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

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter.

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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 V max
 H max
C24 (498.0MHz)
320mDTG-200,000W
200,000W
Channel icons
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)
320mDTG-200,000W
200,000W
Channel icons
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), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 V max
 H max
C21+ (474.2MHz)
320mDTG-200,000W
200,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 H -6dB
 V -6dB
C25 (506.0MHz)
299mDTG-850,000W
50,000W
Channel icons
20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 H -6dB
 V -6dB
C22+ (482.2MHz)
302mDTG-850,000W
50,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 H -6dB
 V -6dB
C28 (530.0MHz)
302mDTG-850,000W
50,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LSO
 H -13dB
C37 (602.0MHz)299mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
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?

regional news image
BBC South Today 1.3m homes 4.9%
from Southampton SO14 7PU, 26km north (354°)
to BBC South region - 39 masts.
regional news image
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 DocksTransposer2 km N city centre50 homes Estimate. Group of houses'

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

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20122012-132 May 2018
VHFA K TA K TA K TA K TW T
C3BBCtvwaves
C21C4wavesC4wavesC4waves+BBCBBBCB
C22+ArqAArqA
C24BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C25SDNSDN
C27ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C28ArqBArqB
C29LSO
C31BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavescom7
C37com8
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_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

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

Aug 1958-Jan 1992Southern Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Meridian
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV 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.

Comments
Friday, 11 June 2021
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:30 PM

Stuart: I suspect it's probably down to interference. Although it's too far away to receive, Crystal Palace uses the same frequencies for the COM4/5/6 multiplexes as Rowridge and you're unfortunately in the area where the signal from from both transmitters cancel each other out.

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StevensOnln1's 3,680 posts GB flag
Saturday, 12 June 2021
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:37 AM

Stuart:

Whilst what StevensOnln1 has said is correct, Findon and Rowridge are in opposite directions from you, so you must be getting the Findon signals off the back of your aerial - assuming it's still intact and correctly pointing at Rowridge. Findon is also somewhat closer! However manual tuning might be a solution.

Rowridge is at bearing 255 degrees (almost WSW) and Findon is at bearing 66 degrees (almost ENE), Crystal Palace is almost NNE Rowridge transmits signals with both Horizontal and Vertical polarisation, whereas Findon is vertical (Crystal Palace is horizontal). You aren't predicted to get good COM4/5/6 reception from Rowridge with horizontal polarisation (poor to none), it's better vertical.

Are the rods (or squashed Xs) of your aerial vertical, is the reflector of the aerial still intact as well as the other elements and still pointing WSW? The aerial needs to be intact and correctly pointing to reduce interference from other transmitters, but sometimes that is difficult.
Also what will not help matters is that there is currently some tropospheric ducting with the high pressure weather affecting mostly the South/SW of the country by varying degrees and signals can change by the second or remain stable for much longer periods. This can affect different frequencies by differing amounts at different locations, just because one multiplex might be affected doesn't mean another will be.

So you could try the following, first you'll need to clear the current tuning, usually best done by unplugging the aerial and doing a full automatic tune, nothing should be found clearing the old tuning. Plug the aerial back in and find the manual tuning section in the settings.
In the multiplex order PSBs1-3, COMs4-6, manual tune the following UHF channels for Rowridge -
C24, C27, C21, C25, C22, C28. You may have to try several times if there is any interference around.

IF you happen to find that despite the way your aerial points, you get better stable PSB reception from Findon then there shouldn't be any issue with the PSBs tuned to C44, C41, C47 and the COMs from Rowridge, but I don't know if you'd get a different local news variation from Findon.
IF your aerial turns out to have the rods horizontal, the channels are the same but you could try adding C55 for COM7.
Again, you may have to try several times if there is interference around.

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Chris.SE's 4,394 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 22 June 2021
M
Mr MP Lofthouse
8:23 AM

All HD channels showing as 'invalid channel' this morning, 22/6/21. Reception bad last night. Blandford, Dorset.

link to this comment
Mr MP Lofthouse's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:03 PM

Mr MP Lofthouse:

Depending on where you are in Blandford, there are 3 transmitters that you could normally receive and reception will be different from each. If you believe you get your signals from Rowridge, check in your TV Tuning section that you are correctly tuned to the Rowridge UHF channels that I listed in the post just before yours.

