Full Freeview on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 52.801,-0.801 or 52°48'4"N 0°48'5"W |  | LE14 4AJ |
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 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
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 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.
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?
BBC East Midlands Today 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Nottingham NG2 4UU, 28km northwest (306°)
to BBC East Midlands region - 17 masts.
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?
| Braunstone | Transposer | 5 km SW Leicester city centre | 170 homes |
How will the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 4 Mar 2020 | |||
| C/D E | E | E | W | W T | W T | W T | |||
| C26 | LNG | LNG | |||||||
| C29 | SDN | SDN | SDN | SDN | |||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C32 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C34 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | BBCB | ||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C41 | _local | ||||||||
| C49tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C54tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | COM8tv_off | |||||
| C57tv_off | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | ||||||
| C58tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | |||
| C61 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCA | |||||
| C64 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
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 |
Local transmitter maps
Waltham Freeview Waltham DAB Waltham AM/FM Waltham TV region BBC East Midlands Central (East micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Waltham transmitter area
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Saturday, 4 November 2017
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MikeB10:34 AM
Bren: I'm on Waltham and its fine. People might have been hit by that high pressure system elsewhere, but now its raining, so if your losing a mux, its almost certainly your system.
'Interference' sounds like the signal degrading - check your cables and connections, starting with the fly lead. After that, follow the signal path back.
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Sunday, 5 November 2017
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Bren1:44 AM
Hi Mike, that mux has always been the weakest one for me and I occasionally get some interference on it, at the moment I have variable levels of blocking but I have sound, sometime broken, earlier today I had no signal it varies a bit. One every year of so it is a bit problematic for about a week or so. All the other muxes are fine really.
Interesting I just tried it via a DVB USB stick connected to my PC and it is fine, good picture and sound.
The signal level is about 2 bars, it is 6-7 on the BBC mux though.
Oddly perhaps if I put the cable that was in the USB stick and connect it my TV (via PVR thing) I get no signal.
So it seems that older TV is not good at picking up the signal....
....actually right now I have a good picture back, not too sure why, maybe the signal improved a bit or there is less electrical noise at 1.35am. I just checked the signal level via my DVB stick and it was 3 bars, so that is up a bar.
So seems OK at the moment maybe the weather conditions improved a bit more and I am past the worst.
I will see how it is tomorrow during the day when there is likely to be more electric noise from traffic or whatever, but fine at the moment, touch wood!! That mux has always been just good enough, hope it stays that way as I watch Sky News on it 80% of the time!
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MikeB9:23 PM
Bren: If your getting a bad signal when you have poor weather, that points to an underlying problem - perhaps water getting into your system, etc.
Some tuners are more sensitive than others, and some muxes are stronger than others, but check your cables (they are cheap enough to swap out), and of course check if you are getting interference - if the signal is breaking up at the same time each day, then thats not an accident.
Basically, go through each thing, and eliminate each possible cause.
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Monday, 6 November 2017
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Bren8:56 PM
Mike, well I solid pictures via all 3 of my tuners, TV, recorder, and USB DVB earlier today, then I messed about a bit with the cables and hard a touch of interference.
Anyhow I think it is the cable more so than the tuner which is key, I used to have the longest cable to the USB DVD stick as I assumed it would be the worst as it is 3-4 maybe 5 times longer than my other cables, however careful testing shows it is the best and noticeably the best.
That cable now goes direct to my TV as that is the most used tuner so that seems sensible.
I should explain I have a booster in the loft and then another booster/splitter down stairs giving me two out puts, one goes to the TV via the best cable, the second goes to the TV recorder, and the feed through signal from that goes to the USB stick (which is rarely used) seems to be the best setup.
Anyhow it is a confusing picture, changing all the time, I lost picture on al three tuner, I have a bad signal back on one at the moment, so it is changing even as I write and of course if is hard to know if fiddling with cables helps or not or whether signal condition or interference changed.
I will try to resist fiddling with the cable for a while to remove that as a variable and see if I get an improvement over time.
It is showing a signal strength of 77 at the moment which is quite high, but I have interference, earlier I was getting a good picture at 71 or 72 so I think it is electrical interference maybe from traffic or whatever, could be other sources. Oh I just noticed I has a picture on the Nottingham BBC for a while on my DVB, it has stopped now though.
However it could still be the USB stick has the best receiver, I just noticed it has two BBC1's, one must be from the Nottingham ham transmitter, I was getting a picture on it earlier ( I think) but now I get nothing, but obviously it was picked up when tuning.
Anyhow it is a confusing picture......BUT... I have just been up in the loft and moved the aerial a bit and I LOST ALL SIGNALS!!!
I though maybe I have caused a short circuit and damaged by TV or boosters, turn out the connector to the 4G filter and slipped out, much to my relieve as I got a picture when I reconnected.
I can't see the TV but I put the sound on live and wave the aerial untill I hear clear voice.
I have it kind of resting on something (water overflow tank I think) and it is pointing up at about 25 degrees!!
However I have a good picture, signal strength is 81 and bit error level is down to 140 ish (I and get a picture at 2000 the max it goes up to).
So.... seems to be OK now back to a picture in a 3 recievers, indeed the DVB one is 3 bar, max before was 2 bar.
So that seems to be a significant improvement all round.
