Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter

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

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52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"W

B75 5JJ

The symbol shows the location of the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter which serves 1,870,000 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 Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) mast?

Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 15/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering 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 Sutton Coldfield 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	H max	C43 (650.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) West Midlands, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 19 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C46 (674.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (West 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	C40+ (626.2MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West 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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C42 (642.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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 max	C45 (666.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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 max	C39+ (618.2MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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
LB	H -13dB	C48 (690.0MHz)	433m	DTG-12	10,000W
	from 31st October 2014: 7 Big Centre 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 Sutton Coldfield transmitter?

BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.

ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 15km south-southwest (201°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)

Are there any self-help relays?

Burton (shobnall)	Transposer	1 km W Burton-on-Trent	60 homes
Coalville	Transposer	18 km NW Leicester	600 homes
Solihull	Transposer	Land Rover building	400 homes

How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1950s-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2011	2011-13	7 Mar 2018
	VHF	B E T	B E T	B E T	B E K T	W T
C4	BBCtv_waves
C33						com7
C35						com8
C36						LOCAL2
C39					+ArqB	ArqB
C40		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C42					SDN	SDN
C43		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C45					ArqA	ArqA
C46		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C48						_local
C50_{tv_off}		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves
C51_{tv_off}						LB
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 Sep 11 and 21 Sep 11.

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

Analogue 1-4	1000kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 200kW
com7	(-10.5dB) 89.2kW
com8	(-10.7dB) 86kW
LB	(-20dB) 10kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-21dB) 8kW

Local transmitter maps

Sutton Coldfield Freeview Sutton Coldfield DAB Sutton Coldfield AM/FM Sutton Coldfield TV region BBC West Midlands Central (West micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area

Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004	Central Independent Television
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. Sutton Coldfield 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?

P

peter dennis
3:59 PM
Coventry

hello help desk
We live in cv8 1ap and have a and a [I think some years ago for channel 5]
We have a 2yrs old humaxFreeview digital recorder HDR-FOXT2 - we have tried a RESET and manually setting the channels as per HUMAX intructions'
Generally this cures ALL but as of now we are not receiving any BBC channels as the signal was too low to download
The 3yr old LED HD TV has been working fine for several years but in the last 6 months or so there has been severe pixalating ; however this is some times the BBS channels/ sometime the ITV channels and sometime for the remaining channels

I read on your UKFREE TV WEBSITE that we should do a reset/update

CAN YOU PLEASE
PETER
0926854972

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peter dennis's 1 post GB flag

peter's: ...

M

MikeP

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

2:51 PM
Trowbridge

Peter Dennis:

This website offers assistance with problems, but it is not the Help service. That can be found at

Further support | Freeview I suspect many of the regular contributors to this independent website may well have some ideas about your problem.

According to the dta given via the 'digitaluk trade' link you are just 1 km from the and 33 km from the transmitter. At those distances it is probable that you do not need a and that could be the cause of your problems, try using it without the booster in circuit by replacing it with a simple 'straight through' coupler. Also check which transmitter you are actually tune into by checking the numbers of the multiplexes being received - it is possible that it has picked up the wrong transmitter, Sutton Coldfield being at 328 degrees and Kenilworth at 90 degrees. You can check where your is pointing with the aid of a compass.

Let us know the results of these checks and if needed we may have more ideas to offer.

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MikeP's 215 posts GB flag

MikeP's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

10:36 AM

- Possible service interruptions [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,643 posts xx flag

H

hayley rogers
9:12 AM
Nuneaton

Is there any issues with the coalfield as I have
completely lost all my post code is cv10 8bb please could you let me know thanks hayley rogers.

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hayley rogers's 1 post GB flag

hayley's: ...

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

9:09 AM

- Possible weak [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,643 posts xx flag

A

Angela Hall
8:52 AM
Coventry

CV4 7EJ
: on about Monday on on free view became sporadic. We have no new electrical devices in the house to cause and all 3 televisions are affected but to varying severity. The worst affected tv makes even watching Bbc 1 difficult with constant sticking/juddering. Our main TV and the other in our sons bedroom are OK for the main 5 but channels like Dave ja vu and Spike and a few others are pixelating severely and have become totally unwatchable. I tried to retune but it makes little difference. The problems all started at the same time on all TVs so is it something we can fix or is it there a problem with the transmitter (I think we are connected to the transmitter). We have an on the and appears undamaged and still facing the usual way.
Angela

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Angela Hall's 1 post GB flag

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

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

1:33 PM

- : BBC National DAB Radio Weak from 11:13 today. [BBC] Possible weak signal [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:40 PM

- : BBC National DAB Radio Weak from 11:13 today to 14:17 today. [BBC] Possible weak signal [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,643 posts xx flag

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:54 PM

Angela Hall: is listed on the page under the status of "possible weak ", therefore its most inadvisable to carry out a retune on any of your Freeview devices whilst the is operating in this state as programme already stored might be lost, as the level required to store a channel is generally higher than that required to view it if already stored, a peculiarity of .

As far as some of your devices receiving OK and others not is concerned, Freeview receivers vary in sensitivity between different brands / models etc, and so I wouldn't place to much importance to this "if" said devices are all fed from a powered distribution .

Needless to say, the problem will be rectified in due course on completion of the engineering work being carried out.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:32 AM

- : BBC National DAB Radio Weak from 11:13 yesterday to 14:17 yesterday. [BBC] Possible weak signal [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,643 posts xx flag

Page 265

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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