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 28/10/2024 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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Thursday, 23 February 2012
Chris Greenstreet: At the moment, Blue Bell Hill hasn't switched over, and so is on pre-switchover low power, whereas, Sudbury (the Anglia service I presume you are picking up) has switched.
The three powerful multiplexes from Sudbury/Rouncefell (these operate on the same channels/frequencies) that you are trying to avoid picking up are on channels 44, 41 and 47. The other three multiplexes are on low power, so hopefully won't be an issue to you.
Blue Bell Hill uses (at the moment, before switchover) 59, 24, 27, 42, 39, 45.
What I suggest that you do is run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged between 20% and 70% (or after channel 27 and before 59 if it gives UHF channel numbers whilst scanning). Then manually add 39, 42 and 45.
Post switchover, you *could* have similar issues with the wrong transmitter. Due to the channels used, it will be much more difficult to use the automatic tuning if it does not pick up the correct transmitter.
If you do have an issue, then post on this site and someone should be able to help you.
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Tuesday, 28 February 2012
M
Mark Fletcher10:04 PM
Halifax
Jeremy.Sorry for not responding back to you quickly enough due to work committments,but let me say it has been a pleasure in assisting you of course not just me but Dave Lindsay himself too who just beat me into responding to you while i composed mine.Waiting for Wednesday 27 June 2012 when Bluebell Hill (and also Dover too) goes all digital TV is probably the better option.Happy Viewing !
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Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 3 March 2012
Derek Brice
10:56 PM
Gillingham
10:56 PM
Gillingham
What is the current status of the Bluebell Hill analogue transmitters? Are they still using temporary aerials lower down the tower?
My wife still likes to use analogue because she likes the old style teletext and intends to keep using it right up to switchover.
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Derek's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
J
John Malpass5:13 AM
I'm writing from Thailand, not about reception here!.
In a phone call last night, my father in Southend-on-sea said that the EPG (not his words) was not working on his set for the last few days. He uses Bluebell Hill. Reception is fine is all stations.
Are there any known problems? If not I'll walk him through the TV reset procedure (or at least try).
Thanks in advance
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Wednesday, 14 March 2012
J
joan cotton5:33 PM
Whitstable
I have tried retuning my TV twice today and
I cannot get ITV programmes. Should I try
doing same again later today? Having quite
a lot of problems over the last few months.
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joan's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
Jazz11:17 PM
Faversham
@joan cotton Its the same here at Boughton, the service has been up and down for weeks and for the last few days we have only had 7 channels all BBC!
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Jazz's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 15 March 2012
J
John Northover9:15 AM
Wadhurst
At last, I've found your excellent website! For countless months now,my wife and I have been arguing about the cause of poor and nil reception on our Toshiba digital TV set which receives signals from the Bluebell Hill transmitter. She has maintained that the fault lies with our receiver - it's 6-years old - and I have put the problems down to transmitter faults/engineering interventions. We upgraded the aerial when we bought and installed our receiver and had a signal booster installed at the same time. Just recently, the reception problems have become more frequent and prolonged, especially on BBC channels.(but Yesterday and Film 4 channels also often disappear, too) If I'm right to blame engineering works, could you kindly explain why it should be necessary to undertake these so frequently as we approach switchover to full digital? And could you please explain why I should need to re-tune my receiver so frequently, too?
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John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
John Northover: There's three points really.
1) You are not predicted to get a good Freeview service on all multiplexes until the Tunbridge Wells transmitter switches over on 13 June 2012.
2) There is engineering work at Bluebell Hill, it is listed on the post above yours.
3) There are also current reception problems caused by the weather conditions - see High pressure causing channel loss through "Inversion" | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .
Your best course of action is to wait until June and move your aerial to receieve signals from Tunbridge Wells, as Bluebell Hill will never provide you with a top-rate Freeview service.
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Tuesday, 20 March 2012
P
Paul Brown5:02 PM
Crowborough
I am in TN6 1BJ. I have a Televes DAT 75 TV Aerial high in the loft pointing to Blue Bell Hill. The signal is sent via a Konig ANT AMP PRO30A Aerial Amplifier and splitter to three TVs. This was installed about 18 months ago.
The set-up was fine until about 3 weeks ago. Mux 1 started to break up for about 50% of the time and Mux 2 has started to break up today. I have reset & retuned to no avail.
Can you advise please? Has the signal strength been lowered for engineering work? If so, when will the normal strength be restored?
Regards
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Paul's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Paul Brown: Mux 1 is on channel 59 which is now used for a post-switchover multiplex at Midhurst (since last Wednesday) and also for Mux D at Tunbridge Wells. According to Digital UK Tradeview, Mux D on C59 is at 200W. The Ofcom guide to pre-DSO transmitters which was last updated two years ago, says that TW Mux D was at 100W:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/s….pdf
Reigate uses channel 24 (same as Mux 2 from Blue Bell), and its power was increased on 7th March. I have seen suggestion by other contributors to this site that that was done to counter possible interference due to another transmitter, Rowridge, switching over to digital and using the same channel.
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