Full Freeview on the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 50.676,-1.369 or 50°40'35"N 1°22'7"W |  | PO30 4HT |
The symbol shows the location of the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter which serves 620,000 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 Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, 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
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Rowridge 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
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 Rowridge transmitter?
BBC South Today 1.3m homes 4.9%
from Southampton SO14 7PU, 26km north (354°)
to BBC South region - 39 masts.
ITV Meridian News 0.9m homes 3.6%
from Whiteley PO15 7AD, 24km north-northeast (20°)
to ITV Meridian (South Coast) region - 39 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford
Are there any self-help relays?
| Portsmouth Docks | Transposer | 2 km N city centre | 50 homes Estimate. Group of houses' |
How will the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1950s-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 2 May 2018 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | A K T | A K T | A K T | W T | ||||
| C3 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C21 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C22 | +ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C24 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C25 | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C27 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C28 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C29 | LSO | ||||||||
| C31 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | com7 | |||||
| C37 | com8 | ||||||||
| 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 7 Mar 12 and 21 Mar 12.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 500kW | |
| PSB1||, PSB1≡, PSB2||, PSB2≡, PSB3||, PSB3≡ | (-4dB) 200kW | |
| COM4≡, COM4||, COM5≡, COM5||, COM6≡, COM6|| | (-10dB) 50kW | |
| com7≡ | (-13.1dB) 24.4kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-14dB) 20kW | |
| com8≡ | (-14.3dB) 18.4kW | |
| LSO≡ | (-17dB) 10kW |
Local transmitter maps
Rowridge Freeview Rowridge DAB Rowridge TV region BBC South Meridian (South Coast micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Rowridge transmitter area
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Saturday, 15 February 2020
C
Chris.SE5:45 PM
John Hughes:
For some reason, some of the "direct" links do not work properly. The site owner is the only one that can fix such issues. Whatever page a link takes me to, I usually just go to the last page in the page bar and work from there, or in some cases have to manually edit the url to get to the correct tx page. If you could DM me that email address, that would be good.
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Sunday, 16 February 2020
J
John Hughes7:16 PM
Hi Chris
Apparently this is the contact for all modes of transmission and reception (TV, Radio, Phone etc) provided by Arqiva.
telecoms.feedback@arqiva.com
Good luck
John.
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C
Chris.SE7:40 PM
John Hughes:
Thanks John, familiar with that one, was hoping it might be something different ;) Thanks anyway.
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Wednesday, 13 May 2020
Ever since there was a change of channels a couple of years ago, I have had problems with the Yesterday programme on Channel 25. It breaks up for a minute or so every five minutes or so, and, of course, the sound disappears. The problem is, definitely, a bit worse when the atmospheric pressure is high.This is a nuisance as this programme is one of my favourites. I have no problems with any other programmes. However, I did notice that all the channels on the same MUX, COM6, tended to break up, too.
Being technically inclined, i have tried fitting a second amplifier in the aerial lead but this did not make any difference. Also, i had the aerial bearing changed to make it, almost precisely,in a SW bearing which should be correct for Waterlooville (PO7 7JN).
One of my TV sets displays a signal strength reading for a couple if seconds after a channel appears and, by taking several readings, I noticed that the signal strength for Channel 25 was between a half and two thirds that of other channels and varied, considerably, whereas it was quite steady on the other channels.
On the polar diagram towards the end of this page on your web site, COM6 is supposed to be shown in yellow. But I cannot see the yellow line on the polar diagram. Which one is it or is it coincident with the brown one?
If you have any ideas as to how this problem can be solved, I would be pleased to hear from you.
Incidentally, when I moved here from South Devon ten years ago, I was very surprised to find that there were not a repeater stations on the Downs Ridge as this ridge is an obvious barrier to the signal for those on the immediate north side of it. However it does explain why it seems necessary to install a complex aerial on a long pole on, virtually, every house in the area. A lucrative business for aerial erectors!
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Anthony's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 14 May 2020
C
Chris.SE9:32 AM
Anthony J. Kightley:
Firstly, just to make things a bit more muddy at this point, Rowridge is currently listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible weak signal". They never give detail of the work, so signals could vary at any time.
Secondly, this is an independent help-site, we're not responsible for the transmitters, what information is published is generally available from documents issued by OFCOM, Arqiva, DUK/Freeview etc. I'm afraid that some of it isn't up-to-date as the site owner (the only one that can update things) has not had time to incorporate all the 700MHz Clearance changes or some other changes made by broadcasters.
