Freeview Light on the Chatham Town (Medway, England) transmitter
 | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.379,0.538 or 51°22'44"N 0°32'16"E |  | ME5 7AT |
The symbol shows the location of the Chatham Town (Medway, England) transmitter which serves 9,000 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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Chatham Town (Medway, England) transmitter._______
Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Chatham Town (Medway, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, Dave, Dave ja vu, DMAX, Drama +1, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, GREAT! action, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, GREAT! romance, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, TCC, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, W, Yesterday +1.
If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.
Which Freeview channels does the Chatham Town 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 | V max | C35 (586.0MHz) | 88m | DTG- | 5W |
 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 | V max | C39 (618.0MHz) | 88m | DTG- | 5W |
 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 | V max | C42 (642.0MHz) | 88m | DTG- | 5W |
 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 | |||||
Are you trying to watch these 44 Freeview channels?
The Chatham Town (Medway, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, Dave, Dave ja vu, DMAX, Drama +1, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, GREAT! action, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, GREAT! romance, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, TCC, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, W, Yesterday +1.
If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Chatham Town transmitter?
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 34km south-southwest (213°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 11km south (173°)
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 Chatham Town (Medway, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 19 Jul 2018 | |||||
| C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E T | B E K T | |||||
| C35 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C39 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C42 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C52tv_off | BBCB | ||||||||
| C54tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | ||||||
| C57tv_off | BBCA | ||||||||
| C58tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | D3+4 | |||||
| C61 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ||||||
| C68 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
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 | 11W | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-3.4dB) 5W |
Local transmitter maps
Chatham Town Freeview 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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Friday, 1 June 2012
Maurice: The Philips will work in 8k mode and I think that it's safe to say that a recent TV will do as well. Silly question, have you perform a rescan? If that hasn't worked, maybe a factory reset or some other type of reset?
Are you using the Tunbridge Wells transmitter?
What transmitter is your son using? Does he have more than one aerial (facing different transmitters) connected together?
If it is Sandy Heath he is using, then ITV3 changed channel on 9th May, hence a retune is required.
Does he receive Pick TV and Yesterday successfully?
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Saturday, 2 June 2012
M
Maurice10:29 AM
Thank you Dave. Not sure which transmitter either of us are using but he gets Meridian ITV on the (rescanned) box but Anglia on the TV. A few other channels gone on the box, like Pick TV, Bid TV. I've also rescanned so, thank you, we'll both try a factory reset and let you know how we get on and any other information we can glean.
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Maurice: The programme channels (services) are broadcast in groups. See under the heading "After switchover configuration" on this page and identify which are missing (you may need to refresh to see the graphic):
Freeview multiplexes | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
If the box and the TV are connected to the same aerial and there is just one aerial, then at least one of them is not tuned to the transmitter to which the aerial faces if BBC One and/or ITV1 are different regions. Transmitters only broadcast one region, hence this tends to suggest that something may be tuned incorrectly.
I should point out that ITV1+1 and ITV1HD carry different regions for some regions because there are less variations of them, so don't read anything into them being "wrong".
The first thing I would always do is check that the channels are tuned to the transmitter to which the aerial faces. Automatic tuning sequences are in no way infallible and in particular areas where signals from more than one transmitter can be picked up, relying on them can mean poor reception because the signal is being received from a direction other than which the aerial faces.
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M
Maurice3:49 PM
Thank you again, Dave. This is all very helpful and, in fact, your suggested 'factory reset' has completely solved my problem of the missing BBC1 and BBC2.
My son says he has too many recorded programmes to watch at the moment but will try the reset at a later date! He has only one aerial, pointed the same way as everyone else's, and thinks the ITV/ITVHD regional difference probably explains why he gets Meridian on HD.
There doesn't seem a way to manually tune the Phillips HDT 8520 box, only an auto scan, so he'll have to get down to watching all those recorded programmes before doing the factory reset.
Thank you again for your invaluable help.
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Maurice: A factory reset won't clear programmes that have been recorded on the hard drive; only a reformatting of the hard disk will do this.
From what you've found, it would appear that you will have to carry out a factory reset on 13th.
Your son should also carry out a factory reset and see what channels he can get.
It sounds like he does receive from Sandy Heath (south from his location). For Sandy Heath, aerials installed in the days of four-channel analogue "may" need to be replaced in order to receive the Commercial channels (ITV3, Pick TV, Yesterday, Film 4, Dave etc).
Even if his aerial is one that needs replacing, then he will probably have been able to receive ITV3 prior to 9th May. If he can get Pick TV and Yesterday now, then this suggests that his aerial will be OK and that a retune will probably restore ITV3 and other services on the SDN mux.
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Monday, 4 June 2012
M
Maurice11:16 AM
St. Neots
My son tried the factory reset today and reports all channels now restored and his recordings intact, just as you said.
From both of us, very many thanks for all your help and advice.
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Maurice's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Maurice: It's good to hear that your son now has his channels back.
Let us know if you have any issues next week.
You will have to retune again on 27th because SDN (ITV3 etc) from Tunbridge Wells will be changing channel. It will also remain at a power of 100W until 27th, so you may have difficulty picking it up until then.
I presume that this delay is due to Blue Bell Hill and Dover transmitters using C42 until they complete switchover on 27th. C42 is the channel used by TW for SDN after switchover.
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Thursday, 12 May 2016
Transmitter engineering
11:32 AM
11:32 AM
CHATHAM TOWN transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air from 09:25 today to 09:26 today, HD Digital TV Off Air from 09:25 today to 09:26 today. [BBC]
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Friday, 13 May 2016
Transmitter engineering
5:31 AM
5:31 AM
CHATHAM TOWN transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air from 09:25 yesterday to 09:26 yesterday, HD Digital TV Off Air from 09:25 yesterday to 09:26 yesterday. [BBC]
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Saturday, 14 May 2016
Transmitter engineering
5:31 AM
5:31 AM
CHATHAM TOWN transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air from 09:25 on 12 May to 09:26 on 12 May, HD Digital TV Off Air from 09:25 on 12 May to 09:26 on 12 May. [BBC]
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