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Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.237,-2.626 or 51°14'12"N 2°37'33"Wsa_postcodeBA5 3LB

 

The symbol shows the location of the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter which serves 720,000 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 Mendip (Somerset, England) mast?

Mendip transmitter - Mendip 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 Mendip 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
C32 (562.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C34 (578.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
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),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C35 (586.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South 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
C48 (690.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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
C33 (570.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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
C36 (594.0MHz)591mDTG-8100,000W
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

LBS
 H -10dB
C30 (546.0MHz)591mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 22nd September 2014: 7 Made in Bristol,

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 Mendip transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 25km north (3°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.
regional news image
ITV West Country News (East) 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS4 3HG, 23km north (11°)
to ITV West region - 61 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

CheddarTransposer15 km E Weston-super-Mare1674 homes
LuccombeActive deflector6 km w Minehead38 homes

How will the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20102010-132013-182013-1727 Feb 2018
C/D EEEC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C30_local
C32BBCA
C33com7com7
C34D3+4
C35com8com8
C36ArqB
C37C5wavesC5waves
C48SDNSDNSDNSDN
C49tv_off BBCABBCA
C51tv_offLBSLBS
C52tv_offArqBArqBArqB
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offArqAArqAArqACOM8tv_off
C58tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C61ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCA
C64BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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 24 Mar 10 and 7 Apr 10.

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

Analogue 1-4 500kW
Analogue 5(-6dB) 126kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
com7(-8.4dB) 72.4kW
com8(-8.6dB) 69.1kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*, LBS(-17dB) 10kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Mendip transmitter area

Jan 1958-Jul 1968Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Harlech 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. Mendip 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
Sunday, 15 May 2011
C
Christopher Innes
10:12 AM
Bristol

Very basic questions for weak reception of Mendip broadcast:
Timeline - changes take place in September 2011 and 'early 2012' - are these likely to improve reception of present low power channels?
Aerials - I have a roof aerial which is at least 12 years old, it has 17 cross bars in horizontal plane. Your recommendation is for Group E/W - is this a type of aerial covering both groups or should it be either Group E or Group W?
Where on your web site can I find pictures of the different aerials to compare with what is available on-line?
Chris

link to this comment
GB flag
Christopher's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:58 PM

Christopher Innes: You should already have excellent reception from Mendip, if you don't then you probably do need a new aerial.

You can use a group C/D, group E or a wideband aerial.

See Freeview reception - all about aerials | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for details of aerials.

At your location, as long as the aerial is on the roof a standard aerial will be perfectly fine - use satellite-grade coaxial cable for the best reception results.

A larger aerial may overload your receiver.


link to this comment
Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:04 PM

Christopher Innes: If you are presently receiving the BBC and ITV1 channels in a satisfactory fashion then I would wait until after the changes take place in September before making a decision to alter anything, the reason being that provided the person who fitted your aerial 12 years ago didn't choose to "over" cater for channel 5 analogue being on much lower power than the other analogue stations then the present aerial should be OK for Freeview without compromising anything.

It should be said though, that even with the changes that's being made in September you will really have to wait until early 2012 before everything is finally stabilised, as some of the Multiplexes will still be transmitting on a reduced output up until then.

You should have a study at the info on the top header to this page, as you will find most of what you require to know amongst the wealth of info there, including by the way the coloured end caps that are used to identify aerial groups, these end caps being on the common horizontal crossbar that holds the elements, although you possibly might not see them easily on a roof mounted aerial.

You should also carry out a signal check (associated with TV's tuning menu) to see what the strength / quality indications are on each of the Mux channels you receive, the MUX channel numbers / frequency (in brackets) indicated at the bottom of each section.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Monday, 16 May 2011
J
Jim F.
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

6:57 PM

Steve (Melksham),

The replacement Humax box seemed also to have a somewhat wobbly centre socket for the coax plug to go into, but behaved totally differently when subjected to the coax wiggle test - not a hint of a hiccup or hesitation; rock solid. Its now on for a couple of weeks test including recording (where it used to show trouble).
I'm still wondering whether your Panasonic might be doing something similar, even if the aerial plug is a good fit.

link to this comment
Jim F.'s 141 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
P
Patrick Hewitt
2:48 PM

when freeview first came out I used to get all the channels but for the last 2 months I am miss channels 11,15,18,19,21,22,24,25,29,35,44,45,47,48,82 and I have had now signal on channels 10,23,26,27,30,31,34,43 and 46. I have 2 tvs both on different freeview boxes and both on different aerials, one is new and the other is old. Both aerials are outside on the roof and I have retuned them both over 10 times what is wrong.

link to this comment
Patrick Hewitt's 1 post GB flag
Sunday, 22 May 2011
M
MFPA
7:33 PM
Bath

Hi. Block of 6 flats in Peasedown St John . Communal TV aerial on the roof is a 14-element group c/d contract aerial pointing at Mendip (but first it points through the branches of a tree about 12 feet away and then a line of trees about 40 yards away on a hill). Distribution amplifier in the loft of one of the flats. The old analogue service was watchable but fuzzy, and an additional signal amp near the TV set made it close to perfect. Freeview has frequent dropping-out of sound and blockiness or freezing of pictures; the "no signal" message is less frequent but still multiple times per day. Without the set-back amp, Freeview shows only the "no signal" message.

Are any of the following likely to improve the reception?

* relocate the aerial to miss the nearest tree?

* put it on a taller pole to maybe help with the next line of trees?

* replace the aerial with a Log 40, Yagi 18, or DY14WB?

* I know nothing about the quality of the distribution amp; might it be better to replace it with a masthead amp and a splitter?

link to this comment
MFPA's 8 posts GB flag
MFPA's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 23 May 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:25 AM

MFPA: Yes, the first two options are the best, you can't compensate for the loss of signal to the trees with a larger aerial or amplifier.

link to this comment
Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
L
leeroy
9:08 AM

We live in Enmore
Have lost several channels recently - Fiver, 5USA ITV4 etc
Also BBC channels are pixelating
This has only happened in the last few days, Mid May 2011 onwards.
Is this related to Low Power on Transmiter, as we've had good reception until now

link to this comment
leeroy's 1 post GB flag
Thursday, 2 June 2011
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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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