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 15/04/2024 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, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others
COM5 ArqA	H -3dB	C24 (498.0MHz)	366m	DTG-8	10,000W
	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 TV 2, 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
	12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 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

4:09 AM

- Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 29/05/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:08 AM

- Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 05/06/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

11:09 AM

- Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 05/06/2023 Screen may go black on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:07 AM

- Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 12/06/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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K

kevin bond
8:13 AM

TV lost for 2 days now showing planned works when will these be complete ? and signal restored ?

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C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:59 PM

kevin bond:

Arqiva never state how long particular works may take or what is involved.
It is highly unlikely that there is otherwise there would be thousands of complaints around various forums.
Also, there has been some quite variable weather related Tropospheric Ducting in recent days which can affect because of being received from more distant transmitters in Europe or the UK - not all multiplexes are necessarily affected, but this isn't normally sustained for any lengthy periods, nor is there normally any lengthy interruptions to transmission during and even if they are on reduced for a while, or the reserve are being used you should still be receiving signals unless you are in a weaker signal area.
As you haven't provided a full postcode we can't advise or comment on that.

Did you perchance Retune at any point when you may have had no signal for a short while either due to Interference or Engineering? If so this very often clears your correct tuning. It's not advised to retune when you have no signal or badly pixellated pictures if you were initially correctly tuned.

If you did, and you don't know if your tuning has been cleared, your best best will be to do a Manual tune for 's UHF .
They are , , , , , & that's in order -
BBCA/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ArqA/COM5, ArqB/COM6
If perchance you want the ITV Local news instead of Central you need to tune .

All the above assumes that you've checked all your coax plugs are plugged in, no power loss to any amps/splitters and your aerial hasn't fallen down etc. these are obvious things to do.
It's always worth checking with a very near neighbour if they have lost signal (and NOT retuned).

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Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

11:09 AM

- Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 26/06/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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B

B Booker
9:20 AM

: Hi, I have been experiencing tv freezing , pixelation for a week or so, at first I assumed it was down to weather but now think the work may be responsible. How much longer is it likely to last?

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Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:53 PM

B Booker :

You are right about the weather, there has been some quite variable weather related Tropospheric Ducting recently which can affect because of being received from more distant transmitters in Europe or the UK - not all multiplexes are necessarily affected, but this isn't normally sustained for any lengthy periods, but that should have now pretty much disappeared for the time being.

As far as maintenance goes, Arqiva never say how long such work will last or what it entails, some of which can be weather dependent. It looks as though it is still listed for next week. Typically we've noticed that such work on Main transmitters in recent time has taken around 4 weeks. But unless transmission is all being done from the reserve at present you should not have continuous problems.

As you haven't given a full postcode we can''t advise how good a signal you'd normally get, if you are in a weaker signal area this won't.
Obviously check all you coax plugs, connections, flyleads etc, unplug connectors check for corrosion or other problems and reconnect them. Flyleads can be a common problem, try swapping them.
See what signal strengths (if any) and you are getting for the multiplexes (groups of ) shown in your TV's tuning section, this might indicate potential issues with your aerial or downlead.

If you have a distribution amp/splitter, check that it still has and check the connections to it.

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Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:07 AM

- Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 03/07/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Page 80

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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