Which way is your aerial pointing? Are the Rods (or squashed Xs) horizontal or vertical? It should be pointing somewhere around bearing 110 degrees (~ESE) for Rowridge. Do you get Meridian or West Local news?

A full postcode will enable us to check predicted reception. I can't find any faults listed by the BBC or Freeview for any of the transmitters that you should be normally able to receive, nor are any of them listed for Planned Engineering.

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Chris.SE's 4,394 posts GB flag
Thursday, 24 June 2021
B
Brian
6:01 PM

Last few days several of the channels on com 6 are pixilated or just not there, I watch DMax quite a lot so missing it somewhat, up till now has been fine is there a known problem, a reduction in power or just the jot weather?

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Brian's 7 posts US flag
B
Brian
6:17 PM

Just checked my signal strength on UHF Ch 28 which is where D Max is transmitted I have 70% signal strength and 0% quality, strange as I gave been watching this channel for months

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Brian's 7 posts US flag
Friday, 25 June 2021
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:09 AM

Brian:

Rowridge hasn't been listed for Planned Engineering recently and I can't find any current faults listed (none of which doesn't mean there isn't any, as sometimes the lists aren't up-to-date but if there were any significant issues, I'm sure we'd see more people with problems.
What signal strength and quality do your normally get on COM6, and what is it on the other multiplexes?

There has been some sporadic Tropospheric Ducting around, see Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | RTIS for a simplistic explanation. It's been very variable, and can come and go quite quickly, sometimes last longer.
Is your quality still 0%, this is usually an indicator of some interference, most likely due to these conditions?

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Chris.SE's 4,394 posts GB flag
B
Brian
1:26 PM

Chris.SE: Thanks for the response, dont really understand the Sig St vs Sig Qual but just checked again and at the moment (14:15hrs) on UHF Ch 28 I have 70% Sig St and 28% to 43% Sig Qual
UHF Ch 37 is worse Sig St 34% to 38% and Sig Qual 24% to 60%.
Then UHF Ch 55 is Sig St 50 and Sig Qual 100

UHF Ch 21,22,24,25,27 all have above 70% Sig St and 100% Sig Qual
Thanks Brian

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Brian's 7 posts US flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:37 PM

Brian:

Hmm. Well signal strength should be self explanatory, it's how strong you are getting the signal at the set after being attenuated in the coax and any splitters, connections etc. 70% should be fine for most sets, but as those channels have 100% quality, that's what counts. It's a measure of how much interference there is to the received signal. The lower the quality, the more difficult it is for the set to decode the signal and correct the errors. Eventually it can't, and you get pixelation and sound breakup.
The 50% signal on COM7 is also fine as should lower values be for most sets but, the weaker the signal being received, the more vulnerable it is to interference from any sources.
Those 70% and 50% figures suggest you could be some distance from the transmitter. A Full postcode would be helpful so we could look at the predicted reception, nevertheless you aren't doing too badly because to get COM7 your aerial would be horizontally polarised and COMs4-6 have lower transmission power than the PSBs and COM7 is a bit lower again.

You figures make me think that there could be some (very) local interference affecting C28 and C37.
Have you changed anything in your setup recently, moved any equipment about added anything, got something switched on that isn't normally, especially something with an analogue RF output - an old Skybox (or similar) or VCR? If the latter, change it's RF output channel to something above C60.

Have you got any new electrical equipment - of any type, including LED lamps or CFLs etc.?
Also make sure you don't have any HDMI leads close to (poorly screened) aerial and flyleads - especially those which aren't double screened coax. HDMI has been known to cause interference, though whether those channels are more vulnerable might depend on the particular equipment involved.

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Chris.SE's 4,394 posts GB flag
Saturday, 26 June 2021
B
Brian
2:16 AM
Waterlooville

Chris.SE: Chris,
Thanks for the excellent explanation re Signal Strength vs Signal Quality, my post code area is PO7 6BE, last night the Signal quality on that Channel did not fall below 38, where as the previous night it was 0, as I have changed or added nothing I'm assuming one of your earlier comments re the weather must have been the cause, if that is the case it looks like something I'm going to get occasionally, thanks for your time...cheers Brian

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Brian's 7 posts US flag
Brian's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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