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Full Freeview on the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps55.861,-3.874 or 55°51'40"N 3°52'27"Wsa_postcodeML7 4NZ

 

The symbol shows the location of the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmitter which serves 940,000 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 Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) mast?

Black Hill transmitter - Black Hill 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 Black 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
 H max
C46 (674.0MHz)576mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Scotland, 2 BBC Two Scotland, 7 BBC Alba HD, 23 BBC Three, 24 BBC Four (Scotland SD), 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 13 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C43 (650.0MHz)576mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 STV (SD) (STV Central (Glasgow micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Scotland ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Scotland ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (STV Edinburgh), 35 STV+1 (STV Edinburgh),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C40 (626.0MHz)576mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Scotland, 102 BBC Two HD Scotland, 103 ITV 1 HD (STV West), 103 STV HD (STV West), 104 Channel 4 HD Scotland ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 108 BBC Scotland HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H max
C41+ (634.2MHz)576mDTG-8100,000W
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
C44 (658.0MHz)576mDTG-8100,000W
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
C47 (682.0MHz)576mDTG-8100,000W
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

LG
 H -13dB
C30 (546.0MHz)576mDTG-125,000W
Channel icons
from 2nd June 2014: 8 STV Glasgow,

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 Black Hill transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 26km west (271°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.
regional news image
STV News 1.3m homes 4.8%
from Glasgow G51 1PQ, 26km west (271°)
to STV Central (Glasgow) region - 94 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

Ardtornish ATransposer22 km NW Oban15 homes
BalquhidderTransposer12 km NW Callander42 homes
Benmore BActive deflector50 m WNW Glasgow7 homes
Blair DrummondTransposer5 homes caravan park
Blyth BridgeActive deflector30 km SW Edinburgh50 homes
GlendaruelActive deflector40 hotel40 homes hotel
Glendaruel BActive deflector12 homes (second level)

How will the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?

1957-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-133 Oct 2018
VHFB E TB E TB E TE TW T
C10ITVwaves
C30_local
C32com7
C35com8
C37C5wavesC5waves
C40BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCB
C41+SDNSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C44ArqAArqA
C46BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C47ArqBArqB
C50tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C51tv_offLG
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_off_localCOM8tv_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 8 Jun 11 and 22 Jun 11.

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

Analogue 1-5 500kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
com7(-10.7dB) 42.9kW
com8(-11.1dB) 39.2kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-14dB) 20kW
LG(-20dB) 5kW

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

Aug 1957-Jun 1997Scottish Television
Jun 1997-Dec 2014STV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Comments
Monday, 1 June 2020
D
Dylan
9:17 PM

I'm having some problems with Coms 7 and 8 at KA6 area. Can confirm atleast two different houses are missing all channels on those frequencies. I suspect this may be due to the higher than normal temperature right now. One households aerial is on the roof, the other in the loft. Loft one may not be optimally directed, but is good enough to pick up all other channels.

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Dylan's 1 post GB flag
Tuesday, 2 June 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:36 AM

Dylan:

There has been some Tropospheric Ducting around affecting different parts of the UK at different times throughout the last few days and this may have been the cause of your issues. On the other hand, the Black Hill transmitter was listed last week for Planned Engineering with "Possible service interruptions" that work might still be ongoing even though the transmitter isn't listed this week!

But furthermore, coverage from Black Hill is very patchy is significant parts of the KA6 area and we'd need a Full postcode to see what the Freeveiw Detailed Coverage checker was giving for predicted reception at your location. Other multiplexes may seem ok but COMs 7&8 might not be predicted to be good.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Monday, 22 June 2020
M
Margaret Murphy
12:47 PM

My television is not finding any channels, it was ok yesterday. Telling me to check antenna?? Have only got socket on wall with Blackhill transmission, can anyone tell me how to fix ?

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Margaret Murphy's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:45 PM

Margaret Murphy:

Firstly don't retune under no signal conditions, it just clears all correct tuning.
Unfortunately the transmitter is currently listed for Planned Engineering with "Possible service Interruptions" so you will experience loss of signals maybe a few times.

The signals will return at various stages during the maintenance. IF you retuned when you had no signal, you will have to retune again once the signals have returned. You may have to do this several times if you don't get all channels back the first time, as all the multiplexes may not be back on at the same moment.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Sunday, 28 June 2020
R
Rupert
11:16 AM
Balerno

"Which Freeview channels does the Black Hill transmitter broadcast?"

This list is not up-to-date, e.g. the local LG mux broadcasts on C30 (456 MHz) not C51.

When some of the site is maintained it is confusing not to maintain all of it.

link to this comment
Rupert's 7 posts GB flag
Rupert's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:03 PM

Rupert:

As per my post Sunday, 10 May 2020 on the previous page (83) of this transmitter section (but with COM8 omitted because of closure) -
Listing the correct UHF multiplex channels for Black Hill in the order PSB1-3, COMs4-7, Local -
They are C46, C43, C40, C41, C44, C47, C55, C30 (C meaning UHF channel).

I haven't checked every miniscule detail on this site, but AFAIK none of it is currently being maintained by the site owner who hasn't had time with all the changes resulting from the 700MHz clearance programme and broadcaster changes moving multiplexes etc. Even Engineering updates do not always appear, as the previous automated scanning of the BBC information doesn't work correctly due to changes on the BBC site, which made it even more difficult than before to obtain transmitter information manually. I for one have criticised the BBC, as have others, for this ridiculous change.

Updates to information are provided by the regular contributors in posts here usually in response to queries from posters, but sometimes when there are major changes. As already advised Platform management | Freeview is the place to go for the latest "information" (usually) rather than a technical query or help with reception issues.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
R
Rupert
7:31 PM
Balerno

Chris.SE: Yes, Chris, I understand all that now. Thanks for responding.

There's lots of useful and interesting information on this site - I have referred to it on and off for years. It's a real pity it's not being maintained.

link to this comment
Rupert's 7 posts GB flag
Rupert's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:47 PM

Rupert:

I agree with you, it is a shame it's not being maintained, there's info here that you'd struggle to find anywhere else, if at all!

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 22 September 2020
M
Mary ann McFadyen
5:17 PM

I live in Arrochar and we have had No tv signal since Friday 18 th September

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Mary ann McFadyen's 2 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 23 September 2020
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:11 AM

Mary ann McFadyen:

You are highly unlike to receive signals from the Black Hill transmitter in Arrochar but more likely from the Arrochar relay transmitter, however without a full postcode we can't confirm that.

That said, there has been some "Tropospheric Ducting" around causing interference, see Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | RTIS for a simplistic explanation.
It can be quite variable, come and go within seconds, minutes or hours. It has been particularly strong recently which can wipe out your reception.
The BBC have also reported that these conditions could have affected your reception on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

If you retuned when you had a loss of signals (this is never advised) then this usually just clears the correct tuning from your set, and this may be the reason you have no signals now.
Try a full retune again, now that signals should be more stable, and hopefully it will restore your programmes.
Post back with a full postcode if you still have problems.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
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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.

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