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Full Freeview on the Craigkelly (Fife, Scotland) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps56.071,-3.234 or 56°4'17"N 3°14'1"Wsa_postcodeKY3 9HW

 

The symbol shows the location of the Craigkelly (Fife, Scotland) transmitter which serves 430,000 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 Craigkelly (Fife, Scotland) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Craigkelly 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
C27 (522.0MHz)311mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Scotland, 2 BBC Two Scotland, 7 BBC Alba HD, 23 BBC Three, 24 BBC Four (Scotland SD), 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 13 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C24 (498.0MHz)311mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 STV (SD) (STV Central (Edinburgh micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Scotland ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Scotland ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (STV Edinburgh), 35 STV+1 (STV Edinburgh), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C21+ (474.2MHz)311mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Scotland, 102 BBC Two HD Scotland, 103 ITV 1 HD (STV West), 103 STV HD (STV West), 104 Channel 4 HD Scotland ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 108 BBC Scotland HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H -3dB
C29 (538.0MHz)311mDTG-810,000W
Channel icons
20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -3dB
C31 (554.0MHz)311mDTG-810,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -3dB
C37+ (602.2MHz)311mDTG-810,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LEH
 H -6dB
C32 (562.0MHz)311mDTG-125,000W
Channel icons
from 30th June 2014: 8 STV Edinburgh,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Craigkelly transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 70km west-southwest (252°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.
regional news image
STV News 0.5m homes 1.7%
from Edinburgh EH3 9QG, 14km south (174°)
to STV Central (Edinburgh) region - 8 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

DullaturTransposer20 km NE Glasgow40 homes
EdinburghTransposerSighthill area167 homes

How will the Craigkelly (Fife, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-133 Oct 2018
A K TK TK TK TW T
C21C4wavesC4wavesC4waves+BBCBBBCB
C24ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C27BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C29SDN
C30LEH
C31BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesArqA
C32_local
C33com7
C34com8
C37ArqB
C39+ArqB
C42SDN
C45ArqA
C48C5wavesC5waves
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off

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 1 Jun 11 and 15 Jun 11.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4 100kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 20kW
com7, com8(-9.7dB) 10.8kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 10kW
LEH(-13dB) 5kW
Analogue 5, Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*(-14dB) 4kW
Mux C*, Mux D*(-17dB) 2kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Craigkelly transmitter area

Aug 1957-Jun 1997Scottish Television
Jun 1997-Dec 2014STV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Craigkelly 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
Friday, 17 June 2011
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:47 PM

Jack: Since 2007 the transmitters have all been owned and operated by Arqiva. Before then, about half were owned by National Grid Wireless and half by Arqiva. The Arqiva half were originally set up by the Independent Broadcasting Authority and the NGW half by the BBC. Both were privatized, the IBA in 1990 and the BBC transmitter network in 1997.

Craigkelly was originally an IBA transmitter.

Permitted power levels and radiation patterns are regulated by Ofcom, but generally the broadcasters have been allowed to set whatever levels they feel are necessary. Most sites have had a reduction of 7 dB (one fifth) from their analogue signal levels, for the PSB muxes, with the COM muxes 3 dB (one half) lower than that. Some sites that previously had directional aerials to avoid interfering with other regions or other countries now have better directional properties on their new aerials, and are allowed relatively higher signal levels. For example, Rowridge only has a 4 dB (60%) cut, while Dover has a 1 dB cut (20%).

Craigkelly *does* transmit the full range of channels. If you can't receive some, that is either down to your location, or to your system setup. Digital UK's postcode checker shows a prediction of 100% probability across the board, which indicates that signal levels are likely to be high. Too much signal can also cause problems if the signals are distorted by any amplifiers in the system, including the amplifier in the TV, set-top box or PVR.

If you have an amplifier or booster, you should remove it. If not, or that doesn't help, add an attenuator to reduce signal levels, to avoid overloading the TV or box's input.

You are also expected to have a very good chance of reliable reception from Black Hill (after next week's final step there) and from Angus, while predicted levels from Durris are also high, so generally the received levels could be very high. It's worth checking that the box has tuned into the frequencies from Craigkelly and not weaker off-beam signals from one of the other transmitters. Some boxes store the first version that they find, even if it's poor, which could have happened with some of the muxes from Durris, as they're on lower channels.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:10 PM

Jack: The reasoning behind the 7 dB difference appears to be:

- For perfect reception, analogue required 43 dB of signal-to-noise ratio
- For error-free reception, digital requires about 17.3 dB of signal-to-noise ratio if line-of-sight is available (20.3 dB if not)
- Planners added 5.7 dB of 'implementation margin'
- Propogation varies over time, but 99% of this variation is within 12.8 dB of the predicted signal

Adding the required signal-to-noise, the fudge factor, and the variation, we get 35.8 dB, call it 36 dB. This is 7 dB less than the 43 dB required for PAL.

