Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter
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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 25/11/2024 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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Tuesday, 12 April 2016
K
Ken C4:07 PM
Sue,
As I stated in an earlier comment, if your mum has an HD TV (NOT HD READY), she could try getting the BBC HD versions of the station, that is BBC1 HD on 101, BBC2 HD on 102 and all the others somewhere in the hundreds. You can find them in the "pretty" bit towards the top of this page. If your mum hasn't got an HD TV, it might be worth considering getting one, although it would be best if you could borrow one to try first. An HD tv might work while the present one doesn't because the HD channels are transmitted on different frequencies. In the old days of analogue TV, before digital switchover, you had one tv station on one Channel, a bit like one letter in one envelope. One "envelope" for the BBC1 " letter", and another for the BBC2 "letter" and so on. With digital it's like putting several, but not all, letters in one envelope. Most BBC non HD stations and, I think, all BBC radio station go in one "envelope", some commercial stations in another " envelope", more commercial stations in another and the HD stations in one or more other "envelopes". So, like with proper letters, when they arrive you get all the "letters" in that "envelope", but if one "gets lost in the post" it doesn't mean the other "envelopes" with other "letters" aren't going to arrive. When the "envelope" arrives at/in your tv, the tv has to open the "envelope" and sort the "letters" so you can "read" them.
I hope that isn't to simplistic, but I'm aware that not everybody understands how modern TV's and the transmission system works. I've work in electronics for over 40 years and there's lots that I don't understand.
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S
Sue5:14 PM
No she doesn't have a HD Tv. Tho it is not a CRT one
She wont get a new TV, she and I believe that as it was all right not long ago and all of a sudden is wrong, pixellating or disappearing also for Mick... I believe that one day it might all of a sudden be OK again as this all seemed to start when BBC3 went online only....
I dunno...... Freeview was supposed to make it easier when they got rid of analogue... But seems that was short lived, lol
Thanks
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M
MikeB5:40 PM
Mick:
'We've had two days where the channels were working well, but last night the pixelation and missing channels recurred.
When the channel is good, the signal strength is about 95% (almost a full bar) and the signal quality is "very good".
When the channel is pixelated, the signal strength is still 95% but the signal quality says "none". '
95% is far too high - 75% is normally just fine. The tuners in your various bits of equipment are really robust, my Sony PVR got up to 93% strength when it started to wobble a little. However, they are all just teetering on the brink of breaking up, and it can be a slight fluctuation which makes them go.
Search for 'too much of a good thing' on this website, and there will be answers. Attenuators are really cheap - fixed or variable, and if one isn't quite enough, you can always add another. make sure of course that you have no boosters, etc working - if you take that out of the system, everything might be fine.
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MikeB's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 21 April 2016
S
Sue3:44 PM
@Transmitter engineering - How long will this be going on - And also has it been going on for this past couple of weeks or so? Thanks alot
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Wednesday, 27 April 2016
S
Sue9:57 AM
@Transmitter_engineering - How long will this be going on - And also has it been going on for this past couple of weeks or so? Thanks alot
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Friday, 20 May 2016
S
sue5:07 PM
Is anything happening here as now the BBC channels are OK - And the ITV ones are playing up with no signal - Affected Channels are ITV ones and Ch4...
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Friday, 17 June 2016
J
Jay7:43 AM
Can anyone advise if Bluebell Hill will be having channels on the PSB3 block . These are the for HD channels namely BBC1 ,, ITV etc .
I have checked on free view website to confirm that this block is missing and that I revive the 8HD stations on other blocks .
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R
Richard Cooper10:55 AM
Norwich
Jay: Hi, Jay. There are no reported issues or engineering works at the Bluebell Hill transmitter at the moment. It should be outputting the public service HD channels on UHF channel 40+, at a frequency of 626.2 MHz at its full power of 20,000 watts from 99% of its full aerial height of 242 metres (about 800 feet). Have you tried a manual tune of this block or multiplex on its own? A manual re-tune at a particular UHF channel number will not cause the loss of any of your other channels: they will remain stored in the receiver's memory. It is also worth asking a neighbour who has HD whether they have lost the public service HD channels as well, so you can ascertain whether the problem is with your installation or perhaps a temporary geographical issue such as tree foliage. hope this helps. Incidentally, someone in Salisbury, using a completely different transmitter has lost public service HD channels this morning too! Richard, Norwich.
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Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
Jay12:22 PM
Jay:
Sorry , not sure if my reply got posted .
But my neighbours have sky and virgin , so not much help there . I have retuned my Freeview TV .
On the the freeview website , using postcode search I am receiving channels as they advise . 8 HD Channels .
But no PSB3 , hence my original questions . I cannot add individual channels on option from TV ,
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R
Richard Cooper12:48 PM
Norwich
Jay: Hi again, Jay. Further to my last post: firstly, I'm sorry that your tv doesn't allow a manual re-tune. Secondly, someone in Kent has posted to say that they are not getting the PSB3 HD channels this morning either, and so i'm beginning to wonder if there is some distribution problem that hasn't been made public? Perhaps, if after doing a full re-tune, the PSB3 HD channels are still not there, then you might have to wait until something has been publicised as to the reason. In the meantime, I imagine you will only be able to watch the main PSB channels in SD until the situation has been resolved. Kind regards, Richard, Norwich.
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Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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