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Full Freeview on the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.790,-1.179 or 51°47'25"N 1°10'46"Wsa_postcodeOX3 9SS

 

The symbol shows the location of the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmitter which serves 410,000 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 Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) mast?

Oxford transmitter - Oxford 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 Oxford 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
C41+ (634.2MHz)295mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South (Oxford), 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
C44- (657.8MHz)295mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian/Central (Thames Valley micro region)), 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 (Central west),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)295mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South (Oxford), 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 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 -3dB
C29 (538.0MHz)295mDTG-850,000W
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 -3dB
C37- (601.8MHz)319mDTG-850,000W
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 -3dB
C31 (554.0MHz)319mDTG-850,000W
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

LOX
 H -10dB
C46 (674.0MHz)295mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 22nd December 2014: 7 That's Oxford,

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 Oxford transmitter?

regional news image
BBC South (Oxford) Today 0.4m homes 1.6%
from Oxford OX2 7DW, 6km west-southwest (258°)
to BBC South (Oxford) region - 6 masts.
BBC South (Oxford) Today shares 50% content with Southampton service
regional news image
ITV Meridian News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Whiteley PO15 7AD, 102km south (182°)
to ITV Meridian/Central (Thames Valley) region - 15 masts.
Thames Valley opt-out from Meridian (South). All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian+Oxford

How will the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-1723 May 2018
VHFC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C2BBCtvwaves
C29SDN
C31com7com7
C37com8com8
C41BBCA
C44D3+4
C46_local
C47BBCB
C49tv_offC5wavesC5waves
C50tv_off SDNSDN
C51tv_offLOXLOX
C53tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves+BBCA+BBCA+BBCA
C55tv_offArqBArqBArqBcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C57tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C59tv_off-ArqA-ArqA-ArqA
C60tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves-D3+4-D3+4-D3+4
C62SDN
C63BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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 14 Sep 11 and 28 Sep 11.

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

Analogue 1-4 500kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 50kW
Analogue 5(-11dB) 40kW
com8(-14.7dB) 17.1kW
com7(-14.8dB) 16.4kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, LOX(-17dB) 10kW
Mux C*, Mux D*(-18dB) 8kW
Mux A*, Mux B*(-19.2dB) 6kW

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

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Dec 2006Central Independent Television
Dec 2006-Feb 2009ITV Thames Valley
Feb 2009-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. Oxford 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
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
S
Steve P
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:12 PM

Nicholas - you can unplug and replug the aerial lead during auto tuning to pick the channels you want.

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Steve P's 1,173 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
P
Paul
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:50 AM

"Paul: Ofcom's official documentation of Sutton Coldfield's frequencies was re-issued in January this year, to move BBC B's allocated channel from C50 to C40...
Hannington C50 isn't particularly low at 20kW, that actually made it joint equal most powerful pre-switchover transmitter, with Crystal Palace, Rowridge and Sandy Heath! ..." [ Mike Dimmick ].
Thanks for that, Mike. A friend near Banbury was pleased that she had done her own retunes, with no help from me. When I checked her equipment, two of the five MUXes had tuned to Hannington instead of Oxford. Hannington's signals are a problem in this area, despite their current slightly low power.

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Paul's 45 posts GB flag
T
Tigminor
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:00 PM
Faringdon

Hi!

Returned home today from 2 weeks holiday abroad (I did think of you all retuning on 28 Sept) and retuned my own TVs about an hour ago. (I live in Faringdon, by the way and receive transmission from the Oxfor4d mast). PSB1, PSB2 and PSB3 with all aassociated channels are great, but SDN, ArqA and ArqB are pretty grim, and I njow have either no reception or flashing on and off on programmes for these wavelengths (can't watch my favourite QVC or the Jewellery Channel!!!). Do I understand that these will be sorted when further retuning is necessary next April? I can see from the diagrams on the web page that the frequencies are all very low on these. At least I have good ITV1 reception now - got very tired of watching Corrie on the internet all the time!! Sorry I am so completely untechnical (I am sure there are plenty of other ladies who aren't!!!), but I am just wondering if it is worth leaving it alone with what I have and waiting until April.

Thanks in anticipation of a non-technical answer....

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Tigminor's 28 posts GB flag
Tigminor's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Steve P
sentiment_satisfiedGold

3:17 PM

tigi - have you looked back - others have probably already solved the same problems - maybe too STRONG a signal, ar a box that no longer works

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Steve P's 1,173 posts GB flag
P
Paul
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:42 PM

Tigminor, did SDN, ArqA and ArqB work before September?

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Paul's 45 posts GB flag
T
Tigminor
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:56 PM
Faringdon

Paul - Yes they did. The only problem I had before was with Mux 2.

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Tigminor's 28 posts GB flag
Tigminor's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 14 October 2011
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

12:01 AM

Robert: Sorry not to respond sooner, I don't have any suggestions as to why you should have problems with 1 or 2 channels on a particular mux but not other channels on the same mux, other than make sure that you've done a full reset/new install on the box.

This "static". Do you only get the spark after the flylead has been connected for a while or can you get it every time you disconnect the lead even if it's within a second or so of reconnection?
If you disconnect the box from the TV, do you still get the spark?
Can you get a spark if you touch the flylead to mains earth (the earth on a mains socket - wire a plug with a wire to the earth pin only for the test)?

Regarding the booster, yes you're very liklely to need to carry on using one - signal is not very strong (especially the COM muxes - I'll be posting further on that.).

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Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

12:37 AM

Tigminor: I'm surprised you are having a problem with the SDN mux (QVC, The Jewellery Channel, 5*, etc) as you had it OK before DSO and the power has doubled although still low until April next year when the situation should be better with power increases on the COM muxes.
Digital UK's reception predictor for your location isn't good for the Arq A & Arq B muxes at this time, I can only guess that there is possibly a lot of multipath or local screening in your location (did you get much ghosting on the old analogue pictures at all?), especially as further towards Swindon on a virtually identical bearing reception is better.

I doubt that you are getting too strong a signal at your location, but if you are using a booster, try turning it down (if variable) or bypass it just in case the situation is improved. Other than that reception of the COM muxes willl continue to fluctuate until the power increase.

It is worth checking that your TV's are tuned to Oxford & not any other transmitters since power has increased. Do a full reset/new install by following the link "Freeview reset procedure" in the yellow box below, BUT instead of doing an automatic tune, do a manual one using UHF channels C53,C55,C59,C60,C62 & C57 for the HD mux.

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Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
T
Tigminor
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

10:48 AM
Faringdon

Chris - many thanks for your help. Actually, the problem has now righted itself on my main tv and I am receiving all channels steady and clear. The three channels I mentioned previously are still not working on the set in my bedroom, though I have the same make and model of settop box and it is obviously working through the same aerial so makes not much sense to me. However, I hardly ever use that set so am not bothered. The main thing is all is now ok on my main set. Thank you for taking the time to help and I will note your comments.

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Tigminor's 28 posts GB flag
Tigminor's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Phil
8:41 PM

Since the oxford retune mux c programs are impossible to watch due to breakup. We are in WIndsor off the crystal palace transmitter. When will the power be turned back up?

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Phil's 3 posts GB flag
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