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.
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 25/09/2023 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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Wednesday, 31 January 2018
MikeP
11:43 PM
11:43 PM
Michael Ololeye:
Indoor aerials may work when you are close to a main transmitter or one that radiates a strong signal. As Norman D Landing states, you would be much better off having an aerial mointed above your roof, possible mounted on a chmney stack, that is a log-periodic type so that it is suitable for all future planned transmissions.
Where you were near Colchester is just about near enough top Sudbury to get reasonable reception.
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Tuesday, 6 February 2018
B
Bertmay1:53 PM
ME10 using Bluebell Hill transmitter.
Who is responsible for sending out the start/stop signals for recorders?
Recently the BBC4HD channel changed to a different multiplex, after re-tuning the box it would not get the recording start signal. Now I just select the standard non HD broadcast if I want to record anything on BBC4.
This coming week 2 programs, Mcmafia & Hardsun are not being recognised by the HDD recorder, as they are the final shows in the series I will have to select them again in non HD format. All commercial HD channels are OK, it seems to me that someone is altering things in the ether that buggers up the program list & they are not sending out the required signals for recorders to pick up when to start/stop. In fact my Panasonic HDD says "NO Data" for Mcmafia & Hardsun, all the rest of the series went OK.
I am suspicious that the BBC are making room for the Olympics. They have form on this as for the last summer Olympics I had to re-tune twice to get the program list to be reliable.
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J
js2:52 PM
Bertmay: McMafia and Hard Sun are on BBC One so what has BBC Four HD got to do with it?
I would do a factory reset on that Panasonic.
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MikeP
11:52 PM
11:52 PM
Bertmay:
As far as I know PDC is not operating on Freeview, but I stand to be corrected by someone with inside technical information.
Therefore a recorder will start and stop at the times set by the selection of thwe programme and the user-selected 'lead' time to start before the programme actually starts.
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Wednesday, 7 February 2018
B
Bertmay3:52 PM
To js,
I record Mcmafia & Hardsun from the BBC One HD channel multiplex not the standard output. As the loss of the data from the program guide failed, I have now cancelled the original request & re-selected those 2 programs & they have been recognised by the recorder. As for BBC4HD, that went awry when the channel was moved to a different multiplex, all part of clearing the 700MHz band from Bluebell Hill. I've re-scanned a couple of times since then & all is OK now, so the box is fine.
MikeP,
If the program is delayed for some reason, The recorder won't start until the the program finally starts, so there must be some signal put out to start these devices. If I set it to start & stop at a certain time, it will just follow those instructions.
All just minor niggles.
Bert
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M
MikeB9:46 PM
Bertmay: Check which transmitter the PVR tried to lock onto when recording BBC1 HD. I used to have the problem with my Sony PVR of attempting to record BBC1 from Waltham, but the tuner suddenly deciding to use Talcneston. The tuner got just enough signal to confuse the box, but not enough to actually record anything, and the box would essentially just wait to record.
This was largely cured by killing off the 800 channels which caused the problem, and fitting an attenuator to kill the signal a bit. And Panasonics are known to have sensitive tuners.
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Thursday, 8 February 2018
B
Bertmay11:45 AM
MikeB,
It definitely looks at Bluebell hill. I do manual re-scanning when required, there is also a box in the loft that blocks Crystal Palace to some extent.
The signals to start stop recording are sent out by the broadcaster are called crids, content reference identifiers, so I have learned today.
Anyway, the Panasonic sorted itself out when the program guide updated itself in the morning.
Thanks for your replies
Bert
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Monday, 19 February 2018
M
Mike Weatherley4:20 PM
Hi, is anyone else aware of sunspots/weather being a problem in the last fortnight? My digital signal keeps breaking up (usually when the sunshine is strong in a clear blue sky) or I lose all signal completely. Switching to another set-top box makes no difference & there's nothing wrong with the roof-top aerial. So it must be a problem with the digital signals/weather. Cheers, Mike.
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M
MikeB4:32 PM
Mike Weatherley: Hmm, have you heard of Occams Razor?
The most likely cause of the problem is the most straighforward - your system either has a fault, or your getting far too much signal, hence the breakup. Check the transmitter it actually tuned into, and signal strength.
People always say its the transmitter, the weather, aliens, 4G, etc. But in reality, the key variable is the connections and sate of wiring inside your house.
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Friday, 2 March 2018
M
Mike Weatherley1:04 PM
MikeB: Occam's Razor - use it every day to shave. I'm a trained scientist. As for your theory: bollocks! There was obviously a transitory problem with the transmitter/weather/satellite configuration for that week causing the beak-up of the signal, as it's been clear again ever since, with exactly the same TV, set-top box & roof-top aerial. Occam's razor says: original theory proved correct. Don't be so dismissive & rude in future, but try offering genuinely helpful comments! So there!
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