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Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter which serves 1,870,000 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 Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) mast?

Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield 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 Sutton Coldfield 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
C43 (650.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
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
C46 (674.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
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
C40+ (626.2MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
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 max
C42 (642.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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
C45 (666.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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
C39+ (618.2MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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

LB
 H -13dB
C48 (690.0MHz)433mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 31st October 2014: 7 Big Centre TV,

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 Sutton Coldfield transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 15km south-southwest (201°)
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?

Burton (shobnall)Transposer1 km W Burton-on-Trent60 homes
CoalvilleTransposer18 km NW Leicester600 homes
SolihullTransposerLand Rover building400 homes

How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-137 Mar 2018
VHFB E TB E TB E TB E K TW T
C4BBCtvwaves
C33com7
C35com8
C36LOCAL2
C39+ArqBArqB
C40BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves+BBCBBBCB
C42SDNSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C45ArqAArqA
C46BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4
C48_local
C50tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C51tv_offLB
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 7 Sep 11 and 21 Sep 11.

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

Analogue 1-4 1000kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 200kW
com7(-10.5dB) 89.2kW
com8(-10.7dB) 86kW
LB(-20dB) 10kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-21dB) 8kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield 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. Sutton Coldfield 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
Thursday, 22 September 2011
D
Dan Walters
7:24 PM

Dave Adams: Hi Dave, no I am down by the Guarlford straight.

I have now done some more work on this. I can pick up all the HD channels if my aerial down cable is plugged directly into my HDTV. But if I connect via my freeview (non HD PVR) box loop through then I lose all HD channels. I was also losing some signal quality, breaking pictures etc, so I have replaced the cable from my freeview box loop through to the tv. This has cured the picture problems but still no HD channels.

I am now going to hold fire until I replace my aerial at the weekend. This was planned work anyway and if the problem is still there then I shall get a splitter and feed a cable directly to my TV and to my freeview (non HD) PVR.

Initially I shall also aim my new aerial installation at the Malvern repeater and check the results before re-aligning to Sutton Coldfield (if needed).

Dan

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Dan Walters's 5 posts GB flag
Stuart O.
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:02 PM
Wrexham

JohnB: Like I said, I did have problems earlier but resolved them BEFORE posting on this page.

In the end, I did not need to turn off any loop-through with any of my recording devices. All I needed to do was to just use one of my two amplifiers I previously used at the same time, the one amplifier with the variable gain I needed to use which was previously set at maximum gain and lower it down a few turns so the gain was reduced to now probably giving out around one-half to two-thirds of the maximum gain.

This means it now has caused the very strong signals signal strengths to lower slightly and the signal quality of the very strong signals to increase.
Also the signals strengths of the weaker signals have now increased and the signal quality of the weaker signals have also increased.
And I no longer experience any interference caused on the RF out picture of my Sky+ box with removing one of the amplifiers and reducing the gain of the other one I still required.
So, all round a complete success.

But like I asked previously:
Over time, is it possible for your TV or box's tuner to get damaged with 100% Strength and 100% Quality always receivable on some of your channels?

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Stuart O.'s 156 posts GB flag
Stuart's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:08 PM

Stuart O: In answer to your latter question, most definitely NO!

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Stuart O.
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:38 PM
Wrexham

jb38: It's a perfectly reasonable question to have asked. No-one else ever seems to have asked and I feel people need to know.

Brian talks about how you can overload your TV and set-top box tuner with too high a signal but he never says anything about damage.
So I put 2 and 2 together and also quite reasonably assumed that a prolonged exposure to very high strong signals on a tuner of a TV or set-top box could eventually result in tuner damage.

So I would like Brian's view on this.
Thanks.

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Stuart O.'s 156 posts GB flag
Stuart's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Matt
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:39 PM

Brian: No other electrical equipment around the tv, wideband in use already.

BBC 2 analogue was one of the better analogue's we had, we are 20 miles from SC, so top picture considering we are using a loft mounted aerial.

I get the most signal 'strength' on this multiplex with 88%, could the BER of 50-55% be due to much signal, even though its showing 88%?

link to this comment
Matt's 22 posts GB flag
Friday, 23 September 2011
P
Paul Evans
1:00 AM
Wolverhampton

Before the change on the 22nd Sept, I could get all chennels. But since then when I scan I get all channels but, after switching off the freeview box and turning it back on I loose ITV1, Channel4, Channel5, ITV2, Channel4+, E4. I'm using the Sutton Coldfield transmitter and there has been no change in equipment or location of the arial.

link to this comment
Paul Evans's 1 post GB flag
Paul's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:40 AM

SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Off Air; DSO related from 00:55 on 21 Sep to 06:00 on 21 Sep [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:40 AM

SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Off Air; DSO related from 00:55 on 21 Sep to 06:00 on 21 Sep [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
B
Billy
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

6:24 AM

Very Interesting:
Box adds channels from other transmitter itself.
Having discovered that I can actually get Sutton in the loft, in a huge dip with hill in way some 17 miles away, I obviously, only wanted those channels, not Allesley Park.

Factory reset and unplugged aerial at back and so on.
Interesting that, unless and it did once, had to do again, it still logged in Allesley Park one, that it should not have happened second time round.

Yet it still seems that it appears it is putting itself on there, which is rather strange.
I think though not 100% sure, manual kinda suggests as such as well.
This might be happening when one of the muxes is not being picked up, some how switching to another one.

Reason for mentioning this is it seems some of you also having problems where factory reset, scan channels in, even manually, and then seems to be picking up another channel/s.
By the way, signals vary on one channel at times, but on the whole, got 80% signal strength and 100% quality, log periodic in loft, high up, pointing upwards, 25 db masthead amp, aerial rated 7.5 db gain tops, so chuffed really.

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Billy's 50 posts GB flag
N
Neil
10:46 AM

I little advice for people that may help!
*****************************************
Make sure the aerial goes to the digibox first!

Then remove any "OLD" coax leads that go to old analoge tuners for vidoes, DVD players etc.

The old tuners cause poor digital signal quality and a mizzly picture on the TV if connected.

If your TV is a old type with no digi box inside then the lead can be removed that goes from the digi box to the TV.


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Neil's 10 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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