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Full Freeview on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter which serves 770,000 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 Waltham (Leicestershire, England) mast?

Waltham transmitter - Waltham 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 Waltham 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)442mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) East Midlands, 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)442mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (East 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),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C35 (586.0MHz)442mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD East 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 -3dB
C29 (538.0MHz)442mDTG-825,000W
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 -3dB
C37 (602.0MHz)449mDTG-825,000W
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 -3dB
C31 (554.0MHz)449mDTG-825,000W
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

LNG
 H -10dB
C41 (634.0MHz)442mDTG-125,000W
Channel icons
from 27th May 2014: 7 Notts 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 Waltham transmitter?

regional news image
BBC East Midlands Today 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Nottingham NG2 4UU, 28km northwest (306°)
to BBC East Midlands region - 17 masts.
regional news image
ITV Central News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 83km west-southwest (244°)
to ITV Central (East) region - 17 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

BraunstoneTransposer5 km SW Leicester city centre170 homes

How will the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-174 Mar 2020
C/D EEEWW TW TW T
C26LNGLNG
C29SDNSDNSDNSDN
C31com7com7
C32BBCA
C34D3+4
C35C5wavesC5wavesBBCB
C37com8com8
C41_local
C49tv_off BBCABBCA
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offArqAArqAArqACOM8tv_off
C57tv_offArqBArqBArqB
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 17 Aug 11 and 31 Aug 11.

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

Analogue 1-5 250kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 50kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 25kW
com8(-12.7dB) 13.4kW
com7(-13.9dB) 10.2kW
Mux 1*(-14dB) 10kW
Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*(-14.9dB) 8kW
Mux C*, Mux D*, LNG(-17dB) 5kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Waltham 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. Waltham 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
Sunday, 14 June 2015
C
Chris Norton
5:01 PM
Nottingham

I am having problems retuning my Sony Freeview hard disc recorder to receive from the Waltham transmitter.

BBC1 and ITV ( in the 1 and 3 chanel positions) are being received from Yorks & Lincs, not E Midlands as previously. BBC 1 E. Midlands is in the 904 position, if I select this the programme comes up but then the screen goes black after about 15 seconds. I have tried moving BBC 1 EM from position 904 to position 1, but still the programme only shows for the 15 or so seconds.

I have tried a number of things before retuning eg. Freeview reset procedure; bypassing the amplifer in the loft and disconnecting the aerial to the upstairs TV.

The two TV sets themselves are OK (but then I have not needed to re-tune them. The recorder was OK before I re-tuned it. You probably ask why I re-tuned it. Some newer chanels (eg 65 TBN UK) were suffering a lot of break up and I thought re-tuning might help.

Would welcome any help/suggestions/advice you can give.

Regards,

Chris Norton NG15 9DP

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Chris Norton's 5 posts GB flag
Chris's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:13 PM

Chris Norton: If BBC One and ITV on logical channels 1 and 3 respectively are being received from Belmont (E Yorks & Lincs) then the other PSB1 (BBC Two, BBC Three etc) and PSB2 (ITV+1, Channel 4, Channel 5 etc) services may well be as well.

If your amplifier has a variable control on it, try turning it down in order that the Belmont signals be reduced such that the PVR doesn't go with them. This could, however, cause the lower powered Notts TV multiplex to be lost because it isn't as strong.

Or use manual tuning for all Waltham channels.

Or run the automatic tuning through with the aerial out up to UHF channel 40 or 50%. This will miss out PSB1, PSB2, PSB3 and COM4 from Belmont. It will, however, miss out COM4 and L-NOT (Notts TV) from Waltham -- a manual scan of UHF channels 29 and 26 should add them.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:12 PM

Chris Norton: You havn't said what model of Sony you have, but if its like the HX895 that I've got (and I seem to remember that Dave Lindsay has a similar model), then I can understand your problem.

These machines have excellent tuners - indeed perhaps too good. My machine could/can get a signal not only from Waltham, but Talcneston, Sandy Heath and Belmont. In fact the Talcneston signal would confuse it, being just strong enough to make it want to record a BBC1 programme from that transmitter, not Waltham, but not enough to actually record. I had to put a 12db attenuator on it to kill the signal strength, which was 93%. David had a similar problem.

