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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 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, 4 April 2013
R
Ron
12:05 PM

Thanks to the very helpful engineer at Double M's in Warminster I now have the BBC channels back. He simply retuned my freeview box on his ariel at his shop location. On setting up the box at home the channels were there and after fiddling with the ariel position and all cable connections the channels are now all working.

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Ron's 3 posts GB flag
Michael Perry
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:29 PM

Success! I have now solved the mystery of no BBCA channels on my Hauppauge WinTV stick. The software stores a database of your channel settings and that 'forces' it to think BBC is on a different Mux so doesn't decode them. I cleared the channel database (on this system that is in the Start>All Programs>Hauppauge WinTV>Advanmced Options> Clear Channel Database and then do a FULL retune. Now have BBC back.
I suspect that all who have lost BBC perhaps should follow the user manual and do a full reset (back to original factory settings) and then to a full retune (as they would have done on original installation), and then let us know how they get on.
Perhaps they could also let us know what make and model equipment they are using as I have a suspicion that some designs are affected as others are not.

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

12:32 PM

Are you getting the wrong BBC services? BBC1 West Country instead of BBC1 West?
Perhaps try restricting the channel search only to those relevant to Mendip (or your local transmitter). That should exclude Huntshaw Cross and others. Check your User Manual to see how to do that, but not all equipment has that facility I believe.

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

12:35 PM

Mazbar
As you will see above the issue is one of software and not hardware, as I had always suspected but the user manual does not mention! As the scanning system tests showed the signal strength is more than adequate on all relevant channels. (I can't check the HD Mux as that is not available to my hardware/software.).

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Michael Perry's 3,056 posts GB flag
Mike
1:13 PM
Cinderford

Using Elgato Eyetv on a Mac - now tuned okay for 24 hours. I threw away the Locations folder in ... EyeTV/Library/Application Support/Eyetv and did an exhaustive scan

BUT

My neighbour with her old Ferguson TV (not that old - it has a Free-view tuner built in. Cannot get anything now. So it is either a fault with the cable or aerial which has just got so bad there is a insufficient signal or . . . what?

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Mike's 8 posts GB flag
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mr R.A. Shergold
3:52 PM
Devizes

I live in the SN10 3BJ post Code area. I live in a Retirement Complex containing some 44 Flats/Bungalows.Ae on a very high roof Over half of these units cannot recieve BBC 1 without from time to time massive interference, on sound and picture. Before the change over we were happy old codgers with TV to look at.Now we are not.We have re-tuned our TV and recorder at least six times. Reading some of the Comments above, I really think we have been miss sold HD Ready equipment.

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Mr R.A. Shergold's 1 post GB flag
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Michael Perry
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:54 PM

Mike
Maybe the user manual for the particular TV would help? See Freeview Retune - list of manuals | Digital switchover | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice for some listed on this site.
Giving the model number helps as they vary quite a lot.
Is she on a communal aerial system? Some seem to have problems with the changed channel settings.

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

5:33 PM

Mr R.A. Shergold: I think that you need to speak to the party responsible for the aerial system. The issue clearly lies with it and so there is nothing you can do.

Sometimes communal aerial systems need adjustment where new frequencies come into use, as is the case here.

If a set is tuned correctly then there is nothing to be gained by retuned - it is a waste of time and effort. For BBC standard definition (non-HD) services the signal strength screen should say that it is tuned to UHF channel 49 (698MHz). If that is what it is on then retuning will achieve nothing.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Mike
5:49 PM
Cinderford

Michael Perry:- (funny that I am Michael Penny!) Thank you for your suggestion. Yes we have done everything in the manual, but I think there must be a signal strength problem as it now fails to find any channels. We share an aerial mast and a satellite dish, but I think we each have separate terrestrial antennae. There are certainly two UHF ariels on the same pole as the dish as well as a VHF radio ariel.

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Mike's 8 posts GB flag
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Michael Perry
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:44 PM
Calne

Mike (Penny)
Just a thought but might seem strange at first: try doing a full scan without the aerial plugged in (that might well clear any stored channel information first). You won't get any channels found, I hope. Then plug the aerial back in and do another full scan. What do you get then?
What model is her TV?
I'm sure the transmitter is working correctly, else how do so many have no problems, but I suspect that some equipment was not designed to easily cope with all the changes they are making just to make room for 4G mobile phone data!

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Michael Perry's 3,056 posts GB flag
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