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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
Thursday, 6 October 2011
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

8:51 AM

Gareth: If you had problems with the Arq B (COM6) multiplex prior to Sept.28th when it was on C67 then you will now have problems with Arq A (COM5). This is because Arq A as well as moving to C67, has had a mode change from 2K to 8K (now the same as Arq B,) which gives the effect of lowered received signal strength. There has been no increase in power to compensate. Full power won't occcur for both Arq A & B until March 2012. The mode change was not supposed to happen until then. To have done that now is incompetent IMHO as many that had marginal reception of Arq A previously may now not receive it until the power increase next year when it also moves to it's final channel of C56.
Higher channels (C68 is the highest) are also more prone to signal loss in poor/deteriorating quality coax and aerials (and poor weather).

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
G
Gareth
9:36 AM

Thanks for that clarification Chris.SE. We'll have to wait until March and then see what happens.

link to this comment
Gareth's 3 posts GB flag
Gareth smart
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

10:02 AM

Sorry posted a blank! Thanks Chris that does explain it all for me also. Looks like march then before I get my pick tv and challenge back :-( it was fine before! And question my dad asks is why did he used to get BBC fine and not itv in our dining room and now he gets all the itv channels and not BBC? He could only ever get BBC in the dining room due to a poor feed from his aerial. But why increase the power of itv it seems and reduce BBC? Also he is asking me why voter changing something if it is already working fine? It doesn't make any sense at all to me!

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Gareth smart's 43 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

10:27 AM

Gareth Smart: glad the explanation helped.
Re your Dad, the power of ITV (PSB2 mux)and BBC (PSB1 mux) are the same, so will need to know his postcode before anyone can comment on any reception problems.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
Friday, 7 October 2011
Gareth smart
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:22 AM
Weston-super-mare

Chris SE: My parents postcode is BS22 9HA

link to this comment
Gareth smart's 43 posts GB flag
Gareth's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

1:07 PM

Gareth Smart: Well there is no reason your Dad shoudn't be getting all the MUXes OK assuming his aerial etc is OK and pointing at Mendip SE from his location with the aerial rods horizontal. If it's pointing S with the rods vertical at Hutton, that's low power and only transmits the PSB muxes.

Suggest you do a full reset first following the link in the yellow box below "Freeview reset procedure" BUT instead of doing a new install automatically I'd do a manual install so you get the right channels and not the Welsh ones.

If the aerial is pointing at Mendip, do these UHF channels C61,C54,C48,C52,C67 and if you've an HD tuner C58.
If C67 doesn't come in OK (Pick,Dave,Challenge etc) you could try C45 as you might get enough signal off the back of the aerial from Wenvoe as it's just across the water. You could try that on your own setup as well, but it depends on where you are.

If the aerial is pointing at Hutton, the it's C59,C62 and C55 for HD & you could always try C42,C45,C49 for the COM muxes off Wenvoe.

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
Sunday, 9 October 2011
M
Mr Mendip
8:42 AM

Mendip ARQ B CH 52 MUX FEC change on Nov 8th on digital uk website trade view.

2/3 to 3/4 so does this mean another retune and why the change as I see its happening at lots of transmitters for this MUX but dates vary.

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Mr Mendip's 3 posts GB flag
B
Brian Hudson
9:33 PM

COM5 has disappeared since the changes at the end of September. I have re-tuned on numerous occasions but none have been successful.

Strangely, COM6 which is a slightly weaker signal than COM5 is coming through loud and clear.

Any suggestions please?

link to this comment
Brian Hudson's 6 posts GB flag
Monday, 10 October 2011
J
JimBilly
10:44 AM

Brian

It's back to the transmission frequency issue. C67 which now carries COM5 is at a significantly higher frequency (842MHz) than COM6 on C52(722MHz). This higher frequency does not travel very well and is prone to significant losses in co-ax cable runs. Even though C67 is transmitted at a very slightly higher power than C52 which in theory should deliver a stronger signal, in practice many installations will show less signal at the receiver due to the characteristics of the higher frequency. This is borne out by many of the comments above however never seems to be taken into account when transmitters are planned. Unfortunately unless you miss the Arq A channels enough to consider replacing your aerial or coax for around just 5 months of improved signal than the only option is to wait until March 28 when it moves back to C56.

It looks like many (including myself on 2 televisions) are in the same boat.

JimBilly


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JimBilly's 6 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
M
Mr. J. Talboys
10:16 AM
Dursley

Thanks for your advice Mike Dimmick. I looked at the First Time Installation instructions for my tv and noticed it said to wait for 20 seconds after retuning before pressing any buttons,so as to allow the new channel information to be stored. This corrected the problem of losing channels after switching to standby. What a silly boy am I!

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Mr. J. Talboys's 2 posts GB flag
Mr.'s: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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