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

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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

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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.

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

R

Richard Sutton

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

3:07 PM
Evesham

StevensOnln1:

Many thanks for commenting but surely the detailed listing above shows ITV4 and the other related as being available on both and as well as the regional version of ITV? At least, that's how I'm reading it but I might be wrong.

Either way, I can certainly receive both C25 and C29 but they are both hopelessly weak and one of them (I'm not sure which) used to be fine until the last few weeks.

I've just tried ITV2 and ITV3 and they are both breaking up and unwatchable just like ITV4. I don't see how it can be a connection issue as all the other channels are 100% .

This is the Coverage Checker result for WR11 4HQ: Coverage Checker - Detailed View

It used to show as the best for me which is why I have been on it ever since but that has now changed to which is the I used to use pre-switchover.

Richard

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Richard's: R's Freeview map R's terrain plot R's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:58 PM

Richard : The detailed listing above is incorrect for UHF 29, there are no other on the PSB2west mux from (this mux is an anomaly that this website doesn't appear to be coded to cope with and no other has anything like it that I'm aware of).

Have you actually checked your cables and connections or are you just assuming that there's nothing wrong? If everything else is showing 100% strength then you may well be suffering with signal overload on those 2 muxes. You could also be suffering from local , although that seems less likely if PSB1 on UHF channel 28 (BBC 1 SD, BBC 2 SD, etc) are fine.

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R

Richard Sutton

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

4:11 PM

StevensOnln1:

I just realised that our the newish LG 4K TV I can do a on each Channel mux and it lists all the broadcast available on that mux and you're right. which I can get with a watchable signal is only ITV and the LG has put that on 800.

ITV4 which I want is listed on by the LG but the signal checker currently shows UHF Ch25 (506000 kHz) as being Signal Strength 94%, Signal 1% - 4% so it's unwatchable.

This must mean that I have also now lost Film 4 on channel so I've just checked that live and that is just like the ITV channels, i.e. unwatchable. I've recorded dozens of films of over the last few years on Film 4, the most recent I've just checked was a film called "Thanks for Sharing" which I recorded on the Humax on the 4th July 2019 and I've just checked and that looks fine.

Whatever has happened to C25 seems to have happened in the last few days although I only realised when I tried to watch the BSB recording from ITV4 last night.

I wonder what's happened?

Richard

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S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:58 PM

Richard : High strength is most likely either down to or signal overload. Try fitting an attenuator to reduce the signal strength (somewhere around 75% signal strength will still give the tuner plenty of signal without causing it to become overloaded if that is what is happening).

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R

Richard Sutton

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

7:18 PM

StevensOnln1:

I've taken your advice and unplugged and re-plugged all the cables in the lounge and in the and that seems to have restored the on /ITV4 back to around 50%. It's nowhere as near as good as all the other but the looks fine and it's not breaking up.

I don't understand why only C25 seems to be affected by the corroding connection or whatever it is but I'm delighted that I finally understand that C25 is the only one I need and I can stop trying to tune in to as I'm not interested in ITV SD.

It seems that this connection thing is just something I will need to keep an eye on.

Many thanks for you which has been invaluable.

Richard

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Transmitter engineering