Full Freeview on the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter
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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 30/09/2024 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
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
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.
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 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C21 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C22 | +ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C24 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C25 | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C27 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C28 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C29 | LSO | ||||||||
| C31 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | com7 | |||||
| C37 | com8 | ||||||||
| 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 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
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Sunday, 24 May 2020
S
StevensOnln110:06 AM
TIMOTHY WARDLAW: There have been no changes to COM7 & COM8 announced for June and they will not be moving to any other frequency as there are none available. Ofcom have previously announced that they will remain on UHF channels 55 & 56 in the centre gap of the new 700MHz mobile band until these frequencies are required by whichever mobile network secures them in the 700MHz auction, which has been delayed due to COVID-19 and may now not take place until next year.
In short, nothing is changing with COM7 & COM8 and they will simply close once their currently frequencies are no longer available, they will not move elsewhere. Some channels may move to other multiplexes, however nothing has been announced.
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Monday, 25 May 2020
C
Chris.SE12:34 AM
Chris:
I've had a good scout round. I'm sure that's the Group T version that you've got.
Quite a few of these newer K Band aerials (various makes) have this extra "element" on the front of the dipole connection box. I've never had my hands on one, so not sure if it's a director or connected to the dipole in some way.
I wonder if your lack of COMs7&8 signal might be due to any loss if the output is being split anywhere, or any 4G filtering - some of the cheaper ones might have a fair bit of attenuation still at C55 & C56?
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Thank you for your reply,
however on this very site under the section " How will Rowridge transmission frequencies change over
time" it clearly states that Coms7 and 8 will be removed by 30th June 2020 to make way for 5G use.
Where does that come from?
Tim Wardlaw
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S
StevensOnln110:38 AM
TIMOTHY WARDLAW: The owner of this website has not been able to keep up with the all of changes taking place at over 1,000 transmitters and doesn't seem to have found a way to show that COM7&8 will continue on those frequencies until an as yet unknown date, whereas the rest of the 700MHz band was due to be cleared by the end of May (although the final clearance work is now on hold due to COVID-19).
More information can be found on Ofcom's website:
Maximising the benefits of 700MHz clearance - Ofcom
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C
Chris.SE1:15 PM
TIMOTHY WARDLAW:
The date June 2020 was a date by which OFCOM wanted to try and have the frequencies cleared, Arqiva wanted the dates pushed back and subsequently it was never formally agreed.
Additionally the key words in the link that StevensOnln1 has provided are " ...we have also decided to allow the interim multiplexes to continue operating in this spectrum until at least 1 May 2020, or until mobile downlink services in this spectrum are deployed."
It was only on March 13th this year that OFCOM announced all the rules for the auction of the 700MHz spectrum, no date for the auction was or has yet been specified and the whole thing is now on hold because of covid-19.
As the whole process will take some time when it eventually takes place, the MNOs that purchase the relevant parts of the spectrum will still have to get equipment developed, handset manufacturers will need to develop handsets capable of using these SDL/SDO frequencies, it's unlikely that any need to close COMs 7&8 will occur before 2022. Indeed there is some DUK documentation that suggest they may be here until 2025.
It's always been believed that at some point Arqiva will start to convert some of their COM multiplexes to T2 HD which would then make room for some of these other channels. It's been suggested elsewhere that they may start with COM6. BUT this is all total speculation and will continue to be so until clearance has been completed, the auction held, and the MNOs that purchase those frequencies give an indication about when they may want to use the frequencies, and OFCOM make formal announcements. At present OFCOM have suggested that the relevant MNOs would give Arqiva 3 months notice to use the frequencies.
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Tuesday, 30 June 2020
R
RichardS5:38 AM
According to the Freeview detailed tuning page for Rowridge COM8 is getting switched off today.
Channels like BBC 4HD/CBeebies HD have already been moved to COM7.
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C
Chris.SE5:51 AM
RichardS:
Correct.
See Rebuilding Freeview High Definition from 2019 onwards | free and easy
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Wednesday, 1 July 2020
So now they have switched off com8 and moved the channels affected around, deleting some,
it would be nice if they could increase the power on com7 so that it could be made watchable.
I live in New Milton ,some 13 miles from the transmitter and the reception on com,s7/8 have been average at best, sadly it would seem that revenue is more important than signal quality.
British broadcasting used to be the jewel in the crown across the world, now it has decended to the level of US TV that we used to laugh at years ago,a mish-mash of endless repeats and poor US programes, just to fill the gaps between the money-making adds,
A programe first aired on BBC ,filling an hour now takes from 100-110 mins when you include the add breaks.
Let have freeview sorted out once and for all with OFCOM taking a lead so we can cut out this constant retuning mess
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C
Chris.SE5:05 PM
TIMOTHY WARDLAW:
You should have absolutely no trouble receiving COM7 at your location, do you have a wideband aerial?
Rowridge was a Group A aerial transmitter (it still is for the 6 main multiplexes) but with the move of the temporary COMs 7&8 to UHF55/56 as part of the 700 MHz clearance, many locations would need a wideband aerial for satisfactory reception. If you've had an aerial replacement in recent years, it ought to have been a wideband.
There is little chance that there will be any power increase of COM7 because of the way SFNs work it would just create different "not" spots from those that exist currently, and probably cause more interference to other countries and be in breach of existing International agreements.
I take it your read the linked post in the post that's immediately before yours.
If you don't have a wideband aerial, noting the comment at the end of the linked post, it is your choice as to whether to take a chance changing your aerial. COM7 maybe here until June 2022, commercial reasons may cause it to close sooner, we don't know.
The (what appears frequent) movement of a number of channels is only around the COM multiplexes and is entirely down to the Broadcasters deciding to change/withdraw/move services between multiplexes and is subject to the commercial agreements between the Broadcasters and Multiplex operators, there is no legislation that can prevent these commercial choices.
The PSB multiplexes however, are defined in legislation, but there is a small amount of "commercial space" on PSB3 which has recently been occupied by two SD channels.
As for OFCOM taking the lead, my personal opinion is "Don't make me laugh".
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C
Chris.SE5:13 PM
TIMOTHY WARDLAW:
Just to add to the above, there was this information that came from Arqiva that a user posted, which I believe your attention was drawn to at the time, and I take it you read.
Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy
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