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Full Freeview on the Malvern (Worcestershire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.116,-2.331 or 52°6'56"N 2°19'53"Wsa_postcodeWR14 4AD

 

The symbol shows the location of the Malvern (Worcestershire, England) transmitter which serves 58,000 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 Malvern (Worcestershire, England) mast?

MALVERN transmitter - DAB: Off the air due to essential engineering from 12 Nov 11:06 until 12 Nov 15:01. . BBC


Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Malvern 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
 V max
C41 (634.0MHz)204mDTG-400W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) West Midlands, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 19 others

PSB2
D3+4
 V max
C44 (658.0MHz)204mDTG-400W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Midlands ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Midlands ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Central west), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 V max
C47- (681.8MHz)204mDTG-400W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West Midlands, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 104 Channel 4 HD Midlands ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 V max
C29 (538.0MHz)204mDTG-8400W
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
 V max
C31- (553.8MHz)203mDTG-8400W
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
 V max
C37 (602.0MHz)204mDTG-8400W
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

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

The Malvern (Worcestershire, 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 Malvern transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 49km northeast (36°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 49km northeast (35°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)

How will the Malvern (Worcestershire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-137 Mar 2018
C/D EC/D EC/D EC/D E TW T
C29SDN
C31ArqA
C37ArqB
C41BBCA
C44D3+4
C47BBCB
C50tv_offSDN
C51tv_off_local_local
C53tv_offBBCA
C55tv_offArqB
C56tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C57tv_offD3+4
C59tv_off-ArqA
C60tv_off-BBCB
C62BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves
C66ITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves
C68C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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 7 Sep 11 and 21 Sep 11.

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

Analogue 1-4 2kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 400W
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-10dB) 200W

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Malvern 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
Sunday, 16 October 2011
K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

2:43 PM

terence porter: Check for single frequency interference on or near C60. Also check your cables and connectors are in order and try changing the position of any HDMI cable.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:23 PM

Iain Sherriff: Its difficult to say exactly what could be causing your problem, this because the reason for could be at either end of the signal strength scale.

Firstly, as you are only 3 miles away from the transmitter (albeit only 400W) and are using a masthead amplifier, then you "might" be receiving a signal that's on the verges of being too strong, and which can cause problems in the tuner.

I would normally say to try a test by-passing the booster, but this is obviously not possible if its mast head type, so (if available) try a test using a set top aerial, should you still be able to get a reasonable (although not perfect) picture by using it then the mast head amplifier requires by-passing, or alternatively you could purchase a simple attenuator to place in line with the aerial socket.

The second reason is, if there are any local obstructions between you and the transmitter then the signal could be hovering just above the reception threshold of your equipment and that's the reason for the problem, try a signal strength / quality check on your Humax and watch if the quality is erratic, as if is then you are in the realms of requiring the aerial system to be investigated, and with this possibly meaning the slight repositioning of it, an action which sometimes works wonders.

Give an update on the signal strength though!

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
I
Iain Sherriff
7:22 PM
Malvern

jb38: thanks.
nothing missing at the moment (typical!)
signal quality on ITV 100% and strength 80%, on 5 the same and on Film4 the same. No fluctuation on any.
I guess I'll have to wait for the scrambled message the have a look ? There are trees and the end of the Malvern Hills between us and the Transmitter.

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Iain Sherriff's 8 posts GB flag
Iain's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:56 PM

Iain Sherriff: Thanks for the update, and yes! a report on what's seen when it isn't OK would make it easier to assess the situation, and as aforementioned the signal checking being done on the Humax as they are one of the better boxes to use for tests.

I will say though, that the signal strength you have reported doesn't suggest that its likely to get to the point of being over the top, that is "if" its presently at its best.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
T
trevor
10:19 PM
Worcester

A group of channels _ Pick TV, Dave, (and plus ones), Challenge, Really - are there sometimes and then not there. When there they're fine but at other times just a blank screen (though they're in the EPG).

Aerial on roof.

Grateful for any help.

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trevor's 2 posts GB flag
trevor's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 17 October 2011
I
Iain Sherriff
5:23 AM
Malvern

I should have said in my original post that the common effect of our problem is not seeing the scrambled" message but that programmes dont get recorded now and then. They can be shown in the "to record list" but just dont appear after the programme has run............I have just assumed that this is caused by the "scrambling"

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Iain Sherriff's 8 posts GB flag
Iain's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
B
BRG
12:07 PM

In late September several of us had problems in obtaining Channel 60 (HD) on the Malvern transmitter.

I was advised to use the BBC reception site to report the problem, which I duly did.

Their response was that: (a) as there was fully automated fault reporting on the Malvern transmitter, and (b) there were no reported transmitter faults at the time, the problem must lie with my equipment.

So I wrote a second time to say that they must be wrong as I was very confident that there was a transmitter problem.

I have just received this response:

------------------------
Thanks for contacting the BBC again.

I forwarded your correspondence to our engineers who have asked that I pass on the following:

"I can confirm that there was indeed an issue with the transmission of the HD channels. Unfortunately, the automatic fault reporting system did not function so the BBC's website was not updated.

These matters are now being addressed and we apologise for the impact this had upon your viewing."
------------------------

So automated fault reporting on Malvern is screwed and doesn't report faults even though it is _blindly_ relied on by the BBC in responding to issues raised by viewers!!!

This is really quite serious since viewers could easily be needlessly spending money to solve problems that are not their own as a result of misleading fault information.

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BRG's 7 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:39 PM

Iain Sherriff: Ah! Now you have mentioned this Iain its added a somewhat different dimension to the possible cause, especially when there's a Hitachi PVR in the equation, as although these chassis do indicate as being compatible with 8k transmission modes they are still prone to playing up in various ways.

One of being, sometimes no picture is shown when first switched on even although strength / quality (combined) are indicated as being OK, the only way of rectifying the situation being to nudge up to the next channel then back down again, this obviously not being possible when a recording has been programmed to start which results in it being missed. (this being your problem)

One thing that can sometimes help is to carry out a first time installation but do NOT carry out an auto tune, entering the Mux's individually, in the case of Malvern its Mux Ch's 53 - 57 - 50 - 59 - 55 (HD channel 60 obviously N/A) You will NOT lose anything already recorded by doing this, but will anything else you may have pre-set.

Maybe you could have a look at the software version and give an update on what's seen, this shown under the "configuration" menu, also if you could give the actual model of the Hitachi in question.

There is an update for these chassis but its a long winded process involving a download into the PC, then the use of an RS232 cable from it into the PVR, this always coupled to the danger that if anything goes wrong during the process then a non rectifiable disaster strikes.

The Humax mentioned was also known for various problems (lock ups etc) although if this has always been kept powered up (in standby) then you could have received over air updates, although similar to in the case of the Hitachi, the scrubbing of everything stored in the EPG and entering channels individually has been reported to help in the case of odd problems, cant confirm though because I use a pair of 9200's.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 19 October 2011
I
Iain Sherriff
11:30 AM
Malvern

Iain Sherriff: not near them at the moment but I know the Humax has the latest software (I checked last week). The Hitachi doesn't show the dropped recording problem BUT it doesn't record many, just things I want were as the Humax lots to do (gets all the soaps/strictly/x factor etc ) so has more chance to show a fault. I have tried setting both to record the same thing bit didn't get the same result all the time..............
What is the best aerial I can have in my situation and how much difference would it make in the loft against being on the roof ?

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Iain Sherriff's 8 posts GB flag
Iain's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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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.

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