Full Freeview on the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.790,-1.179 or 51°47'25"N 1°10'46"W |  | OX3 9SS |
The symbol shows the location of the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmitter which serves 410,000 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 Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) mast?
Oxford transmitter - Oxford transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
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 Freeview channels does the Oxford 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.
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 Oxford transmitter?
BBC South (Oxford) Today 0.4m homes 1.6%
from Oxford OX2 7DW, 6km west-southwest (258°)
to BBC South (Oxford) region - 6 masts.
BBC South (Oxford) Today shares 50% content with Southampton service
ITV Meridian News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Whiteley PO15 7AD, 102km south (182°)
to ITV Meridian/Central (Thames Valley) region - 15 masts.
Thames Valley opt-out from Meridian (South). All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian+Oxford
How will the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1950s-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 23 May 2018 | ||
| VHF | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E T | W T | W T | ||
| C2 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C29 | SDN | ||||||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C41 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C44 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C46 | _local | ||||||||
| C47 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C49tv_off | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C50tv_off | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C51tv_off | LOX | LOX | |||||||
| C53tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | +BBCA | +BBCA | +BBCA | |||
| C55tv_off | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | com7tv_off | |||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_off | ||||||||
| C57tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | |||
| C59tv_off | -ArqA | -ArqA | -ArqA | ||||||
| C60tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | -D3+4 | -D3+4 | -D3+4 | |||
| C62 | SDN | ||||||||
| C63 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
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 14 Sep 11 and 28 Sep 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 500kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 100kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 50kW | |
| Analogue 5 | (-11dB) 40kW | |
| com8 | (-14.7dB) 17.1kW | |
| com7 | (-14.8dB) 16.4kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, LOX | (-17dB) 10kW | |
| Mux C*, Mux D* | (-18dB) 8kW | |
| Mux A*, Mux B* | (-19.2dB) 6kW |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Oxford transmitter area
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Monday, 30 December 2019
R
Rex Bartlett12:19 AM
Swindon
SN5 4ET
For the past 24 hrs I have lost all channels, HD and SD. Occasionally some will come back on for a few minutes or seconds with my Sony reading 100% strength and 100% quality but then they go again with both at 0%.
I had the same thing happen last summer when I lost everything, due, I think, to atmospherics. I'm right on the edge of the Oxford transmitter area. I was advised last time to tune into Seagry Court which is only 3 miles away but when I tried this I got absolutely nothing, probably because there is a hill in the way.
I'm puzzled that all channels and muxes somehow disappear altogether with 0% readings. As the weather forecast is for unusually mild weather together with high pressure can I assume that this is probably the cause of my blackout? And if so does anyone have any suggestions what I might do about it?
I have a roof aerial, don't ask me what sort, which is amplified with 2 separate sockets with only the one being used.
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Rex's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE2:03 AM
Rex Bartlett and others:
There are unusually high levels of "Tropospheric propagation" at present, often associated with High Pressure weather systems.
These levels of propagation are unusual at this time of year - they cause signals from more distant transmitters to travel a lot further than normal. It is currently affecting different parts of the country by varying degrees and signals can change by the second or remain stable for much longer periods.
In the old "analogue" days there was a lot of talk about "continental" interference often in the summer months, but the interference can come from transmitters anywhere in the UK or Europe and even further afield. At the moment some people are getting DAB radio from the Netherlands and FM Radio from France as well as the interference to DTV.
It is predicted to continue for a couple more days, and you are advise NOT to retune as you will likely lose the correct tuning that you had. The "propagation" can be very frequency dependent, and it can only affected one frequency or several, but it can/will be different for others.
People will however have noticed the unusually mild weather which the Met office is referring to as a "Foehn effect" but it's not helpful that it seems none of the major broadcasters are making any reference to the interference being caused to TV and Radio reception! So it's no surprise that people wonder what is going on and think there is a transmitter problem.
For those that have retuned and lost correct tuning, you will have to try again and it could be hit and miss whilst the unusual propagation continues. If you are able to do a manual tune for the correct UHF channels, you may still receive interference or the wrong programmes.
