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 25/11/2024 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?

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

6:30 AM

Kim: Your position makes it hard to receive a from both and (where transmits from), especially if you have a "large" area as they are very directional.

A general guide is to see how good the Channel 5 signal is.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

6:31 AM

Nik: You don't have a aerial.

All transmitters carry after .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

D

doug
11:38 AM
Birmingham

hi,i am fitting a chimney .iget signals from the .my television has built in ,could you advise me which would be the better aerial in a reasonably strong area.either the--log40 periodic aerial or a yagi18b aerial.

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doug's 1 post GB flag

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

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:54 PM

doug: I've looked at your location on DigitalUK, and looked up the National Grid Reference with nearby.org.uk, looked at the terrain at Terrain - shows radio profile between two UK sites to optimise you DTT, Freeview, DAB or analogue TV reception and computed the field strength at Field Strength Calculator .

My guess is that you should have more than sufficient now to use a small log-periodic . If you're looking at Justin Smith's website at ATV`s Choice Of Aerials for digital TV , I would say that his 'DM Log' (which appears to be a BlakeUK DML26WB) would be sufficient. If you want to play it slightly safer, go for the Log40.

Your problem is that the current multiplexes are so low in compared to the levels - getting the digital levels sufficient usually means that the analogue levels are way over spec. If your is too high now, you will have problems with the high-power digital signals. You might need to add an attenuator after if you overdo it now. (RG47SH)

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

R

Richard Renshaw
2:10 AM

My mother's television stopped receiving any on thursday 10/3.
I tried retuning to no avail. I then tried a powered indoor from my camper-van and found stations for her.
I booked a firm to come and check/replace her aerial.

I have since discovered (from a casual conversation) that the () is 'subject to work'!

In the instructions above this message box,- checking transmitters is the 3rd (embedded) procedure in the fault finding process. This information is only available to people with web access.

So as things stand:
An aerial repair company are booked to solve the problem with my mother's "freeview" .
I will endeavour to inform the aerial company that their are not needed.

If there was a similar situation, where someone paid for repairs not necessary, but as a result of not being informed of a lack of service, who would be responsible for the cost?

p.s.

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Richard Renshaw's 1 post GB flag

S

sid

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

4:51 PM

A good company would have known about the work at the . It has been ongoing for over a year now.Its to get ready for the switch over, Have you been out of the country to not know this?

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sid's 33 posts GB flag

B

Bob Higgins
8:40 PM

My Sister-in-Law lives in Claverley nr Bridgenorth why can't she receive any ITV stations , she can only receive BBCstations .
Bob the Boat .

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Bob Higgins's 1 post GB flag

S

stephen lee
5:56 PM
Belper

Post code DE56 1RG. For , the UK site, and the BBC site, both state that for the group is B.H (or W.H) but your site states E/W.H. I have a .H aerial for my new television (all perfect). My original 7 year old aerial for my small TV appears to be B.H and cannot get all multiplexes. I need a new aerial for this before September 2011.Please let me know which is correct

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stephen lee's 2 posts GB flag

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

J

Jerome
8:31 PM
Birmingham

Problems on all tonight. is this only at my house??

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Jerome's 1 post GB flag

Jerome's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

K

KMJ,Derby

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

9:33 PM

stephen : will revert to using frequencies which are all in group B at in September. Currently MuxD is on which is just outside the range covered by group B, resulting in "" on that Mux unless you are in an area with very strong signals in which case the signal strength will be slightly less than that on in-group .If you have good analogue and can manage without MuxD until September there is no need to change your .

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts 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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