Full Freeview on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 52.801,-0.801 or 52°48'4"N 0°48'5"W |  | LE14 4AJ |
The symbol shows the location of the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter which serves 770,000 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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter._______
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 Waltham 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 Waltham transmitter?
BBC East Midlands Today 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Nottingham NG2 4UU, 28km northwest (306°)
to BBC East Midlands region - 17 masts.
ITV Central News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 83km west-southwest (244°)
to ITV Central (East) region - 17 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (West)
Are there any self-help relays?
| Braunstone | Transposer | 5 km SW Leicester city centre | 170 homes |
How will the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 4 Mar 2020 | |||
| C/D E | E | E | W | W T | W T | W T | |||
| C26 | LNG | LNG | |||||||
| C29 | SDN | SDN | SDN | SDN | |||||
| C31 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C32 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C34 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | BBCB | ||||||
| C37 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C41 | _local | ||||||||
| C49tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C54tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | COM8tv_off | |||||
| C57tv_off | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | ||||||
| C58tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | |||
| C61 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCA | |||||
| C64 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
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 17 Aug 11 and 31 Aug 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-5 | 250kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 50kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 25kW | |
| com8 | (-12.7dB) 13.4kW | |
| com7 | (-13.9dB) 10.2kW | |
| Mux 1* | (-14dB) 10kW | |
| Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B* | (-14.9dB) 8kW | |
| Mux C*, Mux D*, LNG | (-17dB) 5kW |
Local transmitter maps
Waltham Freeview Waltham DAB Waltham AM/FM Waltham TV region BBC East Midlands Central (East micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Waltham transmitter area
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Thursday, 8 February 2018
B
Bren7:42 AM
MikeB I need to know which mux a channel is on if I am missing it so I can retune just that mux..
If I retune them all it might loss some muxes if I have tweaked my aerial.
If it has the mux stored it will sometimes find the channel if the signal improves there.
however if I retune the lot it will lose the that mux altogether if the signal is weak when I retune.
I have never got Forces TV even though Sky News, which I can get is on the same mux!
I do not on a page I can't like to it says "Note: Freeview HD equipment required to receive this service"
for Forces TV, Same goes for the other missing ones.
Baffeling!
| link to this comment |
Bren's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln110:57 AM
Bren: Sky News is not on the same mux as Forces TV. You appear to have become confused by the frequency change. Sky News is on COM5 (where is has always been) which has moved to UHF channel 37. Forces TV is on COM8 which has moved to UHF channel 56.
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B
Bren12:41 PM
StevensOnln1, thanks for that I do get confused. Right so it is on 56C which is 754mHz, however
even doing a manual search on that gets me nothing or at least it did the first time I tried, my VCR
thing seems to have locked up now lol.
However I have managed to get the missing HD channels (C58), what I did was disconnect my DVB-T2 stick
and then tuned my VCR and it found them, I did tweak the aerial a bit to remove some noise.
I then got the HD channels on my DVB-T2 stick, indeed I get two sets there, one from the Nottingham
transmitter I think. But no sign of com8 on c56. I have never been able to pick that up for some
reason. Wikipedia show it as very low power. ie 1.4 kW which is nothing! compared to the rest!
https://en.wikipedia.org/…ion.
I don't miss it as I have never got it. Com 8 is not on the Nottingham transmitter so I can't even
try and get it there, but as I say I don't miss it and there is not much on com8 really anyway.
| link to this comment |
Bren's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
B
Bren4:19 PM
Anyhow, are not com7 and com8 disappearing after march 31st?
Anyhow I do note I get the 5kW LGN mux at 7 out of 10 bars so it is not out of the question I might
pull in the 1.5kW com8 sometime. But if it is being switched off soon it would be a mere academic exercise
really.
| link to this comment |
Bren's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln15:08 PM
Bren: COM7 & COM8 are not disappearing until somewhere between summer 2020 and 2022. They are moving to form single frequency networks on UHF channels 55 and 56 in the centre of the 700MHz band which is being cleared for future 4G/5G mobile services. COM8 is broadcast at 13.35kW from Waltham, not 1.5kW, however the broadcast power level can't be directly compared as the local mux uses a different broadcast mode which is much more robust and can be more easily received at a lower signal strength (at the expense of having much lower capacity).
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Friday, 9 February 2018
B
Bren12:47 AM
StevensOnln1: BINGO!!!!!!!! I got it!!!
I had been getting some interference on my existing channel, noticed it on BBC1, I was messing
nudging the aerial a few degrees to the left and the right trying to get it, but the noise I was loosing
one one mux I was gaining on the another.
