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

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

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55.861,-3.874 or 55°51'40"N 3°52'27"W

ML7 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 22/04/2024 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 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C46 (674.0MHz)	576m	DTG-	100,000W
	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)	576m	DTG-	100,000W
	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)	576m	DTG-	100,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C41+ (634.2MHz)	576m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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	C44 (658.0MHz)	576m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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	C47 (682.0MHz)	576m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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
LG	H -13dB	C30 (546.0MHz)	576m	DTG-12	5,000W
	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?

BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 26km west (271°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.

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 A	Transposer	22 km NW Oban	15 homes
Balquhidder	Transposer	12 km NW Callander	42 homes
Benmore B	Active deflector	50 m WNW Glasgow	7 homes
Blair Drummond	Transposer		5 homes caravan park
Blyth Bridge	Active deflector	30 km SW Edinburgh	50 homes
Glendaruel	Active deflector	40 hotel	40 homes hotel
Glendaruel B	Active deflector		12 homes (second level)

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

	1957-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2011	2011-13	3 Oct 2018
	VHF	B E T	B E T	B E T	E T	W T
C10	ITV_waves
C30						_local
C32						com7
C35						com8
C37			C5_waves	C5_waves
C40		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBCB	BBCB
C41					+SDN	SDN
C43		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C44					ArqA	ArqA
C46		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C47					ArqB	ArqB
C50_{tv_off}		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves
C51_{tv_off}						LG
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}					_local	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 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

Local transmitter maps

Black Hill Freeview Black Hill DAB Black Hill TV region BBC Scotland STV Central (Glasgow micro region)

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

Aug 1957-Jun 1997	Scottish Television
Jun 1997-Dec 2014	STV 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

10:12 PM

Scott: 'Central Scotland' means all the transmitters in the Central Scotland group, not just . Black Hill (and relay transmitters) map | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

I

ian
10:14 PM

central scotland is the name blackhill transmits as on digiboxes/tv's. it changed from blackhill about 2 years ago

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ian's 10 posts GB flag

S

Scott

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

10:47 PM

: Does the Central Scotland group mean Blackhill and its relays or does it include other transmitters located in the central part of Scotland?

Ian: Do other transmitters in central Scotland such as and also shown the name 'Central Scotland' of is this name exclusive to the Blackhill group?

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Scott's 110 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

8:09 AM

Scott: The multiplexes are created on a -by-region basis, and so all transmitters that have the same provide the same name, as the equipment at the transmitters does not have the ability to change the " name" part of the DVB-T transmission.

For this reason, the whole of was called "" for some years. About two years ago, the names were all changed to the name of the area (like "Central Scotland") because Digital UK got as sick as we did here explaining that when the box said a transmitter name, it was often "lying".

The situation is made much worse at , because the hundreds of transmitters start carrying the name too.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

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Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:23 PM

Scott, Ian: STV provide a '' (Glasgow) and 'East' () service on . These match the advertising sales macro-regions. On Freeview, the 'West' advertising micro- transmits from , and while 'East' transmits from . STV also transmit different versions of News at Six for Glasgow and Edinburgh (according to STV Player).

I don't know whether Craigkelly transmits a different region ID, though.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

Briantist

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

2:36 PM

See also SMG Television Sales Micro Regions .

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag

S

Scott

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

6:38 PM

Thanks. Can I ask the question in a different way. I am trying to work out if my friend is receiving from Blackhill or . The display says 'Central Scotland'. Is there any way of knowing which group the signal is coming from? Thanks

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Scott's 110 posts GB flag

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:55 PM

Scott: The easiest way to verify where a is coming from is, whilst viewing the signal in question go into the tuning menu of either the TV or set top box being used and click on "check signal" or "signal condition" etc, as that section will also indicate the MUX channel number associated with that particular signal / indication.

You then crosscheck this number with the MUX used by the two transmitters you are querying, these obtainable on this or a multitude of other sites.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

S

Scott

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

9:41 PM

Thanks. I'll do that. It seems pretty confusing to use the term 'Central Scotland' on screen when the booklet issued by UK refers to the as 'STV Central' and the groups as , , , and . A consistent approach to terminology would be useful.

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Scott's 110 posts GB flag

I

ian
7:57 PM

the apprentice on bbc hd is being broadcast in 1080p according to my sony 32ex403 tv. is this right? i thought was all 1080i!

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ian's 10 posts GB flag

Page 23

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.

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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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