Full Freeview on the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 55.861,-3.874 or 55°51'40"N 3°52'27"W |  | ML7 4NZ |
The symbol shows the location of the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmitter which serves 940,000 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 Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) mast?
Black Hill transmitter - Black Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 11/11/2024 Screen may go black on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
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 Freeview channels does the Black Hill 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.
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 Black Hill transmitter?
BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 26km west (271°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.
STV News 1.3m homes 4.8%
from Glasgow G51 1PQ, 26km west (271°)
to STV Central (Glasgow) region - 94 masts.
Are there any self-help relays?
| Ardtornish A | Transposer | 22 km NW Oban | 15 homes |
| Balquhidder | Transposer | 12 km NW Callander | 42 homes |
| Benmore B | Active deflector | 50 m WNW Glasgow | 7 homes |
| Blair Drummond | Transposer | 5 homes caravan park | |
| Blyth Bridge | Active deflector | 30 km SW Edinburgh | 50 homes |
| Glendaruel | Active deflector | 40 hotel | 40 homes hotel |
| Glendaruel B | Active deflector | 12 homes (second level) |
How will the Black Hill (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1957-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 3 Oct 2018 | ||||
| VHF | B E T | B E T | B E T | E T | W T | ||||
| C10 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C30 | _local | ||||||||
| C32 | com7 | ||||||||
| C35 | com8 | ||||||||
| C37 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C40 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C41 | +SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C43 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C44 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C46 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C47 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C50tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | ||||||
| C51tv_off | LG | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | _local | COM8tv_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 8 Jun 11 and 22 Jun 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-5 | 500kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 100kW | |
| com7 | (-10.7dB) 42.9kW | |
| com8 | (-11.1dB) 39.2kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-14dB) 20kW | |
| LG | (-20dB) 5kW |
Local transmitter maps
Black Hill Freeview Black Hill DAB Black Hill TV region BBC Scotland STV Central (Glasgow micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Black Hill transmitter area
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Sunday, 20 October 2019
J
John7:29 PM
The runway is approx. 230-240 degrees, and sorry for any confusion but the signal disappears when the aircraft are overhead or approaching my house or maybe just past. They approach from approx. 50 to 60 degrees. Is it possible that the vortex or vortices could cause an issue? Thanks for all your help so far.
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Thursday, 24 October 2019
J
John10:14 AM
An update. I have retuned and all channels are from Blackhill now. Haven't spoken to my neighbours yet. The only problem seems to be 626MHz which when a plane goes over during landing, not so bad with takeoffs, the signal strength remains at 99% but the signal quality drops to 0%. With the other mux/ channels signal quality either doesn't drop or only drops a little, but picture remains good. Of course I can watch these channels, HD on 626, on standard definition but would rather have HD, if we can solve this. Cheers
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J
John4:44 PM
Hi Chris, one of my neighbours has the same issue, the other is still on holiday.
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Friday, 25 October 2019
C
Chris.SE1:21 AM
John:
I assume from what you've said your neighbour's issue is with the same HD mux. It's strange that it affects that one the way it does and not the others. I'd doubt it has anything to do with vortices, it's most like this is due to multipath reflections and digital TV transmission is usually more resilient than analogue was. Large metal objects like aircraft make good signal reflectors!
The cure, if possible, will most likely be down to how much time (and money) you might be willing to spend on the problem. Moving the aerial and/or having a more complicated and direction aerial installation MIGHT solve it, but it may not.
First thing to consider trying would be is there a location for an aerial where you still have line of sight to the transmitter but the house shields the aerial from reflections from the aircraft?
Do you know what type and make of aerial you have at present?
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J
John6:08 PM
Sorry I seem to have lost a post. It said thanks Chris. The type of aerial is similar to labgear 10 element professional high gain, small differences but 10 elements. I think I will try my local aerial engineer and see if he can fix it knowing what we've discovered without trial and error. If not I can probably live with Standard Definition on these channels. Many thanks for your help in raising my understanding and good luck. Keep up the good work.
Cheers
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Saturday, 26 October 2019
J
John7:34 PM
One thing I think is strange is why only 626MHz, the other mux's seem ok, maybe they have enough quality to begin with, so don't drop out completely. Does this mean I only have to find a way to increase the quality of 626 MHz? The signal strength doesn't drop out in any of the channels.
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Monday, 28 October 2019
C
Chris.SE6:22 PM
John:
It is strange that it's only 626Mhz. But IIRC you had a similar issue even when it was inadvertently tuned to Darvel on 530Mhz, so it's not just a frequency dependant thing. Aerials can have different polar responses (& side lobes etc) at different frequencies. I wonder if it has something to do with the transmission mode for HD. Do you get any issues with HD channels on the COM 7 or 8 multiplexes - ie BBC News HD, BBC4 HD, 4seven HD, Quest HD and try comparing that to the SD channels on those muxes eg 5STAR+1, 5USA+1 etc.?
In any event, if you get some issues as they go overhead and as the landing is to the back of the aerial then my guess would be two things. A reduced vertical beamwidth and an improved Back to Front ratio is needed. I don't think your current aerial is that good on either of those two. As I previously mentioned positioning the aerial so that the house or some other building blocks the landing path but not the path to the transmitter could help with the landing issue, but not the overhead.
You can get reduced vertical beamwidth by stacking two aerials vertically but I'm not sure how much an improvement you get on the Front to Back ratio without checking - a bit rusty on that sort of thing!
Whereas a log periodic (log 36) will give significant improvement on both but it has slightly less gain. Talking to a local aerial installer would certainly be a good idea, but if it's not one who is familiar with these sorts of issues, I'd try another.
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J
John7:59 PM
Thanks again Chris. Good information to have when speaking to the aerial installer. The other HD channels are fine on both com 7 and 8. The SD channels are the same all have signal quality at 100% and strength at 97%. The quality drops to 50 % but with no loss of picture when planes go over.
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Monday, 11 November 2019
J
John4:21 PM
Chris I got a new aerial fitted log-periodic 14 elements SAC AE0968, with a 4G filter and booster. Channel 40 works fine with no fallout due to planes passing over as do most channels. The issue I have now is Com7&8 now seem to have not enough quality(0)/signal(74) to show a picture. Any ideas?
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Tuesday, 12 November 2019
C
Chris.SE10:32 AM
John:
Well since you were receiving the COMs 7&8 multiplexes previously then I would be telling the Aerial installer to come and sort it out. Is the aerial accurately pointing at Black Hill, don't want it pointing slightly towards Darvel!
My suspicion would be that this is a gain issue. Bearing in mind the gain of the aerial you had previously, I would have initially gone for the larger log-periodic, a log 36, but did you have a "booster" previously, I haven't spotted any mention? You mentioned your receiver showing signal strength 97 previously and now getting 74 on COMs 7&8. What strengths are showing on the other multiplexes?
Is the booster external or internal? Is the 4G filter one built into the aerial or an extra one?
Although you say your log periodic has 14 elements, it's actually a log 28 - each element on each side of a log periodic is counted a one element. BUT because your predicted reception is very good, it might be a case of having too much signal, so the log 28 may be sufficient or need attenuating. If it's too much signal, it's odd the other multiplexes are ok
If it's a problem with insufficient signal, even with a log36 you might still need a decent masthead amp with adjustable gain.
I'm wondering if it's the directional qualities of the log periodic that's got rid of your aircraft issue or the lower aerial gain.
If the 4G filter is internal, I'd try unpugging it to see what difference it may make to the signal strength 74.
Likewise, if the booster is internal, what happens to the signal on all multiplexes if you take it out?
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