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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Tuesday, 2 July 2013
N
Neil11:08 AM
Sorry, forgot to add, that it is an external roof aerial and has an external amp and splitter.
Evenings seem much worse than mornings for the channels I've seen live. e.g. CBeebies was OK this morning, but very blocky yesterday afternoon. But I gather that Thomas (CH5) recordings have failed and I believe they are morning ones.
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J
jb386:02 PM
Newbury
Neil: What you have reported are the classic symptoms experiencing by viewers in areas who do not have line-of-sight reception (or anywhere near to) with the transmitter, and any signal that they do receive being purely through diffraction which is signal bending, this unfortunately resulting in reception which relies on this type of condition always being vulnerable to changes in weather plus being affected by other climatic based reasons, all of having the effect of altering the angle that the signal is bending.
I carried out a few tests using an RG14 6LR post code as a substitute for your own (partially unknown) one and came up with the following results.
Hannington : 7 miles @ 149 degrees obstructed from just over 1 mile away.
Crystal Palace : 54 miles @ 87 degrees multiple major obstructions from just under 30 miles out.
Oxford : 28 miles @ 13 degrees major obstructions from 11miles out.
I realise that you may not be in an RG14 6 postal code area, but at least it gives you an idea of the reasons for reception being iffy in your area, and the very fact of you having said that the aerials in your street are seen to be pointing in all sorts of directions is always an indication of an area being problematic for reception.
Needless to say, and as you will probably have already been aware of, nothing can really be done to improve things when reception is being made under these conditions.
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jb38's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 3 July 2013
N
Neil2:33 PM
Thank you. Yes, I do appreciate that this location is probably not the best. The puzzle is, this is the first time we have had anything more significant that a rare, minor glitch. So I would say it's been working fine for... well I'm rubbish on remembering, but I think over 3 years at least. And of course it would have been much lower power before digital switchover and was fine then. This problem has now gone on for almost 2 week, so is beginning to look permanent.
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Neil: The answer must be that something's changed. As you are in the area, you are better-placed than anyone to give a more definitive answer. We can only speculate on here. Some possibilities are trees growing - perhaps when the leaves fall off the signal will return - or perhaps someone has built an extension or changed their roof tiles.
The point of all this is that in a situation such as yours you are relying on things not to change (to the degree which your picture will be affected). Usually this isn't possible so you are at the liberty of factors outside your control.
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J
jb387:59 PM
Neil: Although I fully appreciate that your reception has prior to recent times been OK but that's the misleading thing about digital reception, insomuch that provided a signal is not suffering from rapid fluctuations in quality the picture will appear exactly the same from being received at a high strength right down to just before the lower cut off threshold, and so its possible that your signal could have been dropping in level over a period of time but is only now being noticed because its encroaching on your receivers lower cut off point.
If your aerial had been in the loft then I would have been inclined to suggest that you try moving the aerial a few feet to the left or right of it present position, as in non line-of-sight situations where a signal is being received via an element of diffraction this type of action can sometimes bring results by re-capturing the signal, because in areas such as yours if a person moved along a rooftop from one end to the other carrying a test aerial coupled into a signal meter, its not uncommon to observe the signal rise and fall in a ripple fashion from one end of roof to the other, not of course that it really helps an aerial installer to know this when a really good spot does not correspond to a chimney breast, although this being where gutter mounting is usually OK.
Another thing about reception under these circumstances being that picture glitching etc is always worse if a high gain aerial is used, because a high gain aerial is only that because the elements towards the front of the aerial called directors focuses the signal onto the aerials active element positioned immediately in front of the reflector, but when a signal is being received via diffraction the angle its being received at is not constant and can vary slightly to either side of the centre line that the aerial has been aligned on thereby defocusing the aerial, and so what's a director element one minute turns into an obstruction the next by partially blocking the signal path to the active element.
It would be interesting though to know the result if you cared to make a local enquiry regarding reception from some other household whose aerial is facing the same direction as your own.
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G
Geoffrey Ferres8:41 PM
Thanks for the explanation about 29th May.
I actually had not done what I only now see the site suggested and all our problems have been solved by retuning with the aerial disconnected, then retuning after reconnecting. We now have all the channels!
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Friday, 5 July 2013
N
Neil5:38 PM
Newbury
Agreed something must have changed, but I really don't know what it could be.
I tried asking one neighbour, but he was unaware you could get 'normal' (i.e. aerial) TV since digital switchover.
I only just realised that jb38's first post had some links to the right, pages I hadn't seen before on ukfreetv. Is this where you got your "obstructed" info from? The house icon seems the cover the terrain view in the closest 2 miles, so I wasn't quite sure if Hannington looked better or not. Realistically I would be pointing at a house somewhere further up the hill. Yes it is a high gain aerial.
I will see if I can ask some other neighbours at some point, or think about getting someone to see if any of the other directions are better.
Many thanks.
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Neil's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 6 July 2013
J
jb387:59 AM
Neil: These are the links to the updated info showing the terrain between the three stations in question and your location when using the info you have now provided rather than an approximate test code.
Please note that the indications seen are purely with reference to the ground level and do not take into account trees or anything man made, these always making matters worse.
Hannington.
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
Crystal Palace.
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
Oxford.
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
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Sunday, 7 July 2013
J
jb387:19 AM
Neil: Just noticed that the link indicating the terrain between Crystal Palace and your updated location is defective and so this is a replacement.
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
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Friday, 2 August 2013
P
Paul7:55 AM
I noticed this week that ITV1 carries Meridian News ( South ), while ITV1+1 carries Central West News. This gives us a choice of nearby regions, which is useful.
If I recall correctly, not long ago ITV1+1 carried Meridian News ( South East ). News and weather for Kent and Sussex were not very useful.
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