menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Freeview

 

 

Click to see updates

Freeview Light on the Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps53.696,-2.444 or 53°41'47"N 2°26'37"Wsa_postcodeBB3 3SE

 

The symbol shows the location of the Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) transmitter which serves 15,000 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 Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
_______

Which Freeview channels does the Darwen 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
C45 (666.0MHz)312mDTG-100W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) North West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others

PSB2
D3+4
 V max
C39+ (618.2MHz)312mDTG-100W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Granada), 4 Channel 4 (SD) North ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 North ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Granada),

PSB3
BBCB
 V max
C42 (642.0MHz)312mDTG-100W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD North West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Granada), 104 Channel 4 HD North ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Are you trying to watch these 44 Freeview channels?

the effected channels
the effected channels
the effected channels
the effected channels

The Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, Dave, Dave ja vu, DMAX, Drama +1, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, GREAT! action, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, GREAT! romance, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, TCC, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, W, Yesterday +1.

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 Darwen transmitter?

regional news image
BBC North West Tonight 3.1m homes 11.8%
from Salford M50 2QH, 27km south-southeast (159°)
to BBC North West region - 92 masts.
regional news image
ITV Granada Reports 3.1m homes 11.6%
from Salford M50 2EQ, 27km south-southeast (159°)
to ITV Granada region - 80 masts.

How will the Darwen (Blackburn with Darwen, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20092009-1331 Mar 2018-
B E TB E TB E TB E TB E K T
C39BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves D3+4
C42C4wavesC4wavesC4wavesBBCBBBCB
C45BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C49tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves+D3+4

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 4 Nov 09 and 2 Dec 09.

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

Analogue 1-4 500W
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100W

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

May 1956-Jul 1968Granada Television†
May 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Granada 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. Darwen 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
Friday, 4 September 2020
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:28 AM

DARWEN transmitter - DAB: Reduced quality due to a fault from 13 Aug 23:42 until 13 Aug 23:52. . [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Thursday, 5 November 2020
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:34 PM

DARWEN transmitter - Freeview: Off the air due to essential engineering from 5 Nov 10:23 until 5 Nov 10:41. . [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Wednesday, 18 November 2020
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:44 AM

DARWEN transmitter - Freeview: Off the air due to essential engineering from 18 Nov 00:36 until 18 Nov 00:38. . [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Thursday, 10 December 2020
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:49 AM

DARWEN transmitter - DAB: Off the air due to a fault from 10 Dec 00:02 until 10 Dec 00:17. . [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Wednesday, 6 January 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:05 AM

DARWEN transmitter - Freeview: Off the air due to a fault from 5 Jan 23:14 until 5 Jan 23:16. . [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Friday, 8 January 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:54 AM

DARWEN transmitter - Freeview: Off the air due to a fault from 5 Jan 23:14 until 5 Jan 23:16. . DAB: Off the air due to a fault from 8 Jan 03:21 until 8 Jan 03:28. . [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Monday, 11 January 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:55 AM

DARWEN transmitter - DAB: Off the air due to a fault from 8 Jan 03:21 until 8 Jan 03:28. . [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Saturday, 11 December 2021
V
Vivien Hamilton
6:56 PM

Can you tell me if we will ever have full free view channels in bb32jx area. Many thanks

link to this comment
Vivien Hamilton's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:19 PM

Vivien Hamilton:

Well it depends on where you are within your postcode. The short answer is No - from the Darwen transmitter. But maybe some parts of your postcode that haven't got line of sight issues to Winter Hill (it's only 7km from you) ie. trees, hills or nearby buildings in the way, may get good enough signals.

The issue is essentially that it's not considered cost effective by the commercial operators to add the transmission equipment to relay transmitters that serve only small numbers of viewers (and that's assuming frequencies to transmit on are available without causing interference elsewhere).

As far as getting reliable signals from Winter Hill, you really need an extremely good aerial installer that knows the area well (preferably CAI approved) to advise/install a new aerial. Winter Hill is in the opposite direction to Darwen for you. Have a look at your near neighbours' aerials to see if any point the opposite way, this will give you an idea. Ask them how reliable reception is if they do, as predictions for the 3 main PSB multiplexes are not as good as from your relay (but still quite good).

See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which channels are carried on which multiplex. (The 3 PSBs are BBCA, D3&4, BBCB HD).
The other option to consider is Freesat. A lot of modern TVs have built-in satellite tuners, so all you need is the Dish and LNB.

Personally I wouldn't rush to change anything unless you are happy about the budget. COM7 (at all main transmitters that have it which includes Winter Hill) will close by end of June 2022 (it was only a temporary HD multiplex). Whether anything will change with other multiplexes as a consequence is totally unknown at present (there's speculation but nothing definite), there's currently no room on the other multiplexes for COM7's channels so you might want to wait and see.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Sunday, 23 October 2022
K
Karen Hughes
2:02 PM

We have no signal. It went off a while ago so I checked on Facebook and other people are reporting the same problem

link to this comment
Karen Hughes's 4 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.