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Full Freeview on the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmitter which serves 940,000 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 Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) mast?

Black Hill transmitter - Black Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Black 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C46 (674.0MHz)576mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Scotland, 2 BBC Two Scotland, 7 BBC Alba HD, 23 BBC Three, 24 BBC Four (Scotland SD), 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 13 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C43 (650.0MHz)576mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 STV (SD) (STV Central (Glasgow micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Scotland ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Scotland ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (STV Edinburgh), 35 STV+1 (STV Edinburgh),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C40 (626.0MHz)576mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Scotland, 102 BBC Two HD Scotland, 103 ITV 1 HD (STV West), 103 STV HD (STV West), 104 Channel 4 HD Scotland ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 108 BBC Scotland HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H max
C41+ (634.2MHz)576mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C44 (658.0MHz)576mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)576mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LG
 H -13dB
C30 (546.0MHz)576mDTG-125,000W
Channel icons
from 2nd June 2014: 8 STV Glasgow,

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 Black Hill transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 26km west (271°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.
regional news image
STV News 1.3m homes 4.8%
from Glasgow G51 1PQ, 26km west (271°)
to STV Central (Glasgow) region - 94 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

Ardtornish ATransposer22 km NW Oban15 homes
BalquhidderTransposer12 km NW Callander42 homes
Benmore BActive deflector50 m WNW Glasgow7 homes
Blair DrummondTransposer5 homes caravan park
Blyth BridgeActive deflector30 km SW Edinburgh50 homes
GlendaruelActive deflector40 hotel40 homes hotel
Glendaruel BActive deflector12 homes (second level)

How will the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?

1957-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-133 Oct 2018
VHFB E TB E TB E TE TW T
C10ITVwaves
C30_local
C32com7
C35com8
C37C5wavesC5waves
C40BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCB
C41+SDNSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C44ArqAArqA
C46BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C47ArqBArqB
C50tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C51tv_offLG
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_off_localCOM8tv_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 8 Jun 11 and 22 Jun 11.

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

Analogue 1-5 500kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
com7(-10.7dB) 42.9kW
com8(-11.1dB) 39.2kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-14dB) 20kW
LG(-20dB) 5kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Black Hill transmitter area

Aug 1957-Jun 1997Scottish Television
Jun 1997-Dec 2014STV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Comments
Monday, 28 October 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:22 PM

John:

It is strange that it's only 626Mhz. But IIRC you had a similar issue even when it was inadvertently tuned to Darvel on 530Mhz, so it's not just a frequency dependant thing. Aerials can have different polar responses (& side lobes etc) at different frequencies. I wonder if it has something to do with the transmission mode for HD. Do you get any issues with HD channels on the COM 7 or 8 multiplexes - ie BBC News HD, BBC4 HD, 4seven HD, Quest HD and try comparing that to the SD channels on those muxes eg 5STAR+1, 5USA+1 etc.?

In any event, if you get some issues as they go overhead and as the landing is to the back of the aerial then my guess would be two things. A reduced vertical beamwidth and an improved Back to Front ratio is needed. I don't think your current aerial is that good on either of those two. As I previously mentioned positioning the aerial so that the house or some other building blocks the landing path but not the path to the transmitter could help with the landing issue, but not the overhead.
You can get reduced vertical beamwidth by stacking two aerials vertically but I'm not sure how much an improvement you get on the Front to Back ratio without checking - a bit rusty on that sort of thing!

Whereas a log periodic (log 36) will give significant improvement on both but it has slightly less gain. Talking to a local aerial installer would certainly be a good idea, but if it's not one who is familiar with these sorts of issues, I'd try another.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
J
John
7:59 PM

Thanks again Chris. Good information to have when speaking to the aerial installer. The other HD channels are fine on both com 7 and 8. The SD channels are the same all have signal quality at 100% and strength at 97%. The quality drops to 50 % but with no loss of picture when planes go over.

link to this comment
John's 19 posts GB flag
Monday, 11 November 2019
J
John
4:21 PM

Chris I got a new aerial fitted log-periodic 14 elements SAC AE0968, with a 4G filter and booster. Channel 40 works fine with no fallout due to planes passing over as do most channels. The issue I have now is Com7&8 now seem to have not enough quality(0)/signal(74) to show a picture. Any ideas?

