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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 04/11/2024 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
_______

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), 71 That’s 60s,

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 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
 H max
C33 (570.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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
 H max
C36 (594.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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

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, 2 April 2012
M
Malcolm Ward
11:57 AM

Hi

Is there a box/adapter that would allow me to use an existing satellite dish receiving freesat to convert it to free view signal. Just move into a house with satellite dish wired to all rooms but I have a tv that has built in free view.


link to this comment
Malcolm Ward's 1 post GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:45 PM

Malcolm Ward: No, you cannot convert signals from a satellite into ones that a "Freeview" receiver can work with.

You will need to either:

1. Purchase satellite receivers (e.g. "Freesat") for all rooms served by the dish, or;

2. Install a terrestrial aerial.


It is likely that for each wall outlet, there is a cable (or perhaps two cables) from the dish to the outlet. You could therefore use the existing cabling for terrestrial services. To do this you would need to remove the cables from the satellite dish. Then install a terrestrial aerial which goes to a splitter (either powered or non-powered). Each output of the splitter would then connect to each cable you've removed from the dish. At each aerial point replace the threaded F-connectors with coax ones. This would save you having to re-cable.

The only thing to be wary of is that not all areas can receive all Freeview channels. If you are in an area served only by limited channels, then you may decide to go down the satellite route.

If you give your location, preferably in the form of post code (or perhaps nearby post code) then an assessment can be made as to the likelihood of reception of all Freeview channels.

link to this comment
Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:19 PM

Malcolm Ward: I should point out that if you are in an area served by Mendip, then you will be likely to be able to receive all Freeview channels.

link to this comment
Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
B
Bizman
4:40 PM

How strange, I live on the fringe of the reception area (according to the map) and have had excellent reception all week. Could it be that Alison Armshaw is getting a signal which is too strong since the power was upped?

link to this comment
Bizman's 20 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
B
Ben Ward
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

10:23 AM
Melksham

Like many others, we have a pretty much non-existent service at the moment. The main TV set downstairs (Toshiba) uses its own Freeview decoder, as well as a second F.V. box (Sony) which feeds an old PVR. We have a second set upstairs with a second rooftop aerial point connected to a Humax Freeview decoder. The boxes downstairs are the ones with the problems (no signal) but strangely, the Humax is fine. But connecting the aerial directly to the Panasonic F.V. system upstairs gives the same problem as the set downstairs - no signal.

All this started a week or so ago, with frequent "If you lose Freeview channels after X date, you may need to retune" messages on all systems, which seems to have coincided with analogue switch-off in London. I have been looking around at pages and threads on this site, very interesting stuff.

We have not had these kinds of problems before and nothing else has changed; I have retuned all the Freeview boxes to no avail. I am now thinking it may be a physical problem with the aerial. Any ideas? The aerial is on the roof.

Thank you.

link to this comment
Ben Ward's 28 posts GB flag
Ben's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:59 AM

Ben Ward: Chances are that you now have too much signal. Along with the retune last Wednesday, two of the multiplexes quadrupled in power. Too much signal causes the signal to be distorted when it's amplified, either by external amplifiers/boosters or by the gain control or mixer circuits within the box or TV. Error correction can handle a certain amount of distortion, but too much of it and there are too many errors to be corrected.

Different boxes can handle different amounts of signal before distorting it too much to be decodable, and different boxes have different levels of sensitivity to quiet signals.

I'd start by removing any amplifiers, and if that doesn't sort it, add some attenuators to bring the levels down.

Digital UK predict 100% of locations in your grid square should have at least 99%-reliable signals. This is usually a good indicator that signal levels could be too high.

link to this comment
Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:10 PM

Ben Ward: Check that the receivers are tuned to the channels used by Mendip and not Bath.

You should only need to check BBC One, ITV1, BBC One HD (if applicable), ITV3, Pick TV and Yesterday. The UHF channel numbers are at the top of this page.

Mike Dimmick: For some reason the DUK Tradeview predictor suggests four digital transmitters at Ben's location, but only gives a reception prediction for Mendip.

link to this comment
Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Thursday, 5 April 2012
B
Ben Ward
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

11:35 AM
Melksham

I really appreciate the responses, guys. The 'too much signal' idea is very interesting; I moved my only working decoder (the Humax) to downstairs, and connected it up there. Of course, it works fine which kind of confirms that the Humax is the only decoder of my four which can handle a possibly too-high signal (Mike's point).

Dave, I will check my local channel tunings. I'll post back with my findings.

Regards,
Ben

link to this comment
Ben Ward's 28 posts GB flag
Ben's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Sue
1:33 PM

Hello, following the recent upgrade to the Mendip transmitter I've lost a number of channels (down to 92), while my parents who live 1/2 mile down the road are up to 140. I can see the transmitter from my property so definitely within range! The arial is shared with other properties. Can you tell me if something needs to be done to the arial to get the other channels? Thanks!

link to this comment
Sue's 1 post GB flag
M
Mike
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:02 PM
Poole

Just did manual retune on 56 for channel 4seven this is incorrect this channel is on 52 seems ArqA & B still showing wrong information.

link to this comment
Mike's 29 posts GB flag
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Your comment please
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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