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

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"W

B75 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 15/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C43 (650.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	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)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	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)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C42 (642.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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)	433m	DTG-12	10,000W
	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?

BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.

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)	Transposer	1 km W Burton-on-Trent	60 homes
Coalville	Transposer	18 km NW Leicester	600 homes
Solihull	Transposer	Land Rover building	400 homes

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

	1950s-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2011	2011-13	7 Mar 2018
	VHF	B E T	B E T	B E T	B E K T	W T
C4	BBCtv_waves
C33						com7
C35						com8
C36						LOCAL2
C39					+ArqB	ArqB
C40		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C42					SDN	SDN
C43		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C45					ArqA	ArqA
C46		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C48						_local
C50_{tv_off}		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves
C51_{tv_off}						LB
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_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

Local transmitter maps

Sutton Coldfield Freeview Sutton Coldfield DAB Sutton Coldfield AM/FM Sutton Coldfield TV region BBC West Midlands Central (West micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area

Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004	Central Independent Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:41 PM

mark holland: Quite possibly! as is listed on the "planned works" page for the week commencing 23/03/2015 as being subject to "possible service interruptions".

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

C

Carolyn Gardner
9:15 PM

TV is pixelating, checked and it is okay. Have switched everything off and on again, still the same. Have re scanned the as suggested and have now lost most of the channels we previously had including All ITV channels.
Are there problems with the ?
Please advise as soon as possible.
Thank you.
Carolyn

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Carolyn Gardner's 1 post GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:19 PM
Trowbridge

Carolyn Gardner

It does say at the top of this page that " - MainPossible service interruptions" which means there could well be loss of and poor recption until the maintenance work is completed. As you haven't given a post code we cannot be certain that you are receiving from Sutton Coldfield transmitter.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

MikeP's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:30 AM

- MainPossible service interruptions [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,632 posts xx flag

V

vicky peace
10:45 AM

hi my has gone on my since lastweek not happy! im wounder what is going on and when it will be fixed??? I know it cant be my as new please let mt know kids missing tv now.
thanks vicky

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vicky peace's 1 post GB flag

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:40 PM

vicky peace: Without having knowledge of your location, but if you receive from the then this is listed on this weeks page as being liable to suffer from "possible service interruptions", although any such interruptions to service are only of a very short term nature of up to an hour or so at the most, usually much less of under 5 minutes.

The point to note being, that "if" you carried out a retune your TV after having possibly found a blank screen, then this action will have deleted everything stored in the tuner, frequent retunes then being required in order to recover the .

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

K

Keith Miles
5:07 PM

jb38: We have been having problems all weekend with our ! Can you please advise how long we will continue to have breaking up and sound as it is occurring on all of our televisions that we have in our household? Date of this occurring began on 10.04.15 and it is still occurring today 12.04.15! Please respond as soon as possible as we also have lost several of our freeview eg: Channel 61 (true entertainment )

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Keith Miles's 1 post GB flag

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:02 PM

Keith Miles: Unfortunately, as work is also taking place on eight other transmitters in the Central as well as , its not really possible for anyone to estimate how long the work will take.

That said though, any work being carried out involving reductions rather than a straight cut to the service, is usually only for a short term period of maybe up to an hour or so at the most, that is unless some unforeseen snag has cropped up! which of course can happen.

Taking this into consideration as well as the fact of you having only experienced the problem with since the 10th when engineering work has been taking place since well before this date, it would therefore be prudent to eliminate any possibility of a defect having developed in your system, by (if possible) checking with others in your immediate vicinity, this being said on the assumption that although all TV's in your household are experiencing problems, that they are all connected into the same aerial system? possibly via a powered (or passive) splitter.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:31 AM

- MainPossible service interruptions [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,632 posts xx flag

K

kevin gardiner

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

4:25 PM

I performed my monthly channel re- to see or find any new tv or on . Today I performed a manual channel check, and I can re-veal that the COM8 HD MULTIPLEX from is on and in as of today. There are no test cards or on but there is a constant carrier. From this, we can conclude that there'll be an extra 6 HD channels coming our way sometime this year.

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kevin gardiner's 68 posts GB flag

Page 259

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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