.

TV's have been around for about 3 years, with the biggest growth (the bulk of TV's of 32in and above) coming in the last two years. Certainly, looking around my department tonight, there were only 3 TV's that did not have DVB-T2 tuners in them (I tried to tell a couple that they shouldn't buy one with just a Freeview tuner in it - what the the point?).

If you look at the replacement rate, 6-7 years is average, and it might be less than that. And of course even if you have a Freeview TV, a T2 tuner can be easily added via a PVR, etc. And while the main TV will tend to be the one with the latest features, as time goes on, that will be passed on to other people, end up in another room, etc.

HD really doesn't need advertising, just viewing. There might be people who say they can't notice the difference, but its very easy to see, and as time goes on, T2 tuners will be by default. In other words, by 2018, there will be 7 years of pretty much all T2 tuner equipment being bought, hence the likely 80% figure.

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag

Page 163

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