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Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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
Monday, 22 June 2020
A
Anthony
8:57 AM

Mendip Transmitter

Chris.SE: Thanks for the reply to my previous question.

I tried manually retuning this morning but nothing seems to have changed.
Did the Freeview changes go ahead? Any idea what time they were supposed to have started?

Thanks

link to this comment
Anthony's 8 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:53 PM

Anthony:

Yes all the changes have now taken place. they never say when they are going to do it, it's generally in the morning with these sorts of changes unlike transmitter frequency changes which usually happen overnight.
To ensure everything ends up in the correct place, the best way to do this retune is to unplug the aerial and do a full automatic retune which should clear all the previous tuning. Plug the aerial back in an do a manual tune for all the Mendip UHF channels EXCEPT C56. HTH.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:12 PM

Neil:

The Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker shows that you should get all multiplexes with no issue, excellent reception 100% (except the Local mux which may be a very small fraction less reliable. So even with the Tropospheric Ducting I'm not certain that it's necessarily the most likely cause BUT if you are seeing the strength/quality vary during the daylight hours (an hour after sunrise to an hour before sunset) current predictions means it's still possible.

However with your reported 75/50 strength/quality there is a good chance you may have too much signal for the new set! What sort of aerial do you have? Do you have any splitters/boosters etc.?
Too much signal can overload the tuner and the result is pixellation/breakup of pictures/sound and "apparent signal levels can read less than they are, but the other indicator is the quality figure drops.

If you do have a booster/splitter and it has variable gain, turn it down. If it's just a booster take it out of circuit and plug the aerial direct to the TV. In the latter case, if the signal/quality still varies, it would be a good idea to check all your coax plugs, connections etc for corrosion, water ingress, bad connections etc.

If you don't have a booster etc, do you have any old splitters or attenuators you can put in circuit just to provide some insertion loss to see if that improves the situation.
Depending on your reply, I can give some further suggestions.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
A
Anthony
6:58 PM

I have now retuned successfully.

Chris.SE: I have just read your reply to me above. You mention not to manual tune C56.
Wondering why that is, as I did tune C56 earlier?

On a previous reply you told me the channels that are used for the Mendip Transmitter which included C30.
I have no signal for this channel. Should I have a signal?

Thanks again for your help.

link to this comment
Anthony's 8 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:14 PM

Anthony: C56 is COM8, which has just been cleared of channels today (all that is left are duplicate channels with retune messages) and is to close completely by the end of the month, so there isn't really any point in tuning it in now. C30 is the local mux, which as Chris says may not have good reception at your location.

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StevensOnln1's 3,606 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 23 June 2020
N
Neil
1:26 PM

Chris.SE: thanks. I've gone back to basics as you suggested. I was using a booster splitter with the old tv so have taken that out. I was actually getting 99/100 at times according to the manual tuning page. (There was me thinking more was better)

I've changed coax cables removed all other connections and switched to a smaller loft aerial it seems to have fixed the issue for now. I'll need to start adding back in hdmi and Ethernet etc but if the signal is now showing 33/50 is that going to be good enough in your view? Or will I run into issues when the weather changes?

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Neil's 7 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 24 June 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:54 AM

Neil:

Apologies, I should have been clearer.

You should be getting everything with 100% quality, anything less shows something is amiss. Signal 85-100% typically should be fine as long as the quality remains 100%. Some sets don't like 100% signal and irrespective of the figures, it can result in pixellation/breakup of picture/sound. How individual sets cope depends on the design.
You should be aiming to get nearer 100% signal on the strongest multiplexes, you may see less on the weaker ones, but even they may show near 100%.

If your set is currently showing 33/50 then it is coping very well with all the errors if you aren't getting pixellation or breakup!
One of the difficulties with too much signal is that the readings can become incorrect, and the strength figure can actually go down despite you having 100%+ signal !!! Again it all depends on set design.

I assume you want to run more than one TV if you have a booster/splitter, if so, put it back in circuit and see what happens to the figures.
If you only have the one TV, then put your larger aerial back with no booster and see what happens to the figures.
Some sets will cope fairly well with quite low signals, but the quality should always be 100%.
When you put back your HDMI and Ethernet cable make sure you keep them away from any aerial leads/flyleads, especially if those aerial leads are not doubled screened high quality cable. HDMI leads in particular can cause interference issues more commonly with C55.

The Aerial should be pointing at a bearing of 246 degrees (~WSW) with rods horizontal. Check you are tuned to Mendip's UHF channels C32, C34, C35, C48, C33, C36, C55, C30. That's is the order PSBs1-3, COMs 4-7, Local mux. There are other relay/main transmitters that you might accidentally receive at your location.
I've left off COM8 in the list as you don't need it any more since the channel changes on the 22nd although the mux is still on air atm.

Post back with the figures and how you are getting on.


link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
N
Neil
4:46 PM

Chris.SE: thanks again for your help. Step by step getting there. Stats for 32 are today showing approx 45/100. The second figure fluctuates from it-85-100 but I don't really know how to check this against other channels. Most channels are ok. I've seen a bit of pixelation on channel 22 (and 25?) and I don't have any HD channels above 101 - 105. I've added back in HDMI connections and they are working. I've left the Ethernet out as it picks up WiFi fine. Aerial is currently direct from socket to tv, next step tomorrow will be add a second aerial cable to loop back in the Humax recorder. But generally getting there still on the smaller loft aerial without a signal booster.

link to this comment
Neil's 7 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:02 PM

Neil:

This seems to be hinting that currently the signal is a bit too low. What aerial(s) are you using/what coloured bungs (if any) do they have in the ends of the beam?

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
Monday, 29 June 2020
M
Mary Ward
8:06 AM

I live in sheltered accomodation and several of us in same block keep
Loosing our Signal, our Scheme Manage has called someone out
To check the Arial and there's nothing wrong with it.
I'm lead to understand that our Signal comes from
Yourself to some where called Seagry Court.
The only place I can find is a block of flats in Swindon.
Could there be an antenna on there roof that is causing
The problem.
Most of us have had to isolate for 12 weeks and the TV
Is the only company we have.
I hope you can help in some way.
Thank you.

link to this comment
Mary Ward's 1 post GB flag
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