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 22/04/2024 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

5:11 AM

- Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 29/01/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering

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5:10 AM

- Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 05/02/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

10:48 AM

- Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 05/02/2024 Screen may go black on some or all [DUK]

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C

Charlie S
12:21 AM

Hi ; can anyone here confirm that the eng. works are causing intermittent audio + loss for the PSB2 set ? Loss is for a few seconds ; period between the losses varies a lot.

Drops were present Tuesday pm + (late) Wed pm.

thanks &
regards,
Charlie

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Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:40 AM

Charlie S:

As Arqiva never give details about the work that would be difficult to be certain, so unless someone else receiving spots your post and has also spotted the same problem, we can't be sure.
As you haven't given a full postcode, we can't check whether you may be in a location that is not predicted to get the best of PSB2 and so engineering might make you more susceptible to reception problems.

Also check if you should have had a postcard from Restore TV https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/
You might be suffering from a new/upgraded mobile phone . If the check says yes and you haven't got a Filter, get in touch with them to get a Free Filter.

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Charlie S
8:17 AM
Pershore

thanks Chris. SE : I am at WR10 3EW; same kit for a long time (except for a new PVR last August), that includes outdoor antennae that is quite high up, with signal to run the signal into different rooms. The drop-out behaviour seems "new this week".

I checked the signal strength reported by the PVR (that is the main , since the TV is old..) ; ITV1 + 4 were reporting 90/100 (strength/) ; vs eg Dmax that did not exhibit the drop outs and reports 62/93.

Understood re Arqiva not giving details ; & thanks for the link to restoretv; I will take a look.

thanks &
regards,
Charlie

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Charlie's: C's Freeview map C's terrain plot C's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage

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Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:04 PM

Charlie S:

Hi. Well believe it or not you can supposedly get signals from 5 main transmitters, not that all would give you decent , so if you haven't already, I would first check that you are correctly tuned to 's UHF as shown in the very top section of this page.

Ridge Hill is predicted to be your most likely , with next best but some considerable further distance away.
I'm getting conflicting information about ground obstructions to both on the line-of-sight depending on which tool I use, but there are some considerable distance from you and this usually means reception predictions could be variable, as the behaviour of signal travelling close to the ground can be somewhat unpredictable.

ITV4+1 is on the SDN , Dmax is on ArqB.

100% is what you'd to achieve on all multiplexes in normal conditions, so your 62/93 figures are a little disappointing. I wouldn't worry too much about the 62, it would be nice if it were higher but it's ok and the other multiplex on 90 is fine. You don't want to amplify just to achieve more signal because much more than 90 could lead to a different set of problems.
What sort of figures are you getting for PSB2 channels (main ITV, 4, 5 etc.)? If they are similar to 90/100 one can perhaps assume it's brief interruptions due to the .

For what's usually an up-to-date list of which TV channels are on which multiplex, see
Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview

The 93% quality suggests the possibility of some sort of or other signal disruption. It won't automatically mean you'll see some sort of visible/audible effect as long as the decoder is able to correct the errors. It might just mean you could be more vulnerable to an issue.
Such things don't necessarily affect all multiplexes in the same way, and can be dependant. Eg. Do you have any trees on the line-of-sight?

What we don't know with Planned Engineering is if any of the multiplexes are on the Reserve (lower down the ) or reduced (or both!) which could lead to more susceptibility to interference. The only way you can guess at that is by knowing your precise figures when everything is operating normally. Do you perchance know what they are?

Are you still getting interruptions on PSB2?

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Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

6:09 AM

- Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 12/02/2024 Screen may go black on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering

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5:10 AM

- Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 19/02/2024 Screen may go black on some or all [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

10:47 AM

- Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV week commencing 19/02/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all [DUK]

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Page 86

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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