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.
Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) mast?
Bluebell Hill transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 28/10/2024 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 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
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Sunday, 29 March 2020
A
Alan Cuff3:11 PM
Freeview tv channels disappeared again today have audio radio channels still
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C
Chris.SE9:49 PM
Alan Cuff:
Please see the few posts immediately preceding yours.
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Sunday, 17 May 2020
J
Jack12:23 AM
Hi. Are there any reported/known issues with CH40, CH43+ and CH46, Bluebell Hill?
Lost channels (Friday, possibly Thursday), full retune and manual retune has not resolved issue.
Shows no signal on manual retune/ signal test screen on tv.
At approx 16:00 this afternoon it did pick up a very weak signal (unwatchable), but at approx 18:00 no signal again.
I'm in ME8 7P
No issues with CH32 and CH34
Thanks. Jack
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C
Chris.SE6:31 AM
Jack:
Bluebell Hill is currently listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible weak signal" and the symptoms you've describe would seem to fit that. In addition, reception of the COMs4-6 multiplexes (C40, C43, C46) in normal circumstances in your general locale, is not as resilient and can be more variable than the PSBs (probably due to the different transmission mode used).
Unfortunately there's no indication about how long the work is continuing.
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Friday, 7 August 2020
Y
YZ8:18 AM
Anyone having signal issues from Bluebell hill since 5th August? Today is worst as lost signal/poor signal almost across the board.
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C
Chris9:38 AM
Yes, I have also had issues over the last couple of days with poor signal quality. Today and last night I have 'no signal' message on most channels, especially those on the higher frequencies. This includes all HD channels which are the only ones I watch most of the time. I believe it is related to high pressure warmer weather, although I don't understand why the system cannot cope. It is a regular problem with Freeview these days..
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C
Chris.SE10:45 PM
YZ & Chris:
It has nothing directly to do with high pressure. Bluebell Hill has been listed this week for Planned Engineering with "Possible weak signal". Whilst there is a little bit of intermittent variable "Troposheric Ducting" around which may aggravate the situation, the transmitted weak signal which in some cases (location dependent) will seem like no signal will be the primary cause.
The Troposheric Ducting causes signals from distant transmitters to travel further so you can get interference from other UK or European transmitters. If this interference is strong enough compared to you normal signal, your receiver can have lots of signal but the quality will drop - eventually to a point where the receiver cannot decode the signal, or you actually receive the interfering signal.
Whilst the Tropospheric Ducting may strengthen later in the weekend or early next week (predictions can change) we won't know until Monday if the Planned Engineering will still be listed.
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Saturday, 8 August 2020
Y
YZ2:13 PM
Hi Chris, I did check if there was any works but unless I was looking at the wrong page, I didn't see anything.
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C
Chris11:43 PM
YZ
Signal gone to shit again this evening. As you say, there are no engineering works now or in the last few days. The fact is that Freeview has sold out to 5G clearance and has become unreliable since the start of these changes. If you want free TV, just accept that the service will get progressively worse, or pay your money to greedy service providers that don't use the same system
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Sunday, 9 August 2020
C
Chris.SE12:53 AM
YZ:
Yes you have been looking in the wrong place. You need to look here -
Planned engineering works | Freeview
There are 15 Meridian transmitters that have been listed for the w/c 03/08/2020 and Bluebell Hill is the 11th down that list.
Chris:
Did you bother to read the information that I posted, this has nothing to do with 5G, the 700MHz frequencies haven't even been auctioned yet never mind any 5G operating there. The small amount of 5G that is operating is in a totally different band, up around 3.4GHZ well away from TV bands. And this is not "Freeview" sold out to 5G clearance, this is a European wide re-allocation of frequencies subject to International agreements.
Try reading What is 700MHz clearance? and What is 700MHz clearance? | Freeview
The SE (as well as some other parts of the UK) has been affected this evening by some moderate Tropospheric ducting. Here's some links about "Tropospheric Ducting" -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/rec….jpg
Tropospheric propagation - Wikipedia
How does good weather affect my television? | Help receiving TV and radio
There's plenty more if you want to get technical, use your favourite search engine.
So if you read just some of that lot, you may actually learn something!
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