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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
Thursday, 31 May 2012
M
Mike
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

10:31 AM
Poole

Thanks for reply I only have one aerial a wideband pointing at Mendip so seems its picking up unwanted signals from back of aerial. Not bothered about region just want pvr to stop dropping PSB at will, picking up Rowridge & poole with poor quality pictures & digital break up.

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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
Sunday, 3 June 2012
L
Lordgeous
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:28 PM
Bath

Variable attenuator makes no difference, just lowers signal strength and bad signals just get worse, not better! Now today cannot get the 'bad' channels at all - receivers just say No Signal. It is raining so I guess that effects signal, BBC chas all OK as usual. Dont know where to go from here. Should I try pointing ariel towards Wenvoe and try that?

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Lordgeous's 25 posts GB flag
Lordgeous's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 4 June 2012
B
Ben Ward
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

11:28 AM
Melksham

No BBC at all still, and the other channels are messed up (except the Humax receiver, which is fine). I've almost given up hope, next step is to enquire with a local TV repair company and see if they have any tips.

Good luck Lordgeous!

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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
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:40 PM

Ben Ward: Judging by your latest reports I have to say that I very much doubt if you will ever manage to obtain good reception, as erratic intermittent reception of the type you are plagued with is nearly always because of the signal path between two points being obstructed by vegetational reasons such as trees etc, this also giving a seasonal aspect to the intermittency of the signal plus adding daily changes dependant on whether its wet or windy, something which unfortunately there is no real way around although the situation can in some instances be improved by NOT using high gain narrow pick up angle aerials.

However, looking back again over your various postings I realise that you have already tried a few tests / answered questions from various advisers including one from myself, but the thing that really stands out is the fact of you reporting that the Humax always seemingly operates OK when nothing else does that really intrigues me, albeit of course being fully aware that Humax tuners are one of the best around for stability hence providing reasonably consistent level of signal indication accuracy across the various models.

I would therefore be interested to know the outcome of another test involving only your upstairs set up, namely the Humax and the Panasonic TV, the latter being another piece of equipment that's excellent for carrying out signal tests on because of its versatile tuning menu.

What I would like you to try is to select BBC (Ch61) on the Humax and check the signal strength / quality being indicated, making a note of whatever it is, then transfer the aerial directly into the Panasonic and delete everything stored in its memory by going into the tuning menu and selecting "auto-set up", ignore the warning message and press "start auto setup", BUT! as soon as it starts and you see the empty page where any channels found would be listed press the "exit" button on the remote control as everything will then have been deleted by then, the usual "no channels" message being seen to come on.

That done, go into the tuning menu again and select "manual tuning / access" where on pressing you will see a bar at the very top of the screen with a channel number being indicated on the right hand side of it, then using the "up / down" facility on the remote controls large round button inch the channel numbers either way until you get to Ch61, because as soon as its been selected the signal strength / quality of that channel should be seen on the level bars. (no need to scan!)

If you do not see any level being shown, then insert the attenuator in-line with the aerial socket of the Panasonic and turn the adjuster to fully advanced, nothing will likely be seen at this setting so "slowly" start to bring it back towards zero whilst observing the screen when hopefully the level indications will suddenly jump on, and if they do then adjust it to give about 80% or so strength and then press "search" and let the TV scan for BBC channels, giving an update on results.

Do not by-pass the procedure in anyway, as it has to be carried out in that fashion.






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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:11 PM

Lordgeous: With regards to the variable attenuator not having improved the situation any, this result was not entirely unexpected when you had reported that a set top aerial only received a very weak signal, and the reason why I always request that a person tries that test first, as its only in situations where someone reports getting a reasonably good signal from a set top aerial test that I would then advise them to purchase an attenuator.

However, I carried out a more detailed check on the signal path route between Mendip and your location, and "if" the post code provided is truly representative of your position then your aerial would be pointing not too far off straight along Camden Road and into a row of houses situated at a slightly higher level, that is as well as them being topped from behind with a higher level line of trees, but to compound this problem even further random patches of trees were seen at various points along the signal path, and so erratic reception has to be expected in that type of situation as its nearly impossible to avoid.

I also carried out a terrain check indication, something I do not take as being remotely accurate as it does "not" show anything other than an obstruction of a hill nature, meaning that a person could be located behind a tower block or alternatively tucked in at the back of Sherwood Forrest and yet it would still show a clear path, however it "does" indicate that the signal from Mendip clips the top of a hill about 2.5 Km or so away from you, the problem there being that if your signal is partially obstructed before it even reaches the more localised and visual tree lined hill / houses on hill problem, then reception is bound to be hit and miss.

I realise that you have said that reception had been OK since switch over, but as your signal path routes over areas with numerous trees (just like applies in Ben Wards situation) then seasonal vegetational growth has to be playing a significant part in your problem, this always being worse when obstructions of that nature are located not that terribly far away, as even a single tree can seriously affect a persons reception let alone a numerous amount of them, and especially so during wet weather.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Thursday, 7 June 2012
I
Iestyn
3:24 PM

Hi guys,

I'm in BS32 and until yesterday all was well.

I now cannot get any signal on any channel.

All channels are zero %.

Any ideas?

Thx,

Iestyn

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Iestyn's 3 posts GB flag
Friday, 8 June 2012
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:29 AM

MENDIP transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 03:50 today to 04:18 today HD Digital TV Weak Signal from 03:50 today to 04:39 today [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:29 AM

MENDIP transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 03:50 today to 04:18 today HD Digital TV Weak Signal from 03:50 today to 04:39 today [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:29 AM

MENDIP transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 03:50 yesterday to 04:18 yesterday HD Digital TV Weak Signal from 03:50 yesterday to 04:39 yesterday [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:29 AM

MENDIP transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 03:50 yesterday to 04:18 yesterday HD Digital TV Weak Signal from 03:50 yesterday to 04:39 yesterday [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
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