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Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter which serves 720,000 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 Mendip (Somerset, England) mast?

Mendip transmitter - Mendip 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 Mendip 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
C32 (562.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C34 (578.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (West), 4 Channel 4 (SD) South ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (West),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C35 (586.0MHz)591mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H max
C48 (690.0MHz)591mDTG-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
C33 (570.0MHz)591mDTG-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
C36 (594.0MHz)591mDTG-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

LBS
 H -10dB
C30 (546.0MHz)591mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 22nd September 2014: 7 Made in Bristol,

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 Mendip transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 25km north (3°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.
regional news image
ITV West Country News (East) 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS4 3HG, 23km north (11°)
to ITV West region - 61 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

CheddarTransposer15 km E Weston-super-Mare1674 homes
LuccombeActive deflector6 km w Minehead38 homes

How will the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20102010-132013-182013-1727 Feb 2018
C/D EEEC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C30_local
C32BBCA
C33com7com7
C34D3+4
C35com8com8
C36ArqB
C37C5wavesC5waves
C48SDNSDNSDNSDN
C49tv_off BBCABBCA
C51tv_offLBSLBS
C52tv_offArqBArqBArqB
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offArqAArqAArqACOM8tv_off
C58tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C61ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCA
C64BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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 24 Mar 10 and 7 Apr 10.

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

Analogue 1-4 500kW
Analogue 5(-6dB) 126kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
com7(-8.4dB) 72.4kW
com8(-8.6dB) 69.1kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*, LBS(-17dB) 10kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Mendip transmitter area

Jan 1958-Jul 1968Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004Harlech 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. Mendip 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, 1 August 2014
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

1:32 PM

MENDIP transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Weak Signal from 09:06 today to 10:39 today. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
M
Mike
2:56 PM

jb38 After considering using Rowridge horizontal and a very patient aerial installer to improve Com7 a high gain aerial was fitted although this improved reception but during high pressure times lost BBC &ITV so resorted to installing C/D aerial on Poole using Mendip for other channels now have signal strength of 90 quality 100 on all channels on Samsung 80 strength on You View qual 100 but can no longer get Com7 on any set.
The two aerials are connected by di-plexer or filter could this be the cause?
Signals from SW also seem blocked.

link to this comment
Mike's 1 post GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:19 PM

Mike: Yes, as each of the two inputs on the diplexer caters for a certain range of frequencies and attenuating any outside of the range, the problem being that COM7 (C33) is not in the range applicable for the reception of Mendips normal transmissions as its in the range used by Rowridge.

Unfortunately diplexer's cannot be used in situations such as this, the only option being to run individual cables from each of the two aerials.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:54 PM

Mike : In addition to that said, see if you can receive any signal if you carry out a "manual" tune on C31 Rowridges COM7 transmitter.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
M
Mike
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

6:54 PM

jb38 No chance of signal from Rowridge as aerials are now Poole for PSB and Mendip
for all others [High Pressure does not affect Mendip fog sometimes will not a real problem]

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Mike's 29 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:44 PM

Mike: In that case, then there is no reason why you cannot receive Mendip's COM7, that is unless the signal level received on C33 is that low that the slight loss introduced by the diplexer is enough to cause it to drop under the threshold for reception.

Of course DUK's reception predictor does not indicate that you can receive any signal from the COM7 transmitter at your location, although the predictor might not have been updated since COM7 increased in power from 17.5 Kw up to the level presently indicated of 72.35Kw compared to the six other Muxes on 100Kw, 72.35Kw not being exactly low powered compared to the differential on some other main stations, e.g: Rowridges (H) PSB's on 200Kw whereas its COM7 is only on 24.41Kw. References to power outputs taken from that indicated by DUK.

On the subject of the diplexer, hindsight is a great thing! insomuch that it might have been better if the aerial installer had just fitted an aerial combiner rather than diplexer, as then the only attenuation would have been the slight insertion loss as the signals passed though the device rather than on each of the two group determined inputs.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
M
mike
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:54 PM

jb38: Thanks for all your help .I understand the situation better now . Will have to talk to installer to arrange another visit .Will let you know the outcome.

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mike's 29 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:40 PM

Mike

One possible solution that might be worth considering is the use of a coaxial switch. That will allow the siognals from both sources to be selected and fed to the euipment without significant reduction - but at the penalty of having to operate the switch to connect to the different source.

I used that method when I lived in Swindon and could get signals from both Mendip and Oxford - but not strongly enough to pass through a diplexer well enough for good reliable results.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
A
Anna Gulderen
10:02 PM
London

MikeP: I can only receive BBC channels itv, channel 4 etc have gone and when I retune it's the sAme. Everything was ok before apart from crashing from time to time.

link to this comment
Anna Gulderen's 1 post GB flag
Anna's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 2 August 2014
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:07 AM

mike: Yes, please do, as I will be interested on what's been said.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
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