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Full Freeview on the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter which serves 270,000 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 Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) mast?

Ridge Hill transmitter - Ridge 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 Ridge 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
C28 (530.0MHz)363mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
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
C25 (506.0MHz)363mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
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
C22+ (482.2MHz)363mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 H -3dB
C21+ (474.2MHz)361mDTG-810,000W
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 -3dB
C24 (498.0MHz)366mDTG-810,000W
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 -3dB
C27 (522.0MHz)361mDTG-810,000W
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

PSB2
D3+4west
 H max
C29 (538.0MHz)352mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (West), 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 (West),

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 Ridge Hill transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 69km northeast (39°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 69km northeast (39°)
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?

WhittonTransposer35 km NW Hereford40 homes

How will the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1968-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-131 Mar 2018
VHFA K TA K TA K TW TW T
C6ITVwaves
C21+SDNSDN
C22BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCBBBCB
C24ArqAArqA
C25ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C27ArqBArqB
C28BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C29D3+4
C30_local
C32C4wavesC4wavesC4wavescom7
C34com8
C35C5wavesC5waves
C51tv_off_local_local
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_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 6 Apr 11 and 20 Apr 11.

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

Analogue 1-5 100kW
BBCA, D3+4, PSB2 iw, BBCB(-7dB) 20kW
com7(-9.8dB) 10.5kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 10kW
com8(-10.1dB) 9.8kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-17dB) 2kW

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

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Radiation patterns withheld

Comments
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
M
Mike
5:43 PM
Cheltenham

I live in Cheltenham and at present seem only able to get ITV Central evening news rather than ITV West. I checked for the Ridgehill ITV HTV transmitter and that seems even after April 20 to offer a weak transmission.

How after April 20 will Cheltenham viewers be able to see ITV West?

link to this comment
Mike's 1 post GB flag
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 13 January 2011
C
Chris Jefferies
1:35 PM

If you live in North Gloucestershire and are fed up with seeing no local news from BBC Midlands then please complain to the BBC at gloucestershire@bbc.co.uk. For several years this area has been covered by both ITV West and BBC West but only ITV West will be transmitted from Ridge Hill after DSO in April. If enough people complain perhaps the BBC will do something!


link to this comment
Chris Jefferies's 18 posts GB flag
T
Tony Wells
10:26 PM

I live in Cheltenham with my antenna pointing towards Ridge Hill and I can't get ITV or Channel Four channels had this problem since yesterday (12/01/11).

BBC works okay but the signal is weak with a lot of interference.

Any reports of any problems..?

link to this comment
Tony Wells's 1 post GB flag
Friday, 14 January 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:41 AM

Tony Wells: No, there are no problems reported. Please can you see Freeview reception has changed? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Saturday, 15 January 2011
DaveCheltenham
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:06 AM
Blakeney

Tony - I had the same problem about 3 weeks ago on the same multiplex; it lasted about 2 days. Looked for any Tx problems but none reported so put it down to some fairly local interference. I live in the Old Bath Road area.

Regards


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DaveCheltenham's 35 posts GB flag
DaveCheltenham's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
B
Bagpuss
6:12 PM

Seems to be a widespread issue on MUX2 (ITV1, C4 et al), Ridge Hill transmitter, mostly daytime/early evening and then settles down. Loss of quality, not strength - 2 decoders here fail to pull anything, the third works but with intermittent pixellation.

It's not an issue on anyone's particular installation since it spreads across Worcestershire (where I am) into Gloucestershire (where the poster above is) and affects other people I know. No work is reported that I can see, but there's clearly something afoot... I presume DSO-related but simply not being mentioned?

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Bagpuss's 2 posts GB flag
Monday, 17 January 2011
DaveCheltenham
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:20 AM
Blakeney

Briantist - I have been reliant on Ridge Hill for 21 years now and used to be one of the feedbacks to the control centre at Emily Moor for ITV and Evesham for BBC. The performance record over the years for analogue has been appalling with one fault, (black line flashing) on ITV lasting for 18 months. After a lot of complaints, they eventually traced it to one of the 2 microwave links between Bristol and Ridge Hill; the other hop being from Abingdon to Bristol. Part of the problem was the central monitoring equipment did not show the subtle/intermittent faults.

Channel 4 also had problems with sound hum and this was eventually traced to on one of the receivers, as it relayed Sutton Coldfield. This lasted for about 3 months. The BBC reserve receivers were pointing to Mendip so at a time of high pressure, the local midlands news could flip over to BBC West from Bristol.

The other thing about analogue Ridge Hill was that changeover to the reserve transmitter gave about a 30 second break. My neighbour who worked for EMI was part of the design and build team for the original UHF aerials at Ridge Hill but that is another story.

Early digital transmissions from Ridge Hill did not go well. They started at 5kW for the BBC but later reduced to 2kW much to the anger of viewers who could not receive the transmissions at the reduced power or had to upgrade their aerial.

As from the 6th/20th April with the new transmitters, let's hope all the problems are in the past; we shall see.

Regards


link to this comment
DaveCheltenham's 35 posts GB flag
DaveCheltenham's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

9:25 AM

DaveCheltenham: I'm sure everything will be fine by 20th April.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
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