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

David Pound
10:18 PM
Daventry

Thank you jb38. That answers my questions perfectly - and confirms that I bought a pup! Unfortunately too long ago to do anything about it now. And I quite agree with you that most sensible people (which obviously doesn't include Trading Standards) would regard this as a breach of the Trades Description Act. But Hey, we're only the customers!

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David Pound's 4 posts GB flag

David's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

MJ
9:07 AM
Birmingham

Anyone else in the Erdington area lost 2 (ITV1 Channel4, Channel5..) recently ?
Suddenly found was poor on these the other night - have retuned TV (built in Freeview) and they have now disappeared completely.....

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MJ's 2 posts GB flag

MJ's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:49 AM

MJ: As you are located at only about 5 miles away from the you have always to beware of the fact that your TV could be receiving a that on the verges of being excessively high and that the ITV mux could actually have peaked over it, so try a by taking the out and using a short piece of wire (about 12") pushed into the inner part of the aerial socket and then carry out another re-tune on the TV giving on results, as if it works OK then you will have to insert an attenuator in line with the aerial socket.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

S

Steve
9:26 PM

Until yesterday we were able to watch,in another room, whichever program was on the main tv using a tuned in . This has now stopped and all that appears on the screen is ''.All the tvs have built in. What is the problem?

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Steve's 1 post GB flag

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:28 PM

Steve: Are you sure that the TV concerned hasn't been left on its (DVB) rather than ? However if this doesn't apply then can Freeview be received on these remote TV's? that is "if" you are feeding the Freeview into the boxes input and its passing through the box as well as picking up the analogue signal in the process, and if you are doing things this way then for a remove the Sky boxes normal aerial input and see if Sky returns on the remote TV's, if it does then you will have to try a few tests using a different RF1/2 on the Sky box and retuning the analogue TV's to pick it up again after every alteration.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

S

SteveH
8:13 AM
West Bromwich

We have lost our TV over the weekend. It went on Friday night, reappeared on Sunday night until mid morning Monday and was not there still this morning. This has happened for 3 weekends in the last 2 months, although the set up hasn't changed. The rooftop plugs into a Hitachi + box, which connects to the TV. The bedroom TV, which uses a set top aerial, has worked ok during this time. Postcode is B70 6EB.

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SteveH's 4 posts GB flag

SteveH's: S's Freeview map S's terrain plot S's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage

H

Hazel
4:30 PM
Rugby

CV22 6EY - areal

This week our box has
Tuesday - failed to record morning programes
Wednesday - failed to record afternoon programmes
Tuesday evening - all programme recordings started 5-6 minutes behind the setting so missed start of progammes

I had reloaded the , reset the recorder default - and set to specifically.

This is the 2nd/3rd time this has occured

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Hazel's 1 post GB flag

Hazel's: H's Freeview map H's terrain plot H's frequency data H's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

5:07 PM

SteveH: Please can you see Freeview intermittent interference | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice ?

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

S

SteveH
8:01 AM

Thanks, turns out it was the + box. Brought the bedroom tv down and connected that to the rooftop and it worked fine. The set top aerial that worked fine for the bedroom tv did nothing for the downstairs tv, so took box back and got replacement and all fine now.

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SteveH's 4 posts GB flag

L

Lilian Mae
9:27 AM

Hi there, My tv is only 5 yrs old but yesterday suddenly stopped working. It now tells me . The set has built in free view. I have connected a free view box and the tv now works. Is it likely that I can get this repaired or am I stuck with a separate free view box? I know this sounds silly but my tv is mounted and I now have a thick trailing down the wall, I am 60 and live alone - so handy man available.

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Lilian Mae's 1 post GB flag

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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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