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

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

2:08 PM

- Freeview: BBC TV Off Air from 12:14 today to 12:17 today, HD Digital TV Off Air from 12:14 today to 12:17 today. : BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 15:04 yesterday to 15:05 yesterday. FM: Radio 1 FM Off Air from 12:15 today to 12:16 today, R [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 146,829 posts xx flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

5:08 AM

- Freeview: BBC TV Off Air from 12:14 yesterday to 12:17 yesterday, HD Digital TV Off Air from 12:14 yesterday to 12:17 yesterday. : BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 15:04 on 09 Aug to 15:05 on 09 Aug. FM: Radio 1 FM Off Air from 12:15 yesterd [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 146,829 posts xx flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

5:08 AM

- Freeview: BBC TV Off Air from 12:14 on 10 Aug to 12:17 on 10 Aug, HD Digital TV Off Air from 12:14 on 10 Aug to 12:17 on 10 Aug. : BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 15:04 on 09 Aug to 15:05 on 09 Aug. FM: Radio 1 FM Off Air from 12:15 on 10 A [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 146,829 posts xx flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

5:08 AM

- Freeview: BBC TV Off Air from 12:14 on 10 Aug to 12:17 on 10 Aug, HD Digital TV Off Air from 12:14 on 10 Aug to 12:17 on 10 Aug. FM: Radio 1 FM Off Air from 12:15 on 10 Aug to 12:16 on 10 Aug, Radio 2 FM Off Air from 12:15 on 10 Aug to 12:16 on 10 [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 146,829 posts xx flag

J

JB
8:56 AM

Hi - after some self! I've recently moved into a property in Hagley, Worcestershire. Having auto tuned the 3 TVs around the house picked up variable and often dropped out. Having looking into further I believe auto tune was picking up a mixture of transmitters, namely and . Bizarrely it seemed Ridge Hill was delivering the most stable transmissons, so I manually tuned all the TVs to all of the COMs bar 7 & 8 as they were really sketchy. Even some of the lower powered COMs (10k) power used to drop out, but a lot of the time they were watchable. Now even the 20k COMs occasionally drop out. It's a rented property and the in the , so I couldn't see for sure which way it's pointing. I did wonder if it was omnidirectional but having looked for the first time yesterday, the aerial is vertically polarised and points north of the property actually I believe towards Shropshire!

I'm really confused as I'm pretty sure I'm getting signal from Ridge Hill, but surely the aerial would be south of where we are and horizontal?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. I'm tempted to spin the aerial around south and put horizontal but i think that could be guesswork and might just make me worse off! DY9 0WQ

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JB's 5 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

9:02 AM

JB: Is this a new build property? Your postcode isn't returning a result on the UK checker. If the is vertical and pointing towards Shropshire, it's probably pointed at . Can you find another postcode for a shop/pub/school or other business/public building nearby?

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StevensOnln1's 3,569 posts GB flag

J

JB
9:27 AM

StevensOnln1: DY9 ONS is local school. Yes it's new build. is horizontal too? I think some of their COMs might be similar to in terms of ?

Thanks for quick reply

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JB's 5 posts GB flag

J

JB
9:29 AM
Stourbridge

Yes new build. Dy9 0NS is local school and just checking that says . However, the Wrekin is Horizontal too? Confused, this the COMs are similar in terms of to too

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JB's 5 posts GB flag

JB's: ...

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:37 PM

JB: and are both vertical and predicted to provide some coverage at your location, it could be pointed at one of those?

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StevensOnln1's 3,569 posts GB flag

J

JB
7:32 PM

It's definitely picking up . I tried and it was as worse than Ridge Hill. I'm really tempted to put tv horizontal and point south. Surely if I'm picking up when it's vertical and pointing north there is a strong chance I could improve by pointing somewhere in the right direction and polarised in the right way?

JB's 5 posts GB flag

Page 69

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.

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