Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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51.237,-2.626 or 51°14'12"N 2°37'33"W

BA5 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 27/11/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C32 (562.0MHz)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	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)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	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)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C48 (690.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 35 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C33 (570.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	Smithsonian Channel, 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 Christmas, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C36 (594.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	Quest Red +1, Classic Hits, 12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! christmas mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 83 Together TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 20 others
LBS	H -10dB	C30 (546.0MHz)	591m	DTG-12	10,000W
	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?

BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 25km north (3°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.

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?

Cheddar	Transposer	15 km E Weston-super-Mare	1674 homes
Luccombe	Active deflector	6 km w Minehead	38 homes

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

	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2010	2010-13	2013-18	2013-17	27 Feb 2018
	C/D E	E	E	C/D E	C/D E T	W T	W T
C30							_local
C32							BBCA
C33						com7	com7
C34							D3+4
C35						com8	com8
C36							ArqB
C37		C5_waves	C5_waves
C48				SDN	SDN	SDN	SDN
C49_{tv_off}					BBCA	BBCA
C51_{tv_off}						LBS	LBS
C52_{tv_off}				ArqB	ArqB	ArqB
C54_{tv_off}	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	D3+4	D3+4	D3+4
C55_{tv_off}							com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}				ArqA	ArqA	ArqA	COM8_{tv_off}
C58_{tv_off}	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB
C61	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA
C64	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves

_{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

Local transmitter maps

Mendip Freeview Mendip DAB Mendip AM/FM Mendip TV region BBC West West

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

Jan 1958-Jul 1968	Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	Harlech Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

12:16 PM

: Hi Brian, any chance you can update the UHF numbers at " process details" & "After Wednesday 7th April 2010".
It's somewhat confusing for the uninitiated when looking at the MUX lists above these.

To clarify for anyone who is confused, currently -
Arq A is on , Arq B is on 52, SDN is on .

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Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:55 PM

Chris.SE: The move to was a very late-breaking change, the UK Installers Newsletter describing today's retune was issued on the 29th of August showing the move to (with no offset), then reissued a day later showing the move to C67.

The trade view when plugging in a postcode does show the correct information, but the 'trade ' page doesn't.

's most recent licensing document http://licensing.ofcom.or….pdf also shows C67 from 28/9/11 to 28/3/12.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

2:01 PM

Mike Dimmick/Chris.SE: , I had not updated the database to the new allocations. They are now showing.

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Briantist's 38,901 posts GB flag

J

Jack Sukerman
2:20 PM
Bath

I can't get anything on , although at this point the only channel I'm missing is Dave. But, before Sept 28 I couldn't get Film 4 etc which was on C67. All other are now 10/10 strength and 10/10 but we get nada from C67. I've tried unplugging everything except the TV but no change. I'm in BA1 2QU.

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Jack Sukerman's 3 posts GB flag

Jack's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

J

Jack Sukerman
2:22 PM

Sorry by missing I mean I wish I still had it, I'm missing the whole in terms of .

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Jack Sukerman's 3 posts GB flag

A

Alex B
3:22 PM
Bristol

Thanks for the , and Mike Dimmick.

UK's trade view postcode checker for the appears to have a mistake in that it claims that the SDN/Mux A/COM4 is now , 2/3, 2k as of 28 Sep 2011. I'm pretty sure that it's actually 8k.

I tried to verify this with Digital UK, but I was told that "they're not technical" and didn't understand what I meant by 2k or 8k transmission modes. Hmm...

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Alex B's 3 posts EU flag

Alex's: A's Freeview map A's terrain plot A's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage

A

Alex B
3:30 PM
Bristol

Jack Sukerman, have you tried a factory reset before doing a retune? I've found before that when are changing , and multiplexes are changing/swapping frequencies, it's very easy for TVs and set-top boxes to get utterly confused.

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Alex B's 3 posts EU flag

Alex's: A's Freeview map A's terrain plot A's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

Mal
4:46 PM

Linux PSB1 currently giving the following frequencies.

PSB1 794Mhz
PSB2 738Mhz
COM4 690Mhz
COM5 754Mhz
COM6 722Mhz

No but no COM5 or PSB3 ?

Up until now I could only get PSB1,PSB2 & PSB3

COM4 and COM6 appear to be the same strength as PSB1 and PSB2.

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Mal's 6 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:59 PM

Mal: Is that an *actual* or is it being downloaded from some website? The necessary information is all carried in the Information Table on all multiplexes, in the terrestrial_delivery_system_descriptor. However, a lot of PC software doesn't actually read the descriptors and instead downloads the information from a website.

The exception is that PSB3's descriptor is a t2_delivery_system_descriptor instead - because it is carried on DVB-T2, not DVB-T. This confuses several boxes.

COM5 is actually on , 842 MHz, but it was advertised that it would be on , 754 MHz.

To convert from a channel number to a : Subtract 21, multiply by 8, add 474.

If the transmitted descriptors are wrong, you could try telling the BBC - go to BBC - Help receiving TV and radio , enter your postcode in the upper right under ' your problem' and follow through the wizard. The people really responsible are DMOL DMOL | Home Page but they don't have any customer facilities.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:06 PM

Jack Sukerman: I'd look for any other equipment, such as a box, that has an on , or . You will need to retune that to a different channel - perhaps down at . If you're not using the feature to distribute the box's output to other TVs, turn it off entirely if possible. Or, simply don't pass the through the box.

If you don't have anything like that, check that the cables are waterproofed and that the run is as short as possible - losses along cables are greater at higher frequencies. Water in cables increases the losses further and again higher frequencies are affected more than lower ones. If cables can rub against bricks or tiles, the insulation may be letting water in directly; if not, check that all connection points outside (including the aerial) are sealed, and any covers are on the bottom side so that any water that does get in can drain out.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

Page 37

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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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