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

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.324,0.520 or 51°19'25"N 0°31'13"Esa_postcodeME5 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.

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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C32 (562.0MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
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)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
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)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 H max
C40 (626.0MHz)242mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
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)245mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
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)245mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
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?

regional news image
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 28km southwest (218°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
regional news image
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?

1984-971997-981998-20122012-1319 Jul 2018
EEEW TW T
C21_local
C28_local
C32com7
C34com8
C39+ArqA
C40BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCBSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4ArqA
C45SDNBBCB
C46BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCAArqB
C54tv_offArqB
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Bluebell Hill transmitter area

Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Thames†
Jul 1968-Dec 1981London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Meridian
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV 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.

Comments
Wednesday, 31 October 2018
K
Keith Mayger
4:29 PM
Rochester

Hi. I have lost BBC channels from the Blue Bell Hill transmitter, but ITV channels have a good picture. Is there a problem? My aerial is on the roof and looks fine. My postcode is ME1 1UW.
Many thanks
Keith Mayger

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Keith Mayger's 1 post US flag
Keith's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
B
Bertmay
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:43 PM
Sittingbourne

BBC off air, its been off for 30 minutes or so.
ME10 1DB

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Bertmay's 32 posts GB flag
Bertmay's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 1 November 2018
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:35 AM

Keith Mayger: & Bertmay:

As you can see there is a Transmitter engineering report. Hope you are both receiving the BBC channels OK now.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag
Monday, 5 November 2018
D
Dave Aldridge
7:16 PM

Hi For the last week or so I keep getting intermittent breaks with reception...tv screen saying no signal this normally last for about 4sec sometimes a little longer....I have phoned Freeview and taken there advice and retuned....it is still doing the same.....this is happening on both our Freeview TV's .
Any advice is welcome

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Dave Aldridge's 1 post US flag
Tuesday, 6 November 2018
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:38 AM

Dave Aldridge:

Retuning will not resolve the type of issue you are experiencing, all it is likely to do is loose you some channels you still had! Please check all your aerial cables and connections for any damage or problems, Check all the coaxial plugs/sockets, including those at the back of the equipments, by unplugging and refitting. That will clear any possible corrosion/oxidation from the contacts which is a known cause of the problems such as you report.

Please also [rovide a full post code so we can examine the expected reception conditions at your location.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:57 PM

Dave Aldridge:

Also note, there has been some issues at the transmitter, see the Transmitter Engineering reports, and there is transmitter engineering work listed this week at Bluebell Hill with possible weak signal.

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 7 November 2018
K
Kenny
1:02 AM

Chris.SE: I think there might be a problem with darvel transmitter lots of bbc plus others missing. Osignal or intermittent

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Kenny's 1 post US flag
C
Chris
1:24 AM

CH55 & CH56 (Com78 National) currently off air.

I have messed around with attenuators, cables, connections, retunes, reboots, updates, etc, etc, etc, for the last few months and now getting sick of Freeview unreliability. I really respect everything that the regular forum contributors such as MikeP and Chris.SE say, but the fact is that before 19th July 2018, I never had any problems with the service that I received, but since then it has been completely hit & miss. Who is responsible for recent changes, why so many transmitter engineering downtimes and why can't they just get it right?

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Chris's 17 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:36 AM

Chris:

COM7 and COM8 are working normally at the Bluebell Hill transmitter according Digital UK. The transmitters are operated and maintained by Arqiva and they work with Ofcom and the European regulators to determine the scheme of transmissions. Arqiva can be contacted at https://www.arqiva.com/co…us/.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 13 November 2018
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:04 AM

Kenny: There are some Transmitter Engineering reports on the Darvel Transmitter page.

Chris: Did you see my post to you on Tuesday, 30 October 2018 at 5:58 AM?

I posed a number of questions there, how did this all pan out?
Also note, there is Transmitter Engineering work at Bluebell Hill this week with possible service interruptions.

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
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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