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

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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.

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 04/12/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

_______

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C28 (530.0MHz)	363m	DTG-	20,000W
	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)	363m	DTG-	20,000W
	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)	363m	DTG-	20,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H -3dB	C21+ (474.2MHz)	361m	DTG-8	10,000W
	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, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 35 others
COM5 ArqA	H -3dB	C24 (498.0MHz)	366m	DTG-8	10,000W
	Smithsonian Channel, 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 Christmas, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	H -3dB	C27 (522.0MHz)	361m	DTG-8	10,000W
	Quest Red +1, Classic Hits, 12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! christmas mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 83 Together TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 20 others
PSB2 D3+4west	H max	C29 (538.0MHz)	352m	DTG-	20,000W
	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?

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	ITV_waves
C21					+SDN	SDN
C22		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C24					ArqA	ArqA
C25		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C27					ArqB	ArqB
C28		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C29					D3+4
C30					_local
C32		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves		com7
C34						com8
C35			C5_waves	C5_waves
C51_{tv_off}					_local	_local
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_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

Local transmitter maps

Ridge Hill Freeview Ridge Hill DAB Ridge Hill AM/FM Ridge Hill TV region BBC West Midlands Central (West micro region)

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

Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004	Central Independent Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Radiation patterns withheld

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:30 PM

- : BBC National DAB Radio Very Weak from 12:28 today to 13:44 today. FM: Radio 1 FM Weak Signal from 12:40 today to 13:41 today, Radio 2 FM Weak Signal from 12:40 today to 13:41 today, Radio 3 FM Weak Signal from 12:40 today to 13:41 today, Radio [BBC] MainPossible service interruptions [DUK]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 146,829 posts xx flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:31 AM

- : BBC National DAB Radio Very Weak from 12:28 yesterday to 13:44 yesterday. FM: Radio 1 FM Weak Signal from 12:40 yesterday to 13:41 yesterday, Radio 2 FM Weak Signal from 12:40 yesterday to 13:41 yesterday, Radio 3 FM Weak Signal from 12:40 yes [BBC] MainPossible service interruptions [DUK]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 146,829 posts xx flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

1:30 PM

- : BBC National DAB Radio Very Weak from 12:28 on 03 Jun to 13:44 on 03 Jun. FM: Radio 1 FM Weak Signal from 12:40 on 03 Jun to 13:41 on 03 Jun, Radio 2 FM Weak Signal from 12:40 on 03 Jun to 13:41 on 03 Jun, Radio 3 FM Weak Signal from 12:40 on [BBC] MainPossible service interruptions [DUK]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 146,829 posts xx flag

K

keith adams
10:10 PM
Stourbridge

our has become poor over the last week or so. our address is 27, road, hagley, DY9 0PZ. have retuned etc. but problems persist. your comment/advice would be appreciated. is transmitter ok?

link to this comment

keith adams's 1 post GB flag

keith's: K's Freeview map K's terrain plot K's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:14 PM

keith adams: UK publishes details of works here:

Digital UK - Planned Engineering Works

There are works at so I suggest that you do nothing until these are complete.

link to this comment

Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

K

Keith Blackham
3:51 PM

For the past 2 weeks TV has been extremely poor and I can now only receive 9 of very indifferent . The TV has been dismantled, checked and reinstalled. Also, the signal has been replaced and all TV's retuned but to no avail.

Currently no BBC coverage + many more. What is the solution?

Kind regards.

BBC licence payer

link to this comment

Keith Blackham's 3 posts GB flag

M

MikeB

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:55 PM

Keith Blackham: you havn't included a postcode, so we have no idea of your location, and thus the sort of you should get. However, the seems fine, so its almost certainly your system.

You've had the Tv dismantled and reinstalled. Did this include all the cabling? A poor signal is normally down to a broken or frayed connection, corrosion, moisture, etc. You've had the replaced, so that not it. Did you check the fly lead from the socket to the TV? A classic is the coming loose or falling out, or perhaps just being faulty.

And the other thing to check is are you actually tuned to the transmitter you think you are? Plenty of people will naturally try to trtune when they get a poor signal. Of course that retuning might mean they lose the original transmitter, and end up with one far more distant, but with a lower no., which means it gets picked up first. Check with the transmitter details that BBC1 etc is actually on Channel 28, etc. If its not, your tuned into the wrong , hence your problem, even though the original fault might have been fixed.

BTW - paying your licence fee doesn't guarantee you can get decent , thats down to geography, physics and equipment.

link to this comment

MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag

K

keith Blackham
8:34 PM
Bromsgrove

Further to previous, I reside at B61 9LW and the internal cables are 2- 3 years old together with the . Up to 2 weeks ago all was fine the a full range of available.

As you willl note I am not the only complainant in the locality.

Your urgent assistance would be appreciated.

Kind regards

Keith Blackham

link to this comment

keith Blackham's 3 posts GB flag

keith's: K's Freeview map K's terrain plot K's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:55 PM

keith Blackham: Silly question: Why are you using (or trying to use) rather than ?

At just under 1 mile away, you would appear to have clear line-of-sight to Bromsgrove:

Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location

link to this comment

Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

M

MikeB

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

9:36 PM

Dave Lindsay: Looking at that plot, I'm also wondering why a would be needed! Or possibly even an ...

Keith Blackham: Remember that the covers a large number of homes, so its not unusual to have several people complaining of poor .Even if 99.9 percent of people in an area have perfect reception, there will always be some people with a problem. But in the case of both you and Keith Adams, its far more likely to be issues with your system, rather than the transmitter.

Could you check which transmitter your actually on, and what mux's your getting. It might be that your picking up a transmitter much further away, especially if you've got a booster.

link to this comment

MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag

Page 37

Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.
Your comments
Your name
Your email
Your site or @twitter
Email me updates
Save my details

Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.