Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 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 25/09/2023 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
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
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.
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?
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 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C48 | SDN | SDN | SDN | SDN | |||||
| C49tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C51tv_off | LBS | LBS | |||||||
| C52tv_off | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | ||||||
| C54tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | COM8tv_off | |||||
| C58tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | |||
| C61 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCA | |||||
| C64 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
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
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Saturday, 3 March 2012
J
jb3811:19 AM
Sue Gill: Just to add to that already said, should you decide to try Mendip (@ 16mls) then "if" your aerial has been set up for the Bath relay then it would require to be turned to the horizontal position and pointed on a 228 degree heading.
That said taking it that its not an indoor (same room) aerial that you are using? maybe you could clarify that point, although if it is roof mounted then have a look to check if it is vertically mounted or not (elements top to bottom), as if its not it might already be pointing at Mendip and which would only require a re-tune to be made but with by-passing the Bath relays channels.
Further advice given dependant on findings.
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jb38: Bath is Group A and Mendip is C/D, so might require a different aerial for Mendip if Sue's is an A one.
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jb3812:08 PM
Dave Lindsay: Yes, you are quite correct and something I was aware of, that being why I said that further advice would be given dependant on reply, as if by any chance it was facing Mendip then I was going to request that a test be carried out by manually tuning in a BBC and ITV mux, as although the aerial (if not that old) would most likely be out of group it will "still" receive a signal just the same, but just not quite so good as it would do if on the correct grouping, and its somewhat more prudent to try a test doing things this way rather than going to the trouble / expense of changing an aerial before trying a test.
Just another minor point whilst on the subject of Mendip, as although as far as I am concerned its neither here nor there, but DUK indicates that its only SDN that switches to high power on the 27th with ArqA / ArqB doing likewise the day after on the 28th.
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Sunday, 4 March 2012
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Nicholas Willmott9:00 PM
re: Dave Lindsay - circa 2005/06 I saw a list of 120 then analogue-only relays earmarked to get all 6 digital muxes at DSO, in addition to the existing 80 DTT transmitters at the time. Bath, Weymouth and Poole were on that list. Briantist has since told me it was only a planning list.
re: jb38 SDN is already high power at Mendip, on Wed 28 Sep 2011 it moved from UHF 62 low power to UHF 48 where it was increased to high power. Interestingly that same day, where I live in Bath, I could suddenly get SDN on UHF 48 (albeit marginal 3 to 5 out of 10 signal strength), in addition to almost 10 out of 10 signal strength reception of BBCA (UHF 25) and D3&4 (UHF 28) from Bath relay. My guess is SDN on UHF 48 must have been coming from Mendip; bizarrely with the aerial a) facing Bath (wrong way for Mendip), b) vertical (correct for Bath, wrong for Mendip), c) about 10 elements (fine for Bath, almost certainly inadequate for Mendip where I live). I concluded suddenly getting SDN from Mendip that way could only have come about due to it being at its new high power on UHF 48 at Mendip.
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jb3811:59 PM
Nicholas Willmott: According to DUK information Mendips SDN is presently running on 70.7Kw and with ArqA on 12.5kw and ArqB on 27.5Kw.
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Monday, 5 March 2012
MENDIP transmitter - Over the next week Mendip main transmitter: TV (digital) Liable to interruption, Radio (analogue) working normally, no analogue radio. [DUK]
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Tuesday, 6 March 2012
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Nicholas Willmott11:48 AM
re jb38: thanks for your info about the COM muxes at Mendip. If SDN (UHF 48) is currently running on 70.7Kw at Mendip, that's still considerably higher than its much lower power on UHF 62 prior to 28 Sep 2011.
I've been led to believe that SDN (UHF 48), Arq A and Arq B will all be 100 KW at Mendip from 28 Mar 2012. It'll be interesting to see if my Panasonic DVD recorder can tune into any / all of those with borderline / adequate signal strength with the aerial setup where I live in Bath as of 28 March 2012.
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John2:58 PM
Taunton
My reception is from Mendip transmitter. Will it be necessary to retune from 28th March, or is it just a transmission power increase?
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John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Adam B3:20 PM
Dunstable
John:
A retune will be required on 28th March to ensure you still receive all channels.
Hope this helps,
Adam.
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Adam's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Mike Dimmick4:01 PM
Nicholas Wilmott: The commercial multiplex operators have decided to change to a less-robust, but higher-capacity, mode. They are rolling this out across the country over several months. So that fringe viewers don't lose services when they do change mode, where they had time to prepare it, they are broadcasting at less than the permitted levels. SDN seem to generally be using a 1.5 dB reduction, while Arqiva - at other transmitters - used a 3 dB reduction. At Mendip, ArqA and ArqB are still on low power to reduce interference at Salisbury, and not due to the mode change. ArqB had its mode change last year (8 November) and coverage may have reduced for some people.
If the transmitter started transmitting at final power levels before the mode change decision was made, then the power levels were not reduced.
Therefore, while SDN will increase power to 100 kW on 27 March (according to Digital UK's postcode checker - trade view, shown as 'COM mux FEC change'), this will not increase coverage due to the mode change; for some people the mode change may actually reduce coverage.
The ArqA and ArqB channel changes and power increases are still scheduled for 28 March. ArqA's mode change is expected to occur at the same time.
So far, SDN are only using the increased capacity in Wales, to carry CITV and The Zone. These previously weren't available in Wales, because E4 was carried instead, due to S4C bumping it from the D3&4 multiplex. New services on ArqA and ArqB are likely (in my view) to launch once London has switched over in April. ArqA will be in its final mode at all switched-over transmitters by 1 May, and SDN by 27 June: ArqB fully switched to the new mode on 23 November last year.
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