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Full Freeview on the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.790,-1.179 or 51°47'25"N 1°10'46"Wsa_postcodeOX3 9SS

 

The symbol shows the location of the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmitter which serves 410,000 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 Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) mast?

Oxford transmitter - Oxford 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 Oxford 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
C41+ (634.2MHz)295mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South (Oxford), 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
C44- (657.8MHz)295mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian/Central (Thames Valley micro region)), 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 (Central west),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)295mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South (Oxford), 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 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 -3dB
C29 (538.0MHz)295mDTG-850,000W
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 -3dB
C37- (601.8MHz)319mDTG-850,000W
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 -3dB
C31 (554.0MHz)319mDTG-850,000W
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

LOX
 H -10dB
C46 (674.0MHz)295mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 22nd December 2014: 7 That's Oxford,

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 Oxford transmitter?

regional news image
BBC South (Oxford) Today 0.4m homes 1.6%
from Oxford OX2 7DW, 6km west-southwest (258°)
to BBC South (Oxford) region - 6 masts.
BBC South (Oxford) Today shares 50% content with Southampton service
regional news image
ITV Meridian News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Whiteley PO15 7AD, 102km south (182°)
to ITV Meridian/Central (Thames Valley) region - 15 masts.
Thames Valley opt-out from Meridian (South). All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian+Oxford

How will the Oxford (Oxfordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-1723 May 2018
VHFC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D EC/D E TW TW T
C2BBCtvwaves
C29SDN
C31com7com7
C37com8com8
C41BBCA
C44D3+4
C46_local
C47BBCB
C49tv_offC5wavesC5waves
C50tv_off SDNSDN
C51tv_offLOXLOX
C53tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves+BBCA+BBCA+BBCA
C55tv_offArqBArqBArqBcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C57tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C59tv_off-ArqA-ArqA-ArqA
C60tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves-D3+4-D3+4-D3+4
C62SDN
C63BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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 14 Sep 11 and 28 Sep 11.

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

Analogue 1-4 500kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 50kW
Analogue 5(-11dB) 40kW
com8(-14.7dB) 17.1kW
com7(-14.8dB) 16.4kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, LOX(-17dB) 10kW
Mux C*, Mux D*(-18dB) 8kW
Mux A*, Mux B*(-19.2dB) 6kW

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

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Dec 2006Central Independent Television
Dec 2006-Feb 2009ITV Thames Valley
Feb 2009-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. Oxford 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
Tuesday, 14 July 2020
Thursday, 10 September 2020
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:27 PM

OXFORD transmitter - DAB: Off the air due to essential engineering from 9 Sep 01:00 until 9 Sep 02:50. . FM: Slightly reduced power due to essential engineering from 10 Sep 12:28 until 10 Sep 12:31. Off the air due to essential engineering from 9 Sep 01:00 until 9 Sep 02:5 [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Friday, 11 September 2020
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:28 AM

OXFORD transmitter - DAB: Off the air due to essential engineering from 9 Sep 01:00 until 9 Sep 02:50. . FM: Slightly reduced power due to essential engineering from 10 Sep 11:59 until 10 Sep 12:28. Off the air due to essential engineering from 9 Sep 01:00 until 9 Sep 02:5 [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Wednesday, 16 September 2020
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:33 AM

OXFORD transmitter - DAB: Off the air due to essential engineering from 9 Sep 01:00 until 9 Sep 02:50. . FM: Slightly reduced power due to essential engineering from 10 Sep 12:28 until 10 Sep 12:31. . [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Tuesday, 29 September 2020
R
Richard
2:06 PM

After the demise of com8 i was hoping for a better signal but channel 55 com7 signal from Oxford is rubbish - the power remains so much less than the main channels.

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Richard's 8 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:52 PM

Richard:

If you provide a full postcode we can look at your predicted reception from both Sutton Coldfield and Oxford.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Saturday, 13 February 2021
B
Bernard Martin
10:31 PM

I don't understand it. There have been two FREEVIEW channel updates recently and I see I can now again get BBCHDNews on Freeview CH107 (MPX Com7 transmitted on low power from Beckley). I lost all the COM7 channels from mid to late 2020 and had assumed the reorganisation meant that that was the end of that.

So why can I receive COM7 again. Using a wideband highgain aerial with high signal strength (10) and low dropout on most of the other channels. So no changes here.

Be good to have an explanation please?


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Bernard Martin's 4 posts GB flag
Sunday, 14 February 2021
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:36 PM

Bernard Martin:

You may have been able to receive COM7 a while ago but not noticed.
As you probably know, COM7 is a temporary multiplex, which will close by the end of June 2022 (as per the current licence) if not before. The frequency it uses is allocated for Mobile "SDL" usage. IF when the 700MHz frequencies are sold (due soon), any MNO that buys those particular frequencies will need to develop cell equipment, and suitable handsets need to be available as well. This will take time, but as soon as an operator is ready to use the frequencies, 3 months notice may be given for COM7 to close.
The only other reason COM7 may close earlier is for commercial reasons as Arqiva decided for COM8 last June.

COM7 operates as Single Frequency Network (SFN) on UHF C55 along with the other 25 main transmitters that still transmit it. This means there will be some locations where the signal you get is affected by other transmitters, so if any of those signals are off-air or low due to transmitter maintenance or faults, this can change your reception.
If you happen to retune (or the set auto-retunes) when there is no or very weak signal, it usually just clears the correct tuning, and you may not get the signals until a further retune. If those signals are normally weak, auto-retune wil sometimes miss them, so a manual retune on UHF C55 should be tried.

Hope that information helps.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
B
Bernard Martin
9:52 PM

Chris.SE: Thanks for the response. I certainly did notice and was able to receive COM7 channels for some considerable time (years) up to late summer last year. Previous attempts to retune usually lose the channels on the MPX, and weather conditions can affect reception/tuning. As we speak, the MPX is unavailable again. I've never quite appreciated why Ch 106 & 107 haven't been reallocated to the higher power MPXs, but I 'm only a humble member of the public and recall reading somewhere that the channels on COM7 are lower priority or have lower viewing figures which isn't surprising as they are transmitted on lower power! Cheers.

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Bernard Martin's 4 posts GB flag
Monday, 15 February 2021
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:53 PM

Bernard Martin:

The reason those HD channels aren't on other multiplexes is simply there is no space for them and there is only the BBCB mux that is HD and also the other factor is cost. Because of the reduced coverage and temporary nature of COM7 it is considerably cheaper for Broadcasters on that multiplex. Many of us are hoping that one of the other muxs will get converted to HD/T2 broadcasts in the not too distant future, but there's no indication that will happen.

The other thing I should have remembered to mention is HDMI interference. Check that you don't have any HDMI leads close to any aerial or flyleads, especially if the aerial and flyleads aren't high quality double screened types. HDMI is known to sometimes cause interference, especially to C55 (COM7). It's an easy thing to forget when a problem looks as though it's a reception issue. That said, if you provide a full postcode we can look at the predicted reception in your locale.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
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