menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Freeview

 

 

Click to see updates

Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.324,0.520 or 51°19'25"N 0°31'13"Esa_postcodeME5 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 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
_______

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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C32 (562.0MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South East, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 16 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C34 (578.0MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (East micro region)), 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 (Meridian south coast),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C45+ (666.2MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South East, 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

COM4
SDN
 H max
C40 (626.0MHz)242mDTG-820,000W
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
C43+ (650.2MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
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
C46 (674.0MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
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

DTG-8 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?

regional news image
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 28km southwest (218°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
regional news image
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?

1984-971997-981998-20122012-1319 Jul 2018
EEEW TW T
C21_local
C28_local
C32com7
C34com8
C39+ArqA
C40BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCBSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4ArqA
C45SDNBBCB
C46BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCAArqB
C54tv_offArqB
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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

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

Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Thames†
Jul 1968-Dec 1981London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Meridian
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Bluebell Hill 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.

Comments
Saturday, 8 August 2020
C
Chris
11:43 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

link to this comment
Chris's 17 posts GB flag
Sunday, 9 August 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:53 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!

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 9 September 2020
H
Ham Gat
1:37 PM

I am slightly north of 30km due east of Bluebell Hill and can't get any com7 and com8 stations. Does anyone know the channels they are broadcast on so that I can try a manual retune (auto-retune achieves nothing). I was told 56 but this was ineffective

I can pull signals from Crystal Palace (70km to the west of me) but get no com7/8 signals from there either. Likewise, if anyone knows the channels for these I can try a manual retune.

Thanks.

link to this comment
Ham Gat's 1 post GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:13 PM

Ham Gat: COM7 is on UHF channel 55, COM8 was on 56 but closed at the end of June due to commercial reasons.

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,605 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 15 September 2020
D
Dean
9:18 PM

5g signal runs 2 signals and one part of the signal is right on 700mhz end of freeview so its not all in ghz part of spectrum

link to this comment
Dean's 1 post GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:09 PM

Dean: There are no 5G services using the 700MHz band yet in the UK. Ofcom were due to auction off the 700MHz band earlier this year, however the auction has been delayed due to the pandemic and is now due to take place by early 2021.

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,605 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 16 September 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:36 AM

Dean:

To be crystal clear, 5G signals will be operating on several bands when it is all operational. At present it is ONLY operating up around the 3.4GHz band and only in some mainly urban areas.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Monday, 21 September 2020
Y
YZ
10:24 AM

Chris.SE:

Thanks for the previous post 9/8, booked marked this for the future.

Signal's been screwed yesterday evening and now today due to the atmospheric conditions. It's a pain in the rear but the South East is under 'intense' conditions for the time being as it's pretty much all or nothing if I get any signal from Bluebell at the moment.

link to this comment
YZ's 7 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:53 PM

YZ:

Yes, a lot of people all around the country have been suffering from similar issues. Unfortunately climate change is likely to make this sort of event more common.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Thursday, 11 February 2021
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:02 PM

All:

Since parts of the listings at the top of the page haven't been fully updated yet, just to note -
For Bluebell Hill the correct UHF channels are C32, C34, C45, C40, C43, C46, C55, C21 for the multiplexes in the order BBCA/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ArqA/COM5, ArqB/COM6, COM7 & the Local multiplex.
Reception of particular multiplexes, especially the temporary COM7 and Local will depend very much on location.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Select more comments

Your comment please
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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.








Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.