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

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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.

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 15/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C43 (650.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C40+ (626.2MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 H max
C42 (642.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C45 (666.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C39+ (618.2MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LB
 H -13dB
C48 (690.0MHz)433mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
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?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
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)Transposer1 km W Burton-on-Trent60 homes
CoalvilleTransposer18 km NW Leicester600 homes
SolihullTransposerLand Rover building400 homes

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

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-137 Mar 2018
VHFB E TB E TB E TB E K TW T
C4BBCtvwaves
C33com7
C35com8
C36LOCAL2
C39+ArqBArqB
C40BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves+BBCBBBCB
C42SDNSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C45ArqAArqA
C46BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4
C48_local
C50tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C51tv_offLB
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 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

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent Television
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. 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.

Comments
Friday, 30 September 2011
J
John Gaunt
3:53 PM

in the past few days following the digital switchover I have installed a Freeview recorder which is fine apart from the fact that BBC1 and BBC2 reception is not good from the Sutton Coldfield transmittor.

I have never had any problems receiving TV signals brfore this week

Any ideas?

link to this comment
John Gaunt's 1 post GB flag
B
Billy
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:50 PM

I have to stress again mine is in the loft, pointing up, 22 element Log Periodic with 23 db gain mast head amp on.
Now, what is weird, but could be the massive hill in way, is at times on certain muxes we see Signal Strength at 80 to 95% and quality nearly always 100%.
Then suddenly bang, Signal Strength goes as low as 45%, not for long, can yo yo about a bit.
When, as today, not sure if weather, get the glitches, well mostly pixelization, it seems it is not the signal quality, and likely not the strength.
Yesterday I carried out tests watching Sky Sports 1 on channel 39.

In the 2 hours period had about 7 to 8 max interference, mostly pixel thing, might have been one sound, which I think I find more annoying than the picture breaking into pixel blocks for an odd second.
Today was much worse.

Reason again for mentioning all this, is that so many of you, are having trouble.
At the moment, got some unusual weather, more like July, very warm to Hot, might cause trouble.

Since power boosts and seems to have cured mine, need to do a complete factory reset, then automatically search with aerial connection pulled out of the TV or set top box.
Then put it back in and search again.
If allows, which mine does not until I get least one mux in, annoying, do it manually now, if know how, to avoid it picking up any other transmitters.
Try an attenuator as may be signal too strong now as well.




link to this comment
Billy's 50 posts GB flag
S
Sean
6:45 PM
Coventry

I have a Humax Freeview PVR which has been retuned after switchover several times now (the most recent being last night), and as of this morning is refusing to show Mux BSB1/BBCA.

I have noticed that after retuning, the Humax asks me to choose between another transmitter as well as our normal West Midlands (Sutton Coldfield). It is also giving me multiple copies of channels (up to 4 last night), which I am manually deleting (all this takes ages!)

I have a digital aerial/booster which were fitted a few years ago. All was generally OK until the switchover - no serious problems with the digital channels. Since switchover however, I have had intermittent signal breakup & channels vanishing.

Help, anybody got any ideas?

link to this comment
Sean's 2 posts GB flag
Sean's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

7:13 PM

Sean:
You could be getting Too Much signal now, especially as you are getting in a number of other transmitters. Try taking your booster out of circuit and see what you get.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
B
Billy
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:25 PM

Sean, this helped me, as I have said before, decide, find out which you should be on, it Sutton, note the channels on this page.

Now, assuming and you might, who knows, have too strong a signal, you need to do this:

Unplug the connection at the back and then factory reset tv or box, or and, do a complete rescan, should get nothing.

Now plug in the aerial connector again.

Now if it lets you, do it manually, not auto.

Trouble I had with the T215 Top up box, is won't let you do this, comes up with this screen and when you press menu, nothing, have to press ok, then it scans, so I pull it out and wait until gets close to channel 39, lowest one on Sutton and then plug in aerial connector, so it on say 37, as goes quicker with nothing in.

Once it logs 39, pull it back out quick, store those 10 channels and radio and then once scanned the lot, plug it back in yet again and do it manually.

Hopefully, not like mine and your Box/TV can be done manually from the start.

Since doing this, I do not pick up the Allesley Park ones yet again, box seems to retain the Sutton Coldfield ones.

Remember though using a 23 db gain amp, with hill in the way, 17.4 miles may as well be over 30 to 40 plus miles away and I get sometimes, often 95 SS 100% Quality. That is in the loft as well.
Using Log Periodic, 22 element, quoted as only 7.5 db gain on box.

So my point is, someone with a roof aerial living less than 20 miles from Sutton should not longer what so ever, unless a crap old thing, need an amplifier any more.


link to this comment
Billy's 50 posts GB flag
Saturday, 1 October 2011
B
Billy
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:44 PM

Last night appears my top up box has one it again.
Tuned itself to Allesley Park, lol, thought wow signal good, not one break up, then checking, yup, channels have changed again.

Not sure if faulty, but I'm keeping it anyway, but it is strange and likely that could be what is happening to others, hence they put things in, wake up next day and put it on and channels have gone, or changed etc.


link to this comment
Billy's 50 posts GB flag
Monday, 3 October 2011
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

10:40 AM

SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - Over the next week Sutton Coldfield main transmitter: no analogue TV, TV (digital) Liable to interruption, Radio (analogue) Possible weak signal, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 150,643 posts xx flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

10:40 AM

SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - Over the next week Sutton Coldfield main transmitter: TV (analogue) working normally, TV (digital) Liable to interruption, Radio (analogue) Possible weak signal, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 150,643 posts xx flag
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

2:27 AM

Briantist: Brian, now that's an interesting Transmitter engineering report - there's no analogue TV at Sutton Coldfield now ......cough cough ;)

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
dutchman
3:11 PM

Billy: you might want to try turning off automatic updates if your box has that option?

link to this comment
dutchman's 7 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
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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