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 04/12/2023 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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Sunday, 7 October 2018
MikeP
10:18 AM
10:18 AM
Clive Whitehead:
To advise we need you to post your full post code so that we can tell which transmitter you are near and hence which channels are not currently in use.
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Tuesday, 9 October 2018
D
DaveK9:04 AM
I keep losing certain channels on my freeview box due to no signal or signal too weak. Quest, drama, yesterday. being the main ones I watch (Im getting no signal on them now) there are others I lose or keeps breaking up
Ive done a retune loads of times, when I save Im given the choice of London or Kent. If I select London I can receive Quest, Drama and the ones I keep losing, but it doesnt find ITV and loads of other channels. But if I select Kent it finds them all but I keep losing quest, drama, yesterday etc
But my TV with its own built in freeview receives them all?? Thats saved to Kent as well???
Other TVs and freeview boxes in the house seem to be able to get quest yesterday etc ok??
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MikeP
10:26 AM
10:26 AM
DaveK:
Please provide a full post code, as requested, so that we can detwermine the reception conditions at your location and which transmitter(s) you should be able to receive from.
Retuning as a bad idea as all it will do is lose many channels that might have been correctly tune.
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Wednesday, 10 October 2018
K
Ken Collyer11:00 AM
DaveK,
Can I suggest that you look at the signal strength for the programmes that are suffering weak or no signal. This may sound a bit daft but when you find the facility within the menu for monitoring signal strength it will also show what channel you're receiving the program on. Bluebell Hill is transmitting PSB1 on channel 32, PSB2 on 34, PSB3 on$%, COM4 on40, COM5 on 43 COM6 on 46, COM7 on 55 and COM 8 on 56, NOT as listed above (it's about three months out of date) but the programs are still transmitted on the same PSB or COM. The reason I make this suggestion is because I had a similar problem with weak or no signal on some station and when I investigated further I found that although I had selected KENT for my prefered transmitter my PVR had decided to save COM6 and 8 from London, not Bluebell Hill, resulting in the "Weak signal" or "No signal". For you it maybe other than London, perhaps Anglia or Tunbridge. To overcome this problem I selected all the programs transmitted on COM6 and 8, deleted them and did a manual re-tune on those two COM's. I hope this helpful. Incidentally, I too had no problem with my TV, only the PVR.
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Thursday, 11 October 2018
MikeP
11:12 AM
11:12 AM
DaveK:
One common cause for problems like yours is poor aerial connections. So polease check all your aerial cables and if there are coaxial plugs/sockets then unplug them and refit. That will clear any corrosion/oxidation on the contacts and often cures the problem.
Further to that said by Ken Collyer, your signal strengths should all be between 60% and 85% - not more and no less.
Note that PSB3 from Bluebell hill is on channel 45 currently.
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Monday, 15 October 2018
C
Chris.SE5:07 AM
MikeP:
As I have said before, I do not agree with your view on signal strength should not be more than 85%. This all very receiver dependant. People should be aware that too much signal can overload a receiver, but if quality on the muxes is 100% then there should be no issue with strength above 85%. Most of my strengthson Mendip are above 85% on 3 different receivers, one of which is PVR, and there are no issues. BUT that does not necessarily mean it would be the same for eg. a neighbour. Also note, the receiver might say the strength is 100% and that may not be accurate in all cases. Again, if quality is 100% and no loss of signal (except when there is transmitter work or adverse weather conditions) then there should be nothing to worry about.
Personally I also think 60% is possibly too low. That might become more critical for COMs 7&8 as more transmitters move to sharing UHF55&56.
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MikeP
10:52 AM
10:52 AM
Chris SE:
When we regular contributors respond to a query, we have no knowledge of what equipment might be in use. The figures we all use are what has been found to suit all known equipment. Some are more sensitive than others and some less so. So between 60% and 85% is a good working average that works for everyone. Hence its extensive use.
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M
MikeB10:21 PM
Chris.SE: I dont know of many tuners that are happy above 85% - my old Sony PVR got to about 93% before the ocassional breakup, but Mike P is right - 65-85% is fine, and might be too high for some.
If someone gets 100% quality and signal, good luck to them. But when a tuner is just on the cusp of having too high a signal strength, even the slightest change can have an effect. True, its a balancing act with less powerful coms, but I am fifty km from my transmitter, and I still have to kill some of the signal to avoid drop outs.
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Tuesday, 16 October 2018
C
Chris.SE2:26 AM
MikeP: & MikeB:
Whilst you have both made some statements that are correct -
eg. "Some are more sensitive than others and some less so."
eg. "a tuner is just on the cusp of having too high a signal strength, even the slightest change can have an effect."
you did not read carefully what I said -
Quote "This all very receiver dependant. People should be aware that too much signal can overload a receiver"
Quote "but if quality on the muxes is 100% then there should be no issue with strength above 85%."
Quote "Also note, the receiver might say the strength is 100% and that may not be accurate in all cases"
Quote "if quality is 100% and no loss of signal (except when there is transmitter work or adverse weather conditions) then there should be nothing to worry about. "
MikeB: Your comments "65-85% is fine, and might be too high for some."
"its a balancing act"
If I ever come across a receiver where 65% is too strong, I would say that it is not fit for purpose and would take the manufacturer to task.
As you've said, It can be a balancing act on occasions unfortunately.
I also said - Quote "I also think 60% is possibly too low. That might become more critical for COMs 7&8 as more transmitters move to sharing UHF55&56."
Whilst that is pure speculation, I don't think any of us can make any accurate comment on this as none of us have yet had the experience with multiple transmitters sharing the same 2 UHF channels.
Whilst I can't give any accurate reports from other equipment at present as I'm away, I will quote for the receiver I'm currently looking at on another main transmitter - It's an older Samsung and is showing 95% signal on all muxes and also 0 bit error on all muxes. It's 14 miles line of sight to the transmitter, I can go outside and see the red navigation warning lights on the mast. There is no pixelation or break up of picture or sound.
Whilst I may not post here every day, I have been posting for a number of years and have made more posts than my profile shows due to a change in email address which the system messed up and despite requests, like other things on the site, hasn't been updated/corrected. My comments are also based on being an experienced engineer, now retired.
All the figures we've quoted are not rigid, set in stone, etc. Whilst it reasonable to give a guide, to imply that more (or less) than a certain figure will give significant problems, is not reasonable, figures ought to be qualified.
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