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Full Freeview on the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.790,-1.179 or 51°47'25"N 1°10'46"Wsa_postcodeOX3 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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Oxford (Oxfordshire, 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 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C41+ (634.2MHz)295mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South (Oxford), 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
C44- (657.8MHz)295mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian/Central (Thames Valley micro region)), 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 (Central west), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)295mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South (Oxford), 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 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 -3dB
C29 (538.0MHz)295mDTG-850,000W
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 -3dB
C37- (601.8MHz)319mDTG-850,000W
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 -3dB
C31 (554.0MHz)319mDTG-850,000W
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

LOX
 H -10dB
C46 (674.0MHz)295mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 22nd December 2014: 7 That's Oxford,

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 Oxford transmitter?

regional news image
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
regional news image
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-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-1723 May 2018
VHFC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C2BBCtvwaves
C29SDN
C31com7com7
C37com8com8
C41BBCA
C44D3+4
C46_local
C47BBCB
C49tv_offC5wavesC5waves
C50tv_off SDNSDN
C51tv_offLOXLOX
C53tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves+BBCA+BBCA+BBCA
C55tv_offArqBArqBArqBcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C57tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C59tv_off-ArqA-ArqA-ArqA
C60tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves-D3+4-D3+4-D3+4
C62SDN
C63BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Dec 2006Central Independent Television
Dec 2006-Feb 2009ITV Thames Valley
Feb 2009-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. Oxford 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, 22 April 2012
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:27 PM

Robert: I don't think so.

The reason that I suggest unplugging the aerial lead for part of the scan is because the automatic tuning process may produce to "wrong" results, i.e. the set of channels that the receiver decides to use as the "main" ones are not those from the transmitter to which the aerial faces.

The first thing that is done during automatic tuning is to scan frequencies from low to high and see what's available. Having done this, the receiver needs to decide (where duplicates are found) which ones to use as the main ones. The rest are usually put in the 800s. It is the process by which the decision is made that can vary between receivers and hence the outcome of what any one device may choose to be the "main" set may vary to that of another device on the same aerial.

Having chosen "wrong" channels, the user is then watching a transmission broadcast from a transmitter other than the one which the aerial faces. So it's not surprising if poor reception does ensue. It is therefore necessary to, somehow, get the device tuned to the correct channels. The same issue could occur in the days of analogue with automatic tuning.

Where the wrong channels that the receiver decides to go with are outside of the range of those used by the desired transmitter, then a simple way around the problem is to unplug the aerial so the device never gets to "see" them during its scan.


If you click the Digital UK (DUK) Tradeview link next to your posting, it will bring up the DUK prediction for transmitters you may be able to receive. You say that you have some services by 30% of the scan. The scan runs from channels 21 to 69, so you can convert to percentage and vice versa. At 30% it has completed looking in the 20s and there is apparently one transmitter in that range which is Chiseldon.

Looking at the predictor for your location, if you do the unplugging aerial trick, then the channels used for Mendip are interleaved within those of Oxford.


What I would say is that it is perhaps good practice to check that the main channels are the desired ones. Refer to "After switchover configuration":

Freeview multiplexes | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

Check the signal strength screen whilst on one of the services from each group (multiplex). Ensure that the UHF channel given is that of the desired transmitter and not another one.

As you have already done this, and confirmed it is channel 62, then this would appear not to be the issue (at least for this particular multiplex).

link to this comment
Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:42 PM

Robert: Could I request that the next time channel Ch62 drops out or indeed any of your other channels, that rather than immediately re-tuning the device in question just carry out a signal / quality level test on the blank screen, as the chances are that the signal will still be there but hovering at a level that's just under the reception threshold of your receiver, which of course results in the blank screen.

The reason I ask is that it would be interesting to know what this level is when compared to normal operation, as for satisfactory reception the "normal" would have to be considerably higher or the picture / audio would suffer from frequent intermittent glitching during the fluctuations in signal levels that occurs throughout a 24 hour period when dealing with any signals received from non line-of-site transmitters at reasonable distances away, in your case Oxford being at 27 miles and with Mendip being at 46 miles, although the latter falls well behind Oxford as far as reception predictions are concerned.

Just out of interest, what brand / model of device is the item in question? and does this particular problem also affect any other devices that might possibly use the same aerial system?

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
S
Stephen
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:03 PM

Yeah, I figured we were probably picking it up from another aerial, but we're getting 60% strength and 100% quality and a rock solid picture, so I'm tempted to leave it as it is at the moment.

Last time, I did a factory reset and then a manual tune of channel, which picked everything up from Oxford.

Anybody know why 62 is cutting out?

link to this comment
Stephen's 38 posts GB flag
Monday, 23 April 2012
P
Paul
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:27 AM

Robert
Sunday 22 April 2012 6:40AM
"You say all the Oxford channels are 60% in yet I get at least 21 about 30% in"
Those are not from Oxford, that's why they're weak at your location.

link to this comment
Paul's 45 posts GB flag
R
Robert
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:33 AM

Stephen my question also.

jb38 I have a signal strength meter do I just plug it in the aerial input or output.

My unit is Thompson recording system. The problem also occurs on another set with a built in decoder.

link to this comment
Robert's 75 posts GB flag
J
John Cook
10:19 AM

On first change over to digital from Rowridge transmitter every thing was fine and all channels had high signal strength.
For the last three days I have had low or no signal for five channels. Retuning does not pick up the channels or picks them up with low signal strength. A broken up picture appears and the the screen goes blank with a heading " Channel not tuned.
Digital UK tell me the reason is due to work being carried out on the transmitter and they only get progress reports once a week they do not know when the work will be completed. They also advise not to retune whilst the work is being carried out for fear of losing channels.
How will we know when it is safe to retune ?

link to this comment
John Cook's 2 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:47 AM

John Cook: The answer to your question is that you won't which is why they advised you not to retune!

You started off with one problem; picture break-up or no signal. Now you have two potential problems: picture break-up/no signal and the set not being tuned.

Digital UK publishes engineering works at www.digitaluk.co.uk/engineeringworks

Rowridge digital TV is currently "liable to interruption".

If you have a manual tune option, then try using it. Refer to the Rowridge page for details of UHF channel numbers.

link to this comment
Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
K
Keith
4:43 PM

I have recently lost the entire C62 (802.0MHz) multiplex on the Oxford transmitter (from Friday 20th April).

That means ITV3, ITV2+1, 5*, 5USA, Quest, The Zone, Channel5+1, CITV (plus others) are all showing NO or BAD SIGNAL.

They are still down today (Monday 23rd April).

link to this comment
Keith's 2 posts GB flag
R
robert
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:17 PM

Join the club, mine has been coming and going at the same time of night for several months. I will have my monitor to see signal strength tonight.

link to this comment
robert's 75 posts GB flag
M
Martyn Johnson
8:23 PM

Not receiving ITV, Ch4, nor Ch5 since 1500hrs today, 23 April. All other Freeviews are OK.

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Martyn Johnson's 1 post GB flag
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Your comment please
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