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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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter.

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), 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
Sunday, 23 December 2012
S
Stewart
3:46 PM

I know that they are in the 700 bracket of freeview channels. It's the tuning channel I need. Most of the TV channels are in the 50s & 60s, where are the radio channels?

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Stewart's 2 posts GB flag
M
Michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

4:31 PM

Stewart: The radio channels are carried in the same muxes as TV and data channels (BBC radio in the BBCA mux, others in SDN, ArqA and ArqB muxes) so there's no special radio tuning required. Which radio or TV channels are you missing in the 700s?

link to this comment
Michael's 358 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
K
k.Barrett
8:40 PM

Wideband horizontally polarised chimney mounted aerial pointing at Mendip.
My house is SN40NW postcode (Butts Rd, Chiseldon.)
Megalith.com shows line of sight to Mendip obscured (just.)
4 way amp/splitter loft mounted.
Cheap single insulated airgap down cable but despite all the above reception has always been good.

Over the last two weeks freezing every 1 or 2 minutes for 3 or 4 seconds on BBC1 and occassionally BBC2.

I have checked the cables for damage and water ingress.
I have turned off dimmer switches, heating controls and under floor heating - no change but proves no interference from them.
I have bypassed the amp splitter with no improvement.
I have also replaced the chimney mounted aerial with a loft mounted wideband vertically polarised one pointing at Chiseldon repeater. Then repeated all the above tests and no improvement. I know wide band is not ideal for Chiseldon repeater but being less than 200yds and very clear line of sight it shouldn't be a problem should it.

Now Chiseldon and Mendip transmit BBC1 on different channels so is it other local interference or is the repeater just repeating a freezing channel from the main transmitter.

Do I ask neighbours if they are having problems, report to BBC or try something else like a group A aerial pointing at Chiseldon and Diplex the Chimney aerial as there are no problems from that on other channels.

Help please.

link to this comment
k.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:43 PM

k.Barrett: Out of all that you have reported the most significant factor is you having stated that using the Chiseldon relay did not show any improvement either, because the Chiseldon relay receives its programmes from Mendip and this could indicate that the relay is also receiving a corrupted signal, therefore I would not advise altering anything at present before making some local enquiries for purposes of finding out if others are being affected in a similar way to yourself.

By the way, the fact of having a 16 watts transmitter so close to your location "is" very likely to have an effect on your tuner by slightly desensitising it, this happening no matter what channel you are trying to receive although obviously the effect will get worse the closer you get to frequencies used by the Chiseldon transmitters, although by the fact of the two stations not being that terribly far off right angles to each other plus them being on different polarities does help.

Chiseldon: 27 - 24 - 21 (@ 323 degrees)

Mendip: (43 miles @ 243 degrees) 61 - 54 - 58 - 48 - 56 - 52, please note though that channels 54 (ITV) & 58 (HD service) are classed as variable for reception.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
K
K.Barrett
12:34 PM

JB38: Yes your reply is really confirming my suspicions and I will talk to neighbours. I was rather hoping that XMas day would give a reliable signal and I could perhaps think about local interference but XMas day was no better.
The local transmitter even at "only" 16 watts will have some effect as it can easily be received on my daughters cheap TV and got 48% signal and a good picture from just 15ft of cheap aerial cable that wasn't connected to an aerial or amp.
However,from previous tests and previous reliable signal I don't think it is that relay causing the problem.
In summer with lots of leaves on trees and the slightly obscured signal from Mendip I would expect it to be poor but why in winter and usually worst when we have clear rather than wet and wind days.
Talk to the neighbours it is then.

Although today it has been perfect. Do the transmitter maintainers read these pages and fix things without saying anything? Triple time to fix something on XMas day might help?

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K.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
K
K.Barrett
12:40 PM

Reason for hoping XMas day would be good was no one working so no industrial electrical noise and no taxi transmissions but then there isn't much near here anyway.

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K.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
K
K.Barrett
1:00 PM

Odd this morning. Retuned the PVR and it has ignored Chiseldon (I have both aerials diplexed) and it has locked all channels to Mendip showing 68% strength 100% quality.
When tuned yesterday it selected the low frequency MUX (Chiseldon) as the primary ones and put all the duplicates (Mendip) at channel 800 and above.
Today the signal strength is lower AT 68% when it is usually 72% - 75%, picture is rock solid and it has ignored Chiseldon.

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K.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
K
K.Barrett
4:54 PM

Now 16:50: picture suddenly freezing and breaking up every few seconds. Signal down to 45% and quality fluctuating between 25 and 75%

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K.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
K
K.Barrett
4:59 PM

Retuned and BBC channels are now from Chiseldon repeater. Picture slightly better but still intermittently freezing. To me this proves that the repeater is receiving and rebroadcasting a poor signal as the Mendip signal is still fluctuating all over the place but, despite freezing, Chiseldon is solid at 72% strength and 100% quality.
This seems to be a repeat of yesterday; OK(ish) through the day but deteriorating in the evening.

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K.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:05 PM

K.Barrett: I think that the far more likely cause is some electrical interference that is present, whether around your aerial, around the receiver or somewhere along the aerial cable.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
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