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Full Freeview on the Kilvey Hill (Swansea, Wales) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.629,-3.920 or 51°37'45"N 3°55'12"Wsa_postcodeSA1 7BL

 

The symbol shows the location of the Kilvey Hill (Swansea, Wales) transmitter which serves 120,000 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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Kilvey Hill (Swansea, Wales) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Kilvey Hill 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
 V max
C21 (474.0MHz)243mDTG-2,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Wales, 2 BBC Two Wales, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 14 others

PSB2
D3+4
 V max
C24 (498.0MHz)243mDTG-2,000W
Channel icons
5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Wales),

PSB3
BBCB
 V max
C27 (522.0MHz)243mDTG-2,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Wales, 102 BBC Two HD Wales, 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 110 Channel 4 HD (Wales), 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 V max
C25 (506.0MHz)243mDTG-82,000W
Channel icons
 E4 (Wales), 20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 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
 V max
C22 (482.0MHz)243mDTG-82,000W
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
 V max
C28 (530.0MHz)243mDTG-82,000W
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

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

The Kilvey Hill (Swansea, Wales) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .

If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Kilvey Hill transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Wales Today 1.2m homes 4.7%
from Cardiff CF5 2YQ, 50km east-southeast (108°)
to BBC Wales region - 206 masts.
regional news image
ITV Cymru Wales 1.2m homes 4.7%
from Cardiff CF5 6XJ, 49km east-southeast (113°)
to ITV Wales region - 206 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

New Inn C/pTransposer8 km NE Tenby1 homes 100 caravans

How will the Kilvey Hill (Swansea, Wales) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20092009-1317 Jul 2019
VHFA K TA K TA K TA K TA K T
C2BBCtvwaves
C21BBCA
C22ArqAArqA
C23ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCA
C24D3+4
C25SDNSDN
C26BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesD3+4
C27BBCB
C28ArqBArqB
C29C4wavesC4wavesC4wavesBBCB
C30_local
C33BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C34_local
C35C5wavesC5waves

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 12 Aug 09 and 9 Sep 09.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-5 10kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 2kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux B*(-12.2dB) 600W
Mux A*(-15.2dB) 300W
Mux C*, Mux D*(-20dB) 100W

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Kilvey Hill transmitter area

Jan 1958-Jul 1968Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Harlech 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. Kilvey Hill 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?

Radiation patterns withheld

Comments
Sunday, 21 July 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:10 AM

John P:

Since the retune event on the 17th the UHF channels used at Kilvey Hill are 21, 22, 24, 25, 28 & 34 for the local mux. C27 is the HD(T2) mux. C37 is the local mux from Wenvoe.
I'm not familiar with your card & software, but based on the list you've posted, those are not all the correct channels.

Put your postcode into Digital UK - Coverage checker it will indicate predicted reception at your location. I assume you have a group A aerial set with vertical polarisation if Kilvey Hill is your intended transmitter, however with recent weather & propagation conditions, you could well be receiving channels from a number of other transmitters some of which might cause interference to channels you want. (You can of course use a Group K, T or Wideband aerial instead of Group A if you want!).

If you only want Kilvey Hill, you need to configure your system (however you do that) to receive
C21 (474Mhz) for BBCA, C24 (498Mhz) for D3&4, C25 (506Mhz) for SDN(COM4), C22 (482Mhz) for ArqA(COM5), C28 (530Mhz) for ArqB(COM6) & C34 (578Mhz) for the Local Mux. If your card will do HD (T2) then C27 (522Mhz) for BBCB (HD) mux.
Remember that C37 (602Mhz) is the Local mux from Wenvoe.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
R
regis
7:58 AM
Ilfracombe

Hi,

Since been asked to retune on the 17th I only seems to get 22 tv channels.

I leave in EX34 9AY and always got the tv vis Kilvey Hill. I am not able to touch teh aerial as I leave in a block of flat.

Any advice as how I can get all teh channels missing?

Thank you

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regis's 2 posts GB flag
regis's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:56 AM

regis:

Checking the expected reception at your l;ocation shows that you should be using the Ilfracombe Freeview Light transmitter, see Coverage Checker - Detailed View Reception fropm Kilvey Hill is shown as being very poor.

Please check what multiplex channel numbers you are receiving, Ilfracombe uses 33, 36 and 48. Kilvey Hill uses 21, 24, 27, 25, 22 and 28 but you are unlikely to get much in the way of reliable reception.

