Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter
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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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter._______
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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Tuesday, 26 April 2016
Stuart Owens
3:17 PM
Wrexham
3:17 PM
Wrexham
Do you have the correct information about the transmitter powers for COM7 and COM8?
According to this other website, COM7 is 89.22kW and COM8 is 85.99kW, not 89.200 and 8.300kW as displayed here on UK Free TV.
COM7 and COM8 - a516digital
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Stuart's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Stuart Owens: If I recall there is a difference between the licenced output and the actual output levels. I think the lower values are the correct current output levels.
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Briantist's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Stuart Owens
8:01 PM
Wrexham
8:01 PM
Wrexham
If those lower output levels are the correct current output levels, then that would mean I would receive even less signal on COM8 than on the LOCAL multiplex.
I currently receive about 100 Quality / 96 Strength for PSB/COM4-6, 100 Quality / 85 Strength for COM7-8, 97 Quality / 42 Strength for LOCAL (Big Centre TV).
So I would've thought considering the actual signals I receive, with the signals for COM 7 and 8 not much less than PSB/COM4-6 and LOCAL a bigger signal drop, if I get 97/42 for LOCAL at 10kW, that should mean I would get even somewhere also around or slightly less than 97/42 for COM8 at 8.3kW so maybe COM7 at 89.22 and COM8 at 85.99 is correct as stated on Digital UK/a516 and this site is incorrect.
Likewise on this site at Winter Hill it says 14kW for COM8 but on Digital UK/a516 it says 22.6kW.
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Stuart's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 15 May 2016
T
Ted Boller12:04 PM
We receive Freeview from the Brierley Hill transmitter that includes a single multiplex capable of transmitting up to five HD channels. After reading Brian's article regarding availability of Channel 5-HD I re-tuned and as expected the existing four channels - BBC1-HD, BBC2-HD, ITV-HD, Channel4-HD (following the demise of BBC3) have been augmented by the inclusion of Channel 5-HD.
To my knowledge, apart from the UKFree-TV articles, the availability of Channel5-HD has not been widely publicised probably leaving many people unaware of it's availability from sub-transmitters with a HD multiplex.
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M
MikeB3:07 PM
Ted Boller: Most sets these days auto scan for new channels, so its likely that its just appeared on peoples EPG. Thinking about it, its a bit of a climbdown for C5, which had refused to HD their channel on terrestial for years, so perhaps they are not shouting about it for that reason! Of course there isn't that much I'd like to watch on C5, HD or not....
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MikeP
3:54 PM
Trowbridge
3:54 PM
Trowbridge
As a general 'aside', most organisations these days don't publish as they used to do. All they do now is 'put in the public domain' by havimng the information available on a website but without telling anybody that it is there and where to find it. Governments and Councils are notorious for that failure. Example; the recent PCC elections, none of the candidates in the South West (to the best of my knowledge) ever properly publicised their 'manifesto' yet they expected the general public to vote for them! None sent out any election material by post nor delivered by handIt seems that 'those in positions of authority' assume that everyone else already knows where to find the information and that everyone has access to the internet - they are wrong on both counts. With the recent announcement by Government that those without internet access won't get it unless they specifically ask an ISP to provide it and they are very likely to charge exhorbitant sums for such provision.
(Note that part of my job, before retirement, was in Technical Publishing, so I do know something about proper publishing and know the difference between that and 'putting in the public domain', which is all they seem to do nowadays.
I wonder whether that may apply in this case of Channel 5 HD? Have they 'put it in the public domain' without telling anybody?
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MikeP's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 22 May 2016
M
M Griffith8:28 PM
I experience picture flicker on all channels on COM7. This occurs every few seconds and looks like when a traditional film ' jumps a sprocket '. There has been speculation that this is due to automatic switching between 1080i and 1080p - I locked my TV onto 1080i, rather than setting it to auto and this has cured the problem. However this problem was only ever experienced on COM7 - is someone experimenting on this multiplex only? My transmitter is Sutton Coldfield.
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Monday, 23 May 2016
MikeP
1:34 PM
Trowbridge
1:34 PM
Trowbridge
M Griffith:
COM7 is an HD multiplex and many TV sets are somewhat sensitive to the signal strength on such multiplexes. Can you please check what the signal strength reported by you TV set is on this multiplex. It should not be below 50% and not above 80%. Any strength less than 50% will cause the problems you report, as will any signal strength above about 80% (it does vary slightly dependent on make of TV). Having too much signal is well known to cause these type of problems. If that is the case for your reception, search this website for 'too much of a good thing' and take the advice to reduce the signal strength by fitting attenuators in the aerial lead at the back of the TV or removing any amplifiers you may have.
If you give us a full post code for where you live (or that of a very nearby shop or post office) we could examine the signal path and advise if there are any other possible causes.
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MikeP's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 29 May 2016
M
Michael Griffith12:49 PM
Hi
I tried all signal strength investigations before posting my question, although the flicker that I am experiencing led me to believe that it was not related to signal strength. COM 7 is running at 75% strength. This multiplex is a lower power one from Sutton Coldfield ( around 90kw whereas the main multiplexes are 200kw ). Incidentally I experience no flicker on the other HD multiplex ( PSB 3 ) although the signal strength on this one is 100%!
The flicker doesn't involve freezing, pixilation or any of the commonly seen problems, which it why I described it as like a film jumping a sprocket every few seconds. Also, if it were a signal issue, I don't think that locking the TV onto 1080i would solve the problem as this is signal processing within the receiver. This is beyond the receiver front end, which is ( I think ) what is affected by signal strength / quality issues.
I have seen reports that Freeview is experimenting with switching between 1080i and 1080p, depending on the programme format / type and therefore my question was posted to see whether this is happening on the lesser used HD multiplex.
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Monday, 30 May 2016
M
MikeB3:11 PM
Michael Griffith: If its the TV, you can check easily what the TV is doing by bringing up the screen res - usually in the left hand corner of the TV screen, and should be something like 576/50hz, etc.
Have you tried varying the sources the TV uses? If the TV itself is auto-switching between screen res settings, you can normally switch that feature off and do them manually, but of course the source itself can also be varied. If you have a Blu Ray player, then that will of course output at 1080p as well, so try to see what combinations actually cause that 'picture jump'. If its on varying sources, is it the TV settings?
If not, then perhaps its a cabling problem. Narrowing it down takes some time, but its the only way.
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