Full Freeview on the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.997,-2.540 or 51°59'49"N 2°32'25"W |  | HR8 2PG |
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 22/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
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.
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?
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 69km northeast (39°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
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?
| Whitton | Transposer | 35 km NW Hereford | 40 homes |
How will the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1968-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 1 Mar 2018 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | A K T | A K T | W T | W T | ||||
| C6 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C21 | +SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C22 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C24 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C25 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C27 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C28 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C29 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C30 | _local | ||||||||
| C32 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | com7 | |||||
| C34 | com8 | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C51tv_off | _local | _local | |||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_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
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldTuesday, 3 May 2011
M
Mike Dimmick7:16 PM
John Haigh: The six multiplexes are divided into 'public service broadcasting', those which are allocated by law to the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, S4C and Channel 5 (plus the one the BBC won in the beauty contest in 2002) and those which are run as purely commercial enterprises. The PSB multiplexes are formally known as Multiplex 1, 2 and B, and they are required to match previous (predicted, high-standard) analogue coverage - they are also known as BBC A, D3&4, and BBC B/HD after their operators (and purpose). The COM multiplexes are formally known as Multiplex A, C and D and are alternatively known as SDN, Arqiva A and Arqiva B. They are *not* required to match analogue coverage but are given as good an allocation of channel and power level as can be achieved without interfering with something else. Unlike the PSBs, they are also not required to transmit from all the pre-switchover relay sites, or any of the new fill-in relays.
So, to match (perfect) analogue coverage, Ridge Hill's PSB multiplexes transmit at 20 kW, while to reduce interference at other sites, the COM multiplexes only transmit at 10 kW.
Originally the public service multiplexes were 1, 2 and A, with A being allocated to whoever bid out of S4C, Channel 5, or a joint venture of the two, being required to carry both channels - S4C won this bid (SDN stands for S4C Digital Networks). 1 is allocated to the BBC in its Royal Charter. 2 was required to be run by a joint venture of Channel 3 Companies (50% between them) and Channel 4 (the other 50%). Multiplexes B, C and D were then auctioned, with the original 1998 winner being onDigital. When ITV Digital went under in 2002, the BBC and CCI's joint bid for these three multiplexes was accepted, the BBC getting Mux B and CCI getting C and D. CCI, the privatized BBC Engineering transmitter arm, has ended up through takeovers and mergers with Arqiva, originally the transmitter arm of the IBA.
Despite the legal nature of Mux B being very different from Mux 1, it is now treated as a public service multiplex. Ofcom stole it for HD services. S4C sold Mux A to ITV plc in 2005, which required Ofcom to mandate that ITV and Channel 4 make space on D3&4 for S4C in Wales and Channel 5 throughout the UK. That meant moving some of their other services, and ITV chose to move ITV3 to Mux A/SDN and ITV4 to Mux D/ArqB, with E4 moving to a commercial multiplex in Wales.
The PSB multiplexes have always had the best frequencies, originally in the order 1/2/A/B/C/D from best to worst. At switchover, where possible (i.e. where not using a channel that is being cleared for something else entirely, like mobile phones) they have taken over three of the originally-planned four analogue frequencies - a plan that was pretty good for about 40 years. The three commercial multiplexes have either got adjacent allocations - analogue transmissions couldn't be adjacent to one another, but digital allegedly has fewer problems - or have ended up somewhere else entirely.
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Wednesday, 4 May 2011
J
John Haigh11:31 AM
To which learned explanation, I can only respond, "Wow"!
Thanks for going to so much trouble to increase my understanding.
I had some success with a signal booster last night (the first time in my experience that one of these has actually made any difference) so am going to monitor this over the next few days to see whether it's worth buying one for each tv.
All the best.
John
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Friday, 6 May 2011
D
David7:06 PM
My prob is this. With an analogue tv set in bedroom and kitchen i was getting good colour pics just using the built-in loop aerial. now with freeview and set top box but still with loop aerial it is useless. only a few channels and breaks up often on sky news channel. i thought with increased power i should be able to receive all freeview channels although im using a small indoor loop. why should we be forced into buying and fitting external aerial for 'portable' tv's.
its a joke. and Im line of site of ridge hill. well i can see the red lights in the distance although im near the black mountains.
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David: Sorry, but Freeview reception requires a rooftop aerial for reliable reception.
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Sunday, 8 May 2011
S
Simon E8:16 PM
Gloucester
Hello and thanks in advance for any assistance.
My postcode is GL3 1NX. Previous to the recent digital switch over we had a rooftop aerial and a Philex 4 Way TV Aerial Booster in the loft. This provided Freeview digital tv to: two rooms with built-in Freeview tv and pvr, one room with a tv and digibox, and one room with an anologue tv (now obviously redundant. We lost a few channels and got 'blocky' interference, but after a heavy thunderstorm in the last few days many channels have gone and the picture quality is terrible. I have checked the aerial which is still intact and pointing to Ridge Hill as before. Oddly when I removed the booster (which appears to be operating - power light on) the connected the nearest TV directly to the roof aerial, the channel scan picked up everything. My question is, can the recent change in digital transmissions have made the booster redundant? Given my distance from the transmitter, can I split the signal through a passive 3-way splitter?
Many thanks
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Simon's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick10:09 PM
Simon E: Yes, too much signal is certainly a possibility. Overloading an amplifier or tuner with too much input causes distorted signals. It could be that there's too much signal going into the amplifier, or that the amplified signal is too big (after splitting) for the TVs.
Whether you can use a passive splitter depends on how much signal you get from the aerial alone.
I'd start by turning down the amplifier, if that's possible. If not, get a passive splitter, and if that breaks up too much, get a small adjustable one-channel amplifier to put in front of the splitter.
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Monday, 9 May 2011
D
David1:17 PM
Hi there I live in cheltenham and I noticed since about the 6th may 2011 missing block of channels itv3 five usa five star etc wondered if they have dropped signal strength also noticed have extra itv1 station as well as itv and itv plus 1 all other channels I receive are at full strength on my indicator screen on freeview have you ideas on problem
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S
Simon E1:48 PM
@Mike Dimmick - thank you so much for your helpful advice. I got out the soldering iron and turned the amplifying splitter into a passive one. Now all three tv's and digi-boxes / recorders are working fine - no stuttering or blocks. The only exception is the Thomson DHD-4000 which has lost a few channels. However, from reading online, this machine appears to be not fully compatible with the switch-over. Overall, great result. Thanks!
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J
john2:09 PM
Cheltenham
I have 2 TV's both with built in Freeview both running of the same rooftop aerial.
Before the "switchover" both TV's could receive all freeview channels with very good pictures and sound, since the switchover one TV gets good quality freeview channels while the other TV is usless with all the Freeview channles being unwatchable with freezing pictures and sound that is unrecognisable.
Postcode GL51 9RQ
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john's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick2:58 PM
john: Usually this indicates too much signal. Is the non-working set closer to the aerial?
It's also possible that the non-working set has decided to tune into fringe reception of The Wrekin/Bromsgrove/Lark Stoke, which use lower frequencies for the BBC and D3&4 multiplexes than Ridge Hill does. Check that it's using C28 and C25 rather than C26 and C23. If not, delete the incorrect channels and manually tune in the correct ones. See also Digital Region Overlap for more information.
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