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?

I

Iain Davies
10:52 AM

Early hours of this morning had all it's new on with it's existing channels. Ch. 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 48, 49, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 58, 14 in all being broadcast.

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Iain Davies's 11 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:34 AM

Terry :

If you meant aerials rather than dishes and are actually getting not , there has been some testing going on at in preparation for the forthcoming retune events (eg. see post above mine) and there have been breaks in transmission as you have described, usually late in the evening.
Note, all those are not on air at time of this post, & retune events are on 4th April, 5th June and 19th June.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:38 PM

All:
May wish to note that at time of posting, BBC MuxA is currently being simultaneously broadcast on UHF32 presumably in readiness for the retune event sometime after midnight tonight.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag

A

Adrian
10:27 AM

All,

I have quite an old set and have to manually all multiplexes to avid being flooded by .

Is there a definitive list of after each retune event?

Would I be right in thinking the ones now (after 4th April 2019) are:

32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 48, 51, 55 (HD), 56 (HD) = 9 in total

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Adrian's 3 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:03 PM

Adrian: According to UK the current allocations are 32/54/58/48/33/52/36/35 (also 51 if you're within the local mux coverage area). There will be further changes on 5th and 19th June. If you put your postcode into the Digital UK checker and tick detailed view it will show you all current and future mux allocations predicted to be receivable at your location.

Digital UK - Coverage checker

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StevensOnln1's 3,670 posts GB flag

R

Roger Rundle
2:01 PM
Bristol

Roger

Since todays retune I can't get BBC - but I can get BBC HD my post code is BS35 2HY - so I should be on the .

Is there a problem?

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Roger Rundle's 1 post GB flag

Roger's: R's Freeview map R's terrain plot R's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:47 PM

Roger:

There was no problem when I last checked about an hour ago. Your location means that you may get a strong from as well. You best check using manual tuning that you are tuned to UHF32 for the BBCA mux (PSB1). The other possibility is if you have a very old group C/D you may get insufficient signal as UHF32 is in Group A and you really need a Group T/ aerial. Having said that unless you aren't in a very strong signal location most C/D aerials should give you some signal.
What sort of signal strength are you getting on the other multiplexes, especially those on UHF33, 35 & 36? Again you'll probably need to go into Manual Tuning to check that, or you may have a check signal setting.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

9:35 PM

Roger:

As of the time of writing, is operating correctly now, that's the I use. A retune is needed, but ensure you do not get the signals. The correct Mendip will be shown on the UK Coverage Checker as long as you select the Detailed View and down for the Mendip listing.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

M

mymatenige
8:13 AM

Some of the numbers / frequencies listed here are currently incorrect.

As 2019-04-04 they should be: 32, 54, 58, 48, 33, 52, 51, 36, 35

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mymatenige's 4 posts US flag

G

Graham
10:42 AM

has been experimenting. My neighbour has had to retune twice to get BBC.
At 11 am 5 April the BBC Mux is transmitting on both Ch32 and Ch49. With my old C/D I can only get 49.
I was having trouble with ArqA on 333 - (strength 65%, 0 to 95%); that too is dead today. Wonder how much longer 49 will continue.

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Graham's 1 post GB flag

Page 173

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.

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