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Full Freeview on the Bilsdale (North Yorkshire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps54.358,-1.151 or 54°21'30"N 1°9'2"Wsa_postcodeTS9 7JS

 

The symbol shows the location of the Bilsdale (North Yorkshire, England) transmitter which serves 570,000 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 Bilsdale (North Yorkshire, England) mast?

Bilsdale transmitter - Bilsdale 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 Bilsdale 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
C27 (522.0MHz)676mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) North East and Cumbria, 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
C24 (498.0MHz)676mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Tyne Tees), 4 Channel 4 (SD) North ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 North ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Tyne Tees),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C21 (474.0MHz)676mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD North East and Cumbria, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Granada), 104 Channel 4 HD North 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 -3dB
C43 (650.0MHz)676mDTG-850,000W
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 -3dB
C46 (674.0MHz)681mDTG-850,000W
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 -3dB
C40 (626.0MHz)681mDTG-850,000W
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 Bilsdale transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Look North (Newcastle) 1.6m homes 6.0%
from Newcastle NE99 2NE, 74km north-northwest (336°)
to BBC North East and Cumbria region - 70 masts.
regional news image
ITV Tyne Tees News 1.4m homes 5.4%
from Gateshead NE11 9SZ, 75km north-northwest (333°)
to ITV Tyne Tees region - 47 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with Border

Are there any self-help relays?

Garsdale (pin Fold)Transposer63 homes (coverage together with SH34)
Hawsker BottomActive deflector 150 caravans
LangthwaiteActive deflector30 homes

How will the Bilsdale (North Yorkshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20122012-1313 Nov 2019
A K TA K TA K TK TW T
C21BBCB
C23C4wavesC4wavesC4wavesBBCB
C24_localD3+4
C26BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCA
C27BBCA
C29ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4
C30_local
C31com7
C33BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C35C5wavesC5waves
C37com8
C40ArqBArqB
C43SDNSDN
C46ArqAArqA
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_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 12 Sep 12 and 26 Sep 12.

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

Analogue 1-5 500kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 50kW
com7(-14.3dB) 18.5kW
com8(-14.4dB) 18.1kW
Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*(-19.2dB) 6kW
Mux 1*(-20.2dB) 4.8kW
Mux D*(-24.9dB) 1.6kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Bilsdale transmitter area

May 1956-Jul 1968Granada Television†
May 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Jul 1974Yorkshire Television
Jul 1974-Feb 2004Tyne Tees Television
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. Bilsdale 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?

Radiation patterns withheld

Comments
Sunday, 20 September 2020
A
alf hall
3:13 PM

for the last few days have had trouble receiving channel 7 teesside and channel 50 sony movies
my neighbours are also having same trouble are you carrying out maintenence causing this problem

link to this comment
alf hall's 1 post GB flag
Tuesday, 22 September 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:27 AM

alf hall:

"We" don't do the maintenance as this is an independent help site. That said, Freeview have not currently listed Bilsdale for Planned Engineering.

Your problems are more likely to be "Tropospheric Ducting" around causing interference, see Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | RTIS for a simplistic explanation. Not all multiplexes can/will be affected or at the same time, It can be quite variable, come and go within seconds, minutes or hours. It has been particularly strong recently which can wipe out reception. Climate change is likely to mean these sort of events could be more common.
Currently it may continue on and off for a day or two more.

It's best not to retune if you have no signal or badly pixellated signals as this can just clear correct tuning and you have to repeat the retune when conditions stabilise.


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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 8 December 2020
T
Tom
2:07 PM
Middlesbrough

I'm migrating from cable to Freeview and live in the TS7 post code area. The Freeview site says I should tune to Pontop pike, however the ukfreetv site says I should get strong coverage from bilsdale. my neighbours seem to be aimed at Bilsdale.
Which is the best transmitter for me to aim at?