Everything has improved, however I seem to have lost the Nottingham transmitter altogether now, but that is hardly surpising and I do not want it anyway, I think it is being switch off on 31st Mar 2018- according to..
Which Freeview channels does the Nottingham transmitter broadcast? that is how it looks to me anyway.
Anyhow unless it was pure coincidence it looks like O have solved my problems, I seem to have a significant improvement in signal.
Hope it stays that way!
I just retuned and picked up Notts TV clear as a bell, which I didn't get before, pleased about that, also I think I piked up com 6, not sure if I had that before, indeed it is a bit noisy so I guess I didn't have it recently, I maybe be able to get it better with more careful aeriall tweaking however I am not too fussed about it, so long as I have a good Sky News I am happy.
So I have quite an improvement, I maybe able to get it a bit better but at the moment it is probably as good as it has ever been, I will have to see how it goes for a while.
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MikeB10:06 PM
Bren: OK, starting with the basics - yes, if you touch the cables and there is a problem, then its the cables!
You havn't put your poscode into the site, so we dont know your location in relation to the transmitter (it will tell you the exact bearing the aerial needs to point to), but I'm about 50Km away, with no problems, even though I've got a masterhead amp and an extra booster in the roof (moved in and they were there already), hence the need for a bit of attentuation.
If your running lots of boosters, that can be a problem. Try bypassing them, and see what happens. Frankly, start from the beginning, and look at your aerial - if your moving it and stuff goes wrong, it sounds like the connection is dodgy. Sort that out and move down the chain. And do you actually need a powered splitter at all?
The fewer connections the better, and the better the connections, the better. F-fittings are good, because they are less likely to slip out. Google ATV Sheffield for information on your system, and Screwfix will do decent RG6 cable for a good price.
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Bren10:13 PM
Tweaked the aerial a bit, signal up to 90, bit error down to single figures sometimes always sub 30 avg 10ish.
Very good sharp picture on Sky New and indeed now on COM6 basically the whole lot, I seem to have lost Notts
TV so I tied it online and it says it is not broadcasting so I should have that too when it come back on air. So all seems well.
Thanks for your input Mike, very helpful, seems the aerial position was most crucial more so than cables etc..
Sky News is up from 2 bar to 7 bar on my USB DVB stick, quite an improvement and nothing to do with the weather.
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Tuesday, 7 November 2017
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Bren1:14 AM
Another thing I have found is I do not get com6 on my TV, which is fairly old and cannot receive HD signal, I think that is why I can't get it, com6 shows up as as a T2 signal on my recorder which is HD, so I guess that is why I cant get it, I guess the SD channels on com 6 on can't be decoded on a T1 receiver.
I also found one of my shorter cables is not very good and replacing it with an even shorter cable improved things as it is a better quality cable. However I need to make up a longer cable when I have the time as it restricts where I can but the HD recorder it goes to.
OK I've made up a better cable and I have decent pictures on all channels but I think there will be some compromises due to it being in the loft where signals can be reflected, improving one channel usually means another channel gets a bit worse
Anyhow everything is pretty good at the moment. I will see how it goes, maybe I can find a better position to improve all signals however really I should get the outside aerial replaced with a digital one, however things have never really be bad enough for me to make the effort yet!
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S
StevensOnln110:29 AM
Bren: COM6 is broadcast using DVB-T (exactly the same as COM4 & COM5). It is not DVB-T2 and does not require a HD receiver. Are you sure that you're scanning C57 from Waltham and not PSB3 on C58?
Also, the Nottingham transmitter is not being switched off next year (nor are any others). Nottingham is due to change broadcast frequencies as part of the 700MHz clearance in the first calendar quarter of 2018, however the new frequency allocations don't appear to have been confirmed yet (hence the new allocations are not shown on the Nottingham transmitter page).
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Bren8:19 PM
StevensOnln1, seems I made a mistake, it is com7 which is T2, com6 is indeed T1 and I do get that on my T1 TV receiver, it is com7 my TV will not pick up unsurprisingly as it is a t2 signal PSB3 BBCB is also T2.
I am doing very well since a further tweak to point more in the direction of the receiver, indeed I think I maybe had a problem with the signal to my recorder being too strong as "I was getting problem receiving signal" so no channels worked, however the from the RF loop trough to my USB DVB stick was working fine. I replaced the cable to that recorder with a poorer quality cable and it started working again.
So things are very good now, single figure bit error level at worst for Sky New sometimes 0 and the other channels are as good as that or better, most have no bit level error.
It is the best it has ever been really, almost perfect, I might be able to get a bit better as the aerial points up a bit but hardly worth the effort.
Only think I can't get is the local mux LNG, I have picked it up before, not sure why I can't get it now, it is much lower power though.
Weather is a bit different today maybe that help, but more the tweaking of the aerial and cables really I suspect.
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Wednesday, 8 November 2017
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Bren1:20 AM
Yea basically I can't pick up Notts TV ie LNG (local Nottingham?) as it is too low power, I might get it in a very good reception day, I have had it working before.
Then there is also COM8 which I cannot get, I should be according to the power level given here ie 13,400W
however I think that is wrong, I think it should be 1,340W, ie a tenth of the stated power and less than a 1/3 of the 5000 W LNG mux (Notts TV).
But basically I am pretty happy I can get all the channels I want in good quality now. I would not mind having Notts TV though as I live there, there is nothing on com8 I would miss.
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