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 04/12/2023 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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Friday, 6 May 2011
I
Ian Brown2:20 PM
Mike D
Many thanks for your very positive response to my problem, it is much appreciated. It gives me a few things to be going at. The aerial and splitter that I have were installed a couple of years ago by a very reputable local aerial company. They also added an amplifier for the TV that is giving me the problems (I will try removing this to see what happens). I can always get back to them in the light of your suggestions to see if they can fix the problem.
What puzzles me though is that before the Nottingham changeover, both TVs tuned in to ALL of the Freeview channels, with excellent reception. It was only after the Nottingham transmitter switched that this problem began.
Yet I always thought that Kimberley was a relay for Sutton Coldfield (not Nottingham), and wondered if all the engineering works now taking place there might, in some way, be to blame.
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M
Mike Dimmick5:04 PM
Ian Brown: Nottingham (Kimberley) was a relay of Waltham for analogue services. That is, it received the signal off-air from Waltham and rebroadcast it on different frequencies.
It wasn't possible to do this for digital as the signal from Waltham simply wouldn't reach that far (particularly as the power levels were originally half what they are now). Instead, Nottingham - serving a major town, significant for advertisers and to secure subscriptions for the original onDigital service - was fed independently by leased line, with satellite as a backup.
As it was fed independently, it was possible to switch Nottingham over before its former parent, or indeed any other transmitters in the region.
The fact that everything worked fine before switchover points to having too much signal. Amplifiers and tuners can only handle so much signal before distorting, and that distortion causes errors. The signal contains redundant information so that the box can correct many of those errors, but once the threshold amount of errors has been exceeded it can no longer correct them, and you get sound breaks and picture break-up.
Signal levels do vary naturally over time - this is nothing to do with the transmitter, all to do with signal propogation from the transmitter. This is why it can work sometimes, but not reliably.
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T
Teresa9:32 PM
Had new digital aerial fitted with amplifier etc.Engineers stated due to distance from Sutton Coldfield area [I live in Studley, Warks and on busy A435] will get some interference. This is happening especially when traffic is bad and also when I put on certain electrical appliances. Lads said would be ok after September switchover, is this correct. Also bought cheao freeview box, would a better one help?
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K
KMJ,Derby10:45 PM
Teresa: after switchover in September the signals will be 25 times stronger so yes the engineer is correct in saying that things will improve. You might find that you end up with too much signal and have to remove the amplifier.Although some models of freeview box claim to deal with interference better than others there is really no solution to the situation where the interference is stronger than the required signal.Positioning the aerial so that the house or chimney stack act as a screen to interference from traffic can help, and using good quality fly leads is essential when interference from household appliances or switches is a problem.A mains filter can help with interference within the home. You might decide it is better to wait a few weeks for switchover then see what the situation is like.
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Saturday, 7 May 2011
G
george ball5:46 PM
Cannock
aerial is positioned on the roof.
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george's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
I
Ian Brown6:20 PM
Mike D
Thank you once again for your most informative, and interesting, reply to my last post.
I'm sure I'll soon have both TV sets running as they should, with the helpful advice you have given me.
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T
Teresa9:57 PM
To KMJ Derby,
Thanks for your prompt and helpful advice
Kind Regards
Teresa
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Sunday, 8 May 2011
J
James Mooney11:26 AM
Warwick
Mike D Many thanks for your response. BBC 4 is no problem, as is BBC Parliament which I believe is also Multiplex B. I live at Compton Verney which is about 8 miles east of Stratford upon Avon and aerial is inside a bell tower pointing at Sutton Coldfield. Should I try Lark Stoke direction? Perhaps that is the the interfering transmitter? I have tried unplugging aerial halfway through scan but that has made no difference. Perhaps current tech work at transmitter will resolve. Paying TopUp TV for an unobtainable service starts to hurt! Thanks, James
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James's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
KMJ,Derby3:36 PM
James Mooney:If you have lost Sky news, that is MuxC on C52+ and Sky Sports on MuxB (C51) suggests possible interference around C51/C52.Is the BBC4 that you are receiving definitely coming from Sutton Coldfield or have you stored channels from Lark Stoke Mux BBCA? Regarding the aerial when scanning for Sutton channels you need to leave the aerial unplugged for the first third of the scan to miss out Lark Stoke PSBs, then re-insert before C40 to cover the Sutton frequencies. It is very unlikely that you would be able to receive Sky Sports from Lark Stoke as you would need to receive Mux ArqB which is currently low power and not expected to serve your location until September.
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Monday, 9 May 2011
S
Susan5:52 PM
Birmingham
I have a freeview TV in my bedroom running off a new aerial located in my loft. I have had great reception up until last week and now unable to watch it as I have lots of interference and breaking up on all the channels. I have just purchased a booster and although it looks like BBC1 and BBC2 are now okay (up until now), all the other channels are much the same. Can you please advise. I live in Kitts Green, Birmingham B33 0AQ
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Susan's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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