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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
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

11:27 PM

Richard: To be clear, it's not specifically a Mendip / Beckley "clash" as such, any more than digital transmissions from them and other Main transmitter sites have to "co-exist" with analogue (& digital) main & relay transmitter sites elsewhere.
Whilst you refer to community opinion, it's a shame that other options were not suggested at that time, that said if you wanted to get the best from the digital that was available, you would probably have t0o have gone down most of the route you did, but without getting rid of the analogue at that time.
However, we are now in a different ball game. With the increase in Transmission power, a lot of people will be using equipment whose sensitivity was more appropriate for the weaker pre-DSO signals and with High-gain aerials and boosters this equipment will be grossly overloaded leading to apparent loss of reception.

In this situation, the first thing do do is remove any booster from circuit. This is much more involved if it is a 'mast-head' amp as you will need to get up to the aerial to remove it (rememmber to remove the power unit first). However, if this is not a job you are able to do yourself, I would try an attenuator at the set end first - if a mast-head amp itself is not overloaded, then attenuation at the set will solve the problem.
If it's a simple booster in the loft or at the set, just take it out of circuit and join the two halves with appropriate connectors if required.

In virtually all cases, there will be no need to fit a smaller/lower gain aerial, fitting attenuator(s) will achieve the same and is considerably cheaper than an aerial rigger and aerial!

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C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

11:54 PM

Mike Dimmick: Richard's issue is that since DSO he now has so much signal he doesn't need his high gain aerial and booster (wasted money in his eyes) - the flylead hanging out the back of the set is providing sufficient signal although I suspect that it is picking up signal being radiated from the adjacent downlead or booster.

Whilst everyone who is suffering just the loss of one MUX should check for Single frequency interference because of the channel change that occurred, in most cases where people are close to the transmitter (as most of these recent posts are) it is gross overload, so it's removal of boosters and maybe additional attenuation that is required.

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Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
Thursday, 6 October 2011
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:24 AM

Ralph: I am unclear as to why you are not receiving ITV, 4 & 5 etc now that DSO is complete when you were getting them prior to DSO. All the PSB muxes are on full power (100Kw) ITV, 4 & 5 etc are on PSB2 (D3+4) so there should be no problem. With your RF background, I assume you've checked you don't have interference on C60 (from VCR's, Sky boxes or the like) in which case you may be receiving too much signal, so remove any booster and see what results you get. I hope your neighbours are not being conned into changing their aerials if they were getting all digital channels before DSO. Some equipment (usually older) may not cope with the -ve offset being used on C60 (& C59) at Oxford. All that should now be required is removal of boosters or/and the fitting of attenuators is they are missing muxes due to overload.
The only exception to this is for those in West Swindon getting their signal from Mendip where they may not be getting Arq A & B until the increase to full power next year.

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Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:38 AM

Andrew: As you are missing 2 muxes, the distibution system may be channelised or it (or your set) may suffering overload now the powers have increased. If you are getting the SDN (COM4) mux ok, it won't have anything to do with the COM muxes being on lower power until next year, as in your location you should be able to pick up everything an a bit of wet string! Unless it's just your set suffering overload, you'll need to get onto your building/distribution system managers to get them to sort it out, but check with your neighbours first to see if they are all having the same problem.

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C
Charles
10:19 AM

I live in Bicester and post switchover was receiving all channels. As of Wednesday I no longer receive any of the channels on COM5 or COM6. When any of the channels are selected I get the "No Signal" message.

Any ideas why?


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Charles's 1 post GB flag
H
Harry
10:34 AM
Banbury

I find that I get severe pixelation starting around 1830 mostly on channels 3,4 5,6, and slightly on other channels. Everything seems fine in the daytime.Sometime the above channels are un- watchable.I have a new aerial

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Harry's 1 post GB flag
Harry's: mapH's Freeview map terrainH's terrain plot wavesH's frequency data H's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Spartan
2:41 PM

Harry, that sounds like some form of localised interference. You didn't say if it ceases later on in the evening or not.

Could be anything from a heating system switching on, to a noisy lighting device (fluorescent tube etc).

Best advice is look in your own environment first. Try temporarily switching off as much in your house as you can. By that I mean turning everything off at the mains wall socket.

If the pixelation comes and goes throughout the evening, it could be a thermostat which is arcing. So try turning off emersion heater, fridge, freezer, etc.

Other than that, you'll have to consider something one of your neighbours is running, or even a street lamp going faulty! Believe me, that has been known to happen...

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Spartan's 12 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

3:21 PM

Harry: Apart from checking for interference as Spartan has suggested, which transmitter are you actually getting your signals from, especially the ITV/4 multiplex? Check which way the aerial is pointing, also how long ago was it put in?
If it's the local Bretch Hill transmitter, then the rods should be vertical and it should be pointing roughly NW.
If it's the main Oxford transmitter, the rods will be horizontal and pointing roughly SSE, and you should also be getting all the other multiplexes OK with channels like ITV3,QVC,5*,5USA,Quest...,PickTV,Dave,Really...,Yesterday,Film4,ITV4 etc.
A quick check that you have programs 10,11,12 will tell you.
If you are not pointing at Oxford, the ITV/4 signal from Bretch Hill to you location is not good and would probably explain your problem.

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Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
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Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

3:36 PM

Robert: Are you getting programmes like ITV3, Dave, Film 4 OK?

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Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

3:40 PM

Charles: We are going to need a postcode to make any constructive comment.
What sort of aerial have you got? how old is it? Have you got a booster? Did you get all the multiplexes OK pre-DSO?

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Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
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