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Full Freeview on the Fenton (Stoke-on-Trent, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps53.003,-2.146 or 53°0'11"N 2°8'46"Wsa_postcodeST4 2NX

 

The symbol shows the location of the Fenton (Stoke-on-Trent, England) transmitter which serves 130,000 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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Fenton (Stoke-on-Trent, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Fenton 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
 V max
C24 (498.0MHz)251mDTG-2,000W
Channel icons
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
 V max
C27 (522.0MHz)251mDTG-2,000W
Channel icons
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
 V max
C21+ (474.2MHz)251mDTG-2,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 V -3dB
C25 (506.0MHz)251mDTG-81,000W
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
 V -3dB
C22+ (482.2MHz)251mDTG-81,000W
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
 V -3dB
C28 (530.0MHz)251mDTG-81,000W
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

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Fenton transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 61km south-southeast (164°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 61km south-southeast (164°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)

How will the Fenton (Stoke-on-Trent, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-137 Mar 2018
A K TA K TA K TA K TW T
C21C4wavesC4wavesC4waves+BBCBBBCB
C22+ArqAArqA
C24ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C25SDNSDN
C27BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesD3+4D3+4
C28ArqBArqB
C29_local_local
C31BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C32com7
C34com8
C35C5wavesC5waves
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_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 1-5 10kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 2kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 1000W
com7, com8(-18.5dB) 140W
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*(-20dB) 100W
Mux C*, Mux D*(-23dB) 50W

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

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent 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. Fenton 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
Friday, 6 August 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:49 AM

Fenton transmitter - Fenton transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 02/08/2021 Screen may go black on some or all channels [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Sunday, 8 August 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:50 PM

Fenton transmitter - Fenton transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 09/08/2021 Screen may go black on some or all channels [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Monday, 30 August 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

2:26 PM

Fenton transmitter - Fenton transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 30/08/2021 Screen may go black on all or certain channels [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Monday, 6 September 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:23 AM

Fenton transmitter - Fenton transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 06/09/2021 Screen may go black on all or certain channels [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Monday, 13 September 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:23 AM

Fenton transmitter - Fenton transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 13/09/2021 Screen may go black on all or certain channels [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Saturday, 25 December 2021
D
Dan T
6:38 PM

Is anyone else having issues with stations on C55 / COM7? A recording of BBC Four HD on the 13th came out unwatchable. Since then I can't pick up any of those channels, and they don't appear on a rescan; forcing C55 gives zero signal strength. Same for several TVs and tvheadend.

I'm a few miles from the transmitter with a relatively new aerial and coax (~4 years). The other multiplexes give 75-80% signal strength - though they are 1-2kW.

Perhaps related to things being phased out for 5G? Though the official Freeview site and the BBC's checker both imply the channels should still be available.

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Dan T's 7 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:36 PM

Dan T: COM7 is still broadcasting from 25 transmitters (it was originally broadcast from 30 but 5 closed during 700MHz clearance) and no closure date has been announced, although COM7's licence is currently set to expire on 30th June 2022. The recent weather conditions may have had some impact, although if a new or upgraded 5G mast has been switched on near you that could be causing interference, as the frequencies either side COM7 are now beginning to be used by the mobile networks following the completion on the 700MHz auction earlier this year.

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StevensOnln1's 3,605 posts GB flag
Sunday, 26 December 2021
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:12 AM

Dan T:

Hi Dan. My suspicion is it was most likely weather conditions as StevensOnln1 has mentioned COM7 is still being transmitted from Fenton. Whilst mobile interference can't be ruled out, you should have received a communication from "restoretv.uk" if a new mobile mast operating in the 700MHz band is likely to cause you interference.

There had been moderate Temperature Inversion/Tropospheric Ducting affecting large parts of the UK for several days (pretty well a good week IIRC), it sometimes accompanies high pressure.
In such conditions, do NOT retune, it will more likely remove your correct tuning. It may even leave you incorrectly tuned to distant transmitters whose signals then disappear as conditions change.

Essentially it results in interfering signals from other transmitters in the UK or Europe reaching you and so your wanted signals are disrupted, and of course ability to receive signals from transmitters further afield that are on different frequencies. It can/did also affect FM and DAB.
It won't necessarily affect all multiplexes or necessarily at the same time if more than one. It can last for seconds, minutes, sometimes hours or longer.

These conditions cleared the UK by Thursday morning.
Despite the incorrect spelling, this link does work - simple technical explanation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/rec….jpg

Since Thursday conditions seem to have returned to normal, so if you haven't tried a manual retune for C55 since then I would give it another go. Also make sure you don't have any HDMI leads close to your aerial or fly-leads (especially if the latter aren't double screened coax) as HDMI has been known to cause interference especially to C55.

What figures does the Freeview Detailed predictor give for your COM7, and does the BBC one say variable or good?

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
D
Dan T
3:07 PM
Stoke-on-trent

Hi both, thanks for the responses.

Regarding not retuning yet, it's a bit late for that. :) (In some cases auto-retuning takes place).
Tvheadend will keep the existing stations until I delete them myself. If I tune to one of the channels on C55 and then check the status it shows a signal strength of 65%, but with countless errors. After a while, perhaps a second of garbled video/audio.
If I try and manual tune of the regular TVs to C55, they show 0% strength.
No new cabling/things moved around (mains, HDMI etc).

The official Freeview checker says "Good" signal strength for my postcode.
I've had nothing through the door from restoretv.uk, and checking on their site implies there shouldn't be an issue at my postcode.
The predictor here at ukfree.tv/prediction lists all the channels for my postcode. The map also shows an EE mast being almost directly between myself and the Fenton transmitter, but much closer. EE's coverage checker says weak 5G outdoors here - though I don't know if that particular mast is 5G, anyway.

Checking back on my older posts here - it looks like I was getting 70% on C55 in May 2018 so perhaps they were always borderline for me.

I only use this multiplex to record BBC Four HD maybe once a month to watch back without the iPlayer watermark in the corner - otherwise it's no great loss to me. I'll keep half an eye on it and see if it reappears or if ukfree.tv thinks I need a filter after all.

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Dan T's 7 posts GB flag
Dan's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 27 December 2021
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:28 PM

Dan T:

Just one point of clarification, it doesn't matter whether it's 5G or 4G etc., it's whether it's transmitting in the 700MHz band. Some of those transmissions from some MNOs can be 4G. The MNOs coverage maps don't usually give an indication as to what band(s) a particular mast is transmitting on. There are some sources that do give some idea, but they aren't always up-to-date as they rely on users updating the data. Whether StevensOnln1 can tell us any good sites in that respect, I don't' know.

I would turn off any auto-retune where you can, it's more trouble than it's worth and there's no real benefit to it. If something changes on any of the COM muxes, you'll normally get an on-screen pop-up message telling you.

It might be worth just checking what sort of strengths you get with the aerial direct to one set, just as some sort of reference, can always be useful to check the amps aren't playing up as well.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
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