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Full Freeview on the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmitter which serves 940,000 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 Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) mast?

Black Hill transmitter - Black Hill 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 Black Hill 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
C46 (674.0MHz)576mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) Scotland, 2 BBC Two Scotland, 7 BBC Alba HD, 23 BBC Three, 24 BBC Four (Scotland SD), 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 13 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C43 (650.0MHz)576mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 STV (SD) (STV Central (Glasgow micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Scotland ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Scotland ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (STV Edinburgh), 35 STV+1 (STV Edinburgh),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C40 (626.0MHz)576mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD Scotland, 102 BBC Two HD Scotland, 103 ITV 1 HD (STV West), 103 STV HD (STV West), 104 Channel 4 HD Scotland ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 108 BBC Scotland HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H max
C41+ (634.2MHz)576mDTG-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
C44 (658.0MHz)576mDTG-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
C47 (682.0MHz)576mDTG-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

LG
 H -13dB
C30 (546.0MHz)576mDTG-125,000W
Channel icons
from 2nd June 2014: 8 STV Glasgow,

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 Black Hill transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 26km west (271°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.
regional news image
STV News 1.3m homes 4.8%
from Glasgow G51 1PQ, 26km west (271°)
to STV Central (Glasgow) region - 94 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

Ardtornish ATransposer22 km NW Oban15 homes
BalquhidderTransposer12 km NW Callander42 homes
Benmore BActive deflector50 m WNW Glasgow7 homes
Blair DrummondTransposer5 homes caravan park
Blyth BridgeActive deflector30 km SW Edinburgh50 homes
GlendaruelActive deflector40 hotel40 homes hotel
Glendaruel BActive deflector12 homes (second level)

How will the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?

1957-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-133 Oct 2018
VHFB E TB E TB E TE TW T
C10ITVwaves
C30_local
C32com7
C35com8
C37C5wavesC5waves
C40BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCB
C41+SDNSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C44ArqAArqA
C46BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C47ArqBArqB
C50tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C51tv_offLG
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_off_localCOM8tv_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 8 Jun 11 and 22 Jun 11.

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

Analogue 1-5 500kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
com7(-10.7dB) 42.9kW
com8(-11.1dB) 39.2kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-14dB) 20kW
LG(-20dB) 5kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Black Hill transmitter area

Aug 1957-Jun 1997Scottish Television
Jun 1997-Dec 2014STV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.

Comments
Thursday, 8 November 2018
R
Rupert
5:39 PM

MikeP, thanks for your replies and for clearing up my misconception about interference when adjacent transmitters use the same frequencies. I had thought this was causing poor signal quality on COM7 and COM8 after the recent retunes.

A Freeview engineer said signal quality was fine but fitted a filter in the aerial lead to remove interference from 4g mobile transmitters. Seems fine now.

I'm still puzzled as to how moving COM7 and COM8 INTO the 700 MHz band is supposed to contribute to 700 Mhz CLEARANCE. Seems counterintuitive!

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Rupert's 3 posts US flag
Friday, 9 November 2018
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:38 AM

Rupert:

After 2022, or thereabouts, they will not exist at all so will not be in the 700MHz band. 5G is not expected to be generally available until at least 2022 so those multiplexes will not cause any problems as they will be removed in time for the 5G service.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
R
Rupert
8:50 PM

Thanks again, MikeP, but I still don't see how moving COM7 and COM8 from the 500 MHz band into the 700 MHz band is a good idea, even if they will cease to exist in four years time. Why move them at all? What was wrong with leaving them well alone? Still, I suppose it provides employment security for Freeview's engineers!

link to this comment
Rupert's 3 posts US flag
Saturday, 10 November 2018
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:19 PM

Rupert:

The clearance of the 700 MHz band requires a large number of changes to the transmission scheme so that all the required transmissions could be fitted into the frequency spectrum remaining after the move out of the 700 MHz band. That all takes time so Arqiva started several months ago moving some channels to accommodate the reduction in spectrum available after 5G starts. To do that it was necessary to separate out some services into what are called Single Frequency Networks and that is why almost all of the COM7 and COM8 services are on channels 55 and 56 for now. Only 30 of the main transmitters carry those signals.

