Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 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 25/11/2024 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 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.
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 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C33 | com7 | ||||||||
| C35 | com8 | ||||||||
| C36 | LOCAL2 | ||||||||
| C39 | +ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C40 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C42 | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C43 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C45 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C46 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C48 | _local | ||||||||
| C50tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | ||||||
| C51tv_off | LB | ||||||||
| 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 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 |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area
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Saturday, 8 November 2014
K
KEVIN GARDINER7:35 PM
Stourbridge
JS: Thank you for the very informative link in your reply to my audio problem. The audio problems that folk are reporting in that blog are exactly what I'm experiencing. And the start date of this audio issue started on or around 14th October. I'm beginning to think that the audio codecs have been tweaked a bit, or that something's going wrong with their decoding somewhere. However, the problem is not on every HD channel. Channels ITV1,CBBC, CBEEBIES, BBC3 AND BBC NEWS AND AL JAZEERA have loud problem free audio ON PLAYBACK. All the rest have stable quiet audio playback or clicks and variable audio tracks. I use a laptop PCTV dongle to receive and record my tv programmes. I know that the problem has nothing to do with my laptop audio settings as I can play any recording prior to October 14th perfectly. The dongle company are investigating what's going on at this time. So far, they sent me audio and video codec keys to re-activate them. However, they haven't made any difference.They have asked me to send in files of recordings with good audio and files of bad audio since the 14th October. plus a technical log from the application. So far, they are mystified. This problem must be effecting a lot of viewers besides myself? And I hope that Aquiva put this audio fault right. I can't understand why they have altered the audio as it was perfect the way it was. And I do think that not all engineering work is reported as going on if it doesn't effect the ERP, or effects the stability of the received picture. There is something going on with the HD multiplexes audio output.
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KEVIN's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
KEVIN GARDINER8:29 PM
Stourbridge
JS: Also, even though I know the audio codec is mpeg1/2 format, I decided to make a comparison of standard Freeview to see if it was also was effected, so i made recordings off each of the 5 multiplexes and found the following. All multiplexes working fine with stable, loud recorded audio with a stable bit stream of 15,200 odd kbps, except PSB2 multiplex ,which has a reduced bit stream of around 4,500 kbps for some un-known reason. This has been the case for about a week to my knowledge.
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KEVIN's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 18 January 2015
D
Dave Kirk2:20 PM
I'm within 6 miles of the Sutton Coldfield transmitter, using a good loft aerial. My Sony TV shows 100% signal strength and 100% quality for standard definition channels, but 100% signal strength and between 0% and 8% signal quality for high definition channels. Why is this the case? What do I do to fix it?
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M
MikeB6:48 PM
Dave Kirk: Your just 6 miles from a very powerful transmitter, so your tuner is basically screaming from too much signal! It reacts to tthis by fluctuating massively in signal quality.
Fortunately its easily solved, and attentuators are really cheap (a 20db is £1.89 on Amazon - thats where I got mine). See here for more help: Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you
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Thursday, 22 January 2015
M
Mr & Mrs I L Rubery11:20 AM
Ashbourne
QUESTION
We get good Freeview reception from Sutton Coldfield transmitter with an old C/D roof aerial, and receive West Midlands news programmes. When we point it around to the Waltham direction and retune so as to obtain East Midlands news programmes the reception is very poor to non-existent. Our post code is DE6 3EP (between Ashbourne and Belper, north-west of Derby).
With technology as it is now, is there a way of receiving and selecting East Midlands news programmes from Sutton Coldfield?
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Mr's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
11:59 AM
11:59 AM
Mr & Mrs I L Rubery: No, because they aren't broadcast from Sutton Coldfield.
There are a number of transmitters up the Derwent valley that relay Waltham, but you are out of range of them all.
Refer to this terrain plot:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
The ground rises and falls within a couple of miles of you and may be the cause of your difficulty.
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Friday, 23 January 2015
MikeB: Thanks for your help. Not the answer I was expecting! I can't find your cheap 20dB aerial attenuator on Amazon, so I'll dash out for a 12dB one from my nearest Maplin (£6.49) and hope that's enough.
Thanks again!
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M
MikeB6:11 PM
Dave Kirk: You can, but you will spend a bit more. See here: 18dB Coax Plug Inline ATTENUATOR: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics
They obviously do other ones as well. Best thing to do is to buy a couple of different ones, and then you can see which one works best. If you need to kill the signal more than just using one, you can put them in series. Also good idea to use an extra fly lead, so that nothing vaguely heavy stick out of the socket.
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Saturday, 24 January 2015
MikeB: That's ridiculously cheap, especially as it says postage is free! Makes me wonder about the quality, but the two reviews (and you) say it works so I'll order one (or two).
I'll use it in the loft where the aerial is plugged into the down lead. Thanks again! I'll report back on what happens.
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MikeP
10:59 PM
10:59 PM
Dave Kirk:
You would be better putting it/them close to the aerial input socket of the TV. That way the signal strength in the downlead is greater and therefore less susceptible to interference if there is any locally. As MikeB suggests, put a short flylead into the TV socket and then put the attenuator on the end of that and then connect the downlead to the attenuator.
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