Full Freeview on the Craigkelly (Fife, Scotland) transmitter
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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._______
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
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
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.
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?
BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 70km west-southwest (252°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.
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?
| Dullatur | Transposer | 20 km NE Glasgow | 40 homes |
| Edinburgh | Transposer | Sighthill area | 167 homes |
How will the Craigkelly (Fife, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 3 Oct 2018 | |||||
| A K T | K T | K T | K T | W T | |||||
| C21 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C24 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C27 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C29 | SDN | ||||||||
| C30 | LEH | ||||||||
| C31 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ArqA | |||||
| C32 | _local | ||||||||
| C33 | com7 | ||||||||
| C34 | com8 | ||||||||
| C37 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C39 | +ArqB | ||||||||
| C42 | SDN | ||||||||
| C45 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C48 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_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
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Friday, 17 June 2011
K
kevin10:34 AM
Edinburgh
Hi, I'm situated at leith links with a communal ariel on the roof. Since switchover I can receive all channels but they are unwatchable! They look as if they are scrambled, e4 is particularly bad.
The only channels that work are the new HD ones. Everything worked perfectly before the 15th. This very frustrating. Any help would be appreciated.
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kevin's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb3811:32 AM
kevin: As you are only approximately 7 miles line-of-sight away from Craigkelly you could be receiving a signal on the verges of being too powerful, albeit that HD can tolerate that better.
I cant see that you have any option but to try reducing the signal into your TV by purchasing a simple (minimum reduction) attenuator, these only being a few pounds.
There is always an element of hit and miss with these things, especially when using a communal aerial which will undoubtedly have an element of amplification in the system, but unless your situation improves by trying out a further re-scan I cant see anything else you can do.
Although its not by any means a 100% accurate test, but try and find out if any of your neighbours are having problems just in case its the distribution system at fault.
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Max5511:58 AM
I have retuned three times and even reset factory default. I have all digital channels except HD which all say no signalon on both Sony HD Box and Toshiba Bravia HD Tv.
I am in EH29 and pointing at CraigKelly any thoughts please??
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J
John1:23 PM
Cowdenbeath
Well I have all the channels and all the HD channels because I have Freeview HD in my TV.
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John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
D
DSS1:23 PM
Digital Switchover at Craigkelly has been a disaster for me. My TV will not receive channels 39 and 42 now although it got them fine before the switch. I had some idea that the signal strength was going to be boosted on DSO but in my case it has been reduced. What to do ? Any ideas ?
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Jack1:28 PM
Balerno
Have retuned numerous times and am now resignied to the fact that DSO has resulted in even fewer channels than I could receive before. (Am in EH14).
I stumbled across this website more or less by accident and I don't pretend to understand the technical details. I am however interested in who "owns"/"runs" Craigkelly. Why does it not transmit the full range of channels? How or why is it allowed to transmit on lower power than other transmitters?
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Jack's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick1:47 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 Dimmick2:10 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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John6:13 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: 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.
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