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 04/11/2024 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?

J

Jetuk2000
9:00 AM

In B75 we have no at all and only 14 digital such as Russia Today, Yesterday etc (nothing of much use!). How can we fix this?

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Jetuk2000's 1 post GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

11:06 AM

Jetuk2000: Please see Freeview reception has changed? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

C

C. Welch
12:54 PM
Dudley

I have lost all my BBC on my tv, tried, first installation tune and re-tuning etc., not very technically minded, so some of the solutions I have read seem very complicated, does it need to go back to the shop ???? My postcode is DY2 0DJ and my is on the , this has been working perfectly before and nothing has been changed.

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C. Welch's 1 post GB flag

C.'s: C's Freeview map C's terrain plot C's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:20 PM

C. Welch: Please see Single frequency interference | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:25 PM

C. Welch: It's most likely that you're using the , where there is work today. Wait until 6pm and see if comes back.

If you are using the relay, the 's rods will be going up-and-down rather than side-to-side. Brierley Hill is south- of you, while is to the north-east.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:26 PM

C. Welch: and if you are using , you will probably need to retune again after 6pm, because your TV will now have forgotten where all the are.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

P

Paul Bertenshaw
6:33 PM
Ashby-de-la-zouch

I live in Ashby de la Zouch LE65 post code and prefer East Midlands Today local news as it is more relevant than the local news from the , ie:- mainly news from the Midlands inc Birmingham.
Will we have the option of continuing to receive East Midlands Today from in September, even though apparently we come under the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area? Do we to choose between receiving local news from an area that we don't live in & accept that the will be weaker, or choose the stronger signal strength but irrelevant local news option? If that is the case, what happened to free choice?!

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Paul Bertenshaw's 3 posts GB flag

Paul's: P's Freeview map P's terrain plot P's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage

K

KMJ,Derby

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

7:54 PM

Paul Bertenshaw: If you currently enjoy good from the you should still be able to receive the service after . The Digital UK postcode checker currently shows Waltham as offering the best Freeview service, after switchover has good reception for all muxes and Waltham good reception on the PSB muxes and variable reception on the COM muxes. If this gives any signal problems 2 aerials can be installed to receive all required signals.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag

B

Bob
8:34 PM
Dudley

I started having problems with yesterday. Live in DY2 8AN (same area as C.Welch above and live in an apartment block with communal ) and have generally had around 70-75% signal strength and . Since I got home yesterday, signal strength has been 25-50% with a lot of errors, causing break-up of all ( worse as well). Got worse today and have re-tuned several times on 2 digital TV's and checked all cables, etc. After re-tune I am picking up Gloucestershire as well (normally just get " Midlands") - which has lead me to suspect the aerial has moved, could this be the problem or is it the transmitter works ? Any appreciated - thanks !

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Bob's 2 posts GB flag

Bob's: B's Freeview map B's terrain plot B's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

6:23 AM

Bob: You are probably now in more than one , see Digital Region Overlap | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

Page 31

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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