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.

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.

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?

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:24 AM

Geoff:

Putting your postcode in Digital UK - Coverage checker shows you should have adequate for COMs 7&8 on &56. However, note C55&56 are now used as Single Networks (SFN) for COMs7&8 and you may be getting from the .
I note that there's only a small difference in the bearing for the two transmitters, but you are so very close to . To me it suggests that the installed is inadequate - it's not directional enough or hasn't been aligned correctly. In either case you need to do as MikeP has suggested and complain to the complex management. As he's said systems can develop faults, the aerial may have moved or for some reason not been installed correctly.

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Chris.SE's 4,363 posts GB flag

G

Geoff
9:49 PM

Thanks for all the input - amazingly the last two days has seen no issues with the .
However I, and some others, will be trying to persuade management that the system must be looked at. Everything said here makes absolute sense, so will see how it goes.
Thanks again
Geoff

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Geoff's 5 posts GB flag

C

Chris
11:10 AM
Chatham

Currently have "" on HD ch. 45, 55 and 56. Signal strength good but signal zero. Is anyone else having issues? I have had problems with the dropping out regularly on CH45 since last July and now need to get this sorted as it's driving me nuts. Is it my system or is it a transmission problem? Other people have reported similar problems on this forum previously. Postcode ME5 8UN. Any advice welcome and will respond asap. Thanks

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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

7:32 PM

Chris:

Full post code please?

Also check the reported strengths for all the multiplexes.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

C

Chris
9:49 PM
Chatham

MikeP:

Full postcode ME5 8UN.

The must have came back on early afternoon (successful recording at 2pm). I have been out all afternoon until 8pm and the was fine then. However, as I am writing this at 9.30pm the channels are coming and going. Signal strength 70-90% Signal 0-10% on CH45, 46, 55 & 56 multiplexes. There is no problem with the strength which is stable, but the quality is fluctuating resulting in pixelation and "" messages. Had enough of it now but will check again in the morning.

Thanks

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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

C

Chris
10:11 AM

The were working when I first switched on this morning, but now I have lost them again from around 9am. Recording failed at 10pm last night due to . CH45, 46 and 56 have no signal . CH55 has 90-100% signal quality but is registering "bit error rate" and keeps pixelating.

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Chris's 17 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:35 PM

Chris:

Firstly plkease check all your connections, cables and the plugs/sockets by unplugging them and refitting. If the issue continues it is most likely to be the current high pressure area.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

A

Alan overy
3:21 PM

I'm having trouble with my from . The blocks and the goes both intermittently.
I have retuned my tv as soon as it prompts on screen but still having trouble has been happening for a while now. I live in Bean DA28BX and have new arial and slx4 . Can you.

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Alan overy's 1 post GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:58 PM

Chris: & Alan overy:

There is Planned work at this week with "Possible Weak ". That's probably what you are seeing the effects of. I'd just be patient.

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Chris.SE's 4,363 posts GB flag

C

Chris
7:39 PM

Alan overy:

Are you still having problems with your from or has it resolved itself yet?

Is it particularly bad this (Friday) evening? My HD are currently off or ar very best unwatchable..

I have been having similar problems to you for months now.

Which channels are affected?

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Chris's 17 posts GB flag

Page 62

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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