Full Freeview on the Lark Stoke (Gloucestershire, England) transmitter
 | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 52.082,-1.729 or 52°4'53"N 1°43'43"W |  | GL55 6LS |
The symbol shows the location of the Lark Stoke (Gloucestershire, England) transmitter which serves 38,000 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 Lark Stoke (Gloucestershire, England) mast?
Lark Stoke transmitter - Lark Stoke transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 18/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering 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.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Lark Stoke (Gloucestershire, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .
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 Lark Stoke 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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Lark Stoke (Gloucestershire, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .
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 Lark Stoke transmitter?
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 45km north-northwest (345°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 46km north-northwest (345°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)
How will the Lark Stoke (Gloucestershire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 7 Mar 2018 | |||||
| A K T | A K T | A K T | K T | K T | |||||
| C23 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C26 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C29 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | ||||||
| C30 | -BBCB | BBCB | |||||||
| C33 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | SDN | |||||
| C36 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C41 | +SDN | ||||||||
| C44 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C47 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C48 | _local | _local |
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 6 Apr 11 and 20 Apr 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 6.3kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 1.26kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-24dB) 25W |
Local transmitter maps
Lark Stoke Freeview Lark Stoke AM/FM Lark Stoke TV region BBC West Midlands Central (West micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Lark Stoke transmitter area
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Wednesday, 28 August 2019
MikeP
7:38 PM
7:38 PM
Gordon Ferguson:
Look at Coverage Checker - Detailed View and scroll down to then transmitters listed. Ideally you want to select one that has all green bars for best reception.
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Monday, 2 November 2020
D
Diana Bath5:24 PM
Why are you not transmittting the Christmas Chanel from
Larkstoke - our ariel cannot point to Sutton Coldfield as
Apparently we would need a 4 metre pole - we want the
Christmas channel too as well as others in Stratford-Upon-Avon.
We have retuned our tv a few times already but still cannot receive it.
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S
StevensOnln15:43 PM
Diana Bath: Sony moved some of their channels to the local TV multiplex last year, which is only available in areas where there is a local TV station broadcasting on Freeview channel 7 or 8. As there is no local TV station broadcast from Lark Stoke, you won't get the Sony Christmas channel. This was a commercial decision made by Sony, nobody from this independant website has anything to do with it.
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Thursday, 24 February 2022
M
MalcolmW4:49 PM
What channel is GB News (freeview 236) broadcast on (for manual tuning purposes) ?
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C
Chris.SE10:38 PM
MalcolmW:
Although the site owner has not found the time to make several updates since the 700MHz Clearance program and the "transmission frequencies change over time" section hasn't been updated, the UHF channel list a the top of the page are correct. Lark Stoke's UHF channels are C26, C23, C30, C33, C36, C48 that's in the multiplex order PSBs1-3, COMs4-6. The allocation of programme channels is a bit out-of-date.
GB News is on ArqB/COM6.
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which programme channels are carried on which multiplex. That list is normally up-to-date.
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Friday, 26 August 2022
R
R Russell8:22 PM
Evesham
I am at post code WR11 1YJ in Evesham and do not receive
an acceptable signal level and quality for channels in the COM6
mux during the day. I have my aerial aligned with the transmitter
at Lark Stoke.
I also have an aerial aligned with the transmitter at Ridge Hill which
gives very acceptable signal strength and quality 24/7.
I find this anomaly difficult to asign it to "atmospherics"!!
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R's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 27 August 2022
C
Chris.SE5:42 AM
R Russell:
Well as it so happens if this is a recent occurrence - you don't say how long this has been the case - it could well be Current weather conditions -
Tropospheric Ducting - causing interference from more distant transmitters in Europe or the UK. This can be very variable and is usually short term at any instant but conditions have been persisting for several days, different parts of the UK are being affected at different time. Not every multiplex will be affected, nor necessarily more than one at any time, it will depend on where the interference is coming from.
Both Freeview and the BBC have issued warnings about short term interference to reception.
Although there is some slight variability across your postcode, you are predicted to get good reception from Lark Stoke for all 6 multiplexes, COM6 is only fractionally less good in some spots, in others it could be COM5!
