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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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter.

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), 71 That’s 60s,

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 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
C43+ (650.2MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
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
C46 (674.0MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
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

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
Sunday, 15 January 2012
D
Dave
1:54 PM
Maidstone

I live in maidstone, and can see the bluebell hill transmitter from my window. up until the engineering work last week I had all the digital channels and a fully working EPG, however since the work, my EPG is all mixed up the reception is bad and I have lost some channels. what's going on??
post code is ME14 2QQ

link to this comment
Dave's 1 post GB flag
Dave's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
John Buchanan
7:43 PM
Billericay

Yes, the TV has tuned channels 800+ to various Crystal Palace frequencies. So - this could be causing Crystal Palace switchover messages to pop up even when I am watching Bluebell Hill???

I notice it has tune good few French channels as well. When do I start getting French swutchover messages!!!!

link to this comment
John Buchanan's 12 posts GB flag
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
K
Ken Collyer
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:04 PM

Yesterday afternoon (Jan 16th)I lost BBC1 & BBC2 (Digital) from Bluebell Hill. In the evening I decided to re-tune my PVR. Now I get Anglia on "1" and Southeast on "804" suggesting that in spite of being only 6 miles from Bluebell Hill, the Anglia signal is stronger. This wasn't the case prior to the loss of signal on the 16th.

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Ken Collyer's 24 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:13 PM

Ken Collyer: There have been a few reports on here of people having issues with Bluebell Hill following completion of work (apparently last week).

The Anglia region has switched over, thus its transmitters are (mostly) at their full post-switchover power, whereas Meridian is still at the (low) pre-switchover power.

I am assuming here that you are picking up Sudbury or Rouncefell, the latter operating on the same frequency for the PSBs only (it doesn't carry the COMs). I would run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial plugged in up until 25%. This should pick up Mux 2 (ITV1, C4 etc) and Mux A (ITV3 etc) only which are on channels 24 and 27 respectively.

Then manually add the other multiplexes:

Mux 1 BBC Ch59
Mux B BBC Ch45
Mux C Arq Ch42
Mux D Arq Ch39

link to this comment
Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
John Buchanan
5:40 PM
Billericay

The pop up message about switchover seems to be being dissipated by the BBC, because when I press Blue for more info, it take me to the BBC Red Button service.
This means BBC for South East from Bluebell Hill is prompting viewers about switchover dates applicable to Crystal Palace, which is in the BBC London Region.

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John Buchanan's 2 posts GB flag
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 20 January 2012
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:22 AM

John Buchanan: It seems more likely that your equipment has tuned to the digital signals from Crystal Palace.

link to this comment
Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Saturday, 21 January 2012
P
phil parkes
9:58 AM

Hi I have a BT vision box with a viewing card for sky sports, I started to lose signal on ITV channels now getting it on sky sports 1 and 2. I brought a new aerial but still playing up and I dont know why and dont know what to do now can any one help thanks

link to this comment
phil parkes's 1 post GB flag
K
Ken Collyer
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

11:26 AM

Dave Lindsay: Thanks for that. I'm not sure which Anglia transmitter I'm picking up, just that I'm receiving BBC1,2,3,&4 and ITV stations plus several radio stations from the back of my aerial. As my PVR has loaded BBC1 and BBC2 Anglia, into channel 1&2 and BBC1 and BBC2 Bluebell Hill into channel 804 and 816 I assumed the PVR is getting a stronger signal from Anglia. I just want to get Bluebell Hill onto 1, 2, 3, and 4 on my PVR. I could try re-tuning but I've done that twice already without anything changing, and every time I do, I have to re-set up all the programs I want to record. I guess I'll have all this again with the Crystal Palace switch over in April as I can get analogue from there now.

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Ken Collyer's 24 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:03 PM

phil parkes: As your query essentially involves reception you really have to indicate your location (pref: post code) as this would enable the signal level expected at the location to be assessed.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Sunday, 22 January 2012
John Buchanan
9:16 PM
Billericay

John Buchanan: Without doubt I am looking at BBC on channel 59 from Bluebell Hill, but getting pop up messages about Crystal Palace switchover.

link to this comment
John Buchanan's 12 posts GB flag
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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