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

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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 25/03/2024 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 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),

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 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
C45 (666.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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
C39+ (618.2MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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

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
Thursday, 14 September 2017
A
Aerialman
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

11:55 AM

Ima: The first issue you have is that the 3 Com channels from Blaenplwyf,channels 22,25,28,correspond to the three channels broadcast from the Llangrannog relay.This may affect the quality as well as the signal strength thus incurring the 'digital cliff' poor quality/no picture.
I am making an assumption that you are on higher ground above the village and sea front and that is why you are receiving a use-able signal from Blaen-plwyf?To improve your reception a roof top would be a better option and better still if if you're on high enough ground and can receive Presely TV transmitter all channels are clear of interference from any local transmitters.
After all the Llangrannog relay is dependent on the incoming signal it receives from Presely.

link to this comment
Aerialman's 140 posts GB flag
Monday, 16 October 2017
J
Jan
3:38 PM

Used to get BBC East Midlands, presumably from Waltham transmitter. Been busy not watched much tv for a long while, turn it on one day and retune as tv asks and I get BBC West Midlands. Try all the retune even manually retuning after deleting channels and reading both instructions off Digital TV sites and my tv. Still, I get BBC West Midlands and that area news/weather. Even got aerial checked. On checking transmitter coverage maps it seems we no longer get coverage or signal for our area from Waltham, but from Sutton Coldfield and no alternative transmitter. Has the area surrounding Coalville suddenly moved to the West Midlands? Really annoying I cannot any longer rely on local news being on tv , now I have more time to relax .

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Jan's 2 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:00 PM

Jan: Please provide a full postcode so we can see the coverage prediction for your location. Waltham hasn't suddenly reduced its coverage area so there must be some kind of fault or interference somewhere. When you say you've tried manual tuning, which UHF channels have you tried this with?

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StevensOnln1's 3,605 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 17 October 2017
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:42 AM

Jan:

Coalville *is* still covered by the Waltham transmitter as it has been for years (I used to be a senior Engineer for a TV rental company in Loughborough and we serviced Coalville and sorrounding areas for years).

If you look at https://ukfree.tv/transmi…ham, you will see that you are served from Waltham.

The channel numbers you need to tune to are: 49 (for PSB1-BBCA), 54 (for PSB2-D3&4), 58 (for PSB3-BBCB), 29 (for SDN-COM4), 56 (for ArqA-COM5), 57 (for ArqB-COM6), 26 (for LNG), 31 (for COM7) and 37 (for COM8). As some of those channels are lower than a Group C/D aerial can receive, you will need either a Group K or a Log-Periodic aerial to get all the available channels.

Hope that helps?



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 24 October 2017
R
RichardW
11:56 AM

C33 is down this morning. I tried a manual retune which returned 0 channels :(

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RichardW's 1 post GB flag
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:44 PM

RichardW: Why would that channel be down? Sounds more like a fault with your system - I'd check the other muxes and then your cabling.

Brianist: I'm getting an expired security certificate when I try to access UKFree.TV on Chrome - is it just me?

link to this comment
MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 25 October 2017
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:44 PM

MikeB:

It's not just you, I'm getting it in Firefox, Chrome and Opera.


So I hope Briantist can fix this for everyone.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Thursday, 26 October 2017
S
StevenH
7:01 PM

Sutton Coldfield channels on C33 and C35 have disappeared for the last two afternoons between 12 and 6pm approximately. I'm in Nottingham, but normally have a strong signal with quality hovering around 100% (according to the Humax tuner) at other times of the day. Are they doing any work on the transmitter or could it be something else? Thanks for any suggestions.

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StevenH's 5 posts GB flag
Friday, 27 October 2017
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:09 PM

StevenH:

Com7 and Com8 from Sutton Coldfield are broadcast at a just under half the power used for the main services so are susceptible to reception problems at the distance Nottingham is from Sutton Coldfield. As you have not given a full post code, we cannot determine what the reception conditions are like at your location. However, most of Nottingham receives either from the Waltham transmitter or else the Nottingham one, not far off the A610 near Kimberley. So why are you trying to get Sutton Coldfield signals? Note also that many areas of Nottingham and the surrounding area are not served well from Sutton Coldfield - just look at the map at the top of this page.

You are more likely to get better results using Waltham perhaps, but a full post code would let us check for you.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
S
Stuart Harris
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

2:17 PM

Same here, although I receive main tv from Brierley Hill, can normally get a very decent signal from Sutton Coldfield for COM7 & 8, however as Steven said the last couple of afternoons there has been no signal, plus at other times the signal has been a lot weaker than normal.

Problem is the only websites that give transmitter information only seem to show the BBC Muxesso you can't really check although Sutton Coldfield was down on the DigitalUK site as having engineering works this week.

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Stuart Harris's 34 posts GB flag
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