menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Freeview

 

 

Click to see updates

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

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"Wsa_postcodeB75 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 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
_______

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
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

9:27 AM

SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - Over the next week Sutton Coldfield main transmitter: TV (digital) Liable to interruption, Radio (analogue) Possible weak signal, Radio (digital) Possible weak signal. [DUK]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
D
David Pound
9:07 PM
Daventry

I have an HD TV with built in Freeview, and a Panasonic HDD recorder. I get good reception and I understand that my transmitter is Sutton Coldfield (I get Midlands Today on BBC1). But I cannot get any HD programmes. Ch 50 and 54 do not come up on the "Guide" on the Recorder nor when I try to enter them with the TV alone. How can I get these channels?
I should add that I am at present getting messages about a re-tune needed tomorrow (9 May) which seems to refer to Sandy Heath.

link to this comment
David Pound's 4 posts GB flag
David's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:54 PM

David Pound: Are you sure that the TV in question is not an "HD ready" device? as if it is than cannot receive HD transmissions, if you have the manual for the set have a look in the specifications section / tuner and check if you see either DVB-T or DVB-T2 mentioned, as if its the former it cannot receive HD, if though you do not have the manual then if you provide the model number of the TV this can be checked out.

The re-tune message for tomorrow is because SDN is moving from ch31 to ch51 and increasing in power to 170kw, other than that nothing else is changing.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
D
David Pound
8:20 AM
Daventry

Thank you jb38. The TV (Hitachi 19LD4550U) does indeed say "HD Ready". My my understanding of that phrase is that it means the set is capable of receiving HD when that becomes available. That was certainly one reason I bought it. If it doesn't mean that, what does it mean?
I cannot see any mention of either DVB-T or DVB-T2 in the instruction manual. It does however have an HDMI input socket.

link to this comment
David Pound's 4 posts GB flag
David's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 12 May 2012
Sunday, 13 May 2012
D
David Pound
9:59 AM
Daventry

"It DOES NOT mean that the set can pick up Freeview HD, Freesat HD, Sky HD or Virgin Media HD without a set-top box."

Quite so. But the TV DOES have a box - or rather it has a built in Freeview box. So why can I not get the HD chanells?




link to this comment
David Pound's 4 posts GB flag
David's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:06 AM

David Pound: Its simply because that the tuner fitted in HD Ready TV's is only capable of receiving DVB-T coded transmissions and doesn't recognise anything other than type of signal, whereas tuners in genuine HD receivers are capable of recognising DVB-T2 transmissions as well as DVB-T, the "T2" being the thing that differentiates between the two.

I, right from the start, have always disagreed with trading standards allowing "HD Ready" to be used on TV's that can only display a Hi-def image via an external source as this misleading statement was guaranteed to cause problems, which of course it did at the time and still does.

By the way, its because that a DVB-T2 transmission is in effect invisible to a DVB-T tuner that a "no signal" indication is always seen on any attempt to manually tune in an HD mux.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
D
David Pound
10:18 PM
Daventry

Thank you jb38. That answers my questions perfectly - and confirms that I bought a pup! Unfortunately too long ago to do anything about it now. And I quite agree with you that most sensible people (which obviously doesn't include Trading Standards) would regard this as a breach of the Trades Description Act. But Hey, we're only the customers!

link to this comment
David Pound's 4 posts GB flag
David's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 20 May 2012
M
MJ
9:07 AM
Birmingham

Anyone else in the Erdington area lost multiplex 2 (ITV1 Channel4, Channel5..) recently ?
Suddenly found reception was poor on these the other night - have retuned TV (built in Freeview) and they have now disappeared completely.....


link to this comment
MJ's 2 posts GB flag
MJ's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:49 AM

MJ: As you are located at only about 5 miles away from the transmitter you have always to beware of the fact that your TV could be receiving a signal that on the verges of being excessively high and that the ITV mux could actually have peaked over it, so try a test by taking the aerial out and using a short piece of wire (about 12") pushed into the inner part of the aerial socket and then carry out another re-tune on the TV giving an update on results, as if it works OK then you will have to insert an attenuator in line with the aerial socket.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Select more comments

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.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.








Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.