Full Freeview on the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 50.676,-1.369 or 50°40'35"N 1°22'7"W |  | PO30 4HT |
The symbol shows the location of the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter which serves 620,000 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 Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) mast?
Rowridge transmitter - Rowridge transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 22/04/2024 Screen may go black 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
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Rowridge 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
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 Rowridge transmitter?
BBC South Today 1.3m homes 4.9%
from Southampton SO14 7PU, 26km north (354°)
to BBC South region - 39 masts.
ITV Meridian News 0.9m homes 3.6%
from Whiteley PO15 7AD, 24km north-northeast (20°)
to ITV Meridian (South Coast) region - 39 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford
Are there any self-help relays?
| Portsmouth Docks | Transposer | 2 km N city centre | 50 homes Estimate. Group of houses' |
How will the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1950s-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 2 May 2018 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | A K T | A K T | A K T | W T | ||||
| C3 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C21 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C22 | +ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C24 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C25 | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C27 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C28 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C29 | LSO | ||||||||
| C31 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | com7 | |||||
| C37 | com8 | ||||||||
| 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 7 Mar 12 and 21 Mar 12.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 500kW | |
| PSB1||, PSB1≡, PSB2||, PSB2≡, PSB3||, PSB3≡ | (-4dB) 200kW | |
| COM4≡, COM4||, COM5≡, COM5||, COM6≡, COM6|| | (-10dB) 50kW | |
| com7≡ | (-13.1dB) 24.4kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-14dB) 20kW | |
| com8≡ | (-14.3dB) 18.4kW | |
| LSO≡ | (-17dB) 10kW |
Local transmitter maps
Rowridge Freeview Rowridge DAB Rowridge TV region BBC South Meridian (South Coast micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Rowridge transmitter area
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Sunday, 18 March 2012
K
Kim V 9:11 AM
hello, thank for you reply. I am using the Rowridge transmitter, from your map above, my location is in the bright green area. It used to be fine before switchover. How could I check what the box is seeing?
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D
Derek Green11:07 PM
Hi Kim V,
I am in Canford Cliffs and have had problems since the first change made on 7 March. The BBC channels all have had problems, however, unusually part of this is for another reason. There has been a high pressure zone over Northern France around this time that has caused co-channel interference and break up/pixellation on BBC channels. Although theoretically I should always have had a reasonable signal, I have always had to have 3 boosters in a chain to get Freeview reception from Rowridge. The BBC changes and the weather situation caused me additional headaches, like you.
I think you should try a "factory reset" on your TV and also your TopUp box. Then try a re-scan of the Freeview channels. You should be able to find how to do the reset in manuals for the TV and box. This reset will take your equipment back to the situation when you first unpacked them from their boxes. I think you will get back a lot of your missing channels. I did. The weather situation is changing, with the troublesome high pressure zone becoming more diffuse. (You will get interference from French digital channels that use the same frequencies but only when the high pressure is south of our coast.)
You should perform the factory reset again on March 21 and another rescan for stations.
Let us know how you get on, please?
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Monday, 19 March 2012
S
Stevem11:37 AM
Derek
I live on Canford Heath as well and have the same boosters and seen the same co-channel interferece as you. Prior to the 7th March, BBC channels were stable but ITV, Channel 4 etc were often poor, presumably because of their low power. Indeed on the morning of 7th March it took two tunings to find ITV etc.
Analogue ITV used to be poor but lately it has been very good and a suitable alternative for when digital was unwatchable. I hope the boost to 50kW on Wednesday solves the problem, but it is a shame that the change of BBC channels is now subject to interference.
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D
Derek Green5:00 PM
Stevem
I think Canford Heath is further inland than where I am, Canford Cliffs? People have often been surprised that we are almost within sight of the IOW but our road has notoriously bad reception from Rowridge.
I agree it is bad that the BBC multiplex seems now to be the one that suffers from French station interference.
I am contemplating trying to remove one or more boosters after Wednesday. Like you, I hope the power boost will be enough to minimise co-channel interference. I have FreeSat in our main viewing room, so I am luckily not too dependant upon Freeview. However, some rooms have Freeview standalone sets and not FreeSat.
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D
Derek Green5:11 PM
I wasn't aware until I re-read the switchover details that the Rowridge transmitter will be unusual in that it will transmit the boosted power Freeview transmissions with both Vertical and Horizontal polarisation. It would have been nice to know about that from BBC/ITV etc i.e Freeview authorities. This means that all of us who have had problems might also try mounting our aerials with either horizontal or vertical orientated elements. This is new to me and I thought I was technically aware (ex BBC engineer! long time ago!).
So try removing boosters, and also try re-orientating your aerial elements (the metal bars) to be horizontal or vertical and check the signal strength on a few stations across the range. Do it after March 21st.
Question for Freeview authorities (won't read this?) is "Was this mixed polarisation designed to minimise French co-channel interference under high pressure weather zones over Northern France?"
I hope people are reading this. This post seems to be a long way down the Rowridge page!
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Derek Green: Can you not get a more reliable signal from the Poole relay?
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S
Stevem5:19 PM
Derek
I misread your location but was fascinated that your situation was the same as mine.
I found a site that is a mine of information including this:
Post switchover Rowridge will (uniquely) be transmitting in vertical as well as horizontal polarity in order to lessen the chances of co-channel interference. The aim is to give people the option to use either polarity and therefore take advantage of cross polar rejection to help reject the unwanted transmissions.
The site is Rowridge Transmitter and much of the technical stuff will make more sense to you than it does to me.
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Derek Green: The vertical element of the COMs will only be introduced on 18th April when they change channels and when their ERP is increased.
The vertical element of the PSBs' signals has been introduced at switchover.
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K
Kim V 5:27 PM
hello Derek and Steve,
thank you very much for your input, that is very helpful. I tried the 'reset' several times to no avail, until I decided to unplug everything, and reconnect later. I tuned the tv on its own, and it worked (albeit not all the channels available before switchover). Retuned the DTR box. At least the two items are now talking to each other. My Bbc channels remain jerky, pixelating etc. Maybe high pressure has something to do with it. I too, find the change to vertical polarisation fascinating. Potential reception trouble? (50.6760,-2.2297)
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Kim V: Confirm that the jerky BBC channels are coming in on channel 24 and not 46 which is Winterborne Stickland or even 61 which is Mendip.
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