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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.

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 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


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),

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 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, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C43+ (650.2MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
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 TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C46 (674.0MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 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
Monday, 16 July 2018
B
Bertmay
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

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 & freeview .co.uk both list my postcode as receiving signals from Dover, plainly wrong & ridiculous.

link to this comment
Bertmay's 30 posts GB flag
Thursday, 19 July 2018
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

6:08 AM

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

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

9:08 AM

BLUEBELL HILL transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air; DSO 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 149,799 posts xx flag
J
Janice collins
9:20 AM

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



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Janice collins's 1 post GB flag
B
Bill Harmer
10:11 AM

We're close to Blue Bell hill transmitter (almost line of sight) retuned this morning at 07:30 following engineering works and all OK except for all the BBC channels (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.

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Bill Harmer's 1 post GB flag
B
Bertmay
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:56 PM

After a full manual re-tune of all devices this morning at 10 all channels looked OK.
BUT, the signal 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 Freeview wake up & restore all your signals.

I will try again on non HD channels this PM

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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

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Pete Winch's 1 post GB flag
Pete's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Steve.D
3:56 PM

...still having poor signal issues with the BBC channels, 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 quality & 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?

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Steve.D's 2 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:26 PM

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

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

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

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



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
S
Steve.D
6:29 PM

Hi Mike.P...

I took a chance and ventured up the loft to check my aerials position & measured it's signal 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 quality...

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 aerial...??

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Steve.D's 2 posts GB flag
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