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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
_______

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
Thursday, 6 October 2011
B
Boa Gongrui
8:30 PM

I cant get channel 53
the signal strength is 68%
The quality 98%

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Boa Gongrui's 15 posts GB flag
Friday, 7 October 2011
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

7:06 AM

Boa Gongrui: If you mean EPG - LCN 53 on the HD mux then that is S4C which you only get from the Welsh transmitters as it is primarily Welsh.
If you mean UHF C53 for the PSB1 (BBCA) mux then there are several links in the yellow box below you should try -
Do the "Freeview reset procedure" first and then if you still have a problem look at "Single frequency interference"

link to this comment
Chris.SE's 251 posts GB flag
Saturday, 8 October 2011
S
Stephen
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:44 PM

Since the changeover on the Oxford transmitter we have had problems with all the channels except BBC.

Our box appears to be picking up a signal from another transmitter, meaning that channels 3,4,5, etc. have a very weak signal that means that it often impossibel to get a picture.

The channels are duplicated, from what I assume is Oxford, in the 800-899 range, with excellent signal and quality.

Is there anyway to force our box, a Humax F2 Fox T receiver, to ignore the weaker signal and pick up the correct channels.

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Stephen's 38 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:03 PM

Stephen: The only satisfactory way to achieve this in some cases is to use manual tuning, that is taking it that you carried out a complete reset before the last auto-tuning.

I though you did, then carry out another factory reset, but BEFORE re-connecting the aerial start another auto tune then immediately start to watch the channels rise in the progress bar, then as soon as they get to Mux Ch50 re-connect the aerial and that will exclude anything other than Oxford from loading.

If though there is any problems with doing this, then you will have to load each Mux channel individually using manual tune.

Channels being - BBC Mux Ch53 / ITV Mux Ch60 / HD Mux Ch57 / SDN Mux Ch62 / ArqA Mux Ch59 / ArqB Mux Ch55

Note:- These latter three multiplexes being on low power.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
Jonathan
9:41 PM
Oxford

Stephen, the Humax Fox T2 should have the ability to handle this automatically if you do a full restart

menu -> settings -> installation -> factory default

You will need your security code, but if you haven't set this it will still be the default 0000

This will do a complete scan; when it finds the signals from both transmitters it should ask you which to select as your primary transmitter, offering Oxford as the default choice.

If that fails then try manual tuning, either as jb38 suggests or using the manual tune mode on the Fox T2 where you can tell it which channels to look at.

link to this comment
Jonathan's 10 posts GB flag
Jonathan's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 9 October 2011
S
Stephen
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

2:21 AM
Brackley

Thanks guys

I ended up doing a factory reset and manually tuning each mux.

The Humax box didn't ask me for a transmitter and there no channel count on the progress bar when it's searching and after three goes without the aerial plugged in, I gave up :)

link to this comment
Stephen's 38 posts GB flag
Stephen's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:47 AM

Stephen: Thanks for the update and pleased that you managed in the end.

Yes, no channel count showing in the progress bar during tuning is a right bind with some equipment, admittedly something I forgot about with the Humax or I wouldn't have mentioned the aerial out scan procedure, although the omission of channel count numbers during scanning is something I consider as a deficiency in the design of the box. (this also applying to a few others as well!)

Still, the Humax scores on some other points concerning tuner sensitivity etc so I suppose that offsets the inconvenience caused by the problem mentioned.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
D
David Pinfold
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

10:30 AM
Banbury

Stephen - I too have bought the humax hd fox t2 receiver & like you I had it tuning into freeview from Crystal Palace which only transmits at 20KW until DSO. It seems that this tuner is extremely sensitive. Like you I had to resort to maunally tuning it. This then begs the question what the signal will be like after switchover next april & it goes to 200KW. However I have to say this was the only tuner this happened on. All the other boxes & TV's were fine.

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David Pinfold's 42 posts GB flag
David's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
Jonathan
11:35 AM
Oxford

jb38, my fox t2 does give channel numbers as it scans; possibly different software versions are different on this? It also scans the whole range twice, and picks up different channels on the two scans, which could make your method a bit tricky; I don't know what the difference between the two scans is.

Returning to my own saga, I got the 24dB attenuator, and inserting that wiped out the signal entirely. In some ways this is a bit of a relief (a big enough attenuator should eventually do this), though it doesn't fit very sensibly with the behaviour of my 0-20dB variable attenuator.

More annoyingly, on returning to my variable attenuator the signal was not as good as before. My guess is that this is because I moved the fly lead in the process and the system is still very sensitive to that position. Various people have suggested that this could be due to a poorly shielded fly lead picking up signal, either directly or rebroadcast by the down lead (the installers didn't replace the coax below the loft when they installed the new aerial, so the condition is unknown; looking at it in the loft it seems old but sound enough).

Anyway my next set of plans involves (1) getting a better fly lead, and/or (2) trying an attenuator in the loft when the new coax from the aerial joins the down lead - this has F connectors so I can't use my existing attenuator family.


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Jonathan's 10 posts GB flag
Jonathan's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
Steve P
sentiment_satisfiedGold

4:21 PM

Jonathon - can you find distinguishing characteristics between first and second scan channels? Modulation type perhaps?

I presume the pattern is repeatable.

IIRC your variable attenuator's case WAS the outer connector - apparently uninsulated. Which seems odd. Put it in a plastic box with channels cut for the wires?

Someone commented earlier about outer coax NOT being earthed. Which I suppose it is not these days when TVs no longer use 3 core flex with the neutral connected to a chassis.

Any expert comments? Are variable attenuators normally like that?

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Steve P's 1,173 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

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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