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
|
|
Sunday, 17 March 2019
MikeP
11:12 AM
11:12 AM
Eunice:
At the top of this page it tells you that it is horizontal. Most main transmitters are set to be horizontally polarised whilst most relay transmitters are verstical. There are a few exceptions, such as Rowridge on the Isle of Wight.
| link to this comment |
Friday, 13 September 2019
J
john10:00 AM
Hi I wonder if you can help, I see freeview show sony movies christmas channel on CH50 but my area here in kent doesn't get a ch50 I can get on freesat 303 but cant understand why its not on freeview my freeview is very good giving over 160 channels but 50 is not shown on the bluebell hill transmitter info can you advise?
| link to this comment |
N
nobody11:19 AM
john: Sony Movies Christmas, formerly True Movies, is only available on Local Multiplexes.
The Bluebell Hill Local Multiplex is on UHF channel 21.
It may be that the Local Multiplex is not available at your location.
We need your postcode to see the predicted coverage at your location.
You can see for yourself if you go to About us | Freeview and enter your postcode in the Coverage checker.
| link to this comment |
Thursday, 19 September 2019
R
Ray Taylor8:03 PM
Sevenoaks
We are in a strong crystal Palace area but have found that we can receive the channels which carry the local programmes (ch32 for BBC southeast) and (ch34 for Meridian) from Bluebell Hill very well on a different aerial, until about 6 weeks ago when the ch32 signal became so weak that it is unwatchable, whereas the ch34 signal is still fine. Has anything changed on the transmitter to cause this ie reduced power or change of radiation pattern?
The Bluebell Hill aerial is mounted in the front garden at a height of 6 feet above ground level and receives the signal along Old London Road (Knockholt TN14 7JW) which runs east-west at that point. I have an aerial switch next to the TV. I am a retired BBC engineer and have set this up myself. I would appreciate any ideas.
It has worked well since Digital Switch Over. I have checked everything to do with the aerial etc & is OK.
| link to this comment |
Ray's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 20 September 2019
N
nobody4:36 AM
Sevenoaks
Ray Taylor: I've assembled some links that might contain an explanation:
Bluebell Hill - Possible weak signal
Planned engineering works | Freeview
Coverage checker for TN14 7JW
About us | Freeview
New relay:
"11 July 2019
The BLUEBELL HILL transmitter group, serving north and mid Kent
Gillingham MOT
RF Channel
32PSB1 (BBCA)
34PSB2 (D3&4)
45PSB3 (BBCB)
Power change: the ERP will launch at 400W for all multiplexes":
About us | Freeview
Coverage checker for a Gillingham postcode:
Gillingham Testing Centre
About us | Freeview
| link to this comment |
nobody's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 15 October 2019
Wednesday, 11 December 2019
B
Bert10:39 AM
Where has Quest on channel 12 gone from the Bluebell Hill transmitter. It disappeared yesterday, 10 Dec, showing as "No Signal" when 12 was selected. Some other channels have gone as well. Where have they gone to? As I manual tune which multiplex do I select to get them back?
Thanks
| link to this comment |
B
Bert10:59 AM
Drama on channel 20 has also gone from the channel list.
Drama & Quest were on the SDN & com4 group, I can get Quest HD but not on my non HD tv's.
I've tried a manual retune on C40 & the list say's Drama is there but the list lies, it does not appear in the guide.
What's going on?
| link to this comment |
B
Bert11:40 AM
OK, at the moment there is "No Signal" on channel 40 from Bluebell Hill, is this a fault or has it been discontinued.
Is there anywhere else where I can find out about transmitter faults?
| link to this comment |
C
Chris.SE12:52 PM
Bert:
For what should be an up-to-date list of which channels are on which multiplex see Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free corporate/platform-management/channel-listings">Channel listings | Freeview
I can find no reports of transmitter problems at Bluebell Hill at this time, neither being reported by the BBC or Freeview. Your issues sounds a bit like your TV's memory needs clearing.
The site owner has been unable to keep up with all the 700MHz clearance changes and as has been said quite a few times on this and other transmitter boards, the best place to look is the official listings on the Freeview site (now that the digitalUK site has been merged into it).
Goto Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free and scroll to the box "Check Freeview at my home", put in the postcode and house number/name and click "Check".
On the new page, amongst other things, you should see a mention of any Planned work Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free corporate/platform-management/planned-engineering-works
also whether there's any current transmitter issues - I've not always found the latter to be 100% reliable.
On this new page, scroll down just over half way and click "Detailed view".
You'll now see a list of any transmitters and their multiplexes that are predicted to be received at your location. You can hover over some of the information to get more detail/explanation, eg. hover over a channel number will give the transmission mode and the power in kW.
Another source of help & information is Advice about receiving TV and radio | RTIS Select the service you are having problems with and then enter your postcode and house name/number. It will show you which transmitters you might receive, you select the one you are interested in.
To hopefully resolve your current problem, unplug your aerial and do an automatic retune. This should clear all previous tuning as no channels will be found.
Plug the aerial back in and then retune (manually was your choice) to the UHF channels listed on the Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker.
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please