When it is deemed that most viewers have equipment that is capable of receiving and displaying the DVB-T2 transmission needed for HD services then there will be further work by Arqiva to bring the programme services that are currently on COM7 and COM8 onto the multiplexes that are below 700 MHz. That cannot be done as yet because too many viewers are unable to receive and display HD programmes due to limitations of their equipment (it is necessary to use equipment that is defined as Freeview HD and not 'HD ready' as that only means the screen can show HD but there is no HD decoder built in!). The DVB-T2 encoding is capable of carrying more data, so can be used to broadcast more channels within a multiplex than is possible with the current DVB-T encoding used for the SD multiplexes at present. That will mean fewer multiplexes will be needed and hence COM7 and COM8 will become redundant, so can be switched off to free up the 700 MHz band. So people can expect more changes over the coming three years or so and that's why most are recommending viewers use a wideband aerial that will be able to receive all the current and future transmissions. That aerial could be a conventional type based on the Yagi design of a log-periodic type, both types cover the whole of the allocated UHF frequency spectrum. That means there will not be any need to change the aerial in future.

Hope that clarifies a rather complex subject?



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Monday, 12 November 2018
S
Scott
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:11 PM

Why is a wideband aerial recommended? If the top part of the band is to be used for 5G would you not then be left with an aerial that is designed to pick up unwanted signals? I would have thought an aerial optimised for the lower channels would be better (provided 55 and 56 are still tolerable).

link to this comment
Scott's 110 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 13 November 2018
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:48 AM

Scott:

The usage of channels 55 and 56 is purely temporary on 30 of the main transmitters until sometime in 2022, when the programmes using the COM7 and COM8 multiplexes will be moved to other locations. 5G will not gain access to the 700 MHz+ band until it has been cleared of all TV broadcasts in 2022. Until then many viewers need a wideband aerial to get those two multiplexes as most non-wideband aerials designed for Group A or Group B are very poor at receiving 'out of band' signals at higher frequencies. If you never want to watch any of the programmes broadcast on COM7 or COM8 then you probably don't need a wideband aerial.

After the changes expected in 2022 the requiremnet will change so you will need an aerial that covers the frequencies between 470 MHz and 695 MHz (channels 21 to 49). The current design of wideband aerials will work perfectly adequately over that range but newer designs may appear will a lower top end cutoff frequency - but they are not suitable for use with the current channel allocation scheme.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Monday, 10 December 2018
S
steven harper
3:36 PM
Edinburgh

ariel on roof .. can you keep me with transmitter updates please

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steven harper's 2 posts GB flag
steven's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:07 PM

steven harper: The only changes to have taken place at Black Hill are that COM7 & COM8 have moved to UHF channels 55 & 56 and the local mux has moved to UHF channel 30. There are no further changes planned according to Digital UK.

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StevensOnln1's 3,606 posts GB flag
Saturday, 22 December 2018
G
Gary Gemmell
1:03 PM
Glasgow

Lost all channels on COM8
Forces tv will be sadly missed no Starsky and Hutch what am i going to do lol

link to this comment
Gary Gemmell's 2 posts GB flag
Gary's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
G
Gary Gemmell
1:07 PM
Glasgow

Newton Mearns - Blackhill transmitter

All channels on COM8 gone since October
Also strangely at the same tme both my LG tv's show no aerial icon on the main menu
Presumably these tv's drop the icon when the power is not enough
Funny though when the aerial is plugged into the youview dn370 and 372t the signal strength on ch4 is 100% and quality around 82%
LG TV Issue perhaps?
Seen a lot of people mention it in the forums suspecting a damaged I/O board but it isnt its a single issue - happened around same time as i lost COM8.

Switching to my motorised satellite dish for freesat now - freeview is just too unreliable now!

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Gary Gemmell's 2 posts GB flag
Gary's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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