Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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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 25/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C32 (562.0MHz)	242m	DTG-	20,000W
	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)	242m	DTG-	20,000W
	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)	242m	DTG-	20,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C40 (626.0MHz)	242m	DTG-8	20,000W
	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)	245m	DTG-8	20,000W
	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)	245m	DTG-8	20,000W
	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?

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	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	+BBCB	SDN
C43	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	ArqA
C45				SDN	BBCB
C46	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	ArqB
C54_{tv_off}				ArqB
C55_{tv_off}					com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}					COM8_{tv_off}
C65	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves

_{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

Sep 1955-Jul 1968	Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	Thames†
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1982-Dec 1992	Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004	Meridian
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

R

Raymond Taylor
4:12 PM

Hello
Up to last April /May 2018 we could receive a good from on UHF 43 and 46 to receive programmes at 6.30pm and ITV Meridian. It was a weak signal but generally did not pixelate unless there was tropospheric ducting in which case we could not get anything. We have received this programme since .
Now we cannot get anything. I have checked everything - the connections, head amp., power to the head amp and so on. I have checked for a signal many times when the tropospheric ducting is not present, but nothing. Also I have checked local tree growth,
Admittedly we are in a fringe area but I managed to find a spot in the front garden at about 6 feet above ground level where the signal was good, as the signal seems to funnel along Old Road, Knockholt from the east. Regards, Ray, retired BBC engineer

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Raymond Taylor's 3 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:39 PM

Raymond Taylor: underwent changes on 19th July. PSB1 can now be found on UHF 32 with PSB2 on 34.

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StevensOnln1's 3,672 posts GB flag

R

Raymond Taylor
8:25 PM

StevensOnln1:
Many thanks for info., good again ( 32 and 34) even on a group B ,
Ray

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Raymond Taylor's 3 posts GB flag

M

Martin
6:46 PM

Based in SE Essex with pointed at Blue Bell Hill as at time of installation not at full .
We get Sudbury on the back of the aerial so can view local news and weather. BBC SE and Meridian news does not cover anything north of the Thames.

Until last couple of months no real problems. Now we often cannot receive many programmes on the main 5 and many of the other channels and many of our recordings are failing.

Two weeks ago (I.e. end Lily 18) we had an engineer check the signal and to manually retune the tv and recorder boxes. The problems have not improved.

So, what has now gone wrong with Blue Bell Hill? Why sudden massive loss of signal?

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Martin's 5 posts GB flag

C

Chris
10:15 PM

I recently had the Panasonic failed recordings problem and thankfully managed to sort the issue within a week. However, I am now still having problems with the HD signals dropping out and displaying "" message for a second or two quite frequently. I thought it might be 4G so I installed a filter sent from at800. This has not solved the problem. Has anyone else experienced the same issue?

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Chris's 17 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:14 AM

Martin and Chris:

Please provide a full post code so that we can check what the expected conditions are like at your location. Without that it is impossible to make meaningful suggestions.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

C

Chris
11:45 AM
Chatham

Mike

My postcode is ME5 8UN. I am within 2km of the . My signal and strength are at 9 or 10, but I keep getting this dropping out of the and slight blocking of the . It happens every few minutes with a message flashing up, then the picture restores itself back up to full signal. It doesn't make the programme unwatchable but it is very annoying, missing a split second of dialogue here and there. The problem started a few weeks ago. Sometimes it's worse than other times.

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Chris's 17 posts GB flag

Chris's: C's Freeview map C's terrain plot C's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:23 AM

Chris:

At only 2 km from transmitter it is always likely that you have too much . Having strengths of 9 or 10 shows it is definitely too stromg and needs reducing. The ideal strength is between 60% and 85%, anything more is likely to cause the problems you report. Anything less will give unreliable .

So you need to add some attenuation into your behind the TV set. You can get them in various strengths and they are quite cheap, so get a 6dB and a 12dB plus an additional short flylead. Unplug the aerial from the back of the TV, fit the 6dB attenuator on the end of that cable, fit the additional flylead onto the TV end of the attenuator and the other end into your TV aerial input. (That is to prevent the weight of the attenuator 'hanging' on the coaxial input socket.) Then check the signal strengths again. If there are any above 85% then swap the 6dB for the 12dB and check again.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

G

Gordon Cadey
9:11 AM

Hi
could I sugest you edit the of BBCA to 32 & D3+4 to 34 had me going for a while
Regard
Gordon

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Gordon Cadey's 1 post GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:45 AM

Gordon Cadey:

Only the owner of this website can make any changes such as you suggest and he does not appear to be doing any such editing. We contributors always suggest you put your post code into the UK Coverage Checker which you can find at http://www.digitaluk.co.u…ker.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

Page 55

Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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