Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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51.237,-2.626 or 51°14'12"N 2°37'33"W

BA5 3LB

The symbol shows the location of the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter which serves 720,000 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 Mendip (Somerset, England) mast?

Mendip transmitter - Mendip transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 11/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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Which Freeview channels does the Mendip 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C32 (562.0MHz)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C34 (578.0MHz)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (West), 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 (West), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C35 (586.0MHz)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West, 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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C48 (690.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C33 (570.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C36 (594.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others
LBS	H -10dB	C30 (546.0MHz)	591m	DTG-12	10,000W
	from 22nd September 2014: 7 Made in Bristol,

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 Mendip transmitter?

BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 25km north (3°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.

ITV West Country News (East) 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS4 3HG, 23km north (11°)
to ITV West region - 61 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

Cheddar	Transposer	15 km E Weston-super-Mare	1674 homes
Luccombe	Active deflector	6 km w Minehead	38 homes

How will the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2010	2010-13	2013-18	2013-17	27 Feb 2018
	C/D E	E	E	C/D E	C/D E T	W T	W T
C30							_local
C32							BBCA
C33						com7	com7
C34							D3+4
C35						com8	com8
C36							ArqB
C37		C5_waves	C5_waves
C48				SDN	SDN	SDN	SDN
C49_{tv_off}					BBCA	BBCA
C51_{tv_off}						LBS	LBS
C52_{tv_off}				ArqB	ArqB	ArqB
C54_{tv_off}	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	D3+4	D3+4	D3+4
C55_{tv_off}							com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}				ArqA	ArqA	ArqA	COM8_{tv_off}
C58_{tv_off}	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB
C61	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA
C64	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves

_{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 24 Mar 10 and 7 Apr 10.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4	500kW
Analogue 5	(-6dB) 126kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 100kW
com7	(-8.4dB) 72.4kW
com8	(-8.6dB) 69.1kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D, LBS	(-17dB) 10kW

Local transmitter maps

Mendip Freeview Mendip DAB Mendip AM/FM Mendip TV region BBC West West

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Mendip transmitter area

Jan 1958-Jul 1968	Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	Harlech Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Mendip 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:32 AM

Paul Jennings:

There were some changes made at in March 2018. I receive the service from that and had to retune after the changes. Most were unaffected as the alterations were relatively small. Some viewers posted here and asked about the changes back in March and their problems were resolved by retuning at that time.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:40 PM

All: A reminder of my post on Tuesday, 6 March 2018 at 3.55pm on p171 where towards the end of the post I summarised the current mux allocations and where to look for details of changes at DigitalUK.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag

R

Richard Greenaway
7:44 PM

have lost sky news recently from one was ok until a week or so ago think it on channel 33 the antenna is quite low seems to be good on others . Get it from

regards

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Richard Greenaway's 2 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:00 PM

Richard Greenaway: Are you missing any other such as Pick and Dave, which are on the same (COM5) as Sky News? What strength and readings do you get for UHF channel 33? Do not attempt to retune.

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StevensOnln1's 3,670 posts GB flag

J

John-Ha
7:59 PM

I have recently lost strength and on 48 (Drama, 5USA, 5Star) etc, although other multiplexes are OK. I am in a marginal area for .

Digital UK | Planned engineering works says "Mendip: Possible weak signal for week commencing 24 Sept" but this site says "Mendip: No works".

Can anyone add anything?

Secondly, there appears to be an error somewhere because this site says ITV3 ( 10) is in the COM4/SDN on Mendip . When I check my ITV3 station, which is received from Mendip Main, it is definitely on Mendip and is good unlike the Mendip C48 stations.

Where am I going wrong?

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John-Ha's 2 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:07 AM

John-Ha:

It is known that the channel usage data on this website is out-of-date as the owner is unavailable and has been for some months now. Only he can make the needed happen. Use the UK Coverage Checker to find details of the used for the 8 multiplexes available from .

The Mendip does not have any reported faults at present (I know that because we use Mendip ourselves in Trowbridge). The work indicated has been completed yesterday and no changes to TV transmissions were required, so you should not retune. Instead, check all your connections and if there are coaxial plugs/sockets then unplug them and refit. That will clear any corrosion/oxidation that is known to cause the symptoms you describe.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

J

John-Ha
10:54 AM

Mike

Thanks. I did nothing and it fixed itself - both strength and have improved and I can receive it again.

I think that what may have happened is that was transmitting on a "reserve " and my aerial sits in, or close to, a null for from that aerial. As a consequence, all is OK when Mendip transmits on the main , where I don't sit in a null; but I have problems when Mendip transmits on the reserve antenna.

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John-Ha's 2 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:04 AM

John-Ha:

Television transmitters do not normally have a 'reserve' and Arqiva do not admit that there is one at , nor any other main .

So you need to look for some other cause, such as problems with the cables and connections as previously suggested. That is known to cause the type of problems you reported, including problems with of just one . You might also look at what is in direct line between your aerial and the transmitter .

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

K

keith
1:02 PM
Bristol

For the do I need an aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

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keith's 1 post US flag

keith's: K's Freeview map K's terrain plot K's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:48 PM

keith: To receive all from you would need a aerial mounted with horizontal polarity.

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StevensOnln1's 3,670 posts US flag

Page 168

Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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