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 27/11/2023 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),
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 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, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 35 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C45 (666.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	Smithsonian Channel, 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 Christmas, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C39+ (618.2MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	Quest Red +1, Classic Hits, 12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! christmas mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 83 Together TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 20 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?

I

Ian from notts

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

3:24 PM
Belper

Stephen- You say the box is quite old? does it have the capability to receive HD signals ? as they are different to the normal signals

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Ian from notts's 253 posts GB flag

Ian's: I's Freeview map I's terrain plot I's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage

S

Stephen
5:22 PM
Lichfield

Yes , it is an HD Box. I have no problem watching the HD on PSB3 ch 40. The weird thing is though , when I for the new channels which should be on ch 33 it finds the same old stations BBC2 HD etc... only it wont display them it says service unavailable. If it was just on ch 33 locally I still dont understand why it lists the wrong channels ??

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Stephen's 4 posts GB flag

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

A

Aerialman

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

10:58 AM

I have exactly the same issue with my LCD TV.I can manually for CH 33 from S Coldfield and the duplicated PSB 3 HD appear!Bizarre!
I am wondering if this is an older software issue with the TV,but obviously very frustrating!

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Aerialman's 140 posts GB flag

S

Stephen
1:10 PM

Whenever it finds anything on ch33 com7 it means all the HD stop working. If I just for ch40 PSB3 in isolation I can watch the old HD channels. Whatever is on ch33 com7 it doesn't like and confuses it somehow ?? It is very odd , almost like some kind of co-channel but there shouldn't be any ? It could be software related I suppose...

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Stephen's 4 posts GB flag

K

KEVIN GARDINER

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

2:04 PM
Stourbridge

This morning, the two 791 and 792 that are broadcasting carriers for the new service in the Birmingham and black country , have started to show a for the first time. Does anyone have any idea when it is likely to start broadcasting?

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KEVIN GARDINER's 68 posts GB flag

KEVIN's: K's Freeview map K's terrain plot K's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

2:19 PM

KEVIN GARDINER: The expected start date is 30th January 2014.

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Briantist's 38,900 posts GB flag

K

KMJ,Derby

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

2:21 PM

KEVIN GARDINER: Latest information suggests 30th January 2014, as shown above.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag

B

brian
3:10 PM

when will the red button service be availible on the new bbc .

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brian's 1 post GB flag

K

KEVIN GARDINER

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

12:29 PM
Stourbridge

Brian, from what I've read, it doesn't seem that such a service on HD will be in operation any time soon due to bandwidth considerations, but I'm sure that when is switched off and the new HD standard is fully launched 1n 2018, I'm sure they will bring a red button service online then.

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KEVIN GARDINER's 68 posts GB flag

KEVIN's: K's Freeview map K's terrain plot K's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage

K

KMJ,Derby

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

2:18 PM

KEVIN GARDINER: The suggested plan for 2018 is for the COM muxes to run as SFNs on , , using DVB-T2. Some on each mux might be HD, but others could opt to remain SD in order to fit in more services and on transmission costs. PSB1 and PSB2 might, depending on the proportion of viewers still using DVB-T only receivers, continue in SD as at present but in some areas they would be allocated frequencies vacated by the COM muxes where this is necessary in order to clear to .

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag

Page 237

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.

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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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