In desperation I propped the aerial up again what is a covered water overflow tank, pointing about
30 degree upwards and that got me a real good signal on all the tuned muxes, so then I had a go
at a manual tune on com8 UHF channel 56 and it pulled all the channels in!!
It says signal strength 90 and quality 41 (out of 100) it is a good stable watchable picture, I have got
ice hockey on Freesports on atm, never seen that before, seems to be mainly foreign sports but
also some British stuff too, so handy to have, don't think anything else on the mux will be of much
interest though, but nice to have the full set.
Anyhow at least I know I can get it now and thanks for our help, dunno how long it will be before
I get problems again but it is looking pretty good at the moment! I have good signals for all
the programs I tend to watch now!
| link to this comment |
Bren's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeB2:09 PM
Bren: Have you thought of just investing in a decent aerial? For all our sakes...
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B
Bren10:28 PM
MikeB: It is not as much fun though is it Mike?
I have all the channel now basically, and it is wideband aerial I bought, I though I would try it in
the loft and it seemed to work OK although as you know I have had some minor issues from time
to time. I can basically get everything at the moment one way or another. I can't seem to get the local
mux on my TV recorder though but I can get it on my TV provided I switch the recorder off!
Things have never been bad enough for long enough to warrant getting a new outside aerial
installed and the hassle involved in that, especially so these days when most channels
are available online. Indeed my main concern was the loss of Sky New, but I can watch that
online in HD anyway. It is good exercise running up and down stairs into the loft adjust the aerial
to see if things have improved anyway.
One thing I have been wondering is whether it is best to point the aerial perpendicular to
the slant of the roof as opposed to horizontally as it seems that may be the case, maybe I will
test the theory by doing just that? Or maybe I should leave well alone? lol.
| link to this comment |
Bren's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
MikeP
10:57 PM
10:57 PM
Bren:
An aerial has to be either horizontally polarised or vertically. The main boom, carrying all the other elements, has to be virtually level with maybe a little uplift at the end furthest from the dipole where the cables are connected (on a log-periodic the cables usually enter at the other end). It must never be vertical or even nearly so as it must 'look at' the transmitter mast at Waltham or Sutton Coldfield - it can't do both but a 'side lobe' may give you some unexpected reception though at low strengths.
The decision about whether the small elements across the main boom should be horiziontal or vertical is determined only by the transmitter aerials. At Waltham, and at Sutton Coldfield if you are getting West Midlands news, the transmitting aerials provide only horizontal polarisation. Therefore all the smaller elements mounted across the main boom *must* be horizontal. If you tilt them at 45 degrees you will lose some or several signals and others will be weaker, perhaps too weak for reliable reception. The angle of the roof of your house is irrelevant.
Ideally you should move your aerial as far away from all water tanks and pipes as is possible whilst still being aimed directly at the wanted transmitter, at a bearing of 123 degrees for Waltham or at 231 degrees for Sutton Coldfield. Both transmitters can be well received in West Bridgeford (I used to work in the Nottingham area when I was a TV Service Engineer) but Waltham is best as it carries the East Midlands services.
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Saturday, 10 February 2018
B
Bren3:44 AM
Well I have lost com8 at the moment, but I am not to bothered as I likely not watch it, I was OK but
then I started messing with downstairs cables to try and reduce bit error levels in one channel.
The thing is my aerial in the loft and there may be signal bouncing around in there interfering with each
other. As the signal have different lengths the interference will be different for each wave length hence
a good single on one mux may be a bad on for another mux.
Pointing the aerial up a bit did seem to help although it is lying flatish now as, I get a decent picture
on all the muxes my TV can receive directly, and all bar com8 via my recorder which can decode T2
muxes.
It is all rather hit miss trying to get a good signal in the loft, I understand about the polarisation, I
have another disconnect aerial in the loft mounted vertically pointing to the Nottingham transmitter,
but it is disconnected not, (which actually has given me an idea!!! :O).
One issue I have is that when I power up my HDrecorder it interferes with the TV signal on some
muxes, indeed I think that was why I started messing around with the aerial again. Indeed it
wipe out the local mux LNG altogether and other muxes. It should not so that really.
The TV is connect to a booster by rf cable and also to the record via a hdmi cable, the recorder
is connect to the same booster.
I also notice if the record was on but I disconnect the hdmi cable the interference disappear, indeed
I just discovered now when I went to retest that aspect that if I rotate the record about 45 degees
all the interference disappears!!!
And.........I have com8 back!!!!!!!!!!!
How werid!!!!!!!
Com7 has just com8 have just disapeared though.
But the good news is my TV works on all the muxes even when the recorder of on. (atm anyway!)
Anyhow I seem to have learned somethings, and a few things to look into and some ideas.
| link to this comment |
Bren's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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