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

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

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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 22/04/2024 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 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C32 (562.0MHz)	242m	DTG-	20,000W
	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)	242m	DTG-	20,000W
	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)	242m	DTG-	20,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C40 (626.0MHz)	242m	DTG-8	20,000W
	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, 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)	245m	DTG-8	20,000W
	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)	245m	DTG-8	20,000W
	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?

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	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	+BBCB	SDN
C43	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	ArqA
C45				SDN	BBCB
C46	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	ArqB
C54_{tv_off}				ArqB
C55_{tv_off}					com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}					COM8_{tv_off}
C65	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves

_{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

Sep 1955-Jul 1968	Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	Thames†
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1982-Dec 1992	Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004	Meridian
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV 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. 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

10:37 AM

transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 11/12/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

10:49 AM

transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 15/01/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

5:11 AM

transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 22/01/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering

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5:11 AM

transmitter - Bluebell Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 29/01/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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David Austin
3:21 PM
Wadhurst

My has been directed towards Transmitter by the TV Aerial Technician. My Post Code is TN5 6HZ. Normally I receive all with no problems. Occasionally, often during periods of inclement weather we lose the BBC and ITV HD channels but not the BBC and ITV SD channels. Can you suggest why. Many thanks for your.

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David Austin's 4 posts GB flag

David's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

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Chris
4:10 PM
Chatham

David Austin: I also have the same problem with the transmitter. I live much closer in postcode ME5 8UN. It is fine most of the time but occasionally I have problems with it frequently cutting out or at all on the HD . I can also view the SD channels during this fault. It has been doing this for a few years now and it drives me nuts because 99% of the time it is all perfectly ok.

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Chris's 17 posts GB flag

Chris's: C's Freeview map C's terrain plot C's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage

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Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:59 PM

Chris:

Well that's extremely surprising as you are only 2km from the . Have you checked that you are correctly tuned to 's UHF as listed in the very top section of this page? for the PSB3/HD .

If you are correctly tuned, you must either have a very poor installation or possibly be suffering , maybe from a nearby mobile phone , you are surrounded by at least 4!

You should have received a postcard from Restore TV https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/
If you haven't got a 700MHs ("") filter fitted (and/or ideally a Group K aerial) then get in touch with Restore TV for a Free Filter.

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Chris.SE's 4,153 posts GB flag

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Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:28 AM

David Austin:

How very odd as is not your nearest transmitter, nor predicted to give the best for your postcode, it's 32km away, whereas is only 12km away. In theory, you are predicted to be able to get signals from 6 transmitters as you have clear line-of-sight to all of them, but by no means good reception!
Also check you are correctly tuned to Bluebell Hill's UHF .

Do you perhaps have some significant local obstructions in the direction of Heathfield, compass bearing 213 degrees, that's almost SW being between SSW and SW? Obstructions like large dense trees, tall buildings, metallic farm buildings and so on?

Whilst your postcode hasn't supposedly had postcards https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/ by pointing the at Bluebell Hill, it's pointing straight at 2 mobile masts of the 4 nearby, so I'd think about investigating the possible issue as they may well be now operating transmissions and causing problems.

In addition to which the recent Planned at Bluebell Hill may have overrun and could well be affecting your reception of the HD at the distance you are from it.

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Chris.SE's 4,153 posts GB flag

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Chris
9:29 AM

David Austin:

Hello David. It's 9.20am and I am having problems with from transmitter. Are you also having problems? I would really like to work out if it's my set up or the transmitter causing the problem.

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Chris's 17 posts GB flag

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Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:10 PM

Chris:

Did you not read the reply I gave you earlier? Trying to do a comparison with David Austin in his situation is like comparing chalk with cheese. I suggest you read my reply to him as well.

It would be helpful if you answered about whether you have a filter.
Also go to your TV Tuning section and look for Strength and (or Error) figures, maybe in a section called Signal .
If you post both figures for each 's UHF , that can give a feel for any potential problems.

I assume that you have checked that your aerial looks intact, is still pointing correctly with horizontal polarisation and that the downlead isn't flapping in the wind?
Check all your accessible coax connections, especially the end of the downlead for corrosion or water.
Do you have any other devices between the aerial and the TV? This could include any distribution amp to feed several outlets, or pre-amp, or boxes like PVR's etc.

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Chris.SE's 4,153 posts GB flag

Page 123

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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