Full Freeview on the The Wrekin (Telford and Wrekin, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 52.670,-2.552 or 52°40'13"N 2°33'6"W |  | TF6 5AH |
The symbol shows the location of the The Wrekin (Telford and Wrekin, England) transmitter which serves 280,000 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 The Wrekin (Telford and Wrekin, England) mast?
The Wrekin transmitter - The Wrekin transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 29/04/2024 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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The The Wrekin (Telford and Wrekin, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .
If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.
Which Freeview channels does the The Wrekin 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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The The Wrekin (Telford and Wrekin, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .
If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the The Wrekin transmitter?
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 49km east-southeast (116°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 49km east-southeast (116°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)
How will the The Wrekin (Telford and Wrekin, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 27 Feb 2018 | |||||
| A K T | A K T | A K T | W T | K T | |||||
| C23 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C26 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C29 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | ||||||
| C30 | -BBCB | BBCB | |||||||
| C33 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | ||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C41 | +SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C44 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C47 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C48 | _local | _local | |||||||
| C51tv_off | _local |
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 6 Apr 11 and 20 Apr 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-5 | 100kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 20kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 10kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B* | (-17dB) 2kW | |
| Mux C*, Mux D* | (-20dB) 1000W |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the The Wrekin transmitter area
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldWednesday, 4 October 2023
E
Ed9:21 AM
Thanks Chris, Steve. The amplifier box on my inside lounge wall is Fringe Electronics Power Unit P1285-2. A lead comes through my wall and is plugged into the 'Input' Socket on the unit. There are two 'Output' sockets numbered 1 & 2. A power lead with a plug on the end comes out of the unit and is plugged into a mains plug next to the unit.
My plan was to add the filters to the back of my TV sets. Would it be better to insert a filter between the end of the aerial lead coming through my wall and the amplifier's Input socket? Would this mean I don't then have to add more filters to my TVs?
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C
Chris.SE12:53 PM
Ed:
Hi Ed. You don't really have any choice in the interim The filters will have to go on the outputs of that power unit box (better there than at the input end to the TV set). The CANNOT go between the coax from the aerial and the input to the box.
This is because this is a power unit for a masthead amplifier and it sends a 12v DC voltage up the coax to that amp. The filters may not have DC pass through, apart from which the amplification has already taken place at the mast. Whilst it's always better to insert filters before amplification (no point in amplifying unwanted interference as it's then more difficult to get rid of it!), you can't get to it, it needs a special outdoor filter fitted at the mast before the amplifier - which is what the engineers that they send should do.
That's assuming they can't get you a better signal in the first place that doesn't need an amp. (I doubt it, you probably stay as you are as you've not have problems before now).
Temporarily, in a worst case, if one filter per TV output doesn't fix the problem, you may have to cascade two filters for your main TV until the engineers come and sort things out properly.
Hope that helps, ask away if there's anything else.
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Saturday, 7 October 2023
E
Ed2:18 PM
Just an update...I received the two filters and tried one first, then two in series on both my TVs in different rooms. I inserted the filters directly before my TV aerial socket (i.e. between the wall socket and and the TV input socket).
The filters had no effect whatsoever. This leads me to think the issue is with my TV aerial or there is a faulty wire or connection somewhere. A Restore TV engineer is coming Friday so I'm hoping the root cause will be known - but not necessarily fixed - in a week's time.
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S
Steve Donaldson4:42 PM
Ed: While one plausible explanation for the symptoms described is an issue with the aerial or cabling, the phone mast could still be the cause. This is because it appears you have an amplifier, possibly sited with the aerial, this implied by the Fringe power unit, which is intended for powering an amplifier.
Ideally, filtering out of the phone signal needs to be before the amplifier because it could potentially overwhelm it. While it is the case that inserting the filter at the input of TV will filter out the mobile phone signal (which the amplifier has made bigger), the effect of the mobile signal on the amplifier could be to desensitise it to the (lower level) TV signal and distort it.
Prior to sending an engineer, the best Restore TV could do is send you some filters to put behind your TVs. If this resolved the issue, then that might be all good. If not, then a filter may need to go before the amplifier -- if the amplifier is necessary for your set-up. It sounds like this might require a waterproof filter suitable for outdoor use fitted on the roof, immediately after the aerial and before the amplifier.
