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.
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 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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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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Thursday, 24 March 2011
A
andy 7:53 PM
Chester
Wally. Your TV aerial may not cover the frequency used for HD transmissions, which actually come from Lichfield at the moment, because it's a lower frequency and lower power than the group used by other transmissions from Sutton Coldfield. At switchover, in September, they will move to Sutton Coldfield, on BBC 2's analogue channel 40
Another good indicator is whether you get C5 analogue reliably, because this is on a lower frequency channel 37 which is transmitted from Lichfield
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andy's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 27 March 2011
R
Roy Trubshaw10:41 AM
Wolverhampton
WV6 7BS
For the last few days MUX2 has completely vanished. All other MUXes (MUXen?) are being received without problems.
Other than this site (brilliant btw) I can find no mention of any problems or engineering works.
Currently I've manually retuned (where the freeview box allows) to the Wrekin E equivalent MUX (ch49) but the quality is a bit variable - not surprising really as it is coming in through the back of the aerial.
Does anyone know if this actually is a transmitter problem, or a reception problem or something else.
Thanks.
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Roy's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
L
Lyn12:39 PM
Kidderminster
We live in Kidderminster. Last November we bought a Humax PVR, upgraded the aerial on the roof and tuned in to Sutton Coalfied transmitter. Everything was great until a couple of weeks ago when we started to lose channels. Now can't get BBC4, ITV 4,FILM 4 and random others. Have retuned the box several times and the amount of channels its picking up has dropped significantly.
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Lyn's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
KMJ,Derby4:07 PM
Roy Trubshaw:The problem seems to be single frequency interference on C44+ causing loss of Mux2 from Sutton Coldfield.If there was a transmitter problem there would be dozens of complaints about loss of ITV1! Make sure all cables and connectors are in good order.Do you have any amplification on the aerial? If there is, analogue ITV1 0n C43 could be overloading your tuner.Otherwise try moving the receiver, turn off other equipment, disconnect any HDMI cables etc. Regarding Mux2 reception from The Wrekin, the signal will increase in strength when MuxD3+4 begins on 20th April 2011. This might prove to be a more robust signal despite coming from behind the aerial.
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Monday, 28 March 2011
R
Roy Trubshaw8:53 PM
Wolverhampton
KMJ Thank you. I'd probably agree with you, but until Wed/Thur last week there were no problems whatsoever with any of the MUXes from Sutton. As I write tonight (28th) signal quality on Ch44+ is varying between 75% to 100% and signal strength is the same. (Just in time for Law and Order UK! 8-) ).
Not looking forward to April, as the Wrekin signal will swamp Sutton for a while. Time to invest in an aerial rotator!
Roy
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Roy's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
A
Adrian2:51 PM
Solihull
Hi
For some reason i have lost all digital and analogue tv. Tried installing a few times to no avail. This has only happened a few days ago. Prior all tv's in house worked fine. I am still getting sky without a problem thankfully. Am aware of some work being done at Sutton. Should I have lost all the above???. If problem is due to works, when will I be back on again?, have you got any suggestions? Thanks
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Adrian's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick3:43 PM
Reading
Adrian: Digital UK report that services are 'liable to interruption' this week. I'm afraid that this is all the information that they give out - we're not privy to exactly when things are being interrupted.
Most likely they're transferring services to a new set of transmitter equipment at ground level. I believe all work on the mast itself is now complete.
It's unlikely that they will be working overtime, so services will probably be back on this evening.
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Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 31 March 2011
D
David Luckman1:40 PM
Burton-on-trent
Hi Have just bought TV with built in Freeview HD Tuner. Can not get any HD channels. Post code DE15 0AT, I believe I have a grid type aerial, receive signals from Sutton, Channel 5 analogue is perfect
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C
Chris5:35 PM
David Luckman. I don't believe Sutton Coldfield will have any HD channels available until digital switchover in September. Andy comments above that there are HD transmissions from Lichfield, maybe the signal is not strong enough to reach you.
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M
Mike Dimmick5:44 PM
Reading
David Luckman: The HD transmissions are on a lower frequency, C34, than most Group B aerials support. It appears that Scalpcliff Hill is blocking line-of-sight, but Digital UK still predicts a useful signal for some reason. It's possible that careful siting of a Group B Yagi-type aerial might give better results than the grid-type.
Grid-type aerials aren't recommended for digital reception although the reason escapes me for the moment. I think it's simply that they don't give much gain. That's fine for watching analogue at 1000 kW, not so good for a 4 kW HD multiplex.
Don't go overboard with a replacement aerial, the high-power DTT multiplexes will be 17 dB louder than the low-power HD multiplex, which is actually larger than the width of the recommended range of signal strength (45 to 60 dBuV).
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Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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