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.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) mast?

Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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?

R

RH
10:04 AM
Rayleigh

Please can you please tell me where 804 is transmitted from as I receive BBC look east very well on that channel. RH.

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RH's 4 posts GB flag

RH's: R's Freeview map R's terrain plot R's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage

K

KMJ,Derby

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

10:57 AM

RH: I'm guessing that you normally receive from , so it is likely that your of Look East is from Rouncefall, which is about 3 miles away @ 50 degrees from your location.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:54 PM

RH: Rouncefall was a new at and improves coverage of /ITV Anglia in the south of Essex, where of can be poor.

It doesn't carry all so you would have to continue to rely on for the rest.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

K

KEVIN GARDINER

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

4:44 PM
Stourbridge

A new was launched today using the new . QVC EXTRA is channel 57 in the Freeview channel line up. It will only be a temporary channel on this multiplex till its removed along with the "pop " music channel to make way for the local tv channel CITY 8 when it finally launches on November 3rd.

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KEVIN GARDINER's 68 posts US flag

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

B

brian perry
4:21 PM

I have a box,i am not receiving HD channels101-105 inclusive 106-111 working fine,is there something going on at the ? I have done a full rescan and tested the box from my front room where I can receive the missing channels on my bt vision box,but again the mentioned missing channels on my freeview box are still missing.Can anyone advise? thanks.

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brian perry's 1 post GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:06 PM

brian perry: What's the make and model of the box?

I've read on here that some HD receivers have issues whereby they are unable to receive more than one HD at a time.

With broadcasts each is a "multiplex" and each multiplex carries several . So the HD multiplex that carries HD variants of BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, CBBC, ITV and is missing.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:28 AM

brian perry : In addition to that said by Dave Lindsay, this problem is known about by the BBC and whom have issued advice on a way around it to enable a viewer to "choose" which of the two HD muxes they wish to store in the receivers tuner, "choose" being mentioned as both cannot be stored at the same time until the TV or box manufacturer comes up with an "over air" software fix for the problem, as its not one caused by the BBC.

However although you can view the instructions by opening the undermentioned link, this procedure will only work if CBBC HD / BBC1HD / BBC2 HD etc are seen in the LCN / EPG listing, albeit that they cannot be viewed if selected, should they be seen in the listing then would be the mux channel to enter ref:8 in the instructions.

If on the other hand they aren't seen in the listings then your best policy would be to remove the followed by carrying out an auto- to blank out everything stored in the tuner, then on completion reconnect the aerial and carry out a "manual" tune on each of the muxes used by the "excluding" COM7 ()

As you have made your posting under the heading then the mux required would be as follows / 41 (BBC) - 46 (ITV) - 40 (HD) - 42 (ITV3 etc) - 45 (Pick TV etc) - 39 (4Music etc) - 51(local)

By the way, the advice given is to enable LCN / EPG 73 and also 101 - 105 to be viewed and not the COM 7 HD service.

Freeview Loss of BBC HD channels - BBC - FAQs - Home

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

J

J Spriggs
9:43 AM

What is 303, BBC Red Button HD, broadcast on? I've lost it and can't find it listed above.

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J Spriggs's 1 post GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

9:19 PM

J Spriggs

Looking at the programme line-up given at the top of this page for and expanding the listings to show all the programmes and , there is no service listed on Logical Number 303.

The BBC Red Button services are shown as being: BBC Red Button 1 on LCN 301 carried by the PSB1 mux on Ch 43 650 MHz, BBC Red Button on LCN 200 on the same mux, BBC Red Button 2 on LCN 202 carried on COM5 using Ch 45 660 MHz. There is no mention of a Red Button HD.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

J

J Spriggs
6:06 PM

Thanks for your response. I have since found that BBC Red Button HD303 was introduced on Ch40 626MHz for special events such as Wimbledon and , and has now been discontinued.

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J Spriggs's 1 post GB flag

Page 169

Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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