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Full Freeview on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter which serves 770,000 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 Waltham (Leicestershire, England) mast?

Waltham transmitter - Waltham 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 Waltham 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)442mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) East Midlands, 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)442mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (East micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Midlands ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Midlands ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Central west),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C35 (586.0MHz)442mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD East Midlands, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 104 Channel 4 HD Midlands 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)442mDTG-825,000W
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 (602.0MHz)449mDTG-825,000W
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)449mDTG-825,000W
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

LNG
 H -10dB
C41 (634.0MHz)442mDTG-125,000W
Channel icons
from 27th May 2014: 7 Notts TV,

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 Waltham transmitter?

regional news image
BBC East Midlands Today 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Nottingham NG2 4UU, 28km northwest (306°)
to BBC East Midlands region - 17 masts.
regional news image
ITV Central News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 83km west-southwest (244°)
to ITV Central (East) region - 17 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

BraunstoneTransposer5 km SW Leicester city centre170 homes

How will the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-174 Mar 2020
C/D EEEWW TW TW T
C26LNGLNG
C29SDNSDNSDNSDN
C31com7com7
C32BBCA
C34D3+4
C35C5wavesC5wavesBBCB
C37com8com8
C41_local
C49tv_off BBCABBCA
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offArqAArqAArqACOM8tv_off
C57tv_offArqBArqBArqB
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 17 Aug 11 and 31 Aug 11.

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

Analogue 1-5 250kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 50kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 25kW
com8(-12.7dB) 13.4kW
com7(-13.9dB) 10.2kW
Mux 1*(-14dB) 10kW
Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*(-14.9dB) 8kW
Mux C*, Mux D*, LNG(-17dB) 5kW

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

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent 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. Waltham 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, 19 December 2013
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:46 PM

To All:

Please note that pixelation can only happen on digital TV signals so can only occur after the switchover from analogue to digital transmission. In most areas that happened between 2008 to 2011, with a few slightly later. So if you have had good reception and display of TV programmes since then but recently been having pixelation then it is not because of any 'switchover' but there can be a host of other reasons for reception difficulties.

link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
M
Michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:02 PM

MikeP: Eh? Are you saying that pixelation couldn't occur before the switchover in each area?

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Michael's 358 posts GB flag
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:12 PM

John Tebbs: What type of aerial are you using? If your signal broke up because of passing traffic, that points to using a portable. If that is what your using, in an area iffy for Waltham, then you are going to have problems, no matter what.

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
S
Steve N
8:32 PM
Leicester

I've had a log36 about 37km from Waltham - a 47deg bearing from my house to the mast (terrain plot checks out OK)- worked fine until about a week ago when COM4 mux started disappearing with signal strength jumping between nil and 45%. All other muxs are fine - anyone know if SDN are mucking around with Waltham at the moment? (I appreciate the signal strength meter in my humax box isn't accurate)

link to this comment
Steve N's 1 post GB flag
Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:24 PM

Steve N: The signal strength / quality indicator on your Humax is one of the few devices around that does give indications more in line to that obtained if using a more professional meter, albeit that the latter's indications are in dBuV rather in percentages.

On the subject of the SDN mux on Ch29, I checked this over a period of 10 minutes or so in the Stamford area around 6.00pm this evening and its indications of both strength and quality were rock steady on a Humax box, and indicating 82% strength / 100% quality, the rather over inflated indications on a Panasonic TV being 100% on both S & Q.

By the way, to my knowledge no engineering work is being carried out anywhere at present.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
john tebbs
11:41 PM
Newark

John Tebbs Edingley. Myaerial is roof mounted and has a masthead amppifier. In fact I have two and both give the same problem. The changeover I referred to was the change in digital channels which gave a stroner signal with no pixellation for a while. Many people locally changed to Waltham from Belmont at that time but recently many have experienced weak or complete loss of signal. Is this due to 4g. I understand that a weak signal leaves me more susceptible to interference from traffic. I live close to a main road and the aerial points right down the road. I use a filter on each tele but that does not reduce the interference.

link to this comment
john tebbs's 2 posts GB flag
john's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 20 December 2013
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:03 AM

Steve N : Further to that already said, I carried out another 10 minute check at 23.00hrs and can report that the situation remains unchanged, i.e: a rock steady signal from "all" of Watham's mux transmitters including Ch29 the one in question.

Of course I am receiving the signal from a different sector on the mast and that under certain circumstances can make a difference, although I feel that your problem is not connected with anything concerning the transmission of the signal and is caused by either a faulty connection somewhere on your aerial system, the point where the coax is terminated into the aerial being a favourite spot, or on the other hand possibly being caused by factors related to the changing weather conditions as muxes are not necessarily all received at the same levels to each other, and indeed in some areas are more frequently not!

Its really a case of making a local enquiry to find out if others are also experiencing a similar problem to yourself, although most aerials I see in your area are facing towards Sutton Coldfield and not Waltham, the former indicated as providing a superior signal.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:33 PM

Michael

I am saying that analogue cannot and does not suffer from pixelation - that is a purely digital artifact. So Freeview, FreeSat and Sky can all potentially suffer from pixelation as they are digital transmissions. Before switch over, all terrestrial transmissions were in analogue format so could not have pixelation, but they did suffer from co-channel and adjacent channel interference when high pressure systems caused signals to travel further than normal- as it does also with digital transmissions as some have reported here. Sky have been digital for longer than terrestrial transmissions have.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Friday, 27 December 2013
M
Michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

12:39 AM

MikeP: I agree that analogue does not suffer with pixelation. But as I'm sure you are aware, digital terrestrial transmissions in the UK have been ongoing since 15 November 1998 according to Wikipedia.

So I'm not sure why you say that before DSO all transmissions were in analogue only - when clearly they were in both analogue and digital!

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Michael's 358 posts GB flag
M
Mike Davison
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

10:27 AM
Wetherby

Mike P: You are technically correct that Sky have been providing digital TV on satellite longer than any terrestrial service but only by 6 weeks. Considering that Sky were part of the consortium set up in 1997 to get DTT going, you could say that their partners were left in the lurch when Sky pulled out in a possible commercial attempt to scupper DTT. I am not a fan of Sky and any subscription television. My philosophy is that if they don't want to make it easy to watch their programmes, it's their loss not mine. To get back to technical matters, pixellation - so what. That's a problem with MPEG2 which is greatly reduced on the MPEG4 HD channels which have far superior definition that analogue could never match for the bandwidth used. The only analogue system that came close was the old french 819 line interlaced system(monochrome only) which needed 14 MHz per channel.

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Mike Davison's 127 posts GB flag
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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