As far as things like polar diagrams are concerned, not all information has been made public, and there also seems to be bugs present in displaying some of the information, so they aren't going to be an awful lot of help.
What is likely to be more helpful is Freeview/DUKs Detailed Coverage Checker which looks at the predicted reception at a location.
I'm not sure if you are aware the Rowridge transmits both Horizontal and Vertical polarisations for PSBs1-3, & COMs4-6. The Local mux and temporary COMs 7&8 are horizontal only.
Your location does appear to be in a slight dip and being on the NE side of that ridge, it doesn't help especially with the horizontally polarised COMs4-6 signals which are only transmitted at 50kW compared to 200kW for the PSBs. COMs 7&8 are approx. 25 & 20 kW respectively.
All the vertically polarised signals are transmitted using 200kW. If you put your details into the boxes at Platform management | Freeview you'll see that you should get far better predicted reception with vertical polarisation, but you would lose COMs 7&8 (if you have them!). I assume your current aerial is horizontal? If you don't get (or want) the Local multiplex or COMs 7&8, the solution is simple, rotate the aerial to vertical polarisation.
If you get and want to continue getting COMs 7&8 and the Local mux, it gets quite messy from a technical point of view. You are going to need two aerials and some probably quite expensive filtering if you want things on one downlead, so it depends on how much you are prepared to spend, whether you like/want the programmes on the Local Mux, and the fact that COMs 7&8 are temporary. The latter we aren't expecting to close before 2022 but there's no formal announcement yet, so things could change but it's highly improbable to be before later in 2021 as the 700MHz clearance elsewhere isn't complete and has been delayed because of covid-19. There's implications from the DUK/Freeview checker that they could be here until 2025, but it's all speculation.
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Wednesday, 20 May 2020
Evening all,
I'm troubleshooting a problem we have at home, currently in a rented flat (in Romsey, Hampshire). We are unable to receive any channels on COM7/8 (yep, that ol' chestnut).
I haven't been able to get any detailed aerial info off the landlord yet, but I have got a photo from ground level (forgive the angle - it's 7 storeys up):
Imgur: The magic of the Internet
I'm trying to find out whether that's a Group A aerial (explaining why we can't get COM7/8), or if it's a wideband aerial (and our problems are elsewhere). Can anyone confirm?
Thanks.
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Chris's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 21 May 2020
C
Chris.SE4:42 AM
Chris:
I'm assuming the receiver you are using does have a T2 HD tuner ;)
It that location I'd have expected that you wouldn't have any problems with reception of any of the multiplexes from Rowridge. It's worth remembering that it has H and V polarised signals, but COMs 7&8 are only horizontal, COMs 4-6 are 1/4 of the power of the PSBs in the horizontal polarisation and COMs 7&8 about half that again!!
As soon as I saw your photo of the aerial, I thought, that looks like a Triax. I'm pretty certain that it's not a Group A, but it could be a Group K rather than a T or Wideband. The thing that adds to the uncertainty so far is the exact style of the reflector doesn't match the number of directors (7) for the Group T/Wideband, I might have to carry on searching.
If you are able to look at the colour of the bungs in the ends of the aerial with binoculars or a telescope, that may give a clue but I've heard of black bungs being used on non-wideband aerials, so that may not help!
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C
Chris.SE5:20 AM
Chris:
This is Triax's Group T https://www.triax.uk/prod…-box
Here is the Group K but it only has 6 directors https://www.triax.uk/prod…-box
Note the difference in the reflectors, but that doesn't mean the Group T hasn't had the other style reflector at some time.
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C
Chris7:14 AM
Romsey
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the quick response. Yep, I've checked and everything here (except one older device) is DVB-T2 capable - they pick up the T2 stuff on 470MHz no problem, too.
Those are the closest looking matches I've seen so far so you could be on to something there. It may well be a group K aerial then - it would fit in with the channels I can/can't receive. I don't have any binoculars, just the 40x zoom camera which got that photo, so that's about as good a view as I can get - the bungs certainly look black (or very very dark grey, to quote Lego Batman) rather than any of the other bright colours used.
Thanks again. I can't imagine the landlord would be keen on replacing it anyway, but at least it (probably) answers the question of why I can't get the channels!
Chris
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Chris's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 24 May 2020
Do we know yet if the latest changes at Rowridge will still take place during June,
will com7/8 be removed as stated and where will those channels be moved to.
For some time now my reception on com7/8 has been variable, funnily they seem to cut out at around 10pm most nights.
My postcode is BH255QB (New Milton)
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