The UHF channels for Oxford are C41, C44, C47, C29, C37, C31, C55, C56 for (PSBs1-3, COMs4-8).
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C
Chris.SE2:26 AM
Rex Bartlett:
Further to your remarks about Seagry Court, this requires an aerial with the rods vertical pointing virtually due E (bearing 88 degrees). So whilst your aerial is pointed at Oxford (rods horizontal) bearing 64 degrees (approx. ENE) you are unlikely to get a signal from Seagry Court. FYI its channels are C39, C42, C45, C40, C43, C46 it has no COMs7&8.
As you probably know, Seagry Court is West region, whilst Oxford is Meridian.
Also note that your reception of the COM muxes, especially ArqB and COM7 from Oxford could get a bit more iffy during/after Feb/Mar/April next year due to transmitter retunes elsewhere which may cause a bit more interference.
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R
Rex Bartlett11:52 PM
Chris.SE:
Many thanks Chris. I'm sort of pleased that it was as I suspected re tropospherics and my complete loss of signals. Also very much appreciated is your explanation why I could not get anything from Seagry Court even though my aerial points that way, roughly in the same direction as the Oxford transmitter.
As it seems a new aerial is in order sooner or later, can I ask for more advice? My usual reception from Oxford isn't that bad, apart from times like this once in a while, and as my present aerial looks a feeble affair that was erected 40 yrs ago, do you think a better quality higher gain more directional aerial would be less prone to these blackouts happening to me? Is there maybe a super whiz aerial that would allow me to tune into both the Seagry Court and Oxford muxes? Or is this question just displaying my ignorance?
Either way, thanks for explaining so clearly. Thankfully, everything seemed to return to normal during the course of this evening. Happy New Year!
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Wednesday, 18 March 2020
M
margaret Jenkins10:00 AM
Chipping Norton
No Charlbury BBC Freeview chanels. What's wrong ? Postcode OX7 3RW
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margaret's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE2:33 PM
margaret Jenkins:
Oxford does have Planned Engineering this week with "Possible service interruptions" which might possibly also affect the Charlbury Relay if that's where you get your signals from. If you are using the main Oxford transmitter you shouldn't have any problems normally with signals except COMs 7&8 which are predicted to be variable at your location.
If you retuned whilst there was no signal, it'll have cleared the correct tuning. So you'll need to repeat a retune when the transmitter is back on air.
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Saturday, 21 March 2020
C
Chris.SE2:44 AM
margaret Jenkins:
Further to the above, it seems there's probably a fault at the Charlbury Relay Transmitter, see its own transmitter page (click the name for a link).
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Tuesday, 7 April 2020
P
Pat8:33 AM
Oxford (Bexley) transmitter seems to be broadcasting the Film4 channel using some kind of weird reduced colour palette (I'd guess 16 colours). I've reproduced the problem on 3 different receivers and had confirmation from someone else some distance away (on the same transmitter).
This started around the afternoon of the 6th and is still persisting as of the morning of the 7th.
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C
Chris.SE1:38 PM
Pat:
It seems Oxford are on Planned Engineering this week so that may have something to do with what you are observing. They are advising "Possible weak signal" which in recent observations from others can mean the disappearance of some channels and other effects for periods of time. If this persists for a lengthy period I'd try giving Channel 4 a call on 020 7396 4444 or 0345 076 0191 as Freeview are unlikely to be much help, they only seem to regurgitate a retuning script which I don't advise when you have weak or no signals.
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P
Pat3:50 PM
Chris.SE:
Thanks for that, I did see: Planned engineering works | Freeview
...so, Central - Oxford - Main - Possible weak signal - is that all the detail that's available? Is an 8-bit colour palette a symptom of a weak signal? The signal reports fine (80%+) and there are no drop-outs, just the washed-out picture for Film4. All the other PSB2 channels look fine.
There seems to be so little information nowadays that I'm feeling more and more of a dinosaur even knowing what Freeview is.
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