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Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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 25/03/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C43 (650.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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, plus 19 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C46 (674.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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)433mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H max
C42 (642.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C45 (666.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C39+ (618.2MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LB
 H -13dB
C48 (690.0MHz)433mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
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?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
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)Transposer1 km W Burton-on-Trent60 homes
CoalvilleTransposer18 km NW Leicester600 homes
SolihullTransposerLand Rover building400 homes

How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-137 Mar 2018
VHFB E TB E TB E TB E K TW T
C4BBCtvwaves
C33com7
C35com8
C36LOCAL2
C39+ArqBArqB
C40BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves+BBCBBBCB
C42SDNSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C45ArqAArqA
C46BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4
C48_local
C50tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C51tv_offLB
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_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

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV 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.

Comments
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
B
brian walker
8:46 AM

Bradford eccleshill no signal from some channels even after retune 3 times this morning BBC 1 no signal months of irritation to get a picture that does not break up thinking wrongly it will be right after 21st September HOW WRONG! GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER ENGINEERS

link to this comment
brian walker's 1 post GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:47 AM

Ryan: That assumes you have a box where the signal quality is calculated as percentage of data received without errors, after all error correction. Most boxes do. Unfortunately that makes it a completely useless stat, because it cannot tell you how far away from break-up it is. It will only go below 100% when it's already starting to break up!

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:49 AM

brian walker: Please provide a full postcode. Note that many relays are still off-air as they had to wait for work at the main mast to be complete, the last is actually not scheduled to complete until 4pm as it relies on four intermediate hops.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
G
GT
9:31 AM

Good signals from SC now, but getting duplicate MUXA(8k) on UHF ch62. Ae points north. Any idea where this is coming from?

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GT's 6 posts GB flag
V
Viv Denham
9:47 AM

I am trying to view Freeview on a WinTV TV Stick on my laptop. However, since switchover, I can only receive 23 channels, with those on 650.0 frequency showing "No Signal" and only those on the 618.2 frequency giving a picture.

I am on the Sutton Coldfield transmitter, and before switchover I could receive 76 channels from 4 frequencies: 634, 714, 722 and 746 MHz. However, I could only get pictures from 746MHz. All the others showed as "No Signal" on screen.

Doing a scan of the channels, it would appear that the Signal Strenth for both of today's frequencies is -21000 and the Signal Quality is 19% and 20% respectively.

Is there anything I can do to improve the Signal Quality?

Many thanks for any help you could give me.

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Viv Denham's 1 post GB flag
G
gpc1
10:14 AM

can you confirm that the awitchover process is complete .

I have a 6 year old channel master aerial (yellow } i belive group b .I have always had a perfect reception
retuned this morning normally i only see 100 % on signal.This morning 60% and even 50 % on the odd channel
i appear to have all channels but citv was breaking up and blocking ,
not a problem i have had before .


please advise

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gpc1's 2 posts GB flag
N
Neil
10:37 AM

I Cannot get BBC channels from Sutton Coldfield transmitter in Stoke areas.
One box stopped working at last change now the other is doing the same.
Grundig and Thomson set top boxes

link to this comment
Neil's 10 posts GB flag
G
gbhall
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

10:44 AM

After clear all channels and manual tune of channels 43,39,46,42,45 in that order, I have all expected channels, but a few programmes are not on the EPG numbers expected. For example, program 24 (supposed to be ITV4) is not assigned at all, and ITV4 actually shows up on 797 !!!

My box is a Nokia 221T

Is there any possible way to avoid this?

link to this comment
gbhall's 25 posts GB flag
N
Neil
10:54 AM

Thomson box working ok now but grundig died may be worth trying a retune for other people with problems.

link to this comment
Neil's 10 posts GB flag
S
Steve
11:05 AM

I retuned this morning, living near Abbots Bromley and I have missing channels. You know, I just knew this was not going to work for me and I can't see the HD channels. To clarify, I have 2 3D TV's with HD receivers as I know that will be the first question, yes, they can receive, decode AND play HD channels. I was waiting for this day and at the back of mind I just felt it would not work :(

Worked fine before most of the time, now i see ZERO improvement.

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Steve's 17 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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