As Ilfracombe is a Freeview Light transmitter, you appear to be getting all the correct channels.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:06 PM

MikeP:

I wasn't going to post in response to regis as yours seemed to cover it until my brain registered "block of flats" as I was about to close the page. I suddenly thought that as you correctly mention Ilfracombe is a Light Transmitter this could well be a customised installation & distribution system to receive Kilvey Hill to give more choice, and if it's a channelised system that could be why less is being received. On the other had an automatic tune may have just picked up the strongest channels, it depends on which ones are missing.

regis:

I would unplug your aerial and do an automatic tune - this will clear the set of any previously stored channels. Then do a manual tune of UHF channels 33, 36, (&48 if you have HD) which would be Ilfracombe and give you your local Westcountry news, then UHF channels 25, 22 & 28 for COMs 4/5/6 which would be Kilvey Hill and are unlikely to give reliable reception BUT that would depend on your block of flats installation which you'd have to contact your landlord about if you continue to have issues - you'd need to do that anyway if it's the BBC and main ITV channels that you are missing. Which way is the aerial pointing and is it vertical or horizontal?

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
M
Michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:25 PM

Regis and all:
If you received Kilvey Hill before, it should still work on the new channels. A clean retune, as recommended by Chris, will delete redundent channels and select the new Kilvey Hill channels (21,22,24,25,27,28). If your aerial is vertical and points at KH, you might receive a better signal from Carmel (channels 21,22,24,25,27,28) with the aerial horizontal, but pointed roughly in the same direction. I can receive both KH and Carmel, the latter being more reliable, although both can be affected by the 7meter tidal range in the Bristol Channel. Note that the new Ilfracombe relay channels are now the same as three of the new Carmel channels, so, despite opposite polarisation, interference might result - as we had some years back :-( If you can receive Ilfracombe (aerial vertical) it only offers the three main multiplexes, not the full complement of six as from KH and Carmel, but it is good for Southwest news. For all the new channels, a wideband aerial would be the most reliable. A Group-A aerial would struggle with the Carmel Arqiva-B multiplex. If you are able to tune channels in *manually*, you can select the channels you want, with six multiplexes from Wales, possibly plus BBC and ITV Southwest from Ilfracombe. If you use the automatic tuning option, in its inscrutable wisdom it will probably select weaker channels... Fallback position : forget the Ilfracombe relay and manually select either KH or Carmel and get SW news via the internet. Hope this helps!

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Michael's 869 posts GB flag
Monday, 22 July 2019
J
John P
7:34 AM

Chris.SE: I have edited the config file in Kaffeine Kaffeine - LinuxTVWiki and still cannot receive BBC4 SD (My computer card is not an HD card ) I have no trouble on either of my TVs after retuning. I have 95 channels which is quite a few less than my TV has found. Does it make a difference if I scan when BBC4 is not broadcasting ? Here is my current config file :

[dvb-t/uk-KilveyHill]
T 474000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 482000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 498000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 506000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 530000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 578000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 602000000 8mHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE

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John P's 1 post GB flag
N
nobody
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

11:33 AM

John P: "Does it make a difference if I scan when BBC4 is not broadcasting ?" Very likely you'll get CBeebies during the day instead.

I think this is correct:

[dvb-t/uk-KilveyHill]

T 474000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE /ch 21 BBC A
T 482000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE /ch 22 ARQ A
T 498000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE /ch 24 D3&4
T 506000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE /ch 25 SDN
T 530000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE /ch 28 ARQ B
T 578000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QPSK 8k 1/32 NONE /ch 34 Kilvey Hill (Local Mux)
T 522000000 8 MHz 2/3 NONE QAM256 8k 1/32 NONE /ch 27 BBC B HD

See Coverage Checker - Detailed View

If you hover the cursor over the UHF Channel number 'N" a pop-up window displays the transmission parameters for the multiplex.


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nobody's 47 posts SE flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:10 PM

John P: & nobody:

John, as nobody says, you might get CBeebies, but during the day the LCN is normally populated with a data stream and I'm afraid I haven't a clue how you card handles them but I guess nobody may know ;)
My only experience with a "box" that didn't handle such streams was that is ignored/failed to find the LCN. (IIRC I had to do an "add" channels when it was broadcasting - that method doesn't work/not available on all devices).

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
P
Preece J
7:58 PM

Thank you. Could someone tell me what is the significance of the 2/3 or 3/4 as I had some of these different in my config file and they seem to work OK

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Preece J's 4 posts GB flag
R
regis
8:33 PM

HI,

Thank you for all your comment, unfortunately I cannot do a manual scan as I use a bt box (humax) and it does not have the facility.

I seems to have try everything , factory reset the box and all but still only 43 channels showing (14 of are actually radio)

I am not over technical like some of the comments you mentioned so may have to try to see if I can get someone to look inot it.

Cheers for all your answers and help

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regis's 2 posts GB flag
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