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Full Freeview on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter

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The symbol shows the location of the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter which serves 770,000 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 Waltham (Leicestershire, England) mast?

Waltham transmitter - Waltham 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 Waltham 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)442mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) East Midlands, 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)442mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (East 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
C35 (586.0MHz)442mDTG-50,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD East 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 -3dB
C29 (538.0MHz)442mDTG-825,000W
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 (602.0MHz)449mDTG-825,000W
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)449mDTG-825,000W
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

LNG
 H -10dB
C41 (634.0MHz)442mDTG-125,000W
Channel icons
from 27th May 2014: 7 Notts 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 Waltham transmitter?

regional news image
BBC East Midlands Today 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Nottingham NG2 4UU, 28km northwest (306°)
to BBC East Midlands region - 17 masts.
regional news image
ITV Central News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 83km west-southwest (244°)
to ITV Central (East) region - 17 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

BraunstoneTransposer5 km SW Leicester city centre170 homes

How will the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-174 Mar 2020
C/D EEEWW TW TW T
C26LNGLNG
C29SDNSDNSDNSDN
C31com7com7
C32BBCA
C34D3+4
C35C5wavesC5wavesBBCB
C37com8com8
C41_local
C49tv_off BBCABBCA
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offArqAArqAArqACOM8tv_off
C57tv_offArqBArqBArqB
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 17 Aug 11 and 31 Aug 11.

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

Analogue 1-5 250kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 50kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 25kW
com8(-12.7dB) 13.4kW
com7(-13.9dB) 10.2kW
Mux 1*(-14dB) 10kW
Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*(-14.9dB) 8kW
Mux C*, Mux D*, LNG(-17dB) 5kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Waltham 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. Waltham 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, 8 February 2018
B
Bren
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:42 AM

MikeB I need to know which mux a channel is on if I am missing it so I can retune just that mux..

If I retune them all it might loss some muxes if I have tweaked my aerial.

If it has the mux stored it will sometimes find the channel if the signal improves there.
however if I retune the lot it will lose the that mux altogether if the signal is weak when I retune.

I have never got Forces TV even though Sky News, which I can get is on the same mux!

I do not on a page I can't like to it says "Note: Freeview HD equipment required to receive this service"
for Forces TV, Same goes for the other missing ones.

Baffeling!

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Bren's 50 posts GB flag
Bren's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:57 AM

Bren: Sky News is not on the same mux as Forces TV. You appear to have become confused by the frequency change. Sky News is on COM5 (where is has always been) which has moved to UHF channel 37. Forces TV is on COM8 which has moved to UHF channel 56.

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StevensOnln1's 3,606 posts GB flag
B
Bren
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:41 PM

StevensOnln1, thanks for that I do get confused. Right so it is on 56C which is 754mHz, however
even doing a manual search on that gets me nothing or at least it did the first time I tried, my VCR
thing seems to have locked up now lol.

However I have managed to get the missing HD channels (C58), what I did was disconnect my DVB-T2 stick
and then tuned my VCR and it found them, I did tweak the aerial a bit to remove some noise.

I then got the HD channels on my DVB-T2 stick, indeed I get two sets there, one from the Nottingham
transmitter I think. But no sign of com8 on c56. I have never been able to pick that up for some
reason. Wikipedia show it as very low power. ie 1.4 kW which is nothing! compared to the rest!
https://en.wikipedia.org/…ion.

I don't miss it as I have never got it. Com 8 is not on the Nottingham transmitter so I can't even
try and get it there, but as I say I don't miss it and there is not much on com8 really anyway.

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B
Bren
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:19 PM

Anyhow, are not com7 and com8 disappearing after march 31st?

Anyhow I do note I get the 5kW LGN mux at 7 out of 10 bars so it is not out of the question I might
pull in the 1.5kW com8 sometime. But if it is being switched off soon it would be a mere academic exercise
really.

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Bren's 50 posts GB flag
Bren's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:08 PM

Bren: COM7 & COM8 are not disappearing until somewhere between summer 2020 and 2022. They are moving to form single frequency networks on UHF channels 55 and 56 in the centre of the 700MHz band which is being cleared for future 4G/5G mobile services. COM8 is broadcast at 13.35kW from Waltham, not 1.5kW, however the broadcast power level can't be directly compared as the local mux uses a different broadcast mode which is much more robust and can be more easily received at a lower signal strength (at the expense of having much lower capacity).

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StevensOnln1's 3,606 posts GB flag
Friday, 9 February 2018
B
Bren
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:47 AM

StevensOnln1: BINGO!!!!!!!! I got it!!!

I had been getting some interference on my existing channel, noticed it on BBC1, I was messing
nudging the aerial a few degrees to the left and the right trying to get it, but the noise I was loosing
one one mux I was gaining on the another.

