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

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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
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
F
Farrah Day
7:58 PM

I'm sick and tired of getting poor reception with digital TV. Never had any problems with analogue, but since we've gone digital, we've suffered regular reception problems with MUX2.

I thought the recent total lack of signal on our main living room TV was due to work being undertaken on the Sutton Coldfield transmitter (we completely lost MUX2 signal nearly all day Monday). However, it now says there is no work being carried out and no faults... but we still keep losing reception on all channels on MUX2.

While this does not seem to be such a problem with the portable TVs in our bedrooms, even those pictures tend to stop and stutter on MUX2.

Had to watch the England match on a bloody 14" screen. Very dissatisfied with digital in general and the quality of MUX2 in particular.

And how bad is it that we are never told about work being carried out. You think the very least they could do would be to inform us about it via our TVs so we don't all start suspecting our equipment, looking for faults that don't exist - or worse still buying new aerials or equipment.

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Farrah Day's 6 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:19 PM

Farrah Day: I looked back at your previous postings to find that you are in Nuneaton and that The Wrekin is within a few degrees of Sutton Coldfield.

Have you confirmed that BBC One is tuned to Sutton Coldfield on C43 and not The Wrekin on C26? Likewise ITV1 should be C46 and not C23. HD services are C40 and not C30.

If you find that any of these are tuned to The Wrekin, run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged for the first 30% of the scan.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 13 June 2012
F
Farrah Day
12:53 PM

Thanks for that Dave, I'll check it out.

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Farrah Day's 6 posts GB flag
F
Farrah Day
1:14 PM

Would you believe it, Dave! Though BBC was good at C43, ITV was indeed tuned to C23. Did what you said and this time it automacially tuned to C43, so hopefully things are going to be better from now on. Signal strength and quality now both 100%, whereas before the quality was constantly fluctuating between 20 - 60%.

It never occurred to me that I had somehow tuned to a weaker signal on certain channels, because of cause it's all automatic. I guess the whole of MUX2 was coming from Wrekin.

All this time and suffering and it was such a simple fix!

Thanks again, Dave.

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Farrah Day's 6 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:33 PM

Farrah Day: That's how it goes sometimes; and afterwards you find that the solution was at your fingertips all along!

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Thursday, 21 June 2012
B
bored now
11:30 AM

For more than a week now HD signal levels have been unaceptable.
ranging between 58% and 64% WITH a 21dB amp
causing random break ups.

This is just ridiculous.

I'm starting to think we need to get a petition going to get the analogue service switched back on. At least it was vaguely reliable EVEN in bad weather.

Enough with the idiotic proliferation of so called "channels" with "new" series that were
broadcast 3 years ago on a different frequency.

This whole freeview service is becoming a sick joke.

As for C4 and its most "talked about" programs channel. I cant think of anything on C4 I'd want to watch in the first place much less talk about or want to watch again.

Once upon a time TV was about programs. You switched it on and watched.

Now you have to be an aerial rigger just to almost get a picture depending on whether there is an r in the month.

My MP needs to pull his finger out I'm thinking.




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bored now's 5 posts GB flag
Friday, 22 June 2012
J
JE
8:27 AM
Birmingham

Suddenly unable to get digital tv on Panasonic Viera tv. Normally able to initially see digital tv before than pressing AV button and switching to HDM1 for Sky. Today not even been able to switch get AV list up. Message says 'no channel found. Please check aerial or local signal availability. Press ok to start auto setup' which I did but did not change anything. Also, lost Bbc channels on sharp tv. However have these channels on Neon tv!

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JE's 1 post GB flag
JE's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 23 June 2012
K
kevin
11:18 PM
Nottingham

For the last 3 weeks or so i have lost all bbc channels (apart from HD) in NG5 4LH, my TV has inboard freeview and the signal is from Sutton Coldfield, the screen shows no or week signal any ideas

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kevin's 1 post GB flag
kevin's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 28 June 2012
I
IPG Derwent
11:37 AM
Warwick

My antenna serves a block of flats. It is directed at the Leamington Spa transmitter. I understand that this transmitter only delivers a 'light' service. Is this the reason why I only receive a small range of Freeview programmes? Should the antenna be turned towards either the Lark Stoke transmitter, or the one at Sutton Coldfield?

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IPG Derwent's 1 post GB flag
IPG's: mapI's Freeview map terrainI's terrain plot wavesI's frequency data I's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:13 PM

IPG Derwent: This is correct.

Unfortunately the UK now has a two-tier terrestrial transmitter network. It is likely that viewers will wish to receive from full service transmitters where possible.

Leamington Spa transmitter only carries the Public Service channels because the Commercial broadcasters don't wish to invest in it.

Looking on Streetview, there are buildings on the other side of Coventry Road receiving from Sutton Coldfield, and these are as high as yours, so it may be a possibility.

Obstructions such as buildings and trees can cause difficulty with reception. However, your chances could be increased by virtue of the fact that you are in a two-storey building.

Some aerials, particularly those installed in the days of four-channel analogue, only work with certain bands of frequencies (those frequencies that the designated transmitter uses/used). Should this be the case then a Leamington Spa aerial won't be suitable for Sutton Coldfield. If it is a wideband, then it will be suitable.

Recepion from Lark Stone would appear extremely unlikely, according to the Digital UK predictor.

I suppose that it will probably be down to your landlord to do something.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
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