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John's 19 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 12 November 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:32 AM

John:

Well since you were receiving the COMs 7&8 multiplexes previously then I would be telling the Aerial installer to come and sort it out. Is the aerial accurately pointing at Black Hill, don't want it pointing slightly towards Darvel!

My suspicion would be that this is a gain issue. Bearing in mind the gain of the aerial you had previously, I would have initially gone for the larger log-periodic, a log 36, but did you have a "booster" previously, I haven't spotted any mention? You mentioned your receiver showing signal strength 97 previously and now getting 74 on COMs 7&8. What strengths are showing on the other multiplexes?
Is the booster external or internal? Is the 4G filter one built into the aerial or an extra one?

Although you say your log periodic has 14 elements, it's actually a log 28 - each element on each side of a log periodic is counted a one element. BUT because your predicted reception is very good, it might be a case of having too much signal, so the log 28 may be sufficient or need attenuating. If it's too much signal, it's odd the other multiplexes are ok
If it's a problem with insufficient signal, even with a log36 you might still need a decent masthead amp with adjustable gain.

I'm wondering if it's the directional qualities of the log periodic that's got rid of your aircraft issue or the lower aerial gain.

If the 4G filter is internal, I'd try unpugging it to see what difference it may make to the signal strength 74.
Likewise, if the booster is internal, what happens to the signal on all multiplexes if you take it out?

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
J
John
6:20 PM

Installer is on his way back thanks. Is combining both aerials together an option?

link to this comment
John's 19 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:14 PM

John:

In answer to your question, in theory yes, in practise no - because it would need to be done with a diplexer which would allow one channel group from one aerial, and another channel group from the other. These diplexers just don't to be available these days. If it were two different grouped aerials or if it was two different transmitters in different directions, neither using the same channels, then one might get away with a splitter/combiner but it's not a straight forward thing to do especially with differing signal strengths.

So to try and get an idea of what is going on, what is the strength you are getting on the other multiplexes?
Perhaps I should have explained that with too much signal and the front end getting overloaded, you can actually see a reduction the strength figure so you get the wrong impression about what's happening. That's why I was interested in the other figures and what happens if you can remove any additional 4G filter etc.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Sunday, 17 November 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:24 PM

John: Any news, how did the return visit go?

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 19 November 2019
J
John
4:34 PM
Glasgow

Hi Chris with one thing and another I haven't managed to be available for the aerial installer yet, soon I hope. What I have noticed is that on occasion when blackhill stops broadcasting for a very brief moment of time my tv auto-tunes into other transmitters, I had bbc1HD from Craigkelly the other day. I have changed the auto settings for this. However I wonder if on Com7 I am receiving it from darvel or craigkelly as they all seem to broadcast on the same frequency, 746kHz. COM8 seems to have settled down and is ok. Any thoughts.

The other multiplexes are all showing 100 on quality and signal, more or less. They all work great.

I still have the high gain aerial connected and have now fitted a filter and booster and it works ok on the other tv, which is only dvt not dvt2, many thanks again.

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John's 19 posts GB flag
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:02 PM

Hi John:
Yes all COMs 7&8 are being moved to UHF55&56 as Single Frequency Networks (SFNs). Whilst you'll be getting the "watchable" signal from Black Mountain, it's possible that you may be getting enough interfering signal from I would maybe have thought more likely Craigkelly but Darvel is a possibility. This is because the bearing for Black Hill is 106 degrees, 78 degrees for Craigkelly and 178 degrees for Darvel. Darvel's power is much lower although it's closer but I would have thought it's not as likely to be picked up by the log periodic as Craigkelly which although further away and slightly higher power than Darvel might just be within the beamwidth of the aerial. Whether it's worth tweaking the aerial 3 or 4 degrees further S, your installer should be able to check. Both are much lower power that Black Hill but you might be in one of those "awkward" spots where the unwanted signals give interference.

You may be better off btw with this log28 and booster rather than a log36, it depends on make. Some log36 gain with in-built filtering is a couple of dB lower at UHF55&56.
Do you have an external 4G filter fitted on this aerial? If so is it a Ch.59 or Ch.60 one?


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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
J
John
8:11 PM
Glasgow

The filter is a Televes 40503, not sure of channels

link to this comment
John's 19 posts GB flag
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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