Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.324,0.520 or 51°19'25"N 0°31'13"E |  | ME5 9RD |
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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter._______
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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
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.
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?
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 28km southwest (218°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
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?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 19 Jul 2018 | |||||
| E | E | E | W T | W T | |||||
| C21 | _local | ||||||||
| C28 | _local | ||||||||
| C32 | com7 | ||||||||
| C34 | com8 | ||||||||
| C39 | +ArqA | ||||||||
| C40 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | +BBCB | SDN | ||||
| C43 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | ArqA | ||||
| C45 | SDN | BBCB | |||||||
| C46 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | ArqB | ||||
| C54tv_off | ArqB | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_off | ||||||||
| C65 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
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 |
Local transmitter maps
Bluebell Hill Freeview Bluebell Hill DAB Bluebell Hill TV region BBC South East Meridian (East micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Bluebell Hill transmitter area
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Wednesday, 1 August 2018
Hello
Up to last April /May 2018 we could receive a good signal from Bluebell Hill on UHF channels 43 and 46 to receive BBC south east programmes at 6.30pm and ITV Meridian. It was a weak signal but generally did not pixelate unless there was tropospheric ducting interference in which case we could not get anything. We have received this programme since DSO.
Now we cannot get anything. I have checked everything - the aerial connections, head amp., power to the head amp and so on. I have checked for a signal many times when the tropospheric ducting is not present, but nothing. Also I have checked local tree growth,
Admittedly we are in a fringe area but I managed to find a spot in the front garden at about 6 feet above ground level where the signal was good, as the signal seems to funnel along Old London Road, Knockholt from the east. Regards, Ray, retired BBC engineer
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S
StevensOnln14:39 PM
Raymond Taylor: Bluebell Hill underwent frequency changes on 19th July. PSB1 can now be found on UHF channel 32 with PSB2 on 34.
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Thursday, 2 August 2018
StevensOnln1:
Many thanks for info., good reception again (channels 32 and 34) even on a group B aerial,
Ray
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Thursday, 9 August 2018
M
Martin 6:46 PM
Based in SE Essex with aerial pointed at Blue Bell Hill as at time of installation Sudbury not at full power.
We get Sudbury on the back of the aerial so can view local news and weather. BBC SE and Meridian news does not cover anything north of the Thames.
Until last couple of months no real reception problems. Now we often cannot receive many programmes on the main 5 channels and many of the other channels and many of our recordings are failing.
Two weeks ago (I.e. end Lily 18) we had an engineer check the signal and to manually retune the tv and recorder boxes. The problems have not improved.
So, what has now gone wrong with Blue Bell Hill? Why sudden massive loss of signal?
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C
Chris10:15 PM
I recently had the Panasonic failed recordings problem and thankfully freeview managed to sort the issue within a week. However, I am now still having problems with the HD channel signals dropping out and displaying "no signal" message for a second or two quite frequently. I thought it might be 4G interference so I installed a filter sent from at800. This has not solved the problem. Has anyone else experienced the same issue?
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Friday, 10 August 2018
MikeP
10:14 AM
10:14 AM
Martin and Chris:
Please provide a full post code so that we can check what the expected signal reception conditions are like at your location. Without that it is impossible to make meaningful suggestions.
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C
Chris11:45 AM
Chatham
Mike
My postcode is ME5 8UN. I am within 2km of the transmitter. My signal quality and strength are at 9 or 10, but I keep getting this dropping out of the channels and slight blocking of the picture. It happens every few minutes with a no signal message flashing up, then the picture restores itself back up to full signal. It doesn't make the programme unwatchable but it is very annoying, missing a split second of dialogue here and there. The problem started a few weeks ago. Sometimes it's worse than other times.
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Chris's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 11 August 2018
MikeP
10:23 AM
10:23 AM
Chris:
At only 2 km from Bluebell Hill transmitter it is always likely that you have too much signal. Having strengths of 9 or 10 shows it is definitely too stromg and needs reducing. The ideal strength is between 60% and 85%, anything more is likely to cause the problems you report. Anything less will give unreliable reception.
So you need to add some attenuation into your aerial cable behind the TV set. You can get them in various strengths and they are quite cheap, so get a 6dB and a 12dB plus an additional short flylead. Unplug the aerial from the back of the TV, fit the 6dB attenuator on the end of that cable, fit the additional flylead onto the TV end of the attenuator and the other end into your TV aerial input. (That is to prevent the weight of the attenuator 'hanging' on the coaxial input socket.) Then check the signal strengths again. If there are any above 85% then swap the 6dB for the 12dB and check again.
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Wednesday, 15 August 2018
G
Gordon Cadey9:11 AM
Hi
could I sugest you edit the frequency of BBCA to 32 & D3+4 to 34 had me going for a while
Regard
Gordon
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MikeP
10:45 AM
10:45 AM
Gordon Cadey:
Only the owner of this website can make any changes such as you suggest and he does not appear to be doing any such editing. We contributors always suggest you put your post code into the Digital UK Coverage Checker which you can find at http://www.digitaluk.co.u…ker.
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