Full Freeview on the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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50.676,-1.369 or 50°40'35"N 1°22'7"W

PO30 4HT

The symbol shows the location of the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter which serves 620,000 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 Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) mast?

Rowridge transmitter - Rowridge 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 Rowridge 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	V max H max	C24 (498.0MHz)	320m	DTG-	200,000W 200,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) South, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others
PSB2 D3+4	V max H max	C27 (522.0MHz)	320m	DTG-	200,000W 200,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (South Coast micro region)), 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 (Meridian south coast),
PSB3 BBCB	V max H max	C21+ (474.2MHz)	320m	DTG-	200,000W 200,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South 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 -6dB V -6dB	C25 (506.0MHz)	299m	DTG-8	50,000W 50,000W
	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 -6dB V -6dB	C22+ (482.2MHz)	302m	DTG-8	50,000W 50,000W
	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 -6dB V -6dB	C28 (530.0MHz)	302m	DTG-8	50,000W 50,000W
	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
LSO	H -13dB	C37 (602.0MHz)	299m	DTG-12	10,000W
	from 22nd December 2014: 7 That's Solent,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Rowridge transmitter?

BBC South Today 1.3m homes 4.9%
from Southampton SO14 7PU, 26km north (354°)
to BBC South region - 39 masts.

ITV Meridian News 0.9m homes 3.6%
from Whiteley PO15 7AD, 24km north-northeast (20°)
to ITV Meridian (South Coast) region - 39 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford

Are there any self-help relays?

Portsmouth Docks

Transposer

2 km N city centre

50 homes Estimate. Group of houses'

How will the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1950s-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2012	2012-13	2 May 2018
	VHF	A K T	A K T	A K T	A K T	W T
C3	BBCtv_waves
C21		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C22					+ArqA	ArqA
C24		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C25					SDN	SDN
C27		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C28					ArqB	ArqB
C29						LSO
C31		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves		com7
C37						com8
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 7 Mar 12 and 21 Mar 12.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4	500kW
PSB1\|\|, PSB1≡, PSB2\|\|, PSB2≡, PSB3\|\|, PSB3≡	(-4dB) 200kW
COM4≡, COM4\|\|, COM5≡, COM5\|\|, COM6≡, COM6\|\|	(-10dB) 50kW
com7≡	(-13.1dB) 24.4kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-14dB) 20kW
com8≡	(-14.3dB) 18.4kW
LSO≡	(-17dB) 10kW

Local transmitter maps

Rowridge Freeview Rowridge DAB Rowridge TV region BBC South Meridian (South Coast micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Rowridge transmitter area

Aug 1958-Jan 1992	Southern Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992	Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004	Meridian
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. Rowridge was not an original Channel 3 VHF 405-line mast: the historical information shown is the details of the company responsible for the transmitter when it began transmitting Channel 3.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:57 AM

Chris : If by any chance your mounted is being used in conjunction with any form of / distribution , then try bypassing it, as the "only" which "might" possibly be affected under freak conditions are COM4 Mux 25 / COM5 Mux22 / COM6 Mux28, and no others, as 's Mux 23 or 26 will have no effect whatsoever on Rowridges Mux 24 or 27, that is, "if" that's what is suspected?

However, should a booster not come into the equation, then have a check at any jumper leads used to couple your TV into the aerial.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

S

Shane Wells
8:55 AM

Hi, as a landlord of a few sites in the middle of Bournemouth (Old Road area), we have taken about 10 complaints of no TV from 4 or 5 different addresses now.

Something in the last week has affected the signal, does anybody have any idea what is causing this to happen?

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Shane Wells's 1 post GB flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

10:32 AM

- Possible service interruptions [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 146,845 posts xx flag

E

Ed Hopper
11:57 AM

Hi, Can someone please give some advice to an oldie.I am in Winchester and receive my from via a rooftop horizontally polarised .I am quite happy with the that I get.I've been reading some of the transmission figures on this site for Rowridge and it would seem that the strongest signals are vertically polarised so my queries are as follows-Would it pay me to change my aerial to vertical?,If I did this would there be a noticeable or significant change in reception?,and finally why do I not see more vertical aerials around in my area.Is it the cost of doing so or that the difference in reception is imperceptible?

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Ed Hopper's 5 posts GB flag

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:13 PM

Ed Hopper: Whether to change the polarity of your or not really depends on what you are presently able to view, as in the Winchester area is indicated as being a bit patchy dependant on location.

Another factor that has to be taken into account being, are you able to view HD on your TV or box? if you are, then can you see 81 (Talking Pictures) and 112 (QVC Beauty) listed in programme guide? both being transmitted on Rowridges newer horizontal (only) COM7 & COM8 HD Muxes at much less (approx 25Kw) than the other main Multiplexes on horizontal (50Kw), as does the LSO (local) Mux (Thats Solent 8) on an even lower power of only 10Kw.

The point about all this being, if you are presently able to view the aforementioned? changing the polarity of your aerial is likely to result in the signal level received from these Muxes taking a dive to the extent that they drop out of the box, whereas the signal level from the other main non PSB Muxes (COM4/5/6) will rise.

If as you say, you are quite happy with your reception, then you wont actually anything by making changes.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

E

Ed Hopper
1:08 PM

jb38:Thanks for the info.At the risk of sounding like something from the dark ages my viewing is definition on a 32 inch sony d3000 which gives me a very good . I have recently purchased a new model which has an HD tuner and a 40 inch screen but have not set it up yet so it will be interesting to see if the that you mentioned are there ie 81 and112.As regards channel 8 thats solent I can get this at the moment very well.Once again thanks for the clarification, its given me food for thought.

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Ed Hopper's 5 posts GB flag

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:33 PM

Ed Hopper: Thanks for the info. Maybe you could give regarding the issue of guide numbers 81 &112 once you have installed your new purchase. Although being able to receive (8) Thats Solent from Rowridges low powered LSO local Mux, indicates that you reside in a favourable location for from said .

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T

Tony Dix
2:25 PM
Bridport

I live near Dorset at DT6 6AH. I am trying to improve my and get the full range of transmissions. When we moved to the louse we were getting just watchable signals on PBS1,2,3 but would get pixellation in rain. I investigated and found we were getting PBS1 on ch24, PBS2 on ch27 , PBS3 on ch21. I threfore assumed that were getting service from but were not picking up the other commercial muxes because of distance.
I bought a new multi element A band antenne for the poorest signal areas and have installed it with vertical polarisation and with a on a pole mounted on the chimney. I have carefully aligned it and now get very high (10/10) and very high signal stregth (10/10) on the same 3 PBS muxes but still none of the commercial mux's.
I note that Rowridge broadcasts at 200.000 watts on the vertical polarisation on the com muxes as well so my question is "Why am I not seeing them if the pbs muxes are so strong"
I am really puzzled by htis and would welcome any advice.
Thanks

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Tony Dix's 7 posts GB flag

Tony's: T's Freeview map T's terrain plot T's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage

G

Graham
2:39 PM

i am having problems with all apart from BBC

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Graham's 1 post GB flag

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:15 PM

Tony Dix: Basically because the from Rowridges three COM is restricted in the / North Westerly direction to avoid causing to , this stations COM's transmitting on the same as , albeit being slightly offset from the centre frequency to avoid being affected by the latter.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

Page 142

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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