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, 7 April 2011
M
Mike Dimmick5:43 PM
Reading
Patrick: Mux B is converted into the HD mux at switchover. Therefore it isn't shown on any transmitter that has switched, and it's not shown after Switchover Step 2.
(The services that were on Mux B go on BBC A, for BBC services, on ArqB for Sky Sports 1 and 2, on ArqA for the new slot if anything actually starts up on it.)
Otherwise, the predictor shows the channel number but no prediction where it thinks the results will be unusably poor - not reaching 70% coverage 50% of the time. The DUK predictor is a bit hard to get your head around because it's based on probabilities of probabilities. Usually this problem occurs where two transmitters in range are allocated the same frequencies.
Looking at the trade view I can't see why it would think Bromsgrove would be best. It won't get to final channels and powers on the commercial muxes until a week after Sutton Coldfield switches over, because SC is currently using the frequencies it's been allocated. SC has no post-switchover retune events and no power restrictions, and the probabilities are higher than Bromsgrove and Lark Stoke.
The Wrekin is about equal with SC in its final configuration: the PSBs are 99% in the first column rather than 100%, but ArqB is 100% compared to 99% for SC.
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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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Patrick7:40 PM
Stafford
Looks like it'll be a case of trial and error between Lichfield and the Wrekin, then. I'll give it a go after the second phase in a fortnight. Thanks.
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Patrick's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick11:10 PM
Reading
Ryan: I really need a full postcode, because the performance can change so much over just a few metres distance.
The prediction for DE55 7HH, the centre of Alfreton, is basically terrible.
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Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 8 April 2011
S
stephen lee5:12 PM
Belper
Gordon. I live at DE56 1RG and i have a class 3 wideband aerial with NO amplifier. I can get Sutton Coldfield freeview on all channels except Mux D (ch 55), which is very poor because of higher signals from Stanton Moor (analogue)interfering with the digital signal from Sutton Coldfield. This will cease when Stanton Moor goes digital All the other pictures are at quality 8, 9 ,or 10 with 6 and above signal strength and I have had no problems for a long time.
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stephen's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Martin6:17 PM
Whitchurch
Hi, since doing a reinstall of all services on April 6, I have lost BBC Channels...they seem to work OK for a few minutes with an excellent signal strength, then suddenly turn off, with no signal. Not had any other problems and not before 6 April. Aerial in loft, pointing at Sutton Coldfield.
Anyone got any ideas? Tele is a Philips LCD.
Thanks
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Martin's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Mike Dimmick7:06 PM
Martin: it's possible that the TV has decided to store signals from The Wrekin, which is now at high power, rather than from Sutton Coldfield. You have clear line of sight to both transmitters, and The Wrekin is a bit closer. The field strength calculator at Field Strength Calculator reckons the signal from The Wrekin would now be stronger. About 10 dB or ten times stronger, in fact.
There are a couple of possibilities. The first is that because The Wrekin is a bit off-beam, but not that far, the signal is too low to be reliable but not too low to be detectable. The second is that the TV has trouble with the 8K mode or with a split NIT - check the lists at http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/2kequipment and http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/splitnit although these lists are not comprehensive.
Finally there's a possibility that the combined signals from all the transmitters you can see is now too large for your equipment to handle. If you have a booster, try removing it.
To avoid the problem, delete the BBC channels then manually tune C41. You're likely to get the same issue on ITV channels after the 20th.
Digital UK's trade predictor is showing non-existent results for COM muxes from Sutton Coldfield after switchover, because they have been allocated the same frequencies as the PSB multiplexes at Moel-Y-Parc, 57km to your north-west. You are expected to get reliable results on these muxes from The Wrekin once they move to final channels in September. (RG47SH)
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Martin10:07 PM
Whitchurch
Thanks for the info Mike....not sure what it is but you may be right about the signal strength, I have just retuned again, got everything, but in the transmitter info it says West Midlands, whereas before it said Sutton Coldfield, so it may be pointing at the Wrekin. BBC1 is 514000 KHz.
I also get some other signals for BBC channels in the 300's channel number that say that it is picking up Northwest probably Winter Hill.
What is strange is that after watching about 5 mins BBC1 with no problem it suddenly loses the channel along with all other BBC channels, EPG and also the BBC Northwest Channels. ITV seems unaffected.
Does this point towards anything?
Appreciate your help,
Martin
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Martin's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 9 April 2011
A
andy 7:55 PM
Chester
Martin, have you tried a factory reset on your box.
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andy's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Jez10:55 PM
I have the same problem as Martin. I live in cannock. Never had a problem with ANY BBC channels until a couple of days ago. No equipment has moved. BBC channels just disaapeared. Retuning hasn't helped.
So something definitely going on.
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