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Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter which serves 1,870,000 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 Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) mast?

Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield 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 Sutton Coldfield 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
C43 (650.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
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
 H max
C46 (674.0MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
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
 H max
C40+ (626.2MHz)433mDTG-200,000W
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
 H max
C42 (642.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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
C45 (666.0MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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
C39+ (618.2MHz)433mDTG-8200,000W
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

LB
 H -13dB
C48 (690.0MHz)433mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
from 31st October 2014: 7 Big Centre TV,

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 Sutton Coldfield transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
regional news image
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 15km south-southwest (201°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)

Are there any self-help relays?

Burton (shobnall)Transposer1 km W Burton-on-Trent60 homes
CoalvilleTransposer18 km NW Leicester600 homes
SolihullTransposerLand Rover building400 homes

How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-137 Mar 2018
VHFB E TB E TB E TB E K TW T
C4BBCtvwaves
C33com7
C35com8
C36LOCAL2
C39+ArqBArqB
C40BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves+BBCBBBCB
C42SDNSDN
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C45ArqAArqA
C46BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4
C48_local
C50tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C51tv_offLB
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 1-4 1000kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 200kW
com7(-10.5dB) 89.2kW
com8(-10.7dB) 86kW
LB(-20dB) 10kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-21dB) 8kW

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. Sutton Coldfield 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
Sunday, 25 March 2018
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:24 PM

Vic: You're 23km away so you may be able to get some channels on an indoor aerial but you may struggle to get the ones on COM7 & COM8 which are broadcast at a lower power level.

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,606 posts GB flag
R
Richard
5:51 PM

Very puzzled. Successfully re-configured after BBC FOUR HD move, but now...

- 570 MHz and 714 MHz scans fail repeatedly, so no services reported.
- 586 MHz scan succeeds but reports channels actually on 626.2 MHz.
- 690 MHz not listed above, but scan reports 8 services.

Anybody aware of any problems with Sutton Coldfield?

link to this comment
Richard's 5 posts GB flag
Thursday, 29 March 2018
D
Digital
9:47 PM

Richard:

Your TV / Freeview receiver / recorder may have been obsoleted due to the changes requiring the receiving device to be compatible with T2 transmissions.

link to this comment
Digital's 3 posts GB flag
Friday, 30 March 2018
R
Richard
5:26 PM

Digital - many thanks for your response. My tuners are all DVB T2 compatible AFAIK, and I'm picking up other HD channels (e.g. BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, C4, C5). And now I also appear to be scanning all of the muxes successfully as well... but apparently still not detecting BBC Four HD and C4 HD +1.

Have I missed something?

link to this comment
Richard's 5 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:22 PM

Richard: The COM7 (C4 +1 HD) & COM8 (BBC Four HD) multiplexes moved to UHF channels 55 & 56 at Sutton Coldfield on 7th March. Have you tried manual tuning on these frequencies?

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,606 posts GB flag
R
Richard
7:35 PM

OK - so I've discovered more information on this issue now, and it appears to be to do with the redistribution of channels, and specific to this transmitter. The quote goes:

"It has reduced coverage and is only available on newer Freeview devices."

Who on earth came up with the notion that reducing service for anybody that has anything other than the very latest equipment was a positive move? I bought my equipment in 2017, and it's still on sale. What exactly is a 'newer' device?

link to this comment
Richard's 5 posts GB flag
R
Richard
7:36 PM

Sorry Steve - didn't see your comment until I'd posted mine. Thanks for the input - that does appear to be the problem, but you can probably tell I'm not excited about it!

link to this comment
Richard's 5 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:29 PM

Richard: You seem to be getting confused. The only recent changes have been the frequencies used to broadcast each multiplex. COM7 & COM8 have always been DVB-T2 since they launched. The only multiplex to be converted from DVB-T to DVB-T2 was PSB3 which was converted at Digital Switchover in order to provide capacity for HD versions of PSB channels to launch on every transmitter. All other multiplexes are able to be received by any Freeview TV/box/PVR regardless of whether they are capable of receiving HD channels or not.

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,606 posts GB flag
Saturday, 31 March 2018
R
Richard
10:33 AM

OK - so the confusion is that this site is showing the incorrect frequencies for the changed muxes. Just had a discussion with Freeview and confirmed the correct details. And yes, if I'd read all of the posts very carefully I would probably have discovered the information buried there.

For anybody else coming across this - the new frequencies are 746 and 754.

link to this comment
Richard's 5 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 4 April 2018
K
Keith Cunliffe
6:20 PM

Itv3 on Sutton Coldfield has moved from COM4 ch.42 to PSB 2 on ch 46: this will also give those viewers who use relays with freeview lite access to ITV3 ch. 10: this took place on Tuesday 3:4:18

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Keith Cunliffe's 6 posts GB flag
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