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Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.324,0.520 or 51°19'25"N 0°31'13"Esa_postcodeME5 9RD

 

The symbol shows the location of the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter which serves 200,000 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 Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) mast?

Bluebell Hill transmitter - Bluebell 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
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Which Freeview channels does the Bluebell 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
C32 (562.0MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South East, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 16 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C34 (578.0MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (East micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) South ads, 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 (Meridian south coast),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C45+ (666.2MHz)242mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South East, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South 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
C40 (626.0MHz)242mDTG-820,000W
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
C43+ (650.2MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
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
C46 (674.0MHz)245mDTG-820,000W
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)

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

regional news image
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 28km southwest (218°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
regional news image
ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 5km south-southeast (155°)
to ITV Meridian (East) region - 36 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford

How will the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20122012-1319 Jul 2018
EEEW TW T
C21_local
C28_local
C32com7
C34com8
C39+ArqA
C40BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCBSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4ArqA
C45SDNBBCB
C46BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCAArqB
C54tv_offArqB
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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 13 Jun 12 and 27 Jun 12.

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

Analogue 1-4 30kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-1.8dB) 20kW
com8(-7.8dB) 5kW
com7(-8.1dB) 4.7kW
Mux 1*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-10dB) 3kW
Mux 2*, Mux A*(-11.8dB) 2kW

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

Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Thames†
Jul 1968-Dec 1981London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Meridian
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. Bluebell 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.

Comments
Sunday, 15 July 2012
C
carl
9:13 AM

Hi guys I'm up north in what the granada tv land , bbc northwest , if anyone ever wonderd what happened to gordon burns from the krypton factor he is alive and well doing northwest tonight (bbc) and fred the weather man from this morning he is the main weather man for grandad tonight(itv) lol , however when we had the switch over here many years ago I am in a straight line to the north wests storeton transmitter about 1 mile which has now got an added mux for northwales to relay welsh itv bbc s4c over the dee to cover welsh blackspots , as where I am we are in a granada/wales over lap , here's one for you , I am in a granda add wales overlap and all my bbc and itv keeps on defaulting to yorkshire which is many many miles away that the itv region east of granada and I'm on granadas far west , I am on a hill with a high building and huge ariael but the transmitter 1 mile from me is totaly ignored like its not there , the digital people are totaly bamboozled by this and I here of people in southport and blackpool getting a lot signal coming from northern ireland , iyts crazy lol

link to this comment
carl's 1 post GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:51 PM

carl: This is a sure annoyance of the design of some receivers that retune as they see fit. See if there is an option to disable this "function". If not, then maybe you can attenuate all signals (which will bring down all their levels) in the hope that Storeton Granada will continue to be the highest and therefore chosen.

If you are receiving Yorkshire, then you must surely be getting it from Emley Moor which is horizontally polarised. Storeton Granada is vertically polarised, so it must be a strong signal if it keeps defaulting to it when it has opposite polarisation.

If the above doesn't resolve the issue, then Storeton Granada uses only Group A channels, so you could fit a Group A band pass filter which will only allow Group A channels.

Emley Moor is all Group B.

See Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 17 July 2012
J
Jon Harris
11:59 AM
Maidstone

ME17 3JN I have two televisions and last Thursday one of them suddenly stopped working say no signal and the autostore facility says there are no channels. The other television says weak signal and will pick up three channels intermittenly.
The aerial is in the loft.
Is there a problem with the transmitter or is it likely to be a problem with my aerial

link to this comment
Jon Harris's 1 post EU flag
Jon's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 21 July 2012
Steve Williams
6:46 AM
Colchester

Confused from Frating (near Clacton) Essex..... it always used to say my transmitter was Sudbury in the 'old' days, but now inputting postcode it says that BLUEBELL HILL is my ideal transmitter, is that right ? (it also goves Dover as an alternate too)

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Steve Williams's 13 posts EU flag
Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:33 AM

Steve Williams: I suspect thats an error, as Bluebell Hill most certainly does not indicate anything like that in DUK's trade predictor, you can see this for yourself by clicking on "Digital UK tradeview" in the four line selection seen on the right hand side of your posting, or in the undermentioned link.

Postcode Checker - Detailed View

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

1:15 PM

Jon Harris: Please see Freeview reception has changed? | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice .

I would suspect one of your aerial leads has been accidentally damaged.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:52 PM
Colchester

Briantist: Yes, I do realise that clicking on what you have mentioned gives a somewhat different indication, but I feel that what Steve Williams is possibly referring to is when his p/code is entered into the site settings box the result of this action has Bluebell Hill at the top of the three stations mentioned, rather than it being second from the top, the natural assumption being that the one listed at the top is the prime station.

As far as DUK's forecast is concerned, there is a horizontally running band of extremely poor reception that runs right through Colchester from just under Braiswick on its top side to just under Castle Park on the bottom, and I assume that's what DUK's predictions are based on when made with reference to the code given.

This strip can be seen on the map at the top of this page if Colchester is zoomed in on.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
jb38's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:56 PM

Briantist: And of course I forgot to clear the site settings box, hence I am in Colchester!

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

6:19 PM

jb38: Sorry, I should have said that the link I provided was to the map of the postcode that Steve Williams provided, as per the "map" link next to his post.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
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