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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 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 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
Sunday, 8 July 2018
P
Philip
2:01 PM

The signal on both DAB radio and Freeview TV channels have been terrible over the last few weeks with the high barometric pressure which we have enjoyed this summer. I have a narrow band aerial which my local installer said would improve reception, but it has not. He also added a band pass filter in the down lead which he said would improve adjacent channel interference.
Disappointed that Digital TV is not more resilient, at least in the old analogue days you might get snow or lines but at least you still received something.

link to this comment
Philip's 1 post GB flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

9:03 PM

BLUEBELL HILL transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air; DSO related from 00:02 on 05 Jul to 03:48 on 05 Jul, BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 14:56 yesterday to 18:15 yesterday, HD Digital TV Off Air; DSO related from 00:02 on 05 Jul to 03:48 on 05 Jul. [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Monday, 9 July 2018
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

6:03 AM

BLUEBELL HILL transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 14:56 on 07 Jul to 18:15 on 07 Jul, BBC Digital TV Off Air; DSO related from 00:02 on 05 Jul to 03:48 on 05 Jul, HD Digital TV Off Air; DSO related from 00:02 on 05 Jul to 03:48 on 05 Jul. [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Tuesday, 10 July 2018
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

6:03 AM

BLUEBELL HILL transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 14:56 on 07 Jul to 18:15 on 07 Jul. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Friday, 13 July 2018
M
Mike Weatherley
11:39 AM

Philip, you're quite right about the high pressure weather conditions destroying the T.V. signal from Bluebell Hill. I've said the same, here myself, recently (asking if anyone else had the same problem), but got a rather snotty reply from someone (an engineer?) who asked why people complain about the signal reception instead of getting new T.V.s or aerials (at extra cost & fitting charge of course). He even tried to blame the periodic loss of the digital T.V. signal (usually in hot weather at this time of year) on "...rainwater getting into the aerial lead on your roof and then taking days to dry out again..." which was a complete red herring. And since we've had a recurrence of the problem recently in North Kent - in the absence of any rain for the last month - that explanation can be seen to have been a load of cobblers. I actually notice it worst if the sky is clear (perversely) ie no clouds, in the evening when the Sun has just set. And since I'm directly east of Bluebell Hill, I'm wondering if the Sun's radiation directly *behind* the transmitter is swamping/disrupting the relatively weaker T.V. signal with electromagnetic 'noise'. At least, as a trained scientist, that's my current theory. And yes Philip, you're right: we never did have this problem before T.V. went digital!

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Mike Weatherley's 5 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:42 PM

Mike Weatherly:

Please also note that this weather effect does not just affect reception from Bluebell Hill but can affect any transmitter signals across the country. It all depends on the way the atmosphere is carrying the signals and how some are able to travel further than intended because of the weather.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Saturday, 14 July 2018
B
Bertmay
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:28 PM

Does anyone exactly know what is being changed at Bluebell Hill this coming week, on the 19th?
The message comes up every time we turn the TV's on, a "Retune is required", all quite ominous in tone.

link to this comment
Bertmay's 30 posts GB flag
K
Ken Collyer
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:35 PM

I notice that after the re-tune on 19th there is no provision for COM7 or Com8. What will happen to the stations that are broadcast on these frequencies after 19th, and when exactly does the move happen. At midnight (00.01) or some unknown time during the day.

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Ken Collyer's 24 posts GB flag
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

3:19 PM

Bertmay: Full details here:

Coverage Checker - Detailed View

link to this comment
js's 822 posts GB flag
J
js
sentiment_satisfiedGold

3:27 PM

Ken Collyer: The data hasn't been updated Full data here:

Coverage Checker - Detailed View

link to this comment
js's 822 posts GB flag
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