The aerial should be pointing at a bearing of 90 degrees (that's due E) with its rods (or squashed Xs) vertical, although reception can be affected by very local conditions such as trees, other buildings, (any scaffolding or metal chimneys etc) height of aerial and so on.
You don't say how old the aerial is. If it's an old Group A (pre-DSO), it will not have good reception of COM6 on UHF C48, and if it is that vintage, I would question the quality/current state of the coax which could also reduce the strength of the higher frequencies if there has been any water ingress at any time.
Check you are correctly tuned to Lark Stoke's UHF channels as per the post before yours.
Your postcode is predicted to get quite variable (PSBs) to poor (COMs) reception from Ridge Hill, bearing 257 degrees (12 degrees S of due W) with its rods horizontal. A Group A aerial would suffice.
On the other hand, its predicted to get very good reception from Sutton Coldfield, bearing 6 degrees that's just E of due N, with the rods horizontal. A Group B aerial would suffice.
Again reception can be affected by very local conditions.
In all cases a quality Group K aerial will cover all transmitters, although Group T and Widebands can be good enough, it will depend on the particular model of aerial and local signal strength.
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Friday, 5 May 2023
S
S. Ayres6:50 PM
I have had reception drop outs for some time (signal quality but not signal strength from Larkstoke), mainly around 5.30 pm during ITV's 'The Chase' for many many years. I live in Warwick, CV344PT.
Retuned many times, amplifiers of many types and roof mast raised. Obviously I could point the aerial to Leamington repeater station for a better signal but that would reduce the number of channels.
Several days ago I retuned during a poor signal occurrence because HD BBC and ITV was not watchable. To my surprise the problem has disappeared from HD. I do note that when in Freeview signal test HD is on programme 47 (682000khz) not 30 as you state on the website.
Any explanation for this would be appreciated.
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S
StevensOnln111:02 PM
S. Ayres: From entering your postcode into the Freeview detailed coverage checker, it looks like you're in a slightly difficult location for reception. Lark Stoke is not predicted to give you a strong signal (it's 25km away and only has a 1kw output). It sounds like you've picked up the Leamington Spa relay when you retuned, which broadcasts the PSB3 HD multiplex on UHF channel 47, even though reception from Leamington is predicted to be poor at your postcode. The transmitter coming up with the strongest predicted signal is actually Sutton Coldfield (39km away on a compass bearing of 332 degrees) and your aerial would need to be mounted horizontally with the elements going side to side, rather than vertically (elements going up and down) as it would be for Lark Stoke or Leamington.
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Saturday, 6 May 2023
C
Chris.SE2:22 AM
S. Ayres:
To add to what StevensOnln1 has said, I noted that it's also predicted that your location can get signals from one of the Oxford Local multiplex channels (one of the few main TXs that has two). which means it could also get signals from the Oxford main multiplexes (but not strong enough for reliable reception). As it happens the BBCB HD multiplex from Oxford is also on C47 which is why you are predicted to get poor reception (less reliable) from Leamington Spa as there would be interference from Oxford (on all 3 muxes).
A few days ago weather conditions were such that interference from distant transmitter was quite likely and this is maybe what you experienced. BUT as a general point it is never a good idea to retune when you have badly pixellated pictures or no signal if previously correctly tuned as this will often clear the correct tuning and you end up tuned to the wrong transmitter whose signal will probably disappear as conditions change again.
You should be able to deduce which transmitter HD mux you are getting on C47 from looking at the BBC1 HD name - if Oxford it will be South, If Leamington Spa it'll be West Midlands
It's also possible under those weather conditions you may have picked up Medip which also uses C47 for BBCB HD, in which case BBC1 would be BBC ONE WestHD.
Poor signals that are suffering co-channel interference is why you get Quality drops.
You also mentioned amplifiers and such matters can be compounded by too much gain so this is something to watch out for.
Depending on your particular aerial, how good it is with side-lobes and cross-polar rejection will make a difference to what interfering signals you pick up especially if you have a lot of amp gain.
What Signal Strength and Quality figures are you getting on each multiplex?
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