Full Freeview on the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.997,-2.540 or 51°59'49"N 2°32'25"W |  | HR8 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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter._______
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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
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.
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?
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 69km northeast (39°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
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?
| Whitton | Transposer | 35 km NW Hereford | 40 homes |
How will the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1968-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 1 Mar 2018 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | A K T | A K T | W T | W T | ||||
| C6 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C21 | +SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C22 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C24 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C25 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C27 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C28 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C29 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C30 | _local | ||||||||
| C32 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | com7 | |||||
| C34 | com8 | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C51tv_off | _local | _local | |||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_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
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldMonday, 7 December 2015
R
Richard Sutton10:56 AM
Briantist:
Many thanks Brian. That shows that something significant appears to have happened to C29 on Ridge Hill but I can't understand what.
If you read my posts you will see that the Freeview technical person says that C29 is still broadcasting the same channels as C25 i.e. ITV, Ch4, Ch5 etc but I think they are wrong and they have switched off everything except ITV on C29 and have someone re-directed or de-powered C25 so that my reception is now poorer on C25 but I can't use the improved C29 other than for ITV.
There must be someone senior within Freeview who can actually give me the truth about this. Do you have an email address or phone number by any chance?
If my analysis is correct I will revert back to Sutton Coldfield after 4 or 5 years on Ridge Hill.
Richard
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Tuesday, 8 December 2015
J
jb385:46 PM
Richard Sutton: Sorry for slight delay in replying, but many thanks for the update, the detailed content of having clarified the situation regarding your installation. However on the subject of coax cable spacing where its connected into the box, its really the distance that the coax is kept apart from other cables before it reaches the box that's important, as the screening around the coax is at its most effective close to (within 6" or so) or at the boxes input socket by it being grounded onto the boxes chassis.
However, although I may have enquired about cabling, there is an element of the academic attached to this where your particular problem is concerned, basically because of it also affecting Freeview equipment located in another room, as crosstalk between HDMI / Ethernet and a coax cable only affects the device that the coax is feeding into and not a Freeview device located elsewhere, especially so if said device is fed from a different output on a powered splitter located in another area altogether.
By the way, UK digital's reception predictor certainly rates Lark Stoke as being able to provide the best signal in your area, or in my opinion "possibly in theory", the undermentioned link being to the site in question.
I will certainly be interested on the outcome of your test in the loft!
UK digital TV reception predictor
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Saturday, 2 January 2016
R
Richard Sutton5:44 PM
Richard Sutton:
OK - after the long delay for Christmas and New Year I've finally pinned this issue down, I think, as follows.
The key was my Son bringing his Toshiba portable back from Uni for the holidays. He has the TV in his room with the aerial pointing towards Ridge Hill, the same as my roof aerial.
With my Son's TV C25 is clearly a stronger signal than C29 which is exactly how my roof-aerial connected TVs used to be. I am therefore wondering if my aerial has moved slightly on its mountings and is now slightly mis-aligned.
The question is ...... if an aerial is mis-aligned slightly is it possible for the relative signal strengths of the different muxes to switch around so that C25 which was stronger than C29 when the aerial was correctly aligned becomes weaker than C29 once the aerial is moved slightly. Any advice about this would be much appreciated.
The second issue concerned the stations actually being broadcast on C29. Even my Son's TV with the set-top aerial still only picks up one TV station on C29 which is ITV. So that rules out any issue with my coax cabling or signal booster.
Either C29 now only transmits ITV and the Freeview technical person is not aware of this, or ITV on Mux 29 is somehow being geographically directed differently to the other channels supposedly being broadcast on C29 so that we can only pick up the one channel. Once again, I've no idea whether idividual channels on a Mux can be directed in different directions or even given individual signal strengths but at least I know my roof-top aerial cabling and booster are not the problem.
I don't think that there is much more I can do other than ask Mark the aerial guy to come back when the weather improves and perhaps compare Ridge Hill with Sutton Coldfield or Lark Stoke.
Richard
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Sunday, 3 January 2016
J
jb3812:52 AM
Richard Sutton: On having studied your update re the situation with regards to C29, and especially your report on that picked up by your sons Toshiba TV using an entirely different aerial from your own, I am beginning to think along the lines that irrespective of that published, ITV1 regional news services is the only programme being transmitted on that particular multiplex, and if so, possibly because of the unforeseen chaos created by programmes broadcast (previously?) by this multiplex using the same EPG numbers as C25, meaning that viewers would have to select EPG numbers in the 800 ranges in order to view certain channels. Although I do intend to further investigate this issue.
As far as programme channels on one particular mux is concerned, its impossible for them to be geographically directed, as its only the aerial system used by the multiplex transmitter that carries them that can be beamed to favour certain areas, and which dependant on your location, "might" possibly be reason why C25 is received at a higher level than C29, as both transmitters radiate on 20Kw.
However that said, can you confirm the following. That on the previous occasion when you carried out a reset on your TV or Humax box prior to manually scanning C29, that the ITV regional news service was the only programme channel received, and that nothing was listed anywhere else including the 800 channel range?
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J
jb388:19 AM
Richard Sutton : Re - my comment in previous reply..."irrespective of that published", this was said with reference to UK DTT Freeview channel list : British Isles: England: Central: Ridge Hill: Ridge Hill West as seen on link below.
