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 02/10/2023 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, 250 BBC Red Button, plus 18 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),
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, 109 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 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 Great! Movies Action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 CBS Reality, 69 HorrorXtra, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 203 CITV, 208 Pop Player, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, plus 16 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C45 (666.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	Smithsonian Channel, 11 Sky Arts, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 pick, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 70 Quest +1, 71 That's 60s, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 70s, 233 Sky News, plus 9 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C39+ (618.2MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	Quest Red +1, Classic Hits, 12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 73 HobbyMaker, 76 That's 80s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 83 Together TV, 84 PBS America, 90 Together TV +1, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 19 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?

D

Dennis

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

9:05 PM

Stephen I think you would be better sticking with ,for the reason's given to you in KMJ,'s reply.

However you will find the bearing for here,based on your postcode,enter your house number yourself.

Postcode Checker - Trade View (B775LD)

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Dennis's 27 posts GB flag

D

Dennis

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

9:24 PM
Tamworth

Geoff,that's great,pleased to hear it the HD mulitplex from is on 4KW now,when it moves to ,I understand that the will increase to 200KW.

So I think you will be ok :) all the SD will also increase power, from 8KW now,to 200KW at the end of digital .

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Dennis's 27 posts GB flag

Dennis's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

G

Graham
12:56 PM
Stafford

Tried setting up my new HD box today. All I get is the all SD no HD at all. I am in ST17. says we are supposed to get HD. Have checked all connections and multi scanned. But no success.

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Graham's 1 post GB flag

Graham's: G's Freeview map G's terrain plot G's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage

S

stephen johnson
1:40 PM

hi dennis i think i do have a wide band i think
do i live in the only place where everyones aerial points in a different diriction ?
i have a tri boom aerial

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stephen johnson's 5 posts GB flag

G

Geoff Smith
2:55 PM
Rugby

Hi Dennis,
It's a Samsung LE40c750. The specifications include a DVB-T2 , 1080p and 3d ready. When I tuned it in without the PSU I got 104 . With the PSU fitted I got 108. Choose channel 50 on the remote and BBC1HD comes up. The same with the other hd channels. As I said, if I watch an hd channel with the PSU on, no problem, but if I switch it off the channel goes off.
Cheers,
Geoff.

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Geoff Smith's 3 posts GB flag

Geoff's: G's Freeview map G's terrain plot G's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage

D

Dennis

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

3:59 PM

Graham,I understand that the radiation pattern of the HD is to the south,for Birmingham,not north where you are.
Your is looking at ,but the HD transmission is from nr ,some thirteen degrees away from where your aerial is pointing.

It would seem that you have a hi- ,this would tend to limit the capture of ,to a very narrow area, in degrees and miss the HD signal.

I am sure it will be fine,come digital switch over,when the HD moves to Sutton Coldfield on high power.

Take a look at the enclosed,it refers to '''' but gives the location of the Sutton and Lichfield transmitter sites.with reference to your location,notice the thirteen degree difference.
UK analogue TV reception predictor
(B775LD)

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Dennis's 27 posts GB flag

G

Graham
7:15 PM

Thanks Dennis.....Your information is most helpfull, I will wait and see what happens at switch over.

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Graham's 1 post GB flag

A

Andrew
2:57 PM

HI I've just fell into the 'HD is in your postcode' got a hd freeview box and like Graham i am pointing to (im in ) but hey no HD ...i am not going to mess with my arial as its in a very hard to get spot (nearly vertical ladders) just to get lichfields weak so i'll have to wait for 9/2011 as well.!

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Andrew's 1 post GB flag

M

Michael Coley
11:40 PM
Sutton Coldfield

re.B75 5DN - Here we go again!! For some 5/6 weeks before Christmas we had major prolems with for ITV1 and all other stations on . However just before Christmas it all cleared and for the last 5/6 weeks there have been no problems at all. However today there has been a blank screen all day and evening for ITV1 and all others on C44. Others are fine. Clearly something has been done today to cause this problem and perhaps you could see that it is sorted out tomorrow

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Michael Coley's 4 posts GB flag

Michael's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

B

Brett Nagata
3:11 AM
Stafford

Hi ,

Thanks for the info. I am away but will try the advice when I return.

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Brett Nagata's 2 posts CA flag

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

Page 10

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.

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