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

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps55.861,-3.874 or 55°51'40"N 3°52'27"Wsa_postcodeML7 4NZ

 

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
Saturday, 19 October 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:00 PM

John:

You have BBCB on 530MHz which is UHF28 because you are picking it up from Darvel and it's lower power than Black Hill as well as further away, this will not be helping.
What wasn't clear is how long you've had the problem, if it's just since a retune in/since September when only the Local mux moved, then you've been unlucky.

It's also possible your aerial is not pointing in quite the direction it should be, although the beam-width may be sufficient to allow sufficient reception from Darvel. Can you not at least check the angle your aerial is pointing?
It should be 16deg. S of E (106deg) for Black Hill. Darvel is 178deg. almost due S.

I suggest that you unplug the aerial and do an automatic tune - this should clear all previous tuning as no signals are being received. Then plug the aerial back in and do a manual tune for each of the UHF channels from Black Hill. You should see channels from the coverage checker, but for clarity they are - Ch.no:(MHz) -
46 (674), 43 (650), 40 (626), 41+ (634.167), 44 (658), 47 (682), 55 (746), 56 (754), 30 (546) in the order
PSB1/BBCA, PSB2/D3&4, PSB3/BBCB, COM4/SDN, COM5/ArqA, COM6/ArqB, COM7, COM8, Local.

If you want to convert UHF channel number to MHz at any time see Help | Freeview


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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
J
John
8:58 PM

Thanks again Chris . Cheers

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John's 19 posts GB flag
Sunday, 20 October 2019
J
John
12:58 PM

Hi Chris, I've checked alignment and it is same as others in the street , approx 106, it could be 103, would that have an influence? Magnetic of course.

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John's 19 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:24 PM

John:

That minor difference is unlikely to make much difference. But once you are tuned to the correct transmitter, as I'd said previously, it may be a case of experimenting and if you can't get to your aerial easily, it's difficult to say what might be best.
From your location, what direction is the runway in and where they touch down?
Do any of your neighbours get a similar problem?

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
J
John
7:29 PM

The runway is approx. 230-240 degrees, and sorry for any confusion but the signal disappears when the aircraft are overhead or approaching my house or maybe just past. They approach from approx. 50 to 60 degrees. Is it possible that the vortex or vortices could cause an issue? Thanks for all your help so far.

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John's 19 posts GB flag
Thursday, 24 October 2019
J
John
10:14 AM

An update. I have retuned and all channels are from Blackhill now. Haven't spoken to my neighbours yet. The only problem seems to be 626MHz which when a plane goes over during landing, not so bad with takeoffs, the signal strength remains at 99% but the signal quality drops to 0%. With the other mux/ channels signal quality either doesn't drop or only drops a little, but picture remains good. Of course I can watch these channels, HD on 626, on standard definition but would rather have HD, if we can solve this. Cheers

link to this comment
John's 19 posts GB flag
J
John
4:44 PM

Hi Chris, one of my neighbours has the same issue, the other is still on holiday.

link to this comment
John's 19 posts GB flag
Friday, 25 October 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:21 AM

John:

I assume from what you've said your neighbour's issue is with the same HD mux. It's strange that it affects that one the way it does and not the others. I'd doubt it has anything to do with vortices, it's most like this is due to multipath reflections and digital TV transmission is usually more resilient than analogue was. Large metal objects like aircraft make good signal reflectors!

The cure, if possible, will most likely be down to how much time (and money) you might be willing to spend on the problem. Moving the aerial and/or having a more complicated and direction aerial installation MIGHT solve it, but it may not.
First thing to consider trying would be is there a location for an aerial where you still have line of sight to the transmitter but the house shields the aerial from reflections from the aircraft?
Do you know what type and make of aerial you have at present?

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
J
John
6:08 PM

Sorry I seem to have lost a post. It said thanks Chris. The type of aerial is similar to labgear 10 element professional high gain, small differences but 10 elements. I think I will try my local aerial engineer and see if he can fix it knowing what we've discovered without trial and error. If not I can probably live with Standard Definition on these channels. Many thanks for your help in raising my understanding and good luck. Keep up the good work.
Cheers

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John's 19 posts GB flag
Saturday, 26 October 2019
J
John
7:34 PM

One thing I think is strange is why only 626MHz, the other mux's seem ok, maybe they have enough quality to begin with, so don't drop out completely. Does this mean I only have to find a way to increase the quality of 626 MHz? The signal strength doesn't drop out in any of the channels.

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John's 19 posts GB flag
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