Full Freeview on the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter
Brian Butterworth first published this on - UK Free TV
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.
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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 |
Local transmitter maps
Ridge Hill Freeview Ridge Hill DAB 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
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldMonday, 29 January 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:11 AM
5:11 AM
Ridge Hill transmitter - Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 29/01/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
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Monday, 5 February 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:10 AM
5:10 AM
Ridge Hill transmitter - Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 05/02/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
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Transmitter engineering
10:48 AM
10:48 AM
Ridge Hill transmitter - Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 05/02/2024 Screen may go black on some or all channels [DUK]
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Thursday, 8 February 2024
C
Charlie S12:21 AM
Hi ; can anyone here confirm that the Ridge Hill eng. works are causing intermittent audio + video loss for the PSB2 channel 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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C
Chris.SE12:40 AM
Charlie S:
As Arqiva never give details about the engineering work that would be difficult to be certain, so unless someone else receiving Ridge Hill 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 reception 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 interference from a new/upgraded mobile phone mast. If the check says yes and you haven't got a 700MHz Filter, get in touch with them to get a Free Filter.
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C
Charlie S8:17 AM
Pershore
thanks Chris. SE : I am at WR10 3EW; same reception kit for a long time (except for a new PVR last August), that includes outdoor antennae that is quite high up, with signal booster 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 receiver, since the TV is old..) ; ITV1 + 4 were reporting 90/100 (strength/quality) ; 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: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE11:04 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 reception, so if you haven't already, I would first check that you are correctly tuned to Ridge Hill's UHF channels as shown in the very top section of this page.
Ridge Hill is predicted to be your most likely transmitter, with Sutton Coldfield 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 multiplex, Dmax is on ArqB.
Quality 100% is what you'd hope 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 engineering.
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 interference 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 frequency 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 Antenna (lower down the mast) or reduced power (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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Monday, 12 February 2024
Transmitter engineering
6:09 AM
6:09 AM
Ridge Hill transmitter - Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 12/02/2024 Screen may go black on some or all channels [DUK]
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Monday, 19 February 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:10 AM
5:10 AM
Ridge Hill transmitter - Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 19/02/2024 Screen may go black on some or all channels [DUK]
link to this comment |
Transmitter engineering
10:47 AM
10:47 AM
Ridge Hill transmitter - Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 19/02/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
link to this comment |
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