The aerial input to the TV or set-top box is designed to accept signals within the range of frequencies used for TV. The top portion of those frequencies has now been given over to the mobile phone networks. Such networks can give rise to situations where the signal level of the (unwanted) phone signal(s) is/are substantially higher than those of the (wanted) TV signal. It is this marked difference in levels that is the problem.
Prior to the mobile phone networks being allowed to use the frequencies formerly used for TV, the only broadcasts in that range were from TV transmitters. Being that all signals sent out by any given TV transmitter are around the same level, they are received at the around same level at all locations. Today, there can be unwanted signals of much higher magnitude than the wanted TV signals in the range of frequencies TVs are designed to accept. This will vary by location -- it won't be the case everywhere.
The first stage of any receiver is to receive a signal on a particular designated frequency. It is only further on that the signal is interpreted, e.g. a TV receiver interprets and resolves a TV signal to the picture, sound and so on. It's at this first stage that the problem occurs. The problem is signal level, not type of interfering signal per se.
Think of walking along the pavement at the side of a busy road at night where there is very little to no light from streetlights. Car headlights desensitise your eyes to the darker pavement in front of you, thereby making it more difficult to see the way than had they not been there. The really strong mobile phone signal (from a nearby mast) is akin to the car headlights, your eyes are like the TV receiver and the pavement ahead is like the TV signal.
Adding the filter is like putting shades on that are able to reduce the brightness of the headlights while not reducing the level of the light ahead on the pavement (if such shades could actually exist). If the level of light from the headlights was around the same level as the ambient light on the pavement you would be able to see the latter. The presence of the former would not degrade visibility of the latter. Prior to mobile phone networks using what were formerly TV frequencies, there were no "lights" (signals) much brighter (stronger) than others in that range of frequencies.
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Monday, 9 October 2023
C
Chris.SE1:09 AM
Ed:
Whatever the cause turns out to be, "the thing to stress" is that reception was ok until sometime after receiving the postcard if in the unlikely event that the engineer being a trifle pernickety !!
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Transmitter engineering
6:09 AM
6:09 AM
The Wrekin transmitter - The Wrekin transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 09/10/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
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Tuesday, 10 October 2023
K
Karen10:00 AM
Whitchurch
SY13 1RG Whitchurch Shropshire Roof aerial.
TV saying programmes not tuned and mass pixelling.
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Karen's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE3:33 PM
Karen:
I'm afraid it's down to current weather conditions -
They have been causing Tropospheric Ducting affecting much of the south coast and southern parts of the country on Saturday and now extending into the Midlands and North of the country through Sunday including East Anglia, now currently affecting Wales and England. This causes interfering signals from distant transmitters in Europe or the UK to affect reception of your wanted signals. This can periodically last, seconds, minutes and sometimes much longer - Do NOT Retune.
There is nothing you can do about this apart from wait for conditions to change, or use online streaming if available.
IF you did retune, you'd be best manually retuning the UHF channels for your transmitter, as detailed in the top section of this page.
The BBC and Freeview have issued warnings -
High pressure weather conditions impacting TV & Radio services - from 07 October | Help receiving TV and radio
High pressure could affect reception across parts of the UK this week | Freeview
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Friday, 13 October 2023
E
Ed4:07 PM
It's fixed.
The problem was the Fringe Electronics P1285-2 power unit. It was boosting the signal but not in a constant/stable way. When he looked at the Freeview signals on his display they were fluctutating quite a bit. A guess my TV wasn't sensitive enough to capture these fluctuations as it showed a constant 100% power.
He fitted a new power unit but also noticed a strong mobile signal in the range above the Freeview frequencies, which he thought could be a problem in future if ever that mobile signal was boosted. So he also fitted a filter to the aerial box in my loft to strip out mobile frequencies.
The only issue with the new power unit is that it only has one output and has a different socket. The one output isn't an issue for now as I only use that box to feed a dab stereo. There is radio aerial fitted to the roof along with the TV aerial. I use other aerial sockets to feed my televisions. I can either buy an adapter so I can plug my stereo lead into the new box, or I could buy and fit a new power unit identical to the P1285-2. I think I'll just use an adapter on the single output socket for now.
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C
Chris.SE4:12 PM
Ed:
Glad you've found the source of the problem. Hope everything now remains stable.
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