menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Freeview

 

 

Click to see updates

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

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"Wsa_postcodeB75 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 Digital tick


Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
_______

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), 71 That’s 60s,

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 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)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
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)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
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)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 June 2017
P
Phil
11:24 AM

Phil Draper:
Thanks for the reply to my post, couldn't receive a few channels i.e. Drama Quest and a couple more

link to this comment
Phil's 2 posts GB flag
Saturday, 8 July 2017
G
Gordon Insley
11:45 AM

Phil Draper:
Phil,
From where you are located (Melbourne area) you should be able to receive good signals on all mux's from both Waltham and Sutton Coldfield. You are roughly equidistant from Waltham and Sutton Coldfield.
Waltham transmits most channels at 50KW and some at 25KW whereas all Sutton Coldfields transmissions are 200KW. So, Sutton Coldfield wins that contest.
Provided there is no hill, tall building(s), tree's in direct line of sight from your aerial to the intended transmitter and the aerial is outdoors not in the loft then there should be no problem receiving good quality reception from either of the transmitters.
If you have some old grouped C/D aerial i.e. not wideband, then that might be your problem. If that's the case then swap out your old aerial for a Fracarro Log-Periodic LP45NF or Televes DAT HD (available with built-in amp). Both are wideband high gain aerials (11.5dB & 17dB/active 29dB), the log-periodic being a little more critical on alignment (more rifle shot that shotgun). With a decent aerial you may not need a mast head amplifier unless the cable run is >15m or more. And a wideband antenna will see you through the requirements for reception following the new channel frequency changes (2017-2020) that are coming soon.

link to this comment
Gordon Insley's 8 posts GB flag
Thursday, 14 September 2017
I
Ima
7:24 AM

Hi
I have 2 aerials in my loft. One serves downstairs and the other upstairs (for kids rooms until they left. Now one big tv for grandchildren's playroom.

Downstairs receives 38 channels from llangrannog transmitter but upstairs receives 78 from blaenplwf. Swapping aerial leads makes no difference. Tv taken upstairs receives 78 on either/both aerials . Tv , digiboxes etc taken downstairs no longer receive 78 , only the 38 from llangrannog.
I would have thought that it was the aerials alignment that determined reception, not where the tv is situated. All tv's, tuners, hdd recorders, now tv smart box, tune in 78 channels from both aerials when upstairs but only 38 when downstairs.
How can I block llangrannog mast and force receivers downstairs to receive Blaenplwf please

link to this comment
Ima's 1 post GB flag
A
Aerialman
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

11:55 AM

Ima: The first issue you have is that the 3 Com channels from Blaenplwyf,channels 22,25,28,correspond to the three channels broadcast from the Llangrannog relay.This may affect the quality as well as the signal strength thus incurring the 'digital cliff' poor quality/no picture.
I am making an assumption that you are on higher ground above the village and sea front and that is why you are receiving a use-able signal from Blaen-plwyf?To improve your reception a roof top would be a better option and better still if if you're on high enough ground and can receive Presely TV transmitter all channels are clear of interference from any local transmitters.
After all the Llangrannog relay is dependent on the incoming signal it receives from Presely.

link to this comment
Aerialman's 140 posts GB flag
Monday, 16 October 2017
J
Jan
3:38 PM

Used to get BBC East Midlands, presumably from Waltham transmitter. Been busy not watched much tv for a long while, turn it on one day and retune as tv asks and I get BBC West Midlands. Try all the retune even manually retuning after deleting channels and reading both instructions off Digital TV sites and my tv. Still, I get BBC West Midlands and that area news/weather. Even got aerial checked. On checking transmitter coverage maps it seems we no longer get coverage or signal for our area from Waltham, but from Sutton Coldfield and no alternative transmitter. Has the area surrounding Coalville suddenly moved to the West Midlands? Really annoying I cannot any longer rely on local news being on tv , now I have more time to relax .

link to this comment
Jan's 2 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:00 PM

Jan: Please provide a full postcode so we can see the coverage prediction for your location. Waltham hasn't suddenly reduced its coverage area so there must be some kind of fault or interference somewhere. When you say you've tried manual tuning, which UHF channels have you tried this with?

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,672 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 17 October 2017
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:42 AM

Jan:

Coalville *is* still covered by the Waltham transmitter as it has been for years (I used to be a senior Engineer for a TV rental company in Loughborough and we serviced Coalville and sorrounding areas for years).

If you look at https://ukfree.tv/transmi…ham, you will see that you are served from Waltham.

The channel numbers you need to tune to are: 49 (for PSB1-BBCA), 54 (for PSB2-D3&4), 58 (for PSB3-BBCB), 29 (for SDN-COM4), 56 (for ArqA-COM5), 57 (for ArqB-COM6), 26 (for LNG), 31 (for COM7) and 37 (for COM8). As some of those channels are lower than a Group C/D aerial can receive, you will need either a Group K or a Log-Periodic aerial to get all the available channels.

Hope that helps?



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 24 October 2017
R
RichardW
11:56 AM

C33 is down this morning. I tried a manual retune which returned 0 channels :(

link to this comment
RichardW's 1 post GB flag
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:44 PM

RichardW: Why would that channel be down? Sounds more like a fault with your system - I'd check the other muxes and then your cabling.

Brianist: I'm getting an expired security certificate when I try to access UKFree.TV on Chrome - is it just me?

link to this comment
MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 25 October 2017
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:44 PM

MikeB:

It's not just you, I'm getting it in Firefox, Chrome and Opera.


So I hope Briantist can fix this for everyone.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Select more comments

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.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.








Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.