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Full Freeview on the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.997,-2.540 or 51°59'49"N 2°32'25"Wsa_postcodeHR8 2PG

 

The symbol shows the location of the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter which serves 270,000 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 Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) mast?

Ridge Hill transmitter - Ridge Hill 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 Ridge Hill 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
C28 (530.0MHz)363mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) West Midlands, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 19 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C25 (506.0MHz)363mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Midlands ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Midlands ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Central west),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C22+ (482.2MHz)363mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West Midlands, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 104 Channel 4 HD Midlands 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
C21+ (474.2MHz)361mDTG-810,000W
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 -3dB
C24 (498.0MHz)366mDTG-810,000W
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 -3dB
C27 (522.0MHz)361mDTG-810,000W
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

PSB2
D3+4west
 H max
C29 (538.0MHz)352mDTG-20,000W
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),

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Ridge Hill transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 69km northeast (39°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 69km northeast (39°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)

Are there any self-help relays?

WhittonTransposer35 km NW Hereford40 homes

How will the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1968-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-131 Mar 2018
VHFA K TA K TA K TW TW T
C6ITVwaves
C21+SDNSDN
C22BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCBBBCB
C24ArqAArqA
C25ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C27ArqBArqB
C28BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C29D3+4
C30_local
C32C4wavesC4wavesC4wavescom7
C34com8
C35C5wavesC5waves
C51tv_off_local_local
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off

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 6 Apr 11 and 20 Apr 11.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-5 100kW
BBCA, D3+4, PSB2 iw, BBCB(-7dB) 20kW
com7(-9.8dB) 10.5kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 10kW
com8(-10.1dB) 9.8kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-17dB) 2kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Ridge Hill transmitter area

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Radiation patterns withheld

Comments
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:37 AM

Bruce Manning: If you provide a full postcode I can advise. Also, you can also fit Freesat, where you can watch ALL of the BBC regions. Which BBC regions are on satellite? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:07 AM

Bruce Manning: Whilst you CAN currently move your aerial to Mendip, the service from there will, due to changes elsewhere in the network as part of switchover, deteriorate over the next few years.

You do, however, get the ITV1 West service from Ridge Hill. It's probably on channel 803 on your box.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:34 PM

Bruce Manning: The DUK predictor is showing poorer performance on Mendip PSB muxes from August, because they use the same channel as Waltham's will when it switches over.

I would think your aerial is likely to have better directional properties than the model used for the calculations, so you could certainly try it and see.

The aerial would need to be aimed fairly accurately, as the Carmel transmitter in south-west Wales also uses these frequencies.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
Bruce Manning
9:37 PM

Thanks Briantist and Mike Dimmick for your help - I'll give it a blast. The aerial was upgraded approx. 2006 to cope with Freeview. Channel 802 seems to be another ITV option though haven't had a chance to watch it long enough yet to catch the local news/weather (to see if it is West).

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Bruce Manning's 4 posts EU flag
Thursday, 28 April 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

6:20 PM

Jack Shepherd: Yes, as listed above.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Monday, 2 May 2011
J
John Haigh
9:58 PM
Ledbury

It's very frustrating: after years of snowy anogue and a handful of digital channels at this admittedly marginal postcode for Ridge Hill, HR8 1RR, on 20th April we had a full suite of digital channels, but on 28th April, we started to lose them and now don't have BBC1, 2, 3 or 4 any more, for example. Is this the inversion layer effect in action (although I thought it didn't affect digital)? I am pretty sure that on 20th April some RH muxs were at 20000 watts and the rest at 15000: now the ones that aren't at 20000 are only at 10000. Are they fiddling about to.see if anyone complains, and if do, how do I complain? Thanks for any advice. John

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John Haigh's 3 posts GB flag
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:42 PM

John Haigh: Atmospheric propogation affects all radio signals. Actually, if there is another digital signal on the same channel, it has a greater effect than analogue signals with a higher quoted power. A lot of the power of an analogue signal is wasted in the carrier, which only knocks out a small portion of a digital signal.

Your fundamental problem is that the hill to your west blocks line-of-sight to the Ridge Hill transmitter, which means that you have a much lower signal level than you otherwise would. Inversion affects are likely to increase the signal levels received from Ridge Hill at night, but also increase distant interference.

It's possible that the signal levels were good due to the high pressure around the 20th, and they've now dropped back to normal, insufficient, levels. The prediction is still for a good chance of getting a reliable service, at least at the moment, so you may want to get some professional advice as to why it's not working.

Because you're relying on indirect reception, your results are likely to be affected when Rowridge switches over next year - it will use the same channels as Ridge Hill for all services. Obviously, as it's beyond the horizon, this will depend heavily on weather conditions.

The maximum permitted signal level for the commercial multiplexes is 10 kW and has always been 10 kW in Ofcom documentation, at least since the commercial multiplexes were put in-group. (I have a document from 2007 that shows them at different channels.).

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
J
John Haigh
2:32 PM

I appreciate your trouble in explaining all this, Mike.

It looks like I was fooled by the weather into thinking things had been improved by the switchover, when in fact they are substantially worse for us. At least we had all the BBC services before, one way or another, whereas we now only have access to the two HD channels on appropriate equipment. Ironic when you look at where the licence fee goes.

I obviously don't understand what you mean by "commercial multiplexes" as the RH mux which carries ITV1 etc is shown above as being at 20Kw. Not that this is a clear factor in my problem, as the BBC mux is at 20Kw also.

Yes there is a (heavily wooded) hill between my house and the transmitter. I am told I have the best antenna possible, but I am going to look into having it raised higher, though no doubt there will be a good reason why not.

It seems I am going to stay frustrated, then.

Thanks again for your help.

John

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John Haigh's 3 posts GB flag
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