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.

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 27/11/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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),
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?

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

6:07 AM

transmitter - Freeview: BBC TV Off Air from 18:14 on 17 Aug to 18:51 on 17 Aug, HD Digital TV Off Air from 18:14 on 17 Aug to 18:51 on 17 Aug. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 146,529 posts xx flag

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Paul Cooper
3:47 PM

I have checked all connections.We have 4 TVs which have and none of them are receiving any signal,and one of the is using a different ariel so the chances of 2 ariels developing a fault at exactly the same time would be unusual to say the least.At the time if writing this we still have since 18.14 on Friday 17th August and here we are on Sunday 19th.I am in the ME8 postcode area of Rainham

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Paul Cooper's 4 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:35 AM

Paul Cooper:

The transmitter had some works done on Friday between 18.14 and 18.51, when it returned to normal service.

Did you by any chance perform a retune during that time? If so, you need to retune again.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

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Paul Cooper
3:53 PM

Still today,no,I have not carried out a retune.I can't believe that its pure coincidence that the signal went at the precise time that the went down and suddenly my developed a fault.So it looks like I will give up on completely as its not worth paying out for an aerial repair because the has never been great,I will make do with Sky and NOW TV.

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Paul Cooper's 4 posts GB flag

M

MikeB

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:05 PM

Paul Cooper: Check that your sets are all actually tuned to the correct . If you have an underlying fault already with your system, then not finding the correct transmitter would starkly show that up.

Put your postcode into the website - it will soon show you if your area is good for or not. If not, then go with a , but Freeview would be much cheaper even in the short term - the equipment is a one off payment, and its possible your TV already has a tuner.

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag

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clive Lambkin
8:55 PM

I am unable to receive 87 keep it county from blue bell hill even after repeatedly resetting .

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clive Lambkin's 1 post GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:27 PM

Clive Lambkin:

Kepp It Country is broadcast on COM7 and that requires both a and a suitable aerial to receive the transmissions. Do you get any of the other programmes broadcast on COM 7 and COM 8? Do you have a aerial?

Please give your full post code so that we can check the expected conditions at your location. You can also enter that into the UK Coverage Checker at Digital UK - Coverage checker and ensure you are tuned to the correct for your location and also see what the expected reception is like.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

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Grant R Brooker
5:53 PM

My is always dropping out and now I have no HD at all. I am tuned into the transmitter the signal really is very poor and I even loose radio channels as well.
Any idea how I can get my HD channels back as I paid a lot of money for my TV and the signal is so poor I cannot enjoy it?

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Grant R Brooker's 1 post GB flag

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StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:56 PM

Grant R Brooker: Either you are in a fringe area or you have a fault in your system somewhere. Start by checking for any loose or damaged cables or connections behind your TV. Please provide a full postcode so that we can see where you are in relation to the and your predicted signal strength etc.

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StevensOnln1's 3,566 posts GB flag

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Clive Whitehead
11:27 AM

I'm trying to find a clear , without to send a from the RF2 outlet from my Sky HD box to other rooms. It's sent using an but for some reason it is not a perfect picture and I suspect it's Freeview interference. I live in Whitstable and when I lived at the top of the hill it was a good picture, but since moving down the hill to Seasalter 3 years ago it has deteriated. Any would be appreciated so I can retune the broadcasting setting from my box.
Kind Regards
Clive

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Clive Whitehead's 1 post US flag

Page 97

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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