Full Freeview on the Darvel (East Ayrshire, Scotland) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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55.579,-4.291 or 55°34'45"N 4°17'26"W

KA16 9LS

The symbol shows the location of the Darvel (East Ayrshire, Scotland) transmitter which serves 150,000 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 Darvel (East Ayrshire, Scotland) mast?

Darvel transmitter - Darvel transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 22/04/2024 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 Darvel 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	C22- (481.8MHz)	446m	DTG-	20,000W
	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	C25 (506.0MHz)	446m	DTG-	20,000W
	3 STV (SD) (STV Central (Glasgow 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),
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C28 (530.0MHz)	446m	DTG-	20,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H -3dB	C32 (562.0MHz)	446m	DTG-8	10,000W
	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, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others
COM5 ArqA	H -3dB	C34 (578.0MHz)	446m	DTG-8	10,000W
	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 TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	H -3dB	C35 (586.0MHz)	446m	DTG-8	10,000W
	12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 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 Darvel transmitter?

BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 31km north (1°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.

STV News 1.3m homes 4.8%
from Glasgow G51 1PQ, 31km north (2°)
to STV Central (Glasgow) region - 94 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

Craigie Gardens	Transposer		1 homes 90 caravans
Inversnaid	Active deflector	35 km N Dumbarton	8 homes Hotel caravan park

How will the Darvel (East Ayrshire, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2011	2011-13	5 Sep 2018
	A K T	A K T	A K T	A K T	W T
C22				-BBCA	BBCA
C23	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	SDN
C25				D3+4	D3+4
C26	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	ArqA
C28				BBCB	BBCB
C29	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	ArqB
C30				_local
C31					com7
C32					SDN
C33	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves
C34					ArqA
C35		C5_waves	C5_waves		ArqB
C37					com8
C55_{tv_off}					com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}					COM8_{tv_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 11 May 11 and 25 May 11.

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

Analogue 1-5	100kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 20kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB	(-10dB) 10kW
com8	(-10.9dB) 8.19kW
com7	(-11.2dB) 7.5kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B	(-14dB) 4kW
Mux C, Mux D	(-17dB) 2kW

Local transmitter maps

Darvel Freeview Darvel DAB Darvel AM/FM Darvel TV region BBC Scotland STV Central (Glasgow micro region)

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

Aug 1957-Jun 1997	Scottish Television
Jun 1997-Dec 2014	STV 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. Darvel 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?

Radiation patterns withheld

N

noel
6:18 PM

Thanks Brian :) My TV uses a configuration file to do a . I changed all the 2k transmission modes to 8k so the new file is as follows:

T 481833000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 8k 1/32 NONE
T 505833000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 561833000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 529833000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 8k 1/32 NONE
T 546167000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 8k 1/32 NONE
T 578000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 8k 1/32 NONE

I immediately found all the BBC channels, but no others. If you can point me somewhere where I can find the rest of the technical info I need to create a proper post- config that would be fantastic.

Noel

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noel's 4 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

7:14 PM

noel: It is all listed at the top of the page.

All multiplexes are MHz 2/3 8k 1/32 now, with the exception of the HD BBCB, which is 256QAM 2/3 32k, but you will need a DVB-T2 device to receive that.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

N

noel
8:04 PM

Thanks again. In case anyone else is in the same boat, here's the final working config file. Note that I found PSB/BBCA on 481833000 not 482000000. The rest is the same as the info at the top of this page.

# UK, post tuning info

# PSB1/BBCA
T 481833000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE

# PSB2/D3+4
T 506000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE

# PSB3/BBCB (HD require dvb-t2 tuner)
T 530000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE

# COM4/SDN
T 490000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE

# COM5/ArqA
T 514000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE

# COM6/ArqB
T 538000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE

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noel's 4 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

8:16 PM

noel: , I had missed the "-" from the BBCA allocation, I have corrected the database.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

david b
8:22 PM

Noel, thanks that kind of clears things up for me. i tune through tv so basic the only one that is off BBCA i still get 100% I've got everything except the HD ,which you cleared up, problem still there but not the freq'...?

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david b's 8 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

8:24 PM

noel: Also as I said BBCB is 256QAM 32k DVB-T2.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

N

noel
8:36 PM

rgr - sorry can't edit my post

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noel's 4 posts GB flag

D

Duncan
9:22 PM

Hi there, retuned to today and went fine but no HD . on all other channels fine except (HD). Is HD being transmitted?

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Duncan's 2 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

9:43 PM

Duncan: Yes, started broadcasting today. You will need a DVB-T2 (branded Freeview HD) set or box to watch the service, see What does "Full HD Ready" actually mean? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

R

Ralph Wilson
10:02 PM
Dalry

Hi there,
successfully retuned Sony TV KDL-40EX703 ( HD included) after 25 May and was able to see all incl HD from the .
However today haven't been able to receive BBC1 and BBC2 on . Are there any outages?
mounted line of sight, installed 6 months ago, KA24 5LG
regards

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Ralph Wilson's 2 posts GB flag

Ralph's: R's Freeview map R's terrain plot R's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Page 11

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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