Full Freeview on the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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55.861,-3.874 or 55°51'40"N 3°52'27"W

ML7 4NZ

The symbol shows the location of the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmitter which serves 940,000 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 Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) mast?

Black Hill transmitter - Black Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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Which Freeview channels does the Black 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C46 (674.0MHz)	576m	DTG-	100,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) Scotland, 2 BBC Two Scotland, 7 BBC Alba HD, 23 BBC Three, 24 BBC Four (Scotland SD), 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 13 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C43 (650.0MHz)	576m	DTG-	100,000W
	3 STV (SD) (STV Central (Glasgow micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Scotland ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Scotland ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (STV Edinburgh), 35 STV+1 (STV Edinburgh), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C40 (626.0MHz)	576m	DTG-	100,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Scotland, 102 BBC Two HD Scotland, 103 ITV 1 HD (STV West), 103 STV HD (STV West), 104 Channel 4 HD Scotland ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 108 BBC Scotland HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C41+ (634.2MHz)	576m	DTG-8	100,000W
	20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C44 (658.0MHz)	576m	DTG-8	100,000W
	11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C47 (682.0MHz)	576m	DTG-8	100,000W
	12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others
LG	H -13dB	C30 (546.0MHz)	576m	DTG-12	5,000W
	from 2nd June 2014: 8 STV Glasgow,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

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

BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 26km west (271°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.

STV News 1.3m homes 4.8%
from Glasgow G51 1PQ, 26km west (271°)
to STV Central (Glasgow) region - 94 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

Ardtornish A	Transposer	22 km NW Oban	15 homes
Balquhidder	Transposer	12 km NW Callander	42 homes
Benmore B	Active deflector	50 m WNW Glasgow	7 homes
Blair Drummond	Transposer		5 homes caravan park
Blyth Bridge	Active deflector	30 km SW Edinburgh	50 homes
Glendaruel	Active deflector	40 hotel	40 homes hotel
Glendaruel B	Active deflector		12 homes (second level)

How will the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1957-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2011	2011-13	3 Oct 2018
	VHF	B E T	B E T	B E T	E T	W T
C10	ITV_waves
C30						_local
C32						com7
C35						com8
C37			C5_waves	C5_waves
C40		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBCB	BBCB
C41					+SDN	SDN
C43		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C44					ArqA	ArqA
C46		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C47					ArqB	ArqB
C50_{tv_off}		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves
C51_{tv_off}						LG
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}					_local	COM8_{tv_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 8 Jun 11 and 22 Jun 11.

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

Analogue 1-5	500kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 100kW
com7	(-10.7dB) 42.9kW
com8	(-11.1dB) 39.2kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-14dB) 20kW
LG	(-20dB) 5kW

Local transmitter maps

Black Hill Freeview Black Hill DAB Black Hill TV region BBC Scotland STV Central (Glasgow micro region)

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

Aug 1957-Jun 1997	Scottish Television
Jun 1997-Dec 2014	STV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

I

Iain Davies

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

8:34 PM

OK you may say I'm on my High Horse again, tuned my box to Glasgow postcode to see the local BBC and STV news of the . On Tuesday's run up to switchover, nothing on either and on Wednesday's local news nothing on the BBC but STV gave about 2 mins to the subject. I know I've said it before, down here in the , South West, South area switchovers of , and there was a lot of coverage on the local news.

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Iain Davies's 351 posts GB flag

S

Scott

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

9:17 PM

Steve: Have a look at http://www.freeview.co.uk/Resolutions/About-Channels/Channel-changes/BBC-Alba-to-be-broadcast-on-Freeview-in-Scotland-subsequent-loss-of-radio-stations

I the link is okay. My use of the word 'permanent' may be going too far, but that seems to be the way Alba has been implemented.

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Scott's 110 posts GB flag

M

MM
1:56 PM

Hi , I have retuned my mums TV in yesterday and have all the (I think) with the exception of Dave & Dave Ja Vu (were previously 19 & 25 (?) (I think) on her humax + box. Do I need to unplug everything including the ariel and do a factory reset ? I have just done a automatic rescan through the box.

Postcode is G15 and strength is maximum os why not these two channels when she gets all the others

Any much appreciated

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MM's 1 post GB flag

L

LF
3:13 PM
Leven

Since started, I've been having intermittent pixalation/herringbone pattern to portions of the , and audio tearing. About once every 5 minutes. Although I am in area, my box locks on to Ch46 on BBC1 Muxes seem to match Blackhill. Checked all present, I have a aerial (I think it's group E),attached to Pioneer DBR-TF100 box. Box functions are all fine, checked connections, done full reset and factory reset, but still getting issues. BBC 1 ch 46, strength 88% Signal 100%

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LF's 9 posts GB flag

LF's: L's Freeview map L's terrain plot L's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:19 PM

MM: Its always best to carry out a complete re- in these situations, this done by a factory reset as you have mentioned, or simply by carrying out the first scan with the disconnected, this anything stored in the programme memory, then once done reconnect and give the box a further scan thereby loading all available into the memory again.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:28 PM

LF: If the points to but it decides to tune into , it probably indicates that the Craigkelly signals are too distorted to use. You should expect to get very high levels anyway - if you have any amplifiers or boosters, you should remove them. That might still leave you with too much signal, in which case you should add an attenuator.

Older boxes were often calibrated to the maximum possible signal from one - maximum safe levels (avoiding distortion) are often way below 100%. On my Humax box it's actually about 50%. I can't find a spec for the input range on your Pioneer box.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

L

LD
10:56 AM
Leven

Thanks Mike,

I did do a factory reset (I didn't unplug the though) - I think you're right about , if I manually tune BBC1 to 27, the strength is equal to that of ch46 (85%) but there is no being pulled in.

I don't have any boosters etc on my aerial, I did try a 6db in-line attenuator, but in made no difference. Interesting what you say about calibration of boxes ie max safe levels of signal - I'll see if I can find out about my box. I will see if I can plug in a different box.

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LD's 9 posts GB flag

LD's: L's Freeview map L's terrain plot L's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage

L

LD
11:19 AM

Here's a link to the specs of Pioneer DBR-TF100:
DBR-TF100GB (Archived) - Pioneer UK (KY85NJ)

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LD's 9 posts GB flag

S

Scott

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

12:07 PM

LD: Why don't you try finding out the channel numbers used at (from the relevant page on this site) then do a manual tune for each of these in turn? This is what I did on my Humax box when I realised I was picking up from more than one .

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Scott's 110 posts GB flag

L

LD
12:10 PM

I think it's the box: see here:
http://forums.digitalspy.…ght=

I like so many owners am very annoyed that all it seems to need is Pioneer to issue a firmware update - only one thing puzzles me - one owner seems not be be having problems.... If Pioneer claimed 8K compliancy, although the box is discontinued - it's a shame they can't be made to fix it. (KY85NJ)

LD's 9 posts GB flag

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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.

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