Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter

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

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52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"W

B75 5JJ

The symbol shows the location of the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter which serves 1,870,000 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 Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) mast?

Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 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 Sutton Coldfield 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	C43 (650.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	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	C46 (674.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	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), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C40+ (626.2MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	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 max	C42 (642.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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 max	C45 (666.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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 max	C39+ (618.2MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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
LB	H -13dB	C48 (690.0MHz)	433m	DTG-12	10,000W
	from 31st October 2014: 7 Big Centre TV,

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 Sutton Coldfield transmitter?

BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.

ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 15km south-southwest (201°)
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?

Burton (shobnall)	Transposer	1 km W Burton-on-Trent	60 homes
Coalville	Transposer	18 km NW Leicester	600 homes
Solihull	Transposer	Land Rover building	400 homes

How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1950s-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2011	2011-13	7 Mar 2018
	VHF	B E T	B E T	B E T	B E K T	W T
C4	BBCtv_waves
C33						com7
C35						com8
C36						LOCAL2
C39					+ArqB	ArqB
C40		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C42					SDN	SDN
C43		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C45					ArqA	ArqA
C46		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C48						_local
C50_{tv_off}		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves
C51_{tv_off}						LB
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 Sep 11 and 21 Sep 11.

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

Analogue 1-4	1000kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 200kW
com7	(-10.5dB) 89.2kW
com8	(-10.7dB) 86kW
LB	(-20dB) 10kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-21dB) 8kW

Local transmitter maps

Sutton Coldfield Freeview Sutton Coldfield DAB Sutton Coldfield AM/FM Sutton Coldfield TV region BBC West Midlands Central (West micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield 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. Sutton Coldfield 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?

D

Dennis

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

1:52 PM

John without looking into it,maybe your getting a ,that has not switched yet,it will have done by mid afternoon I understand.

So try a re-,a little later.

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Dennis's 27 posts GB flag

J

John Townson
1:58 PM
Bewdley

cheers dennis, that could be it, as we are serviced by which i believe is a from .

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John Townson's 2 posts GB flag

John's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

S

SteveL
2:17 PM

I live in North , nr , and today for the first time I have been able to get ITV4 & Yesterday (). However, this is only on one out of 5 TVs/digital boxes.
It looks they are not capable of the sub frequencies (eg 618.2MHz). Certainly when scanning they show 618.00MHz, 619.00MHz, etc. I can't manually enter a .
Does that sound a likely cause?

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SteveL's 1 post GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

2:45 PM

SteveL: All boxes can deal with the +/- 166kHz offsets, but most do not show them. I can't say more about your without a full postcode.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

2:46 PM

Billy: Yes, there is a whole page about that at Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

2:52 PM

christina: is the lowest broadcast in the UK, and is the highest, your box will between C21 and C68.

These are *NOT* the "local channel numbers" such as 1 for BBC One.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

B

Billy

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

3:02 PM
Coventry

Brian my friend, risk getting all technical, as I do believe it or not, not know everything, lol, unless read and learned etc, or shown, which I prefer to be honest, anyway, question:
I've read, but hard finding much info in google, always subject to what you type in, but with Lark Stokes Commercial going on the 40's how much lose would that be, so for argument sake:

channel 21 with a of 21db will on channel 41 have only 20 db.

I know Aerials compensate for this, but remember I'm keen once I move it into the next Wed all being well, to use my new Log Periodic, with only 7.5 db gain and 25 max variable amp.

I know you likely will say not that simple, also tried to find comparison with the db/uv or whatever it is, to the db gain, so for example:

60 db/uv equals 21 db gain

Thanks.

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Billy's 50 posts GB flag

Billy's: B's Freeview map B's terrain plot B's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

3:11 PM

Billy: I'm not really sure what you are trying to get at, you seem to be mixing together lots of different concepts.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

B

Billy

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

3:40 PM

LOL, sorry, that's me for you.

Err not sure how to explain, as frequencies go higher, I'm away they have more loss, hence CB rig at 27 mhz, great conditions on 4 watts can go miles and miles, base to base station up high can cover, gosh, 20 or 30 miles, who knows.

But TV at that, LOL, no way, so they transmit often at hundreds or thousands of watts, why, because as the climbs it loses more.

Thing is, we see TV compensate for this:
Gain (curves), Again

However, if you have a log periodic aerial, they are pretty much flat.

Just because I'm getting 23 and 26 at 80 to 100% does not assume I'll get channel 47 from .

So my question is, do you know of a loss factor, again for example:

Channel 21 at say 20db
channel 41 would be at 18 db
channel 61 at 16 db.

Meaning I'd need 2 db more again on an amp to get the same as I did on channels 23.

I that helps.

Also on the other, some talk in, as on my useless meter I bought db/uv, looks like a u, likely not, says 60 poor 70 and 80 okay and the last light 90 Excellent, measures in db/uv so 60 to 80, say 45 to 50 min level for .
But when we talk about Amps, it is mostly in 15 to 25 db .
Was one site gave me an idea, showing both, but not 100% sure that means, you know, like some table.

All confusing I know, cause depends on circumstances, aerial in or out, how close you are to a , and what height aerial and obstacles and and oh gosh, you know..... (CV59HG)

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Billy's 50 posts GB flag

B

Billy

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

3:45 PM

Actually, found this again:
Field Strength Calculator

So it shows 110 (dBuV) at 47 but 113 at 23, so nothing in it and way high, but as it states, take about 10 to 20 off:

Note that your results will be of the order of 10-20dB lower than this predicts. To get the strength predicted by this calculator your must be several metres higher than surrounding obstructions, house roofs etc and have a clear line of sight to the . Most domestic installations do not satisfy these requirements, hence assume at least 10dB lower signal levels.

I still think I'll be more than okay and shall see in weeks time.
Thanks anyway Brian, ignore me again, crack on helping others with the change over issues. (CV59HG)

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Billy's 50 posts GB flag

Page 103

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.

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