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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
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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
Wednesday, 13 November 2019
4
4wd
10:24 PM

Its Westerdale but I aren't putting up a postcode.
Reception is good here as we aren't behind the hill, don't even need an aerial outside.
I don't see how shuffling channels around can make half of them go on low power unless they've reduced it for some reason

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4wd's 5 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:56 PM

4wd:

Well that's up to you. Freeview's Coverage Checker does not work on place names or partial postcodes. But looking at the area in general you should get good reception of the 6 main muxes (not the best I've seen but nevertheless good), whilst COMs 7&8 are going to be variable to poor, next year in particular, as other transmitters finally move their COMs 7&8 to the SFN channels of 55&56.

I did say I assume you have a wideband aerial and you haven't said you have, only that it's not outside.
So I think therein lies your problem, indoor or loft aerials can be affected by all sort of things apart from roof tiles, worse when wet, water tanks, partition walls etc, and this can be very frequency dependant so affecting some channels more than others.

Apart from the D3&4 mux, all those lower channels are well down, so there maybe something frequency dependant that's helping C27, otherwise the overall performance looks to me like something you might get from an old "contract" Group B aerial especially as you have no reception of COMs 7&8 when you should have some.
Whilst it's possible that the transmitter may still be having work done, the BBC reports no faults. You could see what it's like tomorrow.

In the meantime I'd do some basic checks such as check all you coax plugs, connections, flyleads etc, unplug connectors check for corrosion or other problems and reconnect them. Also check that your downlead looks undamaged (not chewed up by vermin etc. and that your aerial seems intact and still pointing in the correct direction.
Problematic connections, flyleads are a common problem, damaged cable, etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.

If things are no better tomorrow and you are still getting problematic reception, you could chance your luck and providing you don't have Satellite or Cable TV see if you can get free help by contacting the Freeview Advice line on 0808-100-0288 where they could be offering to send an engineer to replace your aerial with a Group T / Wideband which is what you'll need to have satisfactory reception of all multiplexes.

Finally, I had meant to comment in my previous post on your remark "I assume this is all for 5G taking over C55 and C56. It won't help here much when we still can't even send a text."
Not quite correct. Apart from the fact the C55 &56 are placed in a gap between the Upstream and Downstream blocks allocated for mobile usage, the gap isn't expected to be used (for SDL) for sometime. The whole 700MHz allocation hasn't even yet been auctioned off, but OFCOM are not expecting it to be all used for 5G, (5G is currently operating in the 3.4GHz band) they are expecting some use of it to be made to improve mobile coverage in rural areas in particular.
So there is hope that maybe you won't have to wait too long to send a text!

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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
Thursday, 14 November 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:30 AM

4wd:

Apologies, on rechecking, I note you did say your aerial was wideband. However that doesn't change my comments about the way the aerial is behaving not being outside.

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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:21 AM

AJ:

Sorry to have missed your post earlier, you should have no trouble receiving any of the multiplexes from Bilsdale. As you may have noticed from some of the other posts here, it looks as if COMs 7&8 were still off-air until quite late in the day. Try a further retune if you haven't yet got them.

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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
4
4wd
7:28 AM

It seems unlikely that until yesterday the aerial performed perfectly well but developed some kind of technical problem at exactly the same time they have been moving channels about, especially when it isn't subject to effects of the weather.
It's a full sized outdoor type aerial which is better inside as they are lucky to last more than a couple of years outside here due to high winds snow and icing.

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4wd's 5 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:31 AM

4wd:

It's not unlikely at all, I'll repeat what I said in a previous post -
Quote "So I think therein lies your problem, indoor or loft aerials can be affected by all sort of things apart from roof tiles, worse when wet, water tanks, partition walls etc, and this can be very FREQUENCY DEPENDANT so affecting some channels more than others."

Try repositioning the aerial and see if you can get any improvement.

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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
H
hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

3:41 PM

You should get a strong signal from the south west direction . I think i would use a small well made outdoor aerial .
In doors in this area you may be getting your signal through a stone wall . An amplifier might help if you insist on an indoor aerial. . A small log aerial might work better as it perhaps could be placed higher up in the loft looking through tiles rather than wall.

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hardy's 137 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:16 PM

hardy:

The problem is look at the uneven response! There is definitely things messing up the signal, reflections, attenuation etc from god knows what. The first thing to try is repositioning. Whilst I sympathise with the view about outdoor aerials in exposed locations in North Yorks, if a suitable position in a loft or wherever cannot be found to get a more reliable performance, then your suggestions are the obvious considerations, especially the log periodic with a tighter beamwidth and excellent front to back ratio, it's even the best option for outdoors.

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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
Saturday, 16 November 2019
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

2:13 AM

BILSDALE transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air; DSO related from 00:03 today to 04:45 today, HD Digital TV Off Air; DSO related from 00:05 today to 04:45 today. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Thursday, 21 November 2019
H
hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

4:33 PM

I agree about the reflections . A loft position that is ok for one frequency maybe bad for a different frequency .
And some "hi gain" big aerials that would work well in open air become low gain next to walls or metal work indoors .
Also the area is very hilly . Ideal for all sorts of interfering reflections !
An outdoor aerial at Ainthorpe . A similar distance to the transmitter , needed an amplifier to reliably get all channels from Bilsdale .

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hardy's 137 posts GB flag
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