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

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"Wsa_postcodeB75 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 04/11/2024 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
_______

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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C43 (650.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 H max
C42 (642.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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
C45 (666.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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
C39+ (618.2MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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

LB
 H -13dB
C48 (690.0MHz)433mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
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?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
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)Transposer1 km W Burton-on-Trent60 homes
CoalvilleTransposer18 km NW Leicester600 homes
SolihullTransposerLand Rover building400 homes

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

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-137 Mar 2018
VHFB E TB E TB E TB E K TW T
C4BBCtvwaves
C33com7
C35com8
C36LOCAL2
C39+ArqBArqB
C40BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves+BBCBBBCB
C42SDNSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C45ArqAArqA
C46BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4
C48_local
C50tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C51tv_offLB
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_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

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

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent 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. 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.

Comments
Friday, 31 October 2014
T
tri mom
5:00 PM

there have been some change number changes on Freeview and now I've 'lost' channels and gained cbs action ch 70
I'm on the sutton coldifeld transmitter

True Entertainment 61 is longer on my list and i;ve returned the tv a couple of times and still cant get it.
Can it get it back?

link to this comment
tri mom's 1 post GB flag
K
KEVIN GARDINER
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:22 PM
Stourbridge

Braintist, Thank you for your expertise in trying to explain what may be the causes of my Freeview HD audio issues that im currently experiencing. I 've decided to give you an update as to what's going on today. Today, I re-checked the audio status of all the HD channels on both multiplexes and found that the problem still exists. i.e. reduced audio level on play back of recordings, or reduced audio level with unstable, fluctuating levels. The channels with stable but reduced audio levels are ITV1, CBBC, BBC NEWS and channels with normal audio levels after recorded playback are CBEEBIES and THE COMMUNITY CHANNEL. You outline that the cause of audio instability may be due to a temporary loss of use of the fibre optical cable feed to the transmitting station, and they are therefore, having to revert to a back up system using Interstat 907 satellite in-put feed instead. This may well be the case Brian, but something doesn't seem right because, I've also noticed that BBC2's audio reverts back to normal straight away after the channel shuts down and shows a loop of programme clips throughout the night. If they can revert back to normal audio, then why do they need to use a satellite feed if no engineering work on the tv multiplexes is currently taking place? A bit of a mystery I think.

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KEVIN GARDINER's 68 posts GB flag
KEVIN's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 1 November 2014
J
James
8:02 PM
Hinckley

I have bought a TV and Im picking up west midlands when I live in the East do you know how I change this??

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James's 2 posts GB flag
James's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:35 PM

James: Point your aerial to Waltham and tune to Waltham.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Sunday, 2 November 2014
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

4:01 AM

KEVIN GARDINER: Many events, like this one-

*************
BBC ONE HD
Sun 02 Nov 2014 21:00
Death in Paradise

H.264/AVC high definition video, 16:9 aspect ratio, 25 Hz
HE-AAC audio, stereo
HE-AAC receiver mix audio description for the visually impaired
DVB subtitles (normal) for display on a high definition monitor
*************

-have two audio streams.

Could it be that you are recording only the audio description?

If both audio streams are present in your recordings, are you able so select the correct stream in your player?

link to this comment
js's 841 posts GB flag
J
James
7:46 AM

Dave: The aerial is pointed to waltham its the only tv in the house that is tuned to west midlands

link to this comment
James's 2 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:21 AM

James: The only way of overcoming this problem is by deleting all channels stored in the tuners memory, this done by carrying out an auto-tune but with the aerial having been removed beforehand, then on completion of the scan reconnecting the aerial and making sure that a "no signal" message is seen on trying to select anything, if not, go into the tuning menu and select "manual" tune, then tune in each of the channels used by Waltham one at a time, storing them after each scan if not done automatically.

Channels used by Waltham being /

49 - 54 - 58 (HD) - 29 - 56 - 57 - 31 (COM7 HD)

By the way, the procedure you might see mentioned of removing the aerial for a percentage of the scan before reconnecting it again would not work where you are located, as the channels used by Sutton Coldfield and Waltham are too close to each other.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
K
KEVIN GARDINER
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:22 PM
Stourbridge

js: My problem doesn't concern what audio track is being played back after a recording. The audio track that gets recorded is the actual audio track of the programme that is broadcast. The audio issue has been on going since around 15th October. All HD channels are effected except ITV1. CBEEBIES AND COMMUNITY CHANNEL. Their audio level is perfect. The rest either have a stable audio track with a lower play back level, or have an un-stable audio track with variable audio levels. BBC2 has a variable audio track during broadcasting hours, but reverts back to normal audio level as soon as the daily programme schedule ends. This alone proves that something is going on with the HD multiplexes audio streams. Briantist mentioned that there could be a fibre optical feed fault going on at the transmitter site, and that they are currently reverting to their back up facility I.e. the use of Intersat 907. If they can revert back to normal audio level after shut down, then why would they need to use INTERSAT 907 back-up?

link to this comment
KEVIN GARDINER's 68 posts GB flag
KEVIN's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 5 November 2014
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

2:55 AM

KEVIN GARDINER: You did not say what equipment you were using. What receiver? How do you record?

This looks related:
"...the problem is definitely there at 9pm on 14th October..."

PSB3 Mux - Audio Clicks and Pops | AVForums

Clicks and pops could cause ALC based volume changes in analog recordings.

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js's 841 posts GB flag
L
Lesley
3:39 PM

Hi - been having trouble with my programme guide disappearing on my Sagemcom RT190 freeview + HD box since the last channel update (when the extra HD channels were added). Turning off power usually fixes it, but sometimes it just disappears again. This is happening everyday. Is this related to the changes that were made to the channels? Anyway of fixing it?

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Lesley's 19 posts GB flag
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