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Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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
Saturday, 1 December 2012
B
Bob F
3:49 PM
Stonehouse

I have just seen the following report "Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said an estimated 945,000 households which use signal amplifiers to boost their television reception could be affected, while another 953,000 which rely on communal aerials could have their coverage disturbed".

My post code is GL10 3BJ and I have a signal amplifier and receive Freeview via the Mendip Transmitter.

Should I expect to have a problem. And if so, what would you suggest would be the best solution please?

What is the

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Bob F's 11 posts GB flag
Bob's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 2 December 2012
J
Jeff Eastmond
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

11:02 AM
Clevedon

On the 'Transmission Frequencies' table above, it does not show what channel the BBCA multiplex is on for the columns headed '2013-' and '2013?' - I hear that in early-2013 BBCA will move from C61 to C49(?) - is this confirmed or subject to change, therefore it's been missed from the table?

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Jeff Eastmond's 36 posts GB flag
Jeff's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

12:24 PM

Jeff Eastmond: Mux BBCA from Mendip changes to C49 0n 27th March 2013. This is taken from the Digital UK postcode checker site.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
Monday, 3 December 2012
R
Rob
5:04 PM

Our signal on the BBC PSB1 mux is erratic and I'm not sure why. Some of the time it's OK at about 70% strength, other times it disappears to 'No signal'. However, all other muxes are fine, usually with 100% signal.

We're high up in the Cotswolds near Stroud, and have good line of sight to the Mendip transmitter. It's 40 miles away, but we're 600' ASL and the ground drops away sharply to the south, so there's no obvious problem, and Megalithia shows the signal path is good. Were in a rural area, so interference is unlikely.

Our aerial is on the same alignment as our neighbours, but is bigger (about 15 elements). It dates from analogue days when it was fine, and I dont think Mendip changed frequencies in the switchover.

Ive just left the digibox on manual search for a few minutes. On channel 61 (BBC PSB1 mux from Mendip) it shows a Signal Quality: Good, Signal Level mostly about 70%, but briefly dipping down to None a few times a minute. However, last night we tried to watch a BBC programme, which was OK for 45 minutes (but with very brief interruptions to sound), and then disappeared for the last 15 minutes. Channel 54 is currently showing Signal Quality: Very Good, Signal Level rock solid on 100%.

All of which leaves me very confused what problem can give an intermittent fault on one channel and leave the others unaffected. Does the larger aerial mean I should try an attenuator? Any help appreciated.

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Rob's 1 post GB flag
Sunday, 23 December 2012
S
Stewart
3:41 PM

Does anybody know the channel numbers for radio on a freeview from the Mendip traansmitter?

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Stewart's 2 posts GB flag
S
Stewart
3:46 PM

I know that they are in the 700 bracket of freeview channels. It's the tuning channel I need. Most of the TV channels are in the 50s & 60s, where are the radio channels?

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Stewart's 2 posts GB flag
M
Michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

4:31 PM

Stewart: The radio channels are carried in the same muxes as TV and data channels (BBC radio in the BBCA mux, others in SDN, ArqA and ArqB muxes) so there's no special radio tuning required. Which radio or TV channels are you missing in the 700s?

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Michael's 358 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 25 December 2012
K
k.Barrett
8:40 PM

Wideband horizontally polarised chimney mounted aerial pointing at Mendip.
My house is SN40NW postcode (Butts Rd, Chiseldon.)
Megalith.com shows line of sight to Mendip obscured (just.)
4 way amp/splitter loft mounted.
Cheap single insulated airgap down cable but despite all the above reception has always been good.

Over the last two weeks freezing every 1 or 2 minutes for 3 or 4 seconds on BBC1 and occassionally BBC2.

I have checked the cables for damage and water ingress.
I have turned off dimmer switches, heating controls and under floor heating - no change but proves no interference from them.
I have bypassed the amp splitter with no improvement.
I have also replaced the chimney mounted aerial with a loft mounted wideband vertically polarised one pointing at Chiseldon repeater. Then repeated all the above tests and no improvement. I know wide band is not ideal for Chiseldon repeater but being less than 200yds and very clear line of sight it shouldn't be a problem should it.

Now Chiseldon and Mendip transmit BBC1 on different channels so is it other local interference or is the repeater just repeating a freezing channel from the main transmitter.

Do I ask neighbours if they are having problems, report to BBC or try something else like a group A aerial pointing at Chiseldon and Diplex the Chimney aerial as there are no problems from that on other channels.

Help please.

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k.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:43 PM

k.Barrett: Out of all that you have reported the most significant factor is you having stated that using the Chiseldon relay did not show any improvement either, because the Chiseldon relay receives its programmes from Mendip and this could indicate that the relay is also receiving a corrupted signal, therefore I would not advise altering anything at present before making some local enquiries for purposes of finding out if others are being affected in a similar way to yourself.

By the way, the fact of having a 16 watts transmitter so close to your location "is" very likely to have an effect on your tuner by slightly desensitising it, this happening no matter what channel you are trying to receive although obviously the effect will get worse the closer you get to frequencies used by the Chiseldon transmitters, although by the fact of the two stations not being that terribly far off right angles to each other plus them being on different polarities does help.

Chiseldon: 27 - 24 - 21 (@ 323 degrees)

Mendip: (43 miles @ 243 degrees) 61 - 54 - 58 - 48 - 56 - 52, please note though that channels 54 (ITV) & 58 (HD service) are classed as variable for reception.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
K
K.Barrett
12:34 PM

JB38: Yes your reply is really confirming my suspicions and I will talk to neighbours. I was rather hoping that XMas day would give a reliable signal and I could perhaps think about local interference but XMas day was no better.
The local transmitter even at "only" 16 watts will have some effect as it can easily be received on my daughters cheap TV and got 48% signal and a good picture from just 15ft of cheap aerial cable that wasn't connected to an aerial or amp.
However,from previous tests and previous reliable signal I don't think it is that relay causing the problem.
In summer with lots of leaves on trees and the slightly obscured signal from Mendip I would expect it to be poor but why in winter and usually worst when we have clear rather than wet and wind days.
Talk to the neighbours it is then.

Although today it has been perfect. Do the transmitter maintainers read these pages and fix things without saying anything? Triple time to fix something on XMas day might help?

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K.Barrett's 17 posts GB flag
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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.

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