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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 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
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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
Wednesday, 3 April 2013
Michael Perry
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:42 PM

To Dave Lindsay

No change to any other services at all on either receiver, testing software scans of stick output show 100% on all multiplexes. Only those on Ch 49 (ie BBCA multiplex) are affected.

link to this comment
Michael Perry's 3,056 posts GB flag
J
jefferson
6:50 PM

no signal still
but got bbc on analog witch was very poor befor
first time ive used atv on this telly
4 years old in may

link to this comment
jefferson's 7 posts GB flag
J
John Crabb
7:19 PM
Chard

To Michael Perry: Thanks for that info Michael, very interesting. Is there a book that I can read all this practical stuff up in?

In addition to fiddling with the cable length, I have now installed a new wideband, high-gain aerial. This did not initially seem to make much diffence over my ancient C/D Yagi. What finally made it all click into place was moving the HDMI cable coming from the HDD to a second socket on the TV. The second one was further from the aerial socket. Is there any possible explanation for this!? The improvement in the signal quality indicator was quite marked.

link to this comment
John Crabb's 10 posts GB flag
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
ChrisE
7:39 PM

Dave Lindsay: No, C48 is also not working.

link to this comment
ChrisE's 2 posts GB flag
M
Mazbar
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:51 PM

Michael Perry: do you have a wideband aerial or a grouped cd aerial. If the latter 49 is at the end of the normal acceptance of the aerial, if the aerial is good and reception fine there will be no problem but if the signal is medium to poor or you have damage to the coax this could make 49 not work.

link to this comment
Mazbar's 384 posts GB flag
Michael Perry
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:12 PM

To Mazbar
That Ch48 is received very strongly means that Ch49 will be as well as long as it is a true C/D group aerial - it is of course as Mendip analogue transmissions were in the C/D band.By definition, Group C/D aerials cover 47 to 69 but if signal strength and quality are high then decoding should be fine - but it isn't on Ch49 and it IS on Ch 48! So aerial is not the problem. BTW, I'm a retired TV engineer.

link to this comment
Michael Perry's 3,056 posts GB flag
M
Mazbar
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:17 PM

Michael Perry: sorry I have only been fitting aerials for over 20 years and as I stated if there is a problem with any part of the aerial the outer ends of the aerial acceptance will be affected the most.

link to this comment
Mazbar's 384 posts GB flag
Michael Perry
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:21 PM

To John Crabb
An HDMI cable is carrying digital signals with fast rising edges, so can radiate and that may be picked up by a poor UHF coaxial cable. Always use good quality cables but don't waste money on the 'gold' plated ones - expensive does not mean good quality.
Any electronics book that covers RF signals up to 1000 MHz ought to have something about the relationship between wavelength, frequency and standing waves on cables of a length close to a multiple of the signal wavelength. A rough guide, 300MHz=1m and 100MHz=3m. So for a 600MHz signal avoid any multiple of 0.5m or thereabouts. Hope that helps?
A lot of waffle is spouted about aerials for 'digital' signals. The signal transmitted is an RF carrier so any aerial designed for reception of the frequency range can be considered. Aerial gain and reception angles are also important. A good C/D will suffice for Mendip now but a WB will be needed in a few years- the plan is to move Mendip into the Group A band around 2019!

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Michael Perry's 3,056 posts GB flag
Michael Perry
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:26 PM

To Mazbar
Sorry I have been teaching engineering staff of a former major TV rental company covering not only the TV sets but aerial systems and satellite systems as well - since 1969! Before that I worked for Philips Electrical. So 59 years experience.
Don't assume that older aerials are deteriorating, it is the enclosed contacts that cause most problems if they are not properly enclosed and sealed. A good quality aerial, well fitted and properly sealed will last for many years. If Ch48 is excellent, it is, then 49 will be as well - it's only 8MHz higher up the band further into the central reception pattern of a C/D aerial.
A C/D group aerial will need replacing before 2019 anyway as they are changing bands for Mendip.

link to this comment
Michael Perry's 3,056 posts GB flag
M
Mazbar
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:40 PM

Michael Perry: if every thing was ok then your bbc would be working have you had your aerial checked by a professional, could you be experiencing interference from another out of area transmitter some signals can carry very very long distances I received rte in sklmersdale, if it is another transmitter try a log aerial this has a narrow acceptance angle. Judging on how long you have been working you are over 75 so don't try going on your roof unless you are ok.

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Mazbar's 384 posts GB flag
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