Freeview HD local/regional channel list | British Isles: England: Central: Ridge Hill: Ridge Hill West
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R
Richard Sutton9:55 AM
jb38: However that said, can you confirm the following. That on the previous occasion when you carried out a reset on your TV or Humax box prior to manually scanning C29, that the ITV regional news service was the only programme channel received, and that nothing was listed anywhere else including the 800 channel range?
Many thanks JB38. I may be getting the terms wrong here but can I just clarify that the ITV station being broadcast on Ridge Hill C29 is not just the regional news but all ITV programmes.
Before my recent problems with reception on C25, tuning the Sony TV was easy on auto because at some point during the tuning process it asks whether you are in the reception area "Midlands" or "Gloucestershire" (or something similar to those terms). I used to enter "Midlands" and I then knew that C25 would be selected rather than C29. This was how I knew that the reception problems had started a few months ago because the picture on ITV , Ch4 and Ch5 on C25 started breaking up. I get around this now by manually tuning to ITV on C29 but Ch4 and Ch5 still have to remain on C25 as they are not being broadcast on C29 so these two stations have poor picture quality.
We didn't have the Humax back then but a Windows Vista Media Centre which I built about 8 years ago. This has always struggled with the Ridge Hill transmitter although it was fine in the early days with Sutton Coldfield. The Media Centre on Ridge Hill would make a complete mess on auto-tune and there was not manual tune facility which always annoyed me. The MC would first find C25 and detect the Midlands transmission but it would then move to C29 and re-discover them so would over-write the C25 versions and leave me with it tuned in to the weaker mux. I used to avoid this by disconnecting the booster to degrade the C29 signal so it would not detect C29. When C29 became "stronger" signal earlier this year I had real problems getting a good set of stations but then Microsoft withdrew the Vista Guide Service in October so I gave up with the Media Centre and bought the Humax.
I would be interested on your opinion on whether a roof-top aerial which is slightly mis-aligned can receive the muxes in a different order of signal strength/quality to an aerial which is correctly aligned ..... or do all muxes degrade equally as the aerial is moved off-target. Bear in mind that the aerial is not actually line of sight but there is a low hill in the way if this makes any difference.
Many thanks
Richard
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J
jb386:32 PM
Richard Sutton : Thanks for your update on the situation, the informative nature of same having somewhat clarified the issue, at least that is with the exception of the issue relating to Ch4 and Ch5, insomuch having stated that they have to remain on Mux25 because of them not being transmitted on Mux29, maybe you could clarify on this, as its at variance with what you stated in your first paragraph (in answer to my confirmation request) that all channels were being received on Mux29.
I do have a particular reason for enquiring about this, as the only programme seen on the DTT channel list for RHW2 / Mux29 is (3) ITV. (link for below)
Freeview HD local/regional channel list | British Isles
On the subject of your aerial, yes! as multiplexes are not necessarily always received at the same levels as each other anyway, and especially so in non line-of-sight situations such as yours, in many cases the best signal being achieved with the aerial positioned a few degrees to the left or right of what's considered to be the angle facing directly towards the transmitter, the exact angle purely being used as a reference point.
By the way, your reference to the low hill in the way appears mild compared to the obstruction seen on the terrain indicator for your location, once again link for below.
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
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R
Richard Sutton8:40 PM
jb38: I think I've confused matters! What I mean is that the only channel being broadcast on C29 is ITV ..... but it's not just the news on ITV, it's all the content on ITV, news, drama, comedy etc.
I'm not sure how to read your link as it doesn't seem to give the mux C numbers but if Mux RHW2 means the same as mux C29 then it finally confirms what I have suspected - that only ITV is now being broadcast on C29. It's a pity the technical help people at Freeview aren't aware of this. Presumably the Ridge Hill transmitter mux listing above also needs to be updated.
Thank you for also clarifying the mux reception question. I clearly need to either re-establish a good signal for Ridge Hill C25 as C29 is no good for me as it only carries ITV ...... or try a different transmitter altogether.
Anyway, than you for your help with this.
Richard
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Monday, 4 January 2016
J
jb3812:24 AM
Richard Sutton: Not really, as what you have said is quite correct, insomuch that the only LCN (EPG) guide number listed as being carried on Ridge Hill West's Mux29 PSB2 (RHW2) is LCN3 (Ch3) out of the ten normally carried on PSB2 Muxes, this being why you are unable to receive Ch4 / Ch5.
The easiest way to verify this is to open the link previously sent with the box already checked for RHW2, uncheck same and change it to PSB2 followed by pressing "List" on the right hand side of the screen, this will then show all ten (+1 Freeview info) LCN numbers carried on Mux Ch25's PSB2, which of course you will already be aware of.
The problem that this sort of arrangement creates is that, if a normal auto tune is carried out on Ridge Hill the programmes carried on Mux25 / PSB2 will obviously populate the electronic programme guide, the difficulty only arising if anyone prefers to view news associated with ITV West area's Ch3 via carrying out a manual scan on Mux29, as the LCN3 (Ch3) accessed from the scan will be placed up in the 800 channel range, as the EPG listings will already be populated by Mux 25's Ch3.
Hope this helps to clarify the issue.
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