Full Freeview on the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.997,-2.540 or 51°59'49"N 2°32'25"W |  | HR8 2PG |
The symbol shows the location of the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter which serves 270,000 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 Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) mast?
Ridge Hill transmitter - Ridge Hill 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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Ridge 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 Ridge Hill transmitter?
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 69km northeast (39°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 69km northeast (39°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)
Are there any self-help relays?
| Whitton | Transposer | 35 km NW Hereford | 40 homes |
How will the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1968-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 1 Mar 2018 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | A K T | A K T | W T | W T | ||||
| C6 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C21 | +SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C22 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C24 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C25 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C27 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C28 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C29 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C30 | _local | ||||||||
| C32 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | com7 | |||||
| C34 | com8 | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C51tv_off | _local | _local | |||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_off |
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 6 Apr 11 and 20 Apr 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-5 | 100kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, PSB2 iw, BBCB | (-7dB) 20kW | |
| com7 | (-9.8dB) 10.5kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 10kW | |
| com8 | (-10.1dB) 9.8kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-17dB) 2kW |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Ridge Hill transmitter area
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldMonday, 1 April 2019
A
Andrew8:06 AM
StevensOnln1: Thanks for the update. Poor show by the Beeb though. You'd like to think they'd have planned to complete the job rather than plan just to get halfway then stop for a non time-limited breather and leave its viewers exasperated on a daily basis. I'm not aware of anything else like this in any other country. In order to avoid this, I shall have to resort to full time satellite, I suppose. Many thanks for the update, once more.
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S
StevensOnln19:19 AM
Andrew: The cost would be millions. Can you name any other broadcaster in Europe that produces 17 different regional versions of it's main channel to compare against? I'm not sure what you mean by full time satellite? Both the SD and HD versions of BBC1 are broadcast from every Freeview transmitter and it's a simple channel change to switch between them.
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P
Philat297:25 PM
Do you know if com 7 & 8 are due to move to channel's 32 & 34. I thought I had read they were moving today. It they still seem to be on the old Freq.
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Philat29's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln110:11 PM
Philat29: COM7 & COM8 moved to UHF channels 55 & 56 last year at Ridge Hill where they will stay until they close (expected to be by the end of 2022). 32 & 34 are the old allocations. Digital UK don't show any further frequency changes planned for Ridge Hill.
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Tuesday, 2 April 2019
P
Philat2912:31 PM
Hi StevensOnln1,
Well thats not quite true as also shown above. Channels 50 and above are being closed for allocation to the 5G network, therefore channles on those frequencies are being reallocated space below channel 50, where available. The planned closure of the entire band above channel 50 is still anticipated from the end of July 2020.
Still thank you for your comments, I just wondered if you knew when the change was again planned, as I was informed they would be moved shortly. After adjoining transmitters had completed moving to their new frequencies, ie Mendip, Wenvoe and Sutton Coldfield. This being done as to counter any and allow for checks on co-channel interference.
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S
StevensOnln11:14 PM
Philat29: The channel allocation above is incorrectly showing both the old and current frequencies for COM7 & COM8 - see the Digital UK checker for correct allocations. Digital UK show no further changes planned for Ridge Hill and COM7/8 will not move to new allocations. UHF channels 55 and 56 form the centre gap of the new 700 MHz 5G band which is not expected to come into use immediately 2020. Ofcom previously announced a plan to allow COM7 & COM8 to continue broadcasting beyond 2020 by moving to the 700MHz centre gap and forming Single Frequency Networks (SFNs) so that the same UHF channels can be reused by all transmitters which broadcast COM7/8. The 700 MHz centre gap is to be allocated as additional mobile downlink capacity and is not expected to come into use by the mobile networks until a later date, at which point COM7 & COM8 will close. Further details can be found on Ofcom's website at the link below.
Maximising the benefits of 700MHz clearance - Ofcom
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Wednesday, 5 June 2019
G
Graham5:25 PM
Andrew: If your Internet connection is good enough to stream video, Points West is now reliably available on BBC iplayer either live and for an hour or two later or, possibly after a gap, on catch up for up to 24 hours after the original transmission. (Other BBC West regional opt-outs might also be available but I generally don't watch them.)
It is also available on the basic VirginMedia cable TV package.
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Friday, 28 June 2019
G
Glenn7:50 PM
Freeview completely off all channels. Showing a date of 2032 and no information for each channel i was watching star trek earlier so have l time warped Help
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Saturday, 29 June 2019
MikeP
7:53 PM
7:53 PM
Glenn:
It is likely to be due to the very hot weather we are currently experiencing. There is no cure as it is not a fault and DO NOT RETUNE.
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Tuesday, 9 July 2019
R
Richard Sutton11:31 AM
For years I have had tuning problems using Ridge Hill because of the West and Central transmission which have always confused the various tuners where I live as I'm in a tricky reception area. However, Ridge Hill has always been shown in the Digital UK Coverage Checker as being my best transmitter so I've stuck with it.
Something seems to have changed in the last few weeks and I cannot now receive ITV4 (for BSB bike racing) on either mux 25 or mux 29. The signal quality on both appears to be 30% or less on all my devices and the picture constantly breaks up.
I've just checked the Digital UK Coverage Checker and, after being Ridge Hill all these years since switchover, the recommended transmitter for my post code (which is only 4 houses) is now Sutton Coldfield.
I guess that I will have to ask an aerial fitter to come and swivel my aerial 100-ish degrees so I hope that my current aerial is still suitable unless someone can advise whether this 25/29 problem is likely to be a temporary issue.
I always watch the main channels in HD and the HD muxes are fine.
Richard
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