The commercial multiplexes don't have to meet the PSB multiplex requirement of 98.5% population coverage, matching predicted analogue coverage, nor do they have to make their signals reach the relay transmitters, which are nearly all fed off-air (they pick up the signal from a main transmitter and re-transmit it, usually on a different frequency). Reducing the power by half (3 dB) reduces the tolerance of variation at the fringe of the coverage area by about 5%.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
J
John
6:13 PM
Edinburgh

EH10 6JN - roof aerial, looking at Craigkelly transmitter.

Not quite sure why my post yesterday seems to have been deleted, but here goes again...

After good reception of all channels before DSO, I got broken/frozen picture during switchover. Since 15 June I (occasionally) get a few seconds of excellent picture and sound, but then screen goes black and a message saying "Due to technical difficulties the service you require is currently unavailable. Please try again later" appears. Screen then stays black indefinitely, though if I try another channel the same thing happens again.

I have tried the reset procedure and resetting to factory defaults.

I'm puzzled about getting an initial good picture and then nothing. Can anyone tell me whether this is likely to be an aerial problem?

Thanks!



link to this comment
John's 2 posts GB flag
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
R
Richard
6:26 PM

Les Nicol: Thanks for help. We are a couple of miles from West Linton village to the SE in fairly open country. Checked with DigitalTV, they say we should get good reception from Black Hill but it seems unlikely to me. Trying this after 22/6 seems like only option, if Freesat won't give Dave; also we're in a listed building so can't put up a dish anyway. Incidentally we could never get Channel 5 before, at least we can now get that. Doesn't seem fair though that there is a two tier service, we all pay the same licence fee.

link to this comment
Richard's 3 posts GB flag
D
DSS
6:32 PM

Mike : I think I understand most of what you are saying but I'm still struggling to understand why the number of Freeview channels I'm receiving now is less than what I received before Wednesday.
I know Craigkelly transmits all the channels because pre-switch I got most of them. When I look at uhf channels 39 and 42 on my TV manual tuning facility the signal quality does register but is so low that the tuner rejects them.
I really don't know what I can do to get over this problem which seems to have arisen because of the switchover on Wednesday.

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DSS's 3 posts GB flag
W
Will
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:13 PM

Colin Brown: There are other transmitters nearby which use other channels in Group A.

For example, the Durris transmitter to the north in Aberdeenshire uses channels 22, 23, 25, 26, 28 and 29. Craigkelly therefore cannot use these channels otherwise there would be interference.

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Will's 40 posts GB flag
K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:28 PM

John: It is likely that your signal is now too strong. The Digital UK postcode checker gives near perfect reception from Craigkelly, Black Hill and Angus at your location. If you have any amplifiers on the aerial remove them. If not, try inserting an attenuator in the aerial feed.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
J
John
9:25 PM
Edinburgh

Thanks KMJ - that will be a first! Signal strength on the on-screen 'meters' looks about 50% - ie a green bar extends about half way across its box. But I'll give an attenuator a try.



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John's 2 posts GB flag
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Colin Brown
9:49 PM

Will: re Craigkelly limitations. Thanks,I am aware of the your point on other transmitters using channels but I repeat only 4 MUXs in range is a bit limiting. Even your own example of Durris shows 6 MUXs in range (all below 30). Dont want to be meow but how come we cannot have one of these for Craigkelly so at least we both have five in range!

And the bottom line for lots of the recent comments here is that the advertising of 'Just retune to get your channels back' is not that easy if they have moved the new MUXes out of range! Aerial installers in Edinburgh must be loving installing dual A and B aerials or wideband aerials.

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Colin Brown's 8 posts GB flag
S
staff
10:28 PM
Falkirk

What a disappointment!!! FK2 0TJ. After eagerly waiting months for the DSO I find that I now only recieve CH24 and CH27 on each set in the house. Wide gain aerial installed. Postcode checker said I could expect very good signal. What is going on?? Is this the best we can expect in this area?? Can anyone help??

link to this comment
staff's 3 posts GB flag
staff's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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