Full Freeview on the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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50.676,-1.369 or 50°40'35"N 1°22'7"W

PO30 4HT

The symbol shows the location of the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter which serves 620,000 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 Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) mast?

Rowridge transmitter - Rowridge transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 22/04/2024 Screen may go black on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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Which Freeview channels does the Rowridge 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	V max H max	C24 (498.0MHz)	320m	DTG-	200,000W 200,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) South, 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	V max H max	C27 (522.0MHz)	320m	DTG-	200,000W 200,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (South Coast 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 (Meridian south coast),
PSB3 BBCB	V max H max	C21+ (474.2MHz)	320m	DTG-	200,000W 200,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South, 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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H -6dB V -6dB	C25 (506.0MHz)	299m	DTG-8	50,000W 50,000W
	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 -6dB V -6dB	C22+ (482.2MHz)	302m	DTG-8	50,000W 50,000W
	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 -6dB V -6dB	C28 (530.0MHz)	302m	DTG-8	50,000W 50,000W
	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
LSO	H -13dB	C37 (602.0MHz)	299m	DTG-12	10,000W
	from 22nd December 2014: 7 That's Solent,

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 Rowridge transmitter?

BBC South Today 1.3m homes 4.9%
from Southampton SO14 7PU, 26km north (354°)
to BBC South region - 39 masts.

ITV Meridian News 0.9m homes 3.6%
from Whiteley PO15 7AD, 24km north-northeast (20°)
to ITV Meridian (South Coast) region - 39 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford

Are there any self-help relays?

Portsmouth Docks

Transposer

2 km N city centre

50 homes Estimate. Group of houses'

How will the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1950s-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2012	2012-13	2 May 2018
	VHF	A K T	A K T	A K T	A K T	W T
C3	BBCtv_waves
C21		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C22					+ArqA	ArqA
C24		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C25					SDN	SDN
C27		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C28					ArqB	ArqB
C29						LSO
C31		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves		com7
C37						com8
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_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 Mar 12 and 21 Mar 12.

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

Analogue 1-4	500kW
PSB1\|\|, PSB1≡, PSB2\|\|, PSB2≡, PSB3\|\|, PSB3≡	(-4dB) 200kW
COM4≡, COM4\|\|, COM5≡, COM5\|\|, COM6≡, COM6\|\|	(-10dB) 50kW
com7≡	(-13.1dB) 24.4kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-14dB) 20kW
com8≡	(-14.3dB) 18.4kW
LSO≡	(-17dB) 10kW

Local transmitter maps

Rowridge Freeview Rowridge DAB Rowridge TV region BBC South Meridian (South Coast micro region)

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

Aug 1958-Jan 1992	Southern Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992	Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004	Meridian
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Rowridge 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

A

adrian_tcp
11:56 PM
Fordingbridge

Also, when you say vertical polarisation, do you simply mean that you turn the aerial through 90 degrees so that the aerial prongs point up and down? This would also mean that all other parts of the aerial assembly would be turned through 90.

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adrian_tcp's 3 posts GB flag

adrian_tcp's: A's Freeview map A's terrain plot A's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage

K

KMJ,Derby

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

9:59 AM

adrian_tcp: Yes, the prongs (directors), the dipole (where the coax is connected) and the reflector (the plate or set of rods at the back end) are all vertical. The boom of the should be horizontal or have a very slight tilt up towards the .

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:18 AM

adrian_tcp: As far as the mounting is concerned its a case of the entire aerial being in effect being turned on its side, because the vertically polarised COM signals from radiate on 200Kw whereas on horizontal its only 50Kw, however the fact of you having said that you suffer from pixilation on the PSB2 & PSB3 muxes does not give much as far as glitch free is concerned, but though it depends on what you observe on a signal check, because if both the strength and quality are seen to fluctuate within a certain range but never at any time rapidly dip to near zero and , then keeping the signal running at a high level can in many cases to keep pixilation to a minimum, but if the quality is seen to frequently dive to zero and back then no matter how fast it does it the will suffer.

The problem is, that when that sort of thing occurs there is virtually nothing that can be done at the receiving end that will help the situation as the problem is outwith local control, as its basically caused by the signal path from the to the being affected by obstructions along the way, and with the most commonly experienced reason being trees and such likes even if they have shed their leaves, and with quick check over the signal path between Rowridge and your area indicating quite a number of hazardous areas for RF signals.

However, I suggest that you carry out the check referred to, that is on the assumption that your TV or box does offer both a strength and quality indicator and giving on the results of the check.

By the way if the brown coax referred to is of the thinner variety then it should be changed to a grade such as WF100, but if its the thicker variety with a woven copper mesh that does not separate easily then its most likely perfectly OK.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

A

adrian_tcp
3:10 PM
Fordingbridge

Thanks. I only have strength, not . However, on Film4 which is one of the worst, signal strength is 68-72 but Bit error level is max at 2000, whatever that means. ITV2+1 is 58-62 but no but errors and not pixilated, so is there anyway of reducing the bit errors, like having 2 amplifiers in series?

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adrian_tcp's 3 posts GB flag

adrian_tcp's: A's Freeview map A's terrain plot A's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage

F

Frederick love
9:51 AM

My XP media centre PC tuned to can only get the program guide up to the end of this year.
In spite of retuning and reloading all stations the program guide loads no data for 2013 and therefore now has no search facility.

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Frederick love's 1 post GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

10:01 AM

Frederick love: Well... one option is to take the cheap Windows 8
Buy Windows - Microsoft Windows
(£24.99) and then
Add features - Microsoft Windows
(free) - I will cost you and a couple of hours.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

M

Michael

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

8:44 PM

: It's a problem with my Vista media centre EPG as well, seems a lot of people are reporting the problem on the internet - I doubt buying Win8 will solve the issue.

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Michael's 358 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

8:21 AM

Michael: Doubt if you like but here is my and listings in Win 7 right now...

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

M

Michael

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

12:10 PM

: Win7 should be ok for a 7 day EPG as that uses broadcast data, unlike XP and Vista.

Found a thread on it, and it's also been reported to Microsoft: View topic - Guide Updates - Download Issues

Resorting to trying EPG Collector to see what happens (instructions at the end of that thread).

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Michael's 358 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

5:01 PM

Michael: The Win7 (and Vista if you have installed the upgrades - Freeview news | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice ) Media Center can use either the internet-delivered (from DigiGuide) or -delievered listings.

From the "TV Programme Guide" screen, right click on a (like "1 BBC One") and choose "Edit channel". You then see...

And select "use listings from broadcaster".

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

Page 102

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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