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Full Freeview on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.801,-0.801 or 52°48'4"N 0°48'5"Wsa_postcodeLE14 4AJ

 

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
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
M
Martyn
11:24 AM

Just rang digital.co.uk for any help they could give. Explained I've retuned 9x to date, disconnected other close equipment, remove aerial input, but still no joy. Get poor signal strength and weak/no signal qulaity on channels 29 and 31 since 14th April. They suggested I swap with another person's Freeview box to try and isolate the problem. Main point is though, they didn't appear to know that there are dozens of people who have been affected. I suggest you all ring 08456 505050 to let them know that you are having problems, and see if that kick starts anything. (52.7708,-1.2043) 

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Martyn's 3 posts GB flag
N
Nick Miles
1:01 PM

Leicester area, Woodgate.

No ITV1,2,ch4,ch5 etc.

Who are the main people to complain to as the media appear to not want to report on this newsworthy problem?

Should we all stop paying for our full TV licence?

link to this comment
Nick Miles's 1 post EU flag
B
Ben Johnson
4:56 PM

Cass/Martyn/Nick Miles: I too am having problems. With no or poor signal from Ch29 and Ch31. I have Aerial guy coming tomorrow to check my aerial...but I am as sure as I can be that I have a Wideband medium gain aerial...

I am going to go into the loft with a small television to plug directly into the Aerial to see if that helps...

Wisj me luck!

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Ben Johnson's 6 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:39 PM

Bren: C23, the original location, was also "out of group" and required .. a wideband aerial.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
J
Jonamat
1:44 PM
Newark

Jonathan, ITV Technical manager helpful as best he can be but loads responsibility for all of this onto Digital UK. His remedy is to turn the aerial to Belmont which he claims is where it should be anyway. This rubbish as I am on the fridge of strong Belmont signal and not interested in "Look North" either as it is irrelavant, it is also further away than Waltham which has been a strong signal on all channels until this latest fiasco commenced.

I think Bren has struck gold with a credible answer to all this, so I will give up and watch what I can on analogue until August and hope that channel 54 will be OK then.

Tried a manual retune today on channel 31, it loaded some channels, but when individually checked they turn out to be Channel 24, poor signal and unusable quality. Could this be Sandy Heath (100 miles away from Farnsfield) !!

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Jonamat's 10 posts GB flag
Jonamat's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
Jonamat
1:53 PM
Newark

PS. To my last post.
If this is the case, why didn't somebody tell us instead of scores of people trying achieve the impossible and receive C31.

Perhaps Bren you should post your message on the other part of this forum, I am should many people would like to read it.

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Jonamat's 10 posts GB flag
Jonamat's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:05 PM

Jonamat: Bren's 'answer' is no answer.

Waltham's transmissions moved because if they *hadn't* moved, many viewers' reception would have been damaged severely by the high-power PSB transmissions from The Wrekin, Bromsgrove and Lark Stoke.

C31 was believed to be a relatively clear frequency because up until last week, Sandy Heath had used it for high-power analogue transmissions, and the low-power digital transmissions were fitted around that. Bromsgrove used it for BBC One analogue on vertical polarization until early this morning. The Wrekin uses it for one low-power multiplex, but from the aerials that point west into Wales, not to the east. Lark Stoke uses it for one low-power multiplex but it's only 50W (this is up from 25W before switchover, but that's not a significant difference).

It sounds like you have a box that automatically retunes itself. Look in the manual for a way to turn this off - it's clearly storing the lowest frequency that it can decode rather than the best version. C24 is indeed D3&4 at Sandy Heath, and Sandy Heath is beyond Waltham in the direction your aerial's pointing.

Once you've turned automatic retunes off, delete all the Mux 2 channels, then manually tune C31.

You might want to replace the box because it will do this again after switchover - many multiplexes will be on lower channels both at Sandy Heath and at Belmont. Also see Digital Region Overlap.

link to this comment
Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:15 PM

Should have added that the Crystal Palace early HD multiplex is also on C31, which is in the general direction of your aerial, but the weather conditions would have to be particularly specific for this to cause a problem. It requires an inversion in the upper atmosphere for the signal to bounce off of. Digital UK were giving this as a potential cause of problems, but I don't know whether they had a forecast or whether it's just part of their script.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
J
Jonathan
8:23 PM

@ Jonamat: "so I will give up and watch what I can on analogue until August and hope that channel 54 will be OK then."

Yes. We can get ITV1, Ch4 & Ch5 on analogue; ITV2 at +1 on C29, E4 at +1 on C45. The only channel actually missing is More 4.

The most annoying aspect is that we can't record the analogue channels anymore.

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Jonathan's 4 posts GB flag
Thursday, 21 April 2011
B
Ben Johnson
11:40 AM

Update: Aerial Guy No 1 did not show up! Grrr. Aerial Guy No 2 could only send surveyor who has just been. He has tested signal and thinks that I either have faulty dipole or a C/D Group Aerial. All signals strong except Ch29 and Ch31.

Sending Installer on Tuesday to go on the roof. No fix no fee...lets wait and see.

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Ben Johnson's 6 posts GB flag
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