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 27/11/2023 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),
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 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, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 35 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C44 (658.0MHz)	576m	DTG-8	100,000W
	Smithsonian Channel, 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 Christmas, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C47 (682.0MHz)	576m	DTG-8	100,000W
	Quest Red +1, Classic Hits, 12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! christmas mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 83 Together TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 20 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?

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

11:33 PM

- : HD TV Off Air from 19:59 today to 20:03 today. FM: Radio 4 FM Weak from 14:04 on 17 Mar to 14:05 on 17 Mar. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 146,542 posts xx flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:33 AM

- : HD TV Off Air from 19:59 yesterday to 20:03 yesterday. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 146,542 posts xx flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:33 AM

- : HD TV Off Air from 19:59 on 21 Mar to 20:03 on 21 Mar. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 146,542 posts xx flag

M

Maurice Murphy
10:06 AM

I note on the list of proposed changes of frequencies from Blackhill that 51 is missing from the list.

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Maurice Murphy's 2 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:12 AM

Maurice Murphy: There hasn't been any information published on changes for local multiplexes yet as they are broadcast at much lower levels than the main PSB/COM multiplexes and don't require international co-ordination (which is where the frequency change data has come from).

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StevensOnln1's 3,566 posts GB flag

J

JOHN LOVE
9:28 PM

I am unable to receive stv2 on freeview8 from blackhill . i receive all other including hd. is this an Ariel problem?. post code eh479bd

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JOHN LOVE's 1 post GB flag

J

jb38
11:39 PM

JOHN LOVE: Your area is located on the outer extremities of the rear coverage area of this transmitters system hence the reason for your difficulty in of said programme. However, you should try manually tuning in STV2 on / 714.0mhz, as this can sometimes overcome problems experienced during auto tuning where a lower powered might be bypassed.

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jb38's 1 post GB flag

J

J M Adams
6:25 PM

We are experiencing major disruption to all other than the bbc ( and ones on that channel) this has happened in summer when wind and rain . Is this due to reduced transmission strength combined with leaves on trees at top of hill behind us. No other works ( used to) . Not normally an issue in winter with no leaves but might get worse as trees grow.

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J M Adams's 3 posts GB flag

J

J M Adams
6:33 PM
Johnstone

J M Adams: we live in Johnstone PA5 8JT

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J M Adams's 3 posts GB flag

J's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

MikeB

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:05 PM
Peterborough

J M Adams: You only have to ask once....

Ok - since you gave your postcode, you can see the links at the bottom of your last post - and R T reports no problem with your , your just 38km away with a clear path, etc. So you should be getting an excellent signal.

Which leaves you. Check your signal strength on all muxes - if they are low to non-existant, then its your system, which is the normal way of things (transmitters never just reduce the signal strength other than for brief work or there is a major problem).

Check all your connections, but since you say its worse in wind and rain, sounds like someone has to go up a ladder, which probably means a pro. Could be water in a connection, loose or simply that the arial has had it.

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag

MikeB's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Page 71

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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