Freeview Light on the Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) transmitter
 | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 53.696,-2.444 or 53°41'47"N 2°26'37"W |  | BB3 3SE |
The symbol shows the location of the Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) transmitter which serves 15,000 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 Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) mast?
Darwen transmitter - Darwen transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 30/09/2024 Screen may go black 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.
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: U&Yesterday, 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, DMAX, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, FRANCE 24 (in English), GREAT! action, GREAT! christmas, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, 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, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, U&Dave, U&Dave ja vu, U&Drama +1, U&W.
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 Darwen 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 | C45 (666.0MHz) | 312m | DTG- | 100W |
 1 BBC One (SD) North West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others | |||||
| PSB2 D3+4 | V max | C39+ (618.2MHz) | 312m | DTG- | 100W |
 3 ITV 1 (SD) (Granada), 4 Channel 4 (SD) North ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 North ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Granada), 71 That’s 60s, | |||||
| PSB3 BBCB | V max | C42 (642.0MHz) | 312m | DTG- | 100W |
 46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD North West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Granada), 104 Channel 4 HD North 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 Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: U&Yesterday, 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, DMAX, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, FRANCE 24 (in English), GREAT! action, GREAT! christmas, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, 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, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, U&Dave, U&Dave ja vu, U&Drama +1, U&W.
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 Darwen transmitter?
BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 27km south-southeast (159°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.
ITV Granada Reports 3.1m homes 11.6%
from Salford M50 2EQ, 27km south-southeast (159°)
to ITV Granada region - 80 masts.
How will the Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 31 Mar 2018- | |||||
| B E T | B E T | B E T | B E T | B E K T | |||||
| C39 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | D3+4 | |||||
| C42 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C45 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C49tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | +D3+4 |
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 4 Nov 09 and 2 Dec 09.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 500W | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 100W |
Local transmitter maps
Darwen Freeview Darwen DAB Darwen AM/FM Winter Hill TV region BBC North West GranadaWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Winter Hill transmitter area
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldMonday, 10 February 2014
Anthony Grime: I help out on here as a technical bod rather than an aerial installer.
The higher the gain of the aerial the narrower its acceptance angle. That is, gain in one direction is gained by increasing "loss" in others.
As you live at the bottom of a drop you don't have any "beam" from the transmitter to which direct your aerial. For that reason a high gain aerial is not recommended.
A lower gain aerial will offer a wider acceptance angle over which to receive. With digital quality is important, and more so than strength. Strength can be increased with an amplifier whereas quality is down to the aerial. That is, a poor quality signal can't be improved with an amplifier whereas a low strength one can be increased in strength. A low strength poor quality signal with an amplifier will give a higher strength poor quality signal which is therefore of no use:
Television Aerial Boosters / Amplifiers, Splitters, Diplexers & Triplexers
There are no guarantees in your situation, but a log periodic aerial, probably in conjunction with an amplifier, would seem to be the most suited. A DM Log from Aerials and TV Sheffield is one example:
Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial
This is in fact a Blake DML26WB. Blake do a DML26T which is wideband expect for the top channels, C61 to C69, which are now in the hands of the 4G operators. Either will work, by with the WB you could, potentially, have to fit a filter to block 4G if it proves to be an issue.
The other thing I'm wondering - as I say I'm not an installer - is whether, because you are at the bottom of a steep drop, tilting the aerial upwards slightly might not be a bad idea. The Blake DML26 has a clamp which allows it to be tilted.
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Tuesday, 11 February 2014
A
Anthony Grime12:09 AM
Darwen
Dave Lindsay: Thankyou for your advice on this. I will certainly try all that you have suggested. Also will try the different antenna to see if there is any difference. Thanks again. I will update with how it goes. Cheers
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Anthony's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 17 September 2014
K
Karen10:11 AM
Is there a problem with the Darwen transmitter today. I've lost the signal.
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Wednesday, 15 October 2014
D
David Andrews3:38 AM
Since Saturday afternoon 11th October 2014, there has been no signal on C45., so no BBC programmes.
C39 is normal signal strength.
My aerial is on the roof.
I have tried all the usual remedies: retuning, clearing the channel list, factory reset, but nothing changes.
Doing a manual retune on C45 shows no signal on the signal strength bar and no quality.
There is only one TV plugged into the downlead and there is no signal booster either.
I have tried several different brands of TV and none of them can find anything on C45.
Yes, the website says that the transmitter is not faulty.
However, this same problem occurred several years ago, and when the transmitter engineer attended, he found that there was a fault on the transmitter although the website was reporting no faults. He emailed me to express his surprise.
Could that have happened again?
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Saturday, 18 October 2014
D
David Andrews7:41 PM
Hello again,
I located the fault. A mouse had partially chewed through the coax where it passes under the floorboards. When I renewed the coax the full service from the Darwen transmitted was received.
I have also set a trap under the floorboards, baited with a peanut......
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Sunday, 19 October 2014
Dave Lindsay
7:53 PM
7:53 PM
David Andrews: I highly recommend one of these:
Rentokil FE35 Electronic Mouse Trap: Amazon.co.uk: Garden & Outdoors
Mine got the mouse in the loft the first night it was set.
I believe they're made in the US by Victor and are available with various brandings. If you look around you should find a supplier in the UK.
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Tuesday, 6 October 2015
D
David Andrews4:40 PM
Blackburn
BB2 4JL
Roof aerial.
I live in Ewood, Blackburn, and as of today, 6th October 2015, there is a fault with the BBC text from the Darwen transmitter. The audio and video are OK.
I have done a full reset of the Sony set top box with retuning, and nothing has improved.
The usual menus can be selected, but if you then select any item from a menu, the set hangs, displaying "loading" and the page number. The set has to be switched off and on to recover.
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David's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 10 October 2015
G
Gray Street3:59 PM
David Andrews: In have the same problem with a rather old Sony KDL20S3020 TV on the Rowridge Transmitter, also since the 6th of October. Not much help to you in finding a solution but at least you are not alone!
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Wednesday, 22 June 2016
A
Angela Henry7:54 AM
I live in the BB2 area and have had no freeview reception since 11.00am yesterday. When will it be restored please?
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R
Richard Cooper11:21 AM
Norwich
Angela Henry: Hi, Angela. If you would normally get quite a lot of different channels, and the little rods on your aerial are flat (not up and down) you would be using the Winter Hill main transmitter near Bolton. It says on this website that viewers may experience, "possible weak signal", which would suggest that there could be some sort of engineering works going on there today. If on the other hand, you don't usually get lots of channels and you have an aerial with its rods going up and down, pointing to Darwen or Haslingden, then you use one of these two transmitters, but there's no work going on at either today. The duration of the work at Winter Hill, Bolton is not known, so if you use that transmitter, you'll just have to be patient! If you use Darwen or Haslingden, check your own setup to make sure no loose connections have developed unbeknown to you - could be pet or child accidental damage, Hope this helps, Richard.
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Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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