In desperation I propped the aerial up again what is a covered water overflow tank, pointing about
30 degree upwards and that got me a real good signal on all the tuned muxes, so then I had a go
at a manual tune on com8 UHF channel 56 and it pulled all the channels in!!

It says signal strength 90 and quality 41 (out of 100) it is a good stable watchable picture, I have got
ice hockey on Freesports on atm, never seen that before, seems to be mainly foreign sports but
also some British stuff too, so handy to have, don't think anything else on the mux will be of much
interest though, but nice to have the full set.

Anyhow at least I know I can get it now and thanks for our help, dunno how long it will be before
I get problems again but it is looking pretty good at the moment! I have good signals for all
the programs I tend to watch now!

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Bren's 50 posts GB flag
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M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:09 PM

Bren: Have you thought of just investing in a decent aerial? For all our sakes...

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
B
Bren
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

10:28 PM

MikeB: It is not as much fun though is it Mike?

I have all the channel now basically, and it is wideband aerial I bought, I though I would try it in
the loft and it seemed to work OK although as you know I have had some minor issues from time
to time. I can basically get everything at the moment one way or another. I can't seem to get the local
mux on my TV recorder though but I can get it on my TV provided I switch the recorder off!
Things have never been bad enough for long enough to warrant getting a new outside aerial
installed and the hassle involved in that, especially so these days when most channels
are available online. Indeed my main concern was the loss of Sky New, but I can watch that
online in HD anyway. It is good exercise running up and down stairs into the loft adjust the aerial
to see if things have improved anyway.

One thing I have been wondering is whether it is best to point the aerial perpendicular to
the slant of the roof as opposed to horizontally as it seems that may be the case, maybe I will
test the theory by doing just that? Or maybe I should leave well alone? lol.

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MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:57 PM

Bren:

An aerial has to be either horizontally polarised or vertically. The main boom, carrying all the other elements, has to be virtually level with maybe a little uplift at the end furthest from the dipole where the cables are connected (on a log-periodic the cables usually enter at the other end). It must never be vertical or even nearly so as it must 'look at' the transmitter mast at Waltham or Sutton Coldfield - it can't do both but a 'side lobe' may give you some unexpected reception though at low strengths.

The decision about whether the small elements across the main boom should be horiziontal or vertical is determined only by the transmitter aerials. At Waltham, and at Sutton Coldfield if you are getting West Midlands news, the transmitting aerials provide only horizontal polarisation. Therefore all the smaller elements mounted across the main boom *must* be horizontal. If you tilt them at 45 degrees you will lose some or several signals and others will be weaker, perhaps too weak for reliable reception. The angle of the roof of your house is irrelevant.

Ideally you should move your aerial as far away from all water tanks and pipes as is possible whilst still being aimed directly at the wanted transmitter, at a bearing of 123 degrees for Waltham or at 231 degrees for Sutton Coldfield. Both transmitters can be well received in West Bridgeford (I used to work in the Nottingham area when I was a TV Service Engineer) but Waltham is best as it carries the East Midlands services.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Saturday, 10 February 2018
B
Bren
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:44 AM

Well I have lost com8 at the moment, but I am not to bothered as I likely not watch it, I was OK but
then I started messing with downstairs cables to try and reduce bit error levels in one channel.

The thing is my aerial in the loft and there may be signal bouncing around in there interfering with each
other. As the signal have different lengths the interference will be different for each wave length hence
a good single on one mux may be a bad on for another mux.

Pointing the aerial up a bit did seem to help although it is lying flatish now as, I get a decent picture
on all the muxes my TV can receive directly, and all bar com8 via my recorder which can decode T2
muxes.

It is all rather hit miss trying to get a good signal in the loft, I understand about the polarisation, I
have another disconnect aerial in the loft mounted vertically pointing to the Nottingham transmitter,
but it is disconnected not, (which actually has given me an idea!!! :O).

One issue I have is that when I power up my HDrecorder it interferes with the TV signal on some
muxes, indeed I think that was why I started messing around with the aerial again. Indeed it
wipe out the local mux LNG altogether and other muxes. It should not so that really.

The TV is connect to a booster by rf cable and also to the record via a hdmi cable, the recorder
is connect to the same booster.

I also notice if the record was on but I disconnect the hdmi cable the interference disappear, indeed
I just discovered now when I went to retest that aspect that if I rotate the record about 45 degees
all the interference disappears!!!

And.........I have com8 back!!!!!!!!!!!

How werid!!!!!!!

Com7 has just com8 have just disapeared though.

But the good news is my TV works on all the muxes even when the recorder of on. (atm anyway!)

Anyhow I seem to have learned somethings, and a few things to look into and some ideas.


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