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Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.237,-2.626 or 51°14'12"N 2°37'33"Wsa_postcodeBA5 3LB

 

The symbol shows the location of the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter which serves 720,000 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 Mendip (Somerset, England) mast?

Mendip transmitter - Mendip transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Mendip 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
 H max
C32 (562.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) 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
 H max
C34 (578.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (West), 4 Channel 4 (SD) South ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (West),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C35 (586.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H max
C48 (690.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
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 max
C33 (570.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
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 max
C36 (594.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
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

LBS
 H -10dB
C30 (546.0MHz)591mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 22nd September 2014: 7 Made in Bristol,

DTG-8 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 Mendip transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 25km north (3°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.
regional news image
ITV West Country News (East) 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS4 3HG, 23km north (11°)
to ITV West region - 61 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

CheddarTransposer15 km E Weston-super-Mare1674 homes
LuccombeActive deflector6 km w Minehead38 homes

How will the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20102010-132013-182013-1727 Feb 2018
C/D EEEC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C30_local
C32BBCA
C33com7com7
C34D3+4
C35com8com8
C36ArqB
C37C5wavesC5waves
C48SDNSDNSDNSDN
C49tv_off BBCABBCA
C51tv_offLBSLBS
C52tv_offArqBArqBArqB
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offArqAArqAArqACOM8tv_off
C58tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C61ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCA
C64BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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 24 Mar 10 and 7 Apr 10.

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

Analogue 1-4 500kW
Analogue 5(-6dB) 126kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
com7(-8.4dB) 72.4kW
com8(-8.6dB) 69.1kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*, LBS(-17dB) 10kW

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

Jan 1958-Jul 1968Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Harlech 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. Mendip 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
Wednesday, 30 November 2016
N
nicholas
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

1:41 AM

Hi,as in analogue days,a lot of locations have difficult receiving problems,generally outside the primary
service area,fading problems can be chronic,very much like the old days on band 1 bbc,some transmitters
by virtue of their location had many problems in their service areas so the problem has again reared its
ugly head.

link to this comment
nicholas's 120 posts GB flag
Thursday, 8 December 2016
M
Martin
8:59 AM

I see that you predict that post B700 Mendip will use 22/25/28/40/43/46. I'm just wondering where those figures come from....?

link to this comment
Martin's 15 posts GB flag
S
Stephen
2:58 PM

Scotty:

after working all last week Mendip com7 cut out again for me Sat 3rd to Mon 5th, and returned at its normal strength on Tuesday. A similar pattern two weekends in a row. Do you see something similar?

If not perhaps it is local interference as Chris suggested, maybe related to several neighbors who work away in the week.

link to this comment
Stephen's 4 posts GB flag
Friday, 9 December 2016
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:58 AM

Stephen: I would say that the fact that you noticed this problem 2 "weekends" in a row is just coincidence. As I mentioned this is much more likely to be atmospheric conditions changing the propagation of UHF signals and distant signals from other transmitters on the same UHF channel starting to cause interference, which in simple terms can have the sort of effect we saw.
Remember that more than one of us happened to observe the issue, Scotty being the most recent, and no Transmitter engineering work was taking place - one of the first things I checked on the engineering pages - AND it would have been reported here on these pages as well, also if there had been a fault. See page 153 for the last reported issue on October 4th.

One thing I didn't mention (so as not to confuse people with less technical understanding of propagation effects) was that there was definitely a "lift" (as it can be called) on, when I was checking signals previously around that weekend as I was periodically picking up signals from another (distant) transmitter on other UHF channels which are not normally present. It was one of the ones I can regularly get when there is a "lift". There were similar conditions a couple of weeks earlier that I happened to spot (Tues.15th) when I was doing some re-tuning. In the days of analogue transmissions, people could notice such things more readily in the form of picture interference/patterning/foreign pictures - this sort of effect can be more common in the summer and some may recall mentions of "continental interference" at such times.

I mentioned "local" interference as it's always worth trying to check that there wasn't something else having an effect at the time to compound matters, but your fundamental problem Stephen is that your "normal" signal is low - in this 30% range, so any sort of "lift" or "interference" can knock out the signals more readily. Another reason I suggested checking what sort of signals your neighbours are getting is there may be very local conditions giving a "reduced" signal, examples of which can be tall buildings or other structures in or near the line of sight, tall trees etc.
As well as checking that you now don't have a fundamental problem with your aerial/cable installation causing a weaker signal (as previously mentioned by Mike and myself) you also need to check that you don't have too strong a signal as this can "desensitise" the receiver or, as you are already aware - a close phone mast having this effect. But remember all those sort of issues are likely to have an effect on reception of all your muxes rather than just one.

The situation with Scotty is slightly different in that he says he normally has 95% signal, but location - which way the aerial is pointing etc, and again the precise local conditions (buildings, trees etc) can have an influence on what is received.

Martin: The allocation of UHF channels for the various muxes at all transmitters is defined/stated in various OFCOM documentation.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
M
Martin
8:49 AM

Thanks Chris.CE

The problem is that the allocations shown for Mendip post B700 are actually completely erroneous and are therefore misleading. I just think that in the absence of official confirmation that this site is premature in publishing them, particularly when they aren't correct.

link to this comment
Martin's 15 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 21 December 2016
M
Martin
1:06 PM

Interesting that in spite of my pointing out that the post B700 channels shown here on this site for Mendip are wrong, absolutely nothing has been done about it, and the problem hasn't even been acknowledged....

Hmmmmmm.....

link to this comment
Martin's 15 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:51 PM

Martin:

How do you know they are 'wrong'? The data shown here is from a direct feed from Ofcom. They are the ones who should know.

Plus I don't recognise your terminology of 'B700'. Do you mean the intended change to use the frequencies above 700 MHz for 4G mobile transmissions?



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
G
Gautham
6:13 PM

MikeP:
Replying to Which Freeview channels does the Calne transmitter broadcast? here since Mendip will be the concerned transmitter for me.
Just came to know that our new build has the coax terminated inside the loft! Will the same log36 antenna work from inside or should I resort to taking the coax outside?

link to this comment
Gautham's 3 posts GB flag
Thursday, 22 December 2016
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:49 PM

Gautham:

Providing it can be directed correctly towards the transmitter and avoiding any water pipes or tanks and there is no metal lining (the common felt or 'Tyvek' is not metallic), then yes it should work fine in the loft always assuming that your have a clear line of sight towards the transmitter and are not too far away from it.

I use a Log36 in my loft in Trowbridge, Wiltshire and get excellent reception.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Friday, 23 December 2016
M
Martin
9:48 AM

@ MikeP

Thanks for your reply. The allocations of 22/25/28/40/43/46 shown here do not correspond with a list (which unfortunately isn't in the public domain as of yet) that I have been privy to.

As far as I am aware Ofcom haven't published a list of post B700 clearance channels; what would be a great help is if you could link to the exact place where this "direct feed" from Ofcom that you mention resides.

I don't think it's a state secret as such, but as far as I am aware Mendip is actually going to use channels in the range 32 - 36, along with 48. Given that these aren't what ukfreetv shows the very least the site should be doing is removing its prediction.

link to this comment
Martin's 15 posts GB flag
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