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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Friday, 23 March 2012
P
Paul Brown7:20 PM
Crowborough
Thank you for your reply.
Is there anything I can do about the situation or do I have to wait for switchover in June?
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Paul's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 24 March 2012
R
Roy Mancktelow8:33 AM
Hi I get poor or no ITV channels when the weather is warm. Have been told this is due to the mux on Bluebell hill. I'm on the Loose road in Maidstone. Will things get better after switch over?
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K
KMJ,Derby9:45 AM
Roy Mancktelow: If you currently have good reception on analogue ITV1 you should have robust Freeview reception on mux D3+4 after switchover as this mux will use the frequency vacated by the analogue service. The signal will also be transmitted at 20kW for all muxes, compared to 2kW for the existing Mux2.
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K
KMJ,Derby9:50 AM
I should add that having just checked the current powers at Bluebell Hill the existing Mux2 is now at 4kW.
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Paul Brown: I'm not sure whether there is anything you can do.
Crystal Palace would appear to be your best bet (assuming no local obstructions). Its switchover is 4th and 18th April at which time your post code is predicted to have "good" reception across the board.
If reorientating the aerial is out, then you could always try tuning one or more Crystal Palace multiplexes in and seeing how good they are. Come 4th April, BBC will go to full power and on 18th April, the rest will follow.
If you look at Tradeview predictor for your post code, you will see a number of transmitters are suggested. However, all apart from Crystal Palace (excluding Forest Row which isn't on air yet), have some multiplexes that are co-channel with others. None are sparkling and you may have to try it and see how much they interfere (if at all). Of course, your aerial will, to a degree, be less sensitive in directions other than that which it faces, so that might help avoiding interference.
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Sunday, 25 March 2012
B
BW1:16 PM
Chatham
Hi
We have had all digital channels for years mosty perfect ( somedays off and on) with a loft aerial
today Sunday 25 March we have lost them all - except for the shopping channels and itv4 and yesterday!!.
what on earth is going on
BW Chatham
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BW's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
KMJ,Derby2:18 PM
BW: I suspect that due to the inversion effect during the present weather conditions you are receiving signals from Tacolneston and Sandy Heath which are blocking reception of the lower powered Freeview service from Bluebell Hill. C39, which still works for ITV4 etc is not used by either of these transmitters.
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Monday, 26 March 2012
R
Rachel5:53 PM
I was getting no signal for most channels so made the mistake of retuning yesterday and have now lost most of my channels completely. Doers anyone know if there's a certain time I should try to retune again to get them back - should I wait until the apparent current transmitter problems are solved? Thanks.
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A
alan wyatt8:50 PM
I'm in Rochester - BBC Freeview has always been fine, but the ITV Channels are very patchy. Currently, we have no ITV1, etc, although we do have ITV3 and ITV4. It seems to be about 830 pm that we lose the ITV channels and at the moment the mux shows 2KW - As someone else said it has been at 4KW, I wonder if the power is reduced about 830pm which then causes the reception issues?
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M
mike smith9:22 PM
@ alan wyatt
Im in vigo and i have exactly the same problems, i lost itv at the same time and my step mum gets upset cos she misses corrie (dont ask me why) but i would like to know myself why this is happening, we recently had a new ariel and the ariel positioned towards bluebell hill as the previous donut that did the ariel pointed it towards crystal palace.
If you find out the reason for the channels disappearing could you forward the message on to me please.
would be most grateful
mike
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