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.
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 27/11/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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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 withheldTuesday, 22 February 2022
C
Chris.SE3:15 PM
Steve Walkley:
To be clear it's not "our" TV service, this is an Independent free technical helpsite.
Firstly COM7, UHF C55 always has been a temporary mux and now that the 700MHz frequencies have been sold to MNOs, it's scheduled to close by the end of June 2022 under the terms of the current licence. C48 will be the top channel for UHF DTT.
2ndly the Ridge Hill transmitter is currently listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels".
If your installation really needs an amplifier, I would hold onto the one you have as one that also includes the 700MHz frequencies could be more trouble than it's worth if a new 4G or 5G mobile mast operating in the 700MHz band sets up very near you.
Unfortunately not all the information above is 100% accurate as the site owner hasn't found time to update everything since the 700 MHz Clearance program.
Note, Ridge Hill's UHF channels are -
C28, C25, C22, C21, C24, C27, C55 for multiplexes BBCA/PSBs1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ArqA/COM5, ArqB/COM6, COM7.
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which channels are carried on which multiplex.
No information has been made available about what will happen to the channels currently on COM7.
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C
Chris.SE3:18 PM
Steve Walkley:
FYI, your earlier posts did appear (now on the previous page) unfortunately posts sometimes take an inordinate amount of time to appear on this site, so it's best to wait several minutes before trying again. That error message also crops up from time to time and can often be ignored as the post will usually appear eventually.
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Wednesday, 23 February 2022
S
Steve Walkley12:32 PM
Chris.SE:
Thanks for the detail and apologies for the multiple posts. Assumed "Fatal Error" was definitive and the post had failed. Looking forward to yet another annoying re-tune.
Lost the last episode of Dr Who Daemons on Ch55 to my new amplifier Ch48 limit..
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Friday, 31 March 2023
R
Richard Sutton8:49 AM
My issues with the Ridge Hill continue to plague me after all these years even though it is the recommended transmitter for my location. I've tried Sutton Coldfield but that also has issues due to my specific location and the surrounding hills.
Anyway, over the last couple of weeks I've lost a few channels so decided to do a manual rescan on both the TV and the Humax. An auto scan never works as, for some reason, my devices always tune to C29 rather than C25 and C29 is unwatchable at my location.
Anyway this is my current channel reception figures:
C21: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
C22: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
C24: Strength 90%, Quality 0%
C25: Strength 98%, Quality 100%
C27: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
C28: Strength 100%, Quality 100%
As you can see, there is zero reception (blank screen on TV) on C24 even though the strength shows as 90%.
Can anyone suggest why I cannot receive any of the Arqiva A programmes from Ridge Hill.
Many thanks
Richard
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C
Chris.SE10:45 PM
Richard Sutton:
My immediate reaction to those figures is either some interference centred around C24, or some quirk of your system that's affecting primarily C24 but having a slight effect on C25.
I'm going to take a closer look at the information here and that you've given before to see what comprehensive checks you might do to find the cause.
But first there's one obvious check - do you have any old analogue devices like games consoles or VHS recorders etc., that have an RF output, connected to your system? If so, what RF channel are those tuned to?
As for autotune always picking C29 instead of C25, do those devices on initial setup ask which region (or postcode)? If so did you select West instead of Central? If it's doing it based on your correct postcode (very strange) try picking any postcode nearer Birmingham - that ought to resolve any "region" issue (he said hopefully)!
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Saturday, 1 April 2023
C
Chris.SE5:02 PM
Richard Sutton:
To add to my last comment, devices with an RF Output might include an old Sky Box.
Your most likely Transmitter for your postcode is indeed correctly Ridge Hill. It's possible that during the 700MHz Clearance programme changes elsewhere may have temporarily affected that prediction but it's more likely to have been some sort of temporary gremlin in the system - on occasion they still exist elsewhere for other transmitters, the predicted reception figure make it obvious that the "most likely" transmitter is incorrect.
Now I note from some of your previous posts, that you've got (not explicitly stated) an amp/splitter in the loft. What make & model is it? Does it have a variable gain control?
I assume such a device is connected to a mains power connection in the loft?
Does it have coax plug connections or does it have F-connector connections?
If Coax, do you have a straight coupler similar to
Close
If F-connector, do you have a straight coupler similar to
Close
With the information we can then proceed with some checks to eliminate some of the potential problems.
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Friday, 7 April 2023
C
Chris.SE2:37 PM
Richard Sutton:
It seems that Richard's reception oddities will continue to be a mystery, maybe for another 3 1/2 years!
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Wednesday, 19 April 2023
R
Richard Sutton9:20 PM
Sorry Chris
I need to check why I am getting no notifications that anyone has responded to my post.
I'm going to do another retune as C25 has now gone bad and is unwatchable whereas it was fine when I made the above post. It is now Strength 94%, Quality 30% so a programme that I recorded last night on ITV4 which I just tried to watch is just a pixellated mess.
I'll update on the retune tomorrow.
We don't have any old analogue devices or games consoles or anything of that sort.
The booster in the loft does have a gain control which is on maximum gain and is connected to the mains supply. It has four coax sockets in the front of it but we only use two of the sockets for the two separate cables which run down to the lounge and the breakfast room which are the only rooms with TV/recorders in them.
Many thanks for your assistance.
Richard
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Thursday, 20 April 2023
C
Chris.SE2:47 AM
Richard Sutton:
The email system on this has been somewhat iffy on and off. The default setting is one week I think and is usually a list of the posts on the various pages. There was a possibility of setting it for a more frequent response but I've not tried myself. The last time I tried to change it, it fouled up my mailing completely! I'm not sure if you can set it just to notify of a reply to a specific post.
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R
Richard Sutton8:09 AM
That's odd. I thanked Chris and posted a long reply last night but there is no sign of it on here. Let's see if this short acknowledgement appears.
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