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.
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._______
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, 7 April 2016
MikeP
10:16 PM
Trowbridge
10:16 PM
Trowbridge
Sue:
It would be useful to know what the signal strengths are on the BBC channels giving problems. Can you check on you mother's TV what the channel frequencies are and give the strengths of those, not the signal quality though.
Check at the top of this page what the frequencies should be. If they are showing as different on the TV then you may need to do a manual tune on those that are incorrect.
Let us know what the results are please?
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MikeP's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 8 April 2016
J
jb3812:16 AM
Sue : In addition to the advice given by MikeP, it would also suggest that carry out your intention of (5th @ 5.15pm) trying your daughters Freeview box on your mothers aerial system, because apart from the possibility (albeit slight) of your mothers TV being defective, some Freeview devices are more sensitive than others, the effect of being that viewing might be possible from a low level signal on one device whereas not on another, this being why its always better to try reception tests using more than one receiver, as your mother's problem might simply be down to the signal received from Bluebell Hills BBC Mux (C46) hovering at a level just high enough and no more to resolve a picture, but which is dropping off slightly towards night time.
If though the BBC channels are not received on either device, go into the TV or boxes "manual" tuning menu followed by entering C46 (Bluebells BBC) but pausing at this point, i.e: do "not" press search or scan, because if any signal is being received (no matter how low) the level of will be seen on the strength / quality bars.
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J
jb3812:28 AM
Sue : Meant also to add, disregard that said re 719 which is BBC Radio Kent (local), the test channel I should have referred to is the BBC World Service on 710.
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K
Ken C11:47 AM
jb38,
You said about Sue's mum getting BBC Solent on 719. That is almost impossible from the Bluebell Hill transmitter. Channel 719 is the channel for BBC local radio and which one you get depend or where you are (receiving your signal from), thus to get get BBC Solent you would need to be somewhere in the Southampton area. Where Sue's mum lives she should be able to get either BBC Radio Kent, BBC London or BBC Essex, but it would depend which way her aerial was pointing and ideally it should be pointing to Bluebell Hill as it's almost in her back garden, metaphorically.
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S
Sue4:47 PM
BBC1 says signal strength 50% says UHF 46 if that means anything?
It has been coming and going today - Mostly going all morning it was gone
I will take my freeview box there when I go and see if it helps
Mums is a wharfedale if that makes any difference?
Whilst I was typing this BBC channels left again...
I really think they are up to something - LOL. Mum only uses this in the evenings
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J
jb389:01 PM
Ken C: Yes, you are perfectly correct, the BBC Solent error being down to me having mistakenly viewed the Meridian channel list for another transmitter, but which I had corrected in a follow up posting made early (very) this morning @12.28am.
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J
jb389:56 PM
Sue : UHF46 means that you are receiving BBC1 etc from the correct transmitter. However 50% strength cannot be classed as particularly good on a box of the type mentioned as it isn't that much above the reception threshold drop out level, if though the quality of the signal was also indicated along with the strength? maybe you could give an update on what it was, although I do appreciate that some of these boxes only indicate a combined level.
By the way, it would also be of assistance if you could indicate the brand / model number of your own Freeview box, as many of these boxes sold under a range of different brand names are actually made by the same manufacturer.
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MikeP
10:22 PM
Trowbridge
10:22 PM
Trowbridge
Sue:
As jb38 suggests, 50% strength is not really enough for reliable reception on most TV sets. The ideal is more like 60-70% strength with a quality of at least 80% for best reception.
That suggests there may be an aerial problem at your mother's house. I agree with jb38 that checking by using another TV set (yours perhaps) might help identify whether there really is an aerial fault, but that does depend on the make and model of your own set.
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MikeP's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 9 April 2016
S
Sue10:04 AM
Mum thinks that it is not her aerial as it has been fine and then all of a sudden this happens for no reason then comes back.....
I will take my freeview box there and see if that makes any difference
Will let you know....... Thanks alot
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K
Ken C1:00 PM
Sue,
It might be worth checking the signal strength of ITV even though it's "working". You say BBC is 50% and jb38 says that isn't much above the reception threshold drop out level, it may be that ITV is only, say 55%, or 60%. Where your mum is should give you virtually 100%; she's so close to the transmitter. If the ITV signal is also low if may be a problem with the aerial down lead. If so, does the aerial lead run across the roof, from the bottom of the aerial to the gutter, because one of the problems that can occur is the lead rubs on the roof as the wind blows it back and forth. This wears the insulation away on the underside where no one can see but where rain running down the roof can get in. Water in an aerial cable at its worst is little better than cutting the cable, but any amount will weaken the signal. It's unlikely to be the "aerial" if it's up there, pointing in the right direction and intact; much more likely to be the down lead.
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