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

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"Wsa_postcodeB75 5JJ

 

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
Monday, 8 May 2023
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:08 AM

Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 08/05/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,822 posts GB flag
Monday, 15 May 2023
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:08 AM

Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 15/05/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,822 posts GB flag
Friday, 26 May 2023
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

10:08 AM

Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 22/05/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,822 posts GB flag
Monday, 29 May 2023
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:09 AM

Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 29/05/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,822 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 31 May 2023
J
jack
8:13 AM

Sutton sutton sutton ... we miss you...

ah - so - I see the last message now - I started writing this on an earlier page - A jump to last page
would be good instead of stepping 5 pages - a search engine entry left me lost(!)

Had HD pixelation for about 2 weeks now - now unwatchable - too annoying
SD channels seem ok.

Been ok for about 3 years I think. B34 area

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jack's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:10 PM

jack:

As per the post before yours, the transmitter is on Planned Engineering and has been for about 3 weeks, this may have something to do with it if you are in a weaker signal pocket (you haven't given a full postcode), or your line of sight to the transmitter is obscured locally by trees, buildings, scaffolding etc.

Check you are correctly tuned to the Sutton Coldfield PSB3/BBCB HD multiplex on UHF C40.
Also check your aerial system looks intact and the downlead is secure and isn't flapping in the wind - how old is it? If very old, your aerial system may be degraded. certain problems don't always appear to affect all multiplexes Do you receive the Local multiplex on UHF C48 ok?.

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Chris.SE's 4,103 posts GB flag
Monday, 5 June 2023
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:08 AM

Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 05/06/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,822 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 6 June 2023
N
Norman
6:20 PM

When is Great TV channel 50 returning to
Sutton Coldfield transmitter.

link to this comment
Norman's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:08 PM

Norman :

AFAIK it's not gone anywhere! If you are not receiving it at the moment, you should also be missing LCNs 7 or 8 (Local News), LCN52 Great Romance, LCN61 Great Movies +1, LCN68 RealityXtra.
Those are all carried on the Local multiplex which you might receive on UHF36 or UHF48 depending on your location & as you haven't given a full postcode I can't check your predicted reception of those.

You might not be receiving them at the moment possibly for one of two reasons - the Planned Engineering as detailed in the post before yours, or current weather conditions where there's intermittent variable Tropospheric Ducting resulting in interference from distant transmitters in the UK or Europe.
Unfortunately there's nothing you can do about such interference which may last seconds, minutes or longer and won't necessarily affect any other multiplexes. You just have to wait for conditions to change.

One thing NOT to do if you have sound breakup or pixellated pictures is to retune, as this will often clear your correct tuning and you won't know when signals are back to normal.
IF you did retune, your best bet will be to try a manual retune of UHF36 or UHF48 depending on which you normally receive. You may have to try several times if signals haven't returned to normal.

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Chris.SE's 4,103 posts GB flag
Thursday, 8 June 2023
J
jack
9:36 AM

HD still unwatchable as above
Been fine for 3 years or so -
Low power and Q drop to zero every 3-4 seconds
Whatever the engineering was it didnt fix this.
(Multiple receivers)

SD still seems fine.

link to this comment
jack's 15 posts GB flag
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