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Freeview Light on the Backwell (North Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.441,-2.724 or 51°26'28"N 2°43'25"Wsa_postcodeBS48 1NY

 

The symbol shows the location of the Backwell (North Somerset, England) transmitter which serves 4,600 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 Backwell (North Somerset, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Backwell 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
 V max
C25 (506.0MHz)125mDTG-19W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others

PSB2
D3+4
 V max
C28 (530.0MHz)125mDTG-19W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (West), 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 (West),

PSB3
BBCB
 V max
C22 (482.0MHz)125mDTG-19W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West, 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

H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Are you trying to watch these 44 Freeview channels?

the effected channels
the effected channels
the effected channels
the effected channels

The Backwell (North Somerset, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, Dave, Dave ja vu, DMAX, Drama +1, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, GREAT! action, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, GREAT! romance, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, TCC, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, W, Yesterday +1.

If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Backwell transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 8km east-northeast (75°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.
regional news image
ITV West Country News (East) 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS4 3HG, 11km east (90°)
to ITV West region - 61 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (West)

How will the Backwell (North Somerset, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20102010-135 Jun 2019
A K TA K TA K TA K TA K T
C22BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCB
C25ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C28BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesD3+4D3+4
C32C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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 24 Mar 10 and 7 Apr 10.

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

Analogue 1-4 94W
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-6.9dB) 19W

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

Jan 1958-Jul 1968Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Harlech 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. Backwell 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
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
K
Kevin
11:47 AM
Bristol

Try as I might I cannot coax my new Freeview HD TV to pickup channel 22 so that I can receive the West Region HD channels.

I can see channels 25 (about 60% signal strength) and 28 (about 30% signal strength) and the quality is fine. I have been using an old aerial so far and quality is good except for not seeing 22.

I also have a newer aerial which I use for Wenvoe transmissions (colour coded blue!) which I have moved to point at Backwell but reception is worse.

Could this be an aerial problem, is there an issue with channel 22 power or am I just being a numpty somewhere down the line.

Thx

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Kevin's 2 posts GB flag
Kevin's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:58 PM
Reading

Kevin: most likely your TV is 'HD Ready', indicating it can accept HD input from another device, rather than fully 'Freeview HD' compatible, able to decode DVB-T2 transmissions.

This confusion is unfortunate, but has come from the industry wanting to suggest 'future proof' sets without knowing that the regulators would require a different standard to be used when HD services started.

What's the TV's model number?

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
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Thursday, 13 January 2011
K
Kevin
12:44 PM

Hi Mike

Thanks for your response.

It does indeed have a decoder. I should have mentioned that I can see the Wenvoe HD channels OK but they don't include 4HD.

However all is now well. Having put my two aerials back in their respective positions and reinstated the original cabling I can now see channel 22. All I can assume is that I had a connection / positioning problem that I have inadvertently rectified.


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Kevin's 2 posts GB flag
Friday, 14 January 2011
P
Paul
8:09 AM
Bristol

Hi, I live in BS48 2fq and have been using Mendip Chaneel 59 for Film 4 and Create and Craft, however, from 11th Jan the chaneel changed and output was dropped to 10kw which is too weak to for my aerial to get with good quality. Is there another channel I can use to get these channels?
Thanks,
Paul

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Paul's 1 post GB flag
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Tuesday, 29 March 2011
L
Lynda
8:54 PM
Bristol

Hello, having eventually found BBC1 & 2 West, the aerial connection came off, and I'm back at square one, receiving BBC Wales. I've done the auto tune and tried manual but I simply can't remember what MHz numbers were the location to receive West. Can you please help? I've already tried 506/634 and 530/630 respectively.
Thank you
P.s. Do you reply directly to the email address?

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Lynda's 3 posts GB flag
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Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:44 AM

Lynda: No email replies are provided.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:21 AM
Reading

Lynda: The required channel numbers are above: C25 for BBC West, C28 for ITV1 West, if using the Backwell transmitter.

Strictly the Backwell transmitter requires vertical polarization - aerial rods going up and down - while the Wenvoe transmitter requires horizontal (rods going side-to-side), and they use different groups of frequencies. Unless you have two aerials, you're relying on reflections and signals that the aerial manufacturers tried to eliminate. The results are likely to be unreliable.

An aerial installer should be able to advise you on installing a second aerial for Backwell, if you haven't already.

You could also try channel 61 for BBC and 54 for ITV1, which are the transmissions from the Mendip main transmitter. However, Digital UK does not predict any usable signal from this transmitter, as you're the wrong side of a steep slope that blocks line-of-sight to the transmitter. It's off in a different direction and again requires a different aerial group (C/D).

I don't know of any boxes that require a frequency rather than a channel number to be entered. C25 is 506 MHz, C28 is 530 MHz, C61 is 794 MHz and C54 is 738 MHz.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
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Sunday, 3 April 2011
L
Lynda
2:23 PM
Bristol

Thanks, but 506 MHz etc. are not finding channels and on auto-retune it's still going to BBC 1 & 2 Wales. The only way to manually re-tune my Phillips tv is by MHz nos., there does not seem to be a facility for C25 etc.
Any further suggestions would be appreciated. Will all this change anyway later this month?

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Lynda's 3 posts GB flag
Lynda's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:17 PM
Reading

Lynda: The Wales and West regions have completed switchover - there aren't any major changes to come for the public service channels. The commercial multiplexes at Wenvoe are changing frequencies on the 27th, and many get an increase in power, but this won't affect any regional news services.

You could try deleting all the channels and adding them manually. However, it really sounds like you have a horizontally-polarized aerial pointing at Wenvoe and the levels received from Backwell just aren't high enough for the TV to receive reliably.

You could try removing the aerial connection, performing a complete reset of the TV ('Reinstall All Services'), wait for it to retune (it shouldn't find anything), then plug the aerial in and enter the frequencies manually. For the Public Service channels use the frequencies I gave above. For the commercial channels:

Now: C51/714MHz C30/546MHz C49/698MHz
27 April: C42/624MHz C45/666MHz C49/698MHz

You may get two copies of E4, because in Wales, the slot on D3+4 is taken by S4C and E4 is broadcast on the SDN multiplex instead.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
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