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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
S
SteveL
2:17 PM

I live in North Wales, nr Llangollen, and today for the first time I have been able to get ITV4 & Yesterday (Sutton Coldfield). However, this is only on one out of 5 TVs/digital boxes.
It looks they are not capable of the sub frequencies (eg 618.2MHz). Certainly when scanning they show 618.00MHz, 619.00MHz, etc. I can't manually enter a frequency.
Does that sound a likely cause?

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SteveL's 1 post GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

2:45 PM

SteveL: All Freeview boxes can deal with the +/- 166kHz offsets, but most do not show them. I can't say more about your reception without a full postcode.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

2:52 PM

christina: C21 is the lowest broadcast channel in the UK, and C68 is the highest, your box will scan between C21 and C68.

These are *NOT* the "local channel numbers" such as 1 for BBC One.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
B
Billy
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:02 PM
Coventry

Brian my friend, risk getting all technical, as I do believe it or not, not know everything, lol, unless read and learned etc, or shown, which I prefer to be honest, anyway, question:
I've read, but hard finding much info in google, always subject to what you type in, but with Lark Stokes Commercial channels going on the 40's how much lose would that be, so for argument sake:

channel 21 with a gain of 21db will on channel 41 have only 20 db.

I know Aerials compensate for this, but remember I'm keen once I move it into the loft next Wed all being well, to use my new Log Periodic, with only 7.5 db gain and 25 max variable amp.

I know you likely will say not that simple, also tried to find comparison with the db/uv or whatever it is, to the db gain, so for example:

60 db/uv equals 21 db gain

Thanks.


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Billy's 50 posts GB flag
Billy's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

3:11 PM

Billy: I'm not really sure what you are trying to get at, you seem to be mixing together lots of different concepts.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
B
Billy
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:40 PM

LOL, sorry, that's me for you.

Err not sure how to explain, as frequencies go higher, I'm away they have more loss, hence CB rig at 27 mhz, great conditions on 4 watts can go miles and miles, base station to base station up high can cover, gosh, 20 or 30 miles, who knows.

But TV at that, LOL, no way, so they transmit often at hundreds or thousands of watts, why, because as the frequency climbs it loses more.

Thing is, we see TV Aerial compensate for this:
Gain (curves), Again

However, if you have a log periodic aerial, they are pretty much flat.

Just because I'm getting channels 23 and 26 at 80 to 100% does not assume I'll get channel 47 from Lark Stoke.

So my question is, do you know of a loss factor, again for example:

Channel 21 at say 20db
channel 41 would be at 18 db
channel 61 at 16 db.

Meaning I'd need 2 db more again on an amp to get the same as I did on channels 23.

I hope that helps.

Also on the other, some talk in, as on my useless meter I bought db/uv, looks like a u, likely not, says 60 poor 70 and 80 okay and the last light 90 Excellent, measures in db/uv so 60 to 80, say 45 to 50 min level for Digital.
But when we talk about Amps, it is mostly in 15 to 25 db gain.
Was one site gave me an idea, showing both, but not 100% sure that means, you know, like some table.

All confusing I know, cause depends on circumstances, aerial in or out, how close you are to a transmitter, and what height aerial and obstacles and Amplifier and oh gosh, you know..... (CV59HG)

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Billy's 50 posts GB flag
B
Billy
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:45 PM

Actually, found this again:
Field Strength Calculator

So it shows 110 (dBuV) at 47 but 113 at channel 23, so nothing in it and way high, but as it states, take about 10 to 20 off:

Note that your results will be of the order of 10-20dB lower than this predicts. To get the signal strength predicted by this calculator your antenna must be several metres higher than surrounding obstructions, house roofs etc and have a clear line of sight to the transmitter. Most domestic installations do not satisfy these requirements, hence assume at least 10dB lower signal levels.

I still think I'll be more than okay and shall see in weeks time.
Thanks anyway Brian, ignore me again, crack on helping others with the change over issues. (CV59HG)

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Billy's 50 posts GB flag
N
Neil
3:48 PM

Before switch over in the Stoke on Trent area I used to get lvl 10 signal strength with two TVs connected on one aerial now Iam only getting 6 sig strength so the signal is definately a lot weaker.

This seams to cause the Digi boxes not to tune in as required especially the BBC channels.

If other people have more than one TV connected together I would suggest removing even the aerial wire to the other TV as the signal strength is not "more" as they lead us to believe. (It is a lot weaker and fluctuating in quality).

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Neil's 10 posts GB flag
S
Sid
4:08 PM

John Townson:

Kidderminster Transmitter which serves Bewdley/Stourport etc is classed as FREEVIEW LITE. This means it only has two multiplexes plus the HD One. These are 49/58/and 54 (HD).

Regards

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Sid's 1 post GB flag
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