Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.324,0.520 or 51°19'25"N 0°31'13"E |  | ME5 9RD |
The symbol shows the location of the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter which serves 200,000 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 Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) mast?
Bluebell Hill transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/09/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Bluebell 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.
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 Bluebell Hill transmitter?
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 28km southwest (218°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 5km south-southeast (155°)
to ITV Meridian (East) region - 36 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford
How will the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 19 Jul 2018 | |||||
| E | E | E | W T | W T | |||||
| C21 | _local | ||||||||
| C28 | _local | ||||||||
| C32 | com7 | ||||||||
| C34 | com8 | ||||||||
| C39 | +ArqA | ||||||||
| C40 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | +BBCB | SDN | ||||
| C43 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | ArqA | ||||
| C45 | SDN | BBCB | |||||||
| C46 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | ArqB | ||||
| C54tv_off | ArqB | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_off | ||||||||
| C65 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
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 13 Jun 12 and 27 Jun 12.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 30kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-1.8dB) 20kW | |
| com8 | (-7.8dB) 5kW | |
| com7 | (-8.1dB) 4.7kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-10dB) 3kW | |
| Mux 2*, Mux A* | (-11.8dB) 2kW |
Local transmitter maps
Bluebell Hill Freeview Bluebell Hill DAB Bluebell Hill TV region BBC South East Meridian (East micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Bluebell Hill transmitter area
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Friday, 15 February 2019
C
Chris10:11 AM
The channels were working when I first switched on this morning, but now I have lost them again from around 9am. Recording failed at 10pm last night due to no signal. CH45, 46 and 56 have no signal quality. CH55 has 90-100% signal quality but is registering "bit error rate" and keeps pixelating.
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MikeP
5:35 PM
5:35 PM
Chris:
Firstly plkease check all your aerial connections, cables and the plugs/sockets by unplugging them and refitting. If the issue continues it is most likely to be the current high pressure area.
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Wednesday, 20 February 2019
A
Alan overy3:21 PM
I'm having trouble with my signal from Bluebell hill. The picture blocks and the goes both intermittently.
I have retuned my tv as soon as it prompts on screen but still having trouble has been happening for a while now. I live in Bean DA28BX and have new arial and slx4 booster. Can you help.
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C
Chris.SE3:58 PM
Chris: & Alan overy:
There is Planned Engineering work at Bluebell Hill this week with "Possible Weak signal". That's probably what you are seeing the effects of. I'd just be patient.
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Friday, 22 February 2019
C
Chris7:39 PM
Alan overy:
Are you still having problems with your reception from Bluebell Hill or has it resolved itself yet?
Is it particularly bad this (Friday) evening? My HD channels are currently off or ar very best unwatchable..
I have been having similar problems to you for months now.
Which channels are affected?
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C
Chris8:39 PM
Chris.SE: & MikeP:
I have been checking the Digital UK website for months now and every time I go on there, it says there are Planned Engineering Works at Bluebell Hill with "Possible Weak signal". Does this mean that there is a known problem with the transmitter but it is not being fixed? Or is it false information? How can I find out?
From my point of view it is very frustrating because my problems started immediately after the retune on July 19th last year when they carried out changes for 700mhz clearance. I have watched through hours of recorded programs to test this, and there is no doubt that all recordings before that date are problem free, whereas recordings after that date have frequent glitches along with loss of picture/sound.
I have tried attenuating the signal strength back to around 80% as suggested by MikeP because I am within 2km of transmitter. This had no effect or if anything made it slightly worse due to dropping back the signal quality as well as strength. The signal quality fluctuates then drops out giving brief "no signal" message before recovering back to it's peak. The peak also fluctuates from one day to the next.
I have also replaced the wall socket and renewed all cables inside the house, which made a slight improvement but not enough to eliminate the issue. The only thing left is the aerial, which is old but exactly the same as everyone elses around here and pointing in the same direction. I live in a rented house and cannot afford to replace it, and besides, it was perfectly adequate before July 19th 2018.
Sorry for the lengthy post, but I am desperate to get this resolved after 7 months of patiently waiting for the freeview engineers to sort the problem.
Is there anything I can check between the rooftop aerial and the wall socket that may help?
Thanks
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MikeP
11:29 PM
11:29 PM
Chris:
Ask Arqiva direcrtly as they operate thew transmitters and will know what plans there are for any engineering work.
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Saturday, 23 February 2019
C
Chris.SE12:39 AM
Chris:
You make a good point about the Planned Engineering listing, DigitalUK are the ones to ask about how accurate those listings are (tel:03456 505050). I only look myself if I become aware of a possible issue! Virtually every (main and some relay) transmtters have some supposed work at present ! I must admit I find that a bit difficult to believe although there are further clearance changes to come over the next 2 years but not at Bluebell Hill AFAIK. If anything is going on there it may be "tweaking" or some other difficulty that doesn't have a quick fix (eg. faulty antenna). As MikeP has suggested Arqiva would be the people to ask (try 01962 823434) if DigitalUK don't know (or give you BS).
If you have a wideband or group T aerial then reception shouldn't be an issue but it's worth checking the system out, your downlead may have degraded etc and the frequency changes could have caused any issues to come to light. It is perfectly possible for individual UHF frequencies to be affected by damaged cable rather than all frequencies. If your issue is mainly with the higher UHF channels then damp in the cable might be a cause, but again any frequency could be affected more than another.
Also remember the current high pressure weather is causing periodic reception problems (continental interference, but also possibly some uk transmitters that are now sharing more frequencies).
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C
Chris.SE1:03 AM
Chris:
Forgot to say, you mentioned HD channels, if you are specifically referring to those on COMs 7 & 8, they are on the SFN channels 55 & 56, I'd want to be sure the downlead was in good order.
Also it would be worth considering whether you have too much signal as you are so close to the transmitter. If the front ends of receivers are overloaded beyond a certain point (this can vary from brand/set to brand/set) they can indicate a "lower" signal strength than you actually have and quality will be degraded. That could be what you have as your results may fit this.
Your overall antenna and coax response may give more signal since the frequency changes which might just tip things over the edge. (Antenna gain is not flat over the full frequency range).
If you don't have access to an attenuator to try, one trick that may help is try partially removing the aerial plug so that only the centre pin is making connection. If things improve, too much signal is the most likely cause and you'll need to try an attenuator.
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Sunday, 24 February 2019
MikeP
10:42 AM
10:42 AM
Chris.SE:
There is a lot of work being done to prepare for future changes to channel allocations, part of the planned changes needed for the introduction of 5G transmissions in the 700MHz+ band. Some of the work is also related to improvements to the DAB sevices and coverage.
If it is suspected that too much signal is a possible problem then checking the reported signal strength on the manual tuning page, without doing a retune, will show just how much is present. Depending on the make and model of the TV, it is usually recommended that the strength should not exceed about 85%.
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