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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
Saturday, 5 April 2014
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:50 PM

James: they came on air yesterday, I think.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:17 PM

Iain Davies : Provided that you are within the coverage area of the directional C51 transmission then nothing of a technical nature can be done at the transmitter to stop anyone from receiving it, however could you please confirm (or not) that when you fed the signal into your Blue-ray recorder for the purpose of looping through into your TV that it was coming directly from your newly installed aerial? and that you can actually view the programme "content" (not just signal) on C51 without the amplifier in circuit.

It would also be of assistance as far as signal level assessment at your location is concerned if you could provide a post code from somewhere located nearby, plus it would also help to have knowledge of the distribution amplifiers model number and is this a newly acquired item? because apart from that said in your update the problem could be suggestive of either the amplifiers input being overloaded or even a fault in the devices input circuitry, especially when more than one device is seemingly being affected.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
I
Iain Davies
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:56 PM

Jb38, any TV feed directly from the aerial is OK all channels show 100% quality and 100% strength on the Blu-ray signal meter. Only when you add the distribution amp or try to loop through the Blu-ray recorder you lose channel 51. All the TVs and Blu-ray reconder are Panasonic (no rubbish)! I have also tried a Humax HD fox T2 with the same results.

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Iain Davies's 38 posts GB flag
Sunday, 6 April 2014
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:18 AM

Iain Davies: Although I still feel that its a bit unusual for signal overload symptoms to suddenly appear on all of your devices by simply changing the aerial, that is unless the one you were using was grossly inefficient!, however now its known that all of your devices are of the same Panasonic brand (my main TV being same) then its likely that their level of susceptibility to signal overload conditions (swamping) will be roughly the same on them all, whereas not the case with different brands.

As far as the Blue-ray recorder is concerned, passing the signal through its loop-through facility does not usually result in any amplification of the signal (or very low if it does!) although it would have been of interest to know if the C51 signal could be picked up by the Blue-ray recorders tuner before being fed into the TV via the HDMI connection rather than just using the device as a loop- through facility.

Although still being unable to assess the signal level expected at your location, but dependant on where your distribution amplifier is sited you should try a test using either a set top aerial or a short length (about 6' or so) of wire connected into its aerial input socket to see if this results in C51 appearing, if it does then you will have to purchase an attenuator such as that seen on the link and use it in line with the splitters aerial input socket, or alternatively purchase another splitter but of the passive (non-powered) type.

Just a little point about Panasonic's, the strength level indicators on these devices are inclined to be over lively compared to the reality of the situation, Humax being more in line with the actual, but should the Humax also indicate a strength of 100% then the signal level "is" excessively high.


TV Aerial Attenuator Variable 0-20Db Freeview Digital | eBay

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
I
Iain Davies
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:01 PM

Jb38, thanks for all your help. I have come to the conclusion I'm just going to feed each TV with it's own aerial, as I have spent 3 days now messing about with this. There is no problem using the Blu-ray recorder's RF in and via HDMI to the TVs.

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Iain Davies's 38 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:05 PM

Iain Davies : Fully appreciating how frustrating this type of problem must be, but though it does have to be said that faults of this nature are seldom ever cured except by trial and error and with the person suffering from usually having to make some minor purchase, and if your signal is as strong as what your report would suggest then its either a variable attenuator to place in-line with the input to the distribution amplifier, or alternatively to do away with the powered splitter and replace it with a passive version which also gives an element of attenuation to the signal.

But though, and as mentioned on a couple of occasions, its not possible to estimate the level of signal expected in a particular area with any degree of accuracy without having knowledge of a post code from somewhere nearby, as this then gives access to the reception predictor plus more importantly (in some cases) the terrain indicator.

Anyway, purely for information purposes the undermentioned link is for a relatively inexpensive 4 way passive (non-electronic) splitter of the coaxial connector type, screw "F" connectors being the norm for this type of device.


Wellco 4 Way Aerial Splitter Allows 4 TV's or other: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Monday, 7 April 2014
I
Iain Davies
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:36 PM

Jb38, it just seems very strange that the high power MUXs are OK its the low power "local" channel that is giving the trouble. I could understand if the 100kw channels were giving an overload, not the local Channel at 10kw!

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Iain Davies's 38 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:23 PM

Iain Davies: Yes, but its not the low powered 10Kw LBS that is overloading the tuner, but the swamping / desensitizing effect caused by the 100Kw main transmitters resulting the tuners auto gain circuit coming into play to avoid instability, the side effect of this being that it makes the tuner less sensitive to weaker signals whereby causing them to drop under the threshold level required for reception, hence they vanish!

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 8 April 2014
I
Iain Davies
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

6:31 PM

Jb38; thank you, problem solved!!!

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Iain Davies's 38 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:14 PM

Iain Davies: Thanks for the update!, pleased to see that you have now managed to rectify this problem.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
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