Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 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 
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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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Saturday, 19 September 2020
R
Richard11:56 AM
I live south of Banbury but used to be able to get Com7 & 8 from Sutton Coldfield except under occasional extreme adverse weather conditions. I know com8 has ceased but i can't get com7 (channel 55) now - have they reduced the tx power and or the direction of transmission?
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R
Richard8:04 PM
Update: aerial had worked loose so was misaligned. Com7 now receivable. It would help if they broadcast it at full strength though.
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C
Chris.SE11:47 PM
Richard:
An increase in power is highly unlikely. COM7 operates as a "Single Frequency Network" and power changes would cause different problems in different locations.
Also to make matters worse at present, there's been a lot of "Tropospheric Ducting" around causing interference, see Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | RTIS for a simplistic explanation.
It's likely to continue for a day or two more.
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Monday, 26 October 2020
N
Nick 5:39 PM
Hello, is anyone else having trouble receiving stations on channel 39? I'm getting a big fat zilch on signal quality from that channel, 618.2mhz, thanks
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C
Chris.SE8:33 PM
Nick :
Can't find any reports of current transmitter problems, are you still having issues?
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Wednesday, 4 November 2020
N
nick5:44 PM
Chris.SE:
Hi Chris, thanks for your interest, in my query about Sutton Coldfield and HGTV, I was hoping that the reshuffle of channel numbers today would have sorted it, but it hasn't. Still picking up nothing on com6 , ch39+.....its not even the highest frequency of the Coms I can get. Do you happen to know the meaning and significance on COM6, ch39+ of the '+' ? I'm wondering if that's got anything to do with it. ..tomorrow I'll tweak the aerial a bit.
Dunno what else to do...Regards, Nick
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Thursday, 5 November 2020
C
Chris.SE1:34 AM
nick:
Hi. The + indicates a frequency offset for the channel (as does a - ). It's a 167kHz offset. It has absolutely no effect on any equipment that complies with the relevant specifications for Freeview, they will tune correctly.
If you have some unusual equipment, maybe eg. a "non-compliant" PC Card, where you might have to tune it to the precise frequency - in this case 618.167MHz for C39, it shouldn't otherwise present any problems.
Actually, C39(+) is the lowest frequency used at Sutton Coldfield, except for the local multiplex L-BRM on C36 (only 1kW beaming N). It's also on C48 10kW beaming SW. All the multiplexes are C43, C46, C40+, C42, C45, C39+, C55, C36/C48 that's in the order PSBs1-3, COMs 4-7 and Local L-BRM.
Excluding COM7 and the Local muxes, all 6 main muxes are 200kW.
Essentially, you shouldn't have any problem with COM6 if the others are ok.
Have a look in your tuning section for something like Signal Strength, may be in Manual Tuning, see what signal Strength and Quality you are getting for each multiplex - make a note.
Check for water ingress in your aerial connections and coax. Also check any wall-plates or flyleads. Broken or corroded connections etc can affect just one multiplex and not others (due to electrical standing waves that get created in the cable).
If you think your aerial may have shifted in the wind, put your postcode and house into the boxes on Platform management | Freeview and you'll find the bearing of the transmitter at your location. It'll also give you the predicted reception.
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C
Chris.SE4:31 AM
nick:
Without knowing your postcode to look at your predicted reception, the only other thing I can add at this time is that there is likely to be some "Tropospheric Ducting" around for the next few days which might affect your reception. See Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | RTIS for a simplistic explanation.
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Wednesday, 11 November 2020
K
Ken Marchant1:28 PM
Stafford
Hi,
Post code ST18 9TW (Great Bridgeford, Stafford).
We use Freeview and all of the channels we use are 100% strength and the signal is very good.
We want to watch Sony Christmas movies (Channel 51) bur we cannot get this because the signal strength on C36 is shown as 6%. Why is this, and can it be boosted?
Thank you.
Ken Marchant.
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Ken's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln13:12 PM
Ken Marchant: Sony Christmas Movies is carried on the local TV multiplex, which is mostly directed towards Birmingham and the surrounding areas. 6% is a very low signal level (matching the prediction of the Freeview detailed coverage checker) and as you already have 100% strength on the main multiplexes, any attempt to boost the signal is likely to result in the signal lever becoming too high for the main multiplexes which could result in the loss of other channels.
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