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Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) mast?

Bluebell Hill transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 22/04/2024 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 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),

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 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 max
C43+ (650.2MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
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 max
C46 (674.0MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
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

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, 17 June 2016
R
Richard Cooper
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:55 AM
Norwich

Jay: Hi, Jay. There are no reported issues or engineering works at the Bluebell Hill transmitter at the moment. It should be outputting the public service HD channels on UHF channel 40+, at a frequency of 626.2 MHz at its full power of 20,000 watts from 99% of its full aerial height of 242 metres (about 800 feet). Have you tried a manual tune of this block or multiplex on its own? A manual re-tune at a particular UHF channel number will not cause the loss of any of your other channels: they will remain stored in the receiver's memory. It is also worth asking a neighbour who has HD whether they have lost the public service HD channels as well, so you can ascertain whether the problem is with your installation or perhaps a temporary geographical issue such as tree foliage. hope this helps. Incidentally, someone in Salisbury, using a completely different transmitter has lost public service HD channels this morning too! Richard, Norwich.

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Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
Jay
12:22 PM

Jay:
Sorry , not sure if my reply got posted .
But my neighbours have sky and virgin , so not much help there . I have retuned my Freeview TV .
On the the freeview website , using postcode search I am receiving channels as they advise . 8 HD Channels .
But no PSB3 , hence my original questions . I cannot add individual channels on option from TV ,

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Jay's 2 posts GB flag
R
Richard Cooper
sentiment_satisfiedGold

12:48 PM
Norwich

Jay: Hi again, Jay. Further to my last post: firstly, I'm sorry that your tv doesn't allow a manual re-tune. Secondly, someone in Kent has posted to say that they are not getting the PSB3 HD channels this morning either, and so i'm beginning to wonder if there is some distribution problem that hasn't been made public? Perhaps, if after doing a full re-tune, the PSB3 HD channels are still not there, then you might have to wait until something has been publicised as to the reason. In the meantime, I imagine you will only be able to watch the main PSB channels in SD until the situation has been resolved. Kind regards, Richard, Norwich.

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Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

2:32 PM

BLUEBELL HILL transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air from 12:30 today to 12:34 today, HD Digital TV Off Air from 12:30 today to 12:36 today. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,866 posts xx flag
Saturday, 18 June 2016
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:32 AM

BLUEBELL HILL transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air from 12:30 yesterday to 12:34 yesterday, HD Digital TV Off Air from 12:30 yesterday to 12:36 yesterday. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,866 posts xx flag
Sunday, 19 June 2016
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:31 AM

BLUEBELL HILL transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air from 12:30 on 17 Jun to 12:34 on 17 Jun, HD Digital TV Off Air from 12:30 on 17 Jun to 12:36 on 17 Jun. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,866 posts xx flag
Monday, 20 June 2016
S
Sue H
5:18 PM

Still having problems - Have just about given up on Freeview as it is so unreliable.

At this moment ITV has no signal, Ch4 has no signal -BBC2 is fine, BBC1 fine - Yet by tomorrow it could all change around and it is not the box and not the aerial - It is just Freeview going mad over these past few months and notihng being done to fix it...

So - I cannot trust Freeview to work - So why bother. :-(

link to this comment
Sue H's 4 posts GB flag
R
Richard Cooper
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:40 PM
Norwich

Sue H: Hi, Sue. I'm very sorry that you and your mother have been so unfortunate as to experience issues with your Freeview reception on such a frequent basis! Engineers were working on the Bluebell Hill transmitter on Friday, but it should be 'all good' again today. Have you CAREFULLY checked everywhere that a coaxial cable (aerial lead) goes into a coaxial plug (aerial plug)? Connections inside these plugs are notorious for fraying, not making proper connections and so on, and so they are well worth checking CAREFULLY! Then, of course, a visual inspection is necessary outside. Has the aerial swung round, so as not to point to Bluebell Hill, which is half-way between Maidstone and Chatham. Have a look at neighbours' aerials and compare yours with theirs! Is it a problem to do with tree leaves or any other obstruction blocking the line of sight from Bluebell Hill to your aerial? That can be a significant factor at this time of year when trees increase their foliage. Finally, have you re-tuned correctly? Re-tune first with the aerial completely unplugged. this is to reset the receiver's memory. Bear in mind this will cause it to forget any favourite channels or recording timer settings, but these can be re-inputted again later! Then re-connect the aerial lead and re-tune again. Good Luck. I'd hate you to give up on Freeview when you're in an area that should receive a good signal!!! Richard, Norwich.

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Saturday, 25 June 2016
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:32 PM

BLUEBELL HILL transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 14:39 today to 14:44 today. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,866 posts xx flag
Sunday, 26 June 2016
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:32 AM

BLUEBELL HILL transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 14:39 yesterday to 14:44 yesterday. [BBC]

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