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

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

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 04/12/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

_______

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),
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 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 35 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C43+ (650.2MHz)	245m	DTG-8	20,000W
	Smithsonian Channel, 11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's Christmas, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C46 (674.0MHz)	245m	DTG-8	20,000W
	Quest Red +1, Classic Hits, 12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! christmas mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 83 Together TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 20 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?

B

Bertmay

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

4:21 PM

After I posted I found a pdf file on digitaluk listing the changes. same info as the js link.
Annoyingly, both digitaluk & .co.uk both list my postcode as receiving signals from , plainly wrong & ridiculous.

link to this comment

Bertmay's 30 posts GB flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

6:08 AM

transmitter - Freeview: BBC TV Off Air; related from 00:01 today, HD Digital TV Off Air; DSO related from 00:02 today. [BBC]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 146,816 posts xx flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

9:08 AM

transmitter - Freeview: BBC TV Off Air; related from 00:01 today to 05:12 today, HD Digital TV Off Air; DSO related from 00:02 today to 05:13 today. [BBC]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 146,816 posts xx flag

J

Janice collins
9:20 AM

Now 9.20 I have on on tv, I know you are working at until 5.00 is that morning or night.?

link to this comment

Janice collins's 1 post GB flag

B

Bill Harmer
10:11 AM

We're close to Blue Bell hill (almost line of sight) retuned this morning at 07:30 following works and all OK except for all the BBC (CH32?).
Have tried manual retune of just CH32 and no joy, presume there must be engineering issues but it would be good to let us know.

link to this comment

Bill Harmer's 1 post GB flag

B

Bertmay

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

12:56 PM

After a full manual re-tune of all devices this morning at 10 all looked OK.
BUT, the to start Panasonic recorder at 11am did not or was not broadcast on BBC 101 HD, tried again at 12:15, still no joy. Come on wake up & restore all your signals.

I will try again on non HD channels this PM

link to this comment

Bertmay's 30 posts GB flag

P

Pete Winch
3:31 PM
Maidstone

Please i am not getting anything on my digi box or my talktalk box can anyone tell me why and what to do ??? ME15 9AD

link to this comment

Pete Winch's 1 post GB flag

Pete's: P's Freeview map P's terrain plot P's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage

S

Steve.D
3:56 PM

...still having poor issues with the BBC , since the scheduled work as posted previously above, and I'm based in the Snodland area. Have re-tuned (2 TV's and a PVR) as advised, several times so far today, but on the occation there were a few BBC channels stored, I'm seeing a very poor signal, fluctuating between 10 & 20% on both & strength? As I've seen very little in responce from any engineers upon this site, can we assume it's most likely that we, that are effected, are probably going to have to replace our aerials...??? Not impressed if this is indeed the case... Please advise?

link to this comment

Steve.D's 2 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:26 PM

Janice Collins, Bill Harmer, BertMay, Peter Winch, Steve D:

There was work done ion the transmitter overnight and that now requires a retune and possibly a replacement of a 'grouped' with a type.

Look at Coverage Checker - Detailed View and scroll down to see tha now being used by Bluebell Hill. Some now use channels 55 and 56, hence the need for a wideband aerial.

Contact the Helpline on 0808 100 0288 or 03456 505050 or at Support | Freeview as you may qualify for a free replacement of your existing aerial.

link to this comment

MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

S

Steve.D
6:29 PM

Hi Mike.P...

I took a chance and ventured up the to check my aerials position & measured it's strength using my meter.. It's still in the best spot for the signal, but what I did do was bypass an in-line filter, that was fitted back in the early days of mobile 4G launch. Hey-presto! TV's & PVR all re-tuned OK, with 100% signal strength and ...

So, a simple result for my instance, but I imagine that there might be quite a few out there that will need to invest in a new group K ...??

link to this comment

Steve.D's 2 posts GB flag

Page 91

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.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.
Your comments
Your name
Your email
Your site or @twitter
Email me updates
Save my details

Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.