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Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.324,0.520 or 51°19'25"N 0°31'13"Esa_postcodeME5 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 22/04/2024 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 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C32 (562.0MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South East, 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
C34 (578.0MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (East micro region)), 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 (Meridian south coast),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C45+ (666.2MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South East, 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

COM4
SDN
 H max
C40 (626.0MHz)242mDTG-820,000W
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 max
C43+ (650.2MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
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 max
C46 (674.0MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
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 Bluebell Hill transmitter?

regional news image
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 28km southwest (218°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
regional news image
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?

1984-971997-981998-20122012-1319 Jul 2018
EEEW TW T
C21_local
C28_local
C32com7
C34com8
C39+ArqA
C40BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCBSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4ArqA
C45SDNBBCB
C46BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCAArqB
C54tv_offArqB
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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

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

Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Thames†
Jul 1968-Dec 1981London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Meridian
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. Bluebell Hill 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
Monday, 25 April 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

12:33 PM

Gazza: Yes, that's right. The boss is me as far as this site is concerned.

I would suggest you take your moaning somewhere else where you have not insulted the people who are trying to help you.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
S
Steve
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:04 AM
Maidstone

Quote "Briantist
Sunday 24 April 2011 1:03PM
1 day ago
Steve: I'm sorry, I can't do any more than I do."

Not blaming you at all, sorry if it came across that way.

Surely there must be an overall organisation responsible for the management of Freeview?

It's them who should ensure better communication, and also not let happen what has happened here, loss of channels after 4 years because of Sandy Heath!

Steve

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Steve's 21 posts GB flag
Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Steve
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:20 AM
Maidstone

Just sent an "email" to Digital UK saying the way the Sandy Heath turn on has been handled is appalling because of the affect on 200,000 customers. Also that they need to do something about it.

Probably will not hear back from them though.

Steve

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Steve's 21 posts GB flag
Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:32 AM

Steve: Here's my diagram



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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
S
Steve
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:22 PM
Maidstone

Just got a reply from Digital UK


"Thank you for your email dated 26 April regarding digital reception.

We would expect you to receive your digital service from the Bluebell Hill transmitter. The reception from this transmitter would be variable on some of the digital services. Both of the UHF channel numbers you mention are the ones affected. This would mean that broadcasts on these frequencies are prone to break up and loss of service.

The Sandy Heath transmitter is out with the range of your area and would be unlikely to be able to interfere with reception to your address. As the prediction is for a variable reception on these channels this would be reason you are having difficulty in getting some channels."

Their reason doesn't explain 4 years of excellent reception and now rubbish, (which I let them know is what has happened), but Briantist's does.

I just think they do not want to admit that the upgrading is not being handled properly so they do not have to do anything.

Steve

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Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:33 PM

Steve: "I just think they do not want to admit that the upgrading is not being handled properly so they do not have to do anything. "

Technically this is correct, the provision of the broadcast services only have to be at the contracted levels, the responsibility for reception is down to the householder.

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

5:51 PM

Steve: The problem is simply the very slow roll-out across the country. By deciding to increase power at some locations before others, it causes problems for digital reception at the transmitters that are yet to switch over. (They're trying harder to avoid interference to analogue transmissions, which generally isn't hard because they're reusing the analogue frequencies where possible, which were *designed* not to overlap.)

They have also decided to increase power at all sites by more than is really required, which is causing more interference from digital signals than from the analogue signals that previously occupied those channels.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
S
Steve
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:41 AM
Maidstone

So since Bluebell Hill is almost the last transmitter to be switched we can expect the situation to get far worse before it gets finally sorted?

One wonders why they chose the most densely populated areas to be left till last.

Steve

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Steve's 21 posts GB flag
Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
A
Alan Hicks
5:20 PM

I have a freeview box upstairs and one fitted in the receiver downstairs, we have a high gain wideband aerial fitted on the chimminy stack. At the moment some of the stations are appearing at different numbers on each set we are due to be switched over in 2012 and some we cannot receive at all namely channel 5. The set top box has scanned the london transmitter at crystal palace. I hope you can help

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Alan Hicks's 1 post GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:29 PM

Steve: "can expect the situation to get far worse before it gets finally sorted?"

Yes, certainly no better.

"One wonders why they chose the most densely populated areas to be left till last. "

The areas done first were those with the least cross-over into other regions.

Those planned last are the areas close to international borders (SE England, Northern Ireland).

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
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