Looking at your position, your 15km closer to Waltham than I am, with clear line of sight - you dont really need an amp. You said that the Sony had broken up a bit on some channels, hence the retuning. I suspect that you had the same problem that I did - a very high signal strength, which led to breakups (the Sony is robust at levels that a Panasonic would scream at).

Retuning to catch Waltham rather than Belmont is tricky (my Goodmans box is awful for this), because Belmont starts on channel 22, whereas Waltham is 49. The Sony is normally fine for this, but in your case its locked on, hence your problem.

David's solutions should work - manually tune, or pull out the aerial until part way through the scan (which is what I do with the Goodmans box). However, check your signal strength. If Belmont is being pulled in strong enough to be the 'main' transmitter', your going to need to kill that signal much more. Its odd that Waltham isn't just coming up, even on the 800's.

if David's solutions dont work, try a cheap attenuator or two, and get the signal strength down to around the 70-75% mark - at that level, Belmont should come up in the 800's.

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 17 June 2015
C
Chris Norton
3:18 PM

Dave Lindsay: Many thanks for your comments and advice. Unfortunately my recorder (RDR-HXD860) does not have manual tuning facility, only auto. Normally when I have had this problem when retuning eg several times during period of digital switch over, I simply move chanels to the required positions. I live in a fringe area and there are several large trees in line of sight of my aerial which does'nt help. In fact some of my neighbours direct their aerials to Belmont because of this.
PSB2 chanels have tuned in OK, eg.ITV Central has tuned in at Freeview 956 and so I can move this to Freeview 3. Problem seems to only be with BB1 E. Midlands which has tuned in at Freeview 904 but only plays for about 20 seconds before screen goes blank. The other PSB1 chanels have tuned in OK in the 900's and play OK so can be moved. Why only BBC1 is a problem seems odd.
Anyway I will try some of your suggestions and see if problem resolves. If not it is not end of the world, and I thank you again for your suggestions.

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Chris Norton's 5 posts GB flag
C
Chris Norton
3:22 PM

MikeB: Many thanks for your comments and advice additional to David lindsay.Please see my reply to him. Thanks again

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Chris Norton's 5 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:18 PM

Chris Norton: I know someone who has this model and have seen it tuned to Belmont rather than Emley Moor, as it should have been, but only noticed this because the local news was Belmont's -- the design is so poor as not to give the tuned UHF channel number or frequency on the signal strength screen.

Run the automatic tuning through with the aerial out up to 50% (or say up to C40). This will pick up all but COM4 (ITV3 etc) and L-NOT (Notts TV). Then, assuming that you can scan for new services (without wiping what's stored), perform this with the aerial plugged in.

The hope is that the logical channels of PSB1 and PSB2 will already be occupied that it will put Waltham's in the 800/900s.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:45 PM

Chris Norton: Although the user manual for your HDX860 does indeed indicate that the only tuning method offered on this model is auto-tune, purely from the curiosity point of view, after you have selected "DTV settings" and pressed "ENTER" three choices come up, one of being auto-tune, pressing this bringing up another choice of "do you want to start auto tuning "Yes" or "No", what happens if you press "NO"?

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Monday, 22 June 2015
C
Chris Norton
9:25 PM

jb38: That was an interesting suggestion. However it really does mean 'NO'.

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Chris Norton's 5 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:49 PM

Chris Norton: Thanks for that info, the only reason for asking the question being, that on some Freeview devices the option of manual tuning isn't always prominently displayed in the set up menu, this giving the impression of auto being the only option, and by your HDX860 manual stating....once the "Tuning" menu is displayed select "Auto Tune" then press ENTER....doing so then resulting in another box asking the question....Do you want to start auto tuning - Yes - No...., I just wanted to check that clicking NO didn't result in a manual tuning option appearing.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 24 June 2015
M
Matt HaLL
7:29 AM

As of Monday 22nd June haven't been able to receive any BBC freeview TV channels (can receive radio channels through freeview OK) from Waltham transmitter. Using a fairly new (six months) Sony Bravia TV, with ariel plugged directly in. All other channels being received OK.

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Matt HaLL's 3 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
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