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Tom's 1 post GB flag
Tom's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:25 PM

Tom: We need a full postcode (or one from a nearby shop/pub/church/school etc) to be able to see your predicted coverage. TS7 covers a wide area and the coverage checkers only work with a full postcode.

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StevensOnln1's 3,605 posts GB flag
Monday, 1 February 2021
K
Ken D
1:57 PM

At certain times of the day all of the channels listed under PSB2 & D3+4 from the Bilsdale transmitter are either disappearing from the Freeview list on both of my smart TVs and my BT Box or the pictures and sound quality is very poor. When checked, the signal level for all of the channels affected is zero on the BT Box. I have manually tuned both TVs and all of the channels although listed in the tuning menu do not show on Freeview. Something odd is happening, but not 24/7. Suggestions?

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Ken D's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:02 PM

Ken D:

Difficult to say without a full postcode to look at the predicted reception at your locale. I can't find any reports of transmitter faults either from Freeview or the BBC, and the transmitter isn't currently listed for Planned Engineering.

Does this happen at exactly the same times each and every day and what times have you had it happen so far?

What are the signal levels and quality for the other multiplexes on your BT Box and your TV?

Check that you are tuned to the correct UHF channel for D3&4/PSB2 which is C24 and that you haven't become inadvertently tuned to a low power local relay transmitter.

Have you changed anything in your installation recently? Check all your connections, coax plugs etc for corrosion, breaks in flyleads etc.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Monday, 31 May 2021
G
Graham Armstrong
3:40 AM
Durham

DH6 2PZ. Have noticed severe poor signal strength & quality early hours this morning from Bilsdale. Reasonably sure it's not my equipment. The freeview website says there is no reported problems or planned maintenance but also says there was planned maintenance being carried out WC 24th May. Could this maintenance have carried over?

link to this comment
Graham Armstrong's 1 post GB flag
Graham's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:39 AM

Graham Armstrong:

As the Planned Engineering list hasn't yet been updated, it's quite possible but there occasions when I've not found it to be that reliable!

That said, however, there is high pressure centered over the North Sea and the Tropospheric predictions do show that there is some quite strong tropospheric ducting around, and there's currently predicted to be a lift which can be affecting parts of the NE and hence there may well be interference from other transmitters in Europe or the UK.
These tropo conditions could remain for a sew days - although they will be variable, don't always affect all multiplexes, and may only last for seconds, but maybe minutes or hours!

I would say that this is the most likely cause of what you are seeing, especially as you are some distance (46km) from Bilsdale (bearing 159 degrees - approx. SSE). I note that Pontop Pike is much closer (28km, bearing 298 degrees - slightly N of WNW) and the Freeview predictor suggests you'd perhaps get better signals from Pontop Pike assuming there isn't an issue with line-of-sight in that direction in your immediate locale. The other main difference being the Local Multiplex and hence the local news coverage centred perhaps more around MIddlesborough for Bilsdale or Newcastle for Pontop Pike depending on any preference you may have.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
R
Richard caywood
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:37 PM
Leeds

Hi can u tell me if there is anything wrong with Freeview at bilsdale my aerial is pointing in this direction when it was fitted many years ago.
Channels or mux with problems.
PSB 1
Com 4
Com 5
Com 6

These seam to be on a low output at the moment I am receiving quality 47 signal 63 .
I have picture and sound quality poor, with constant break ups.
This has been happening since yesterday.
Post code ls13 2ss...

I am not pointing towards Emily moor due to my location.
My earial is new aswell as all cables. I am using a amplifier to boost signal and also at800 due to privious interface.

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Richard caywood's 55 posts GB flag
Richard's: ...
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:12 PM

Richard caywood:

Hello Richard. Apart from the information in the post before yours, I can also add that the Planned Engineering list appears to have been updated and Bilsdale is still listed with possible effect "Possible Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels" which generally implies it's because of reduced power.
PS. Did you ever get that Ch.60 filter??

Graham Armstrong:

You may also wish to note the update.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
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