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 
_______
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
|
|
Tuesday, 12 November 2019
J
John6:20 PM
Installer is on his way back thanks. Is combining both aerials together an option?
| link to this comment |
C
Chris.SE10:14 PM
John:
In answer to your question, in theory yes, in practise no - because it would need to be done with a diplexer which would allow one channel group from one aerial, and another channel group from the other. These diplexers just don't to be available these days. If it were two different grouped aerials or if it was two different transmitters in different directions, neither using the same channels, then one might get away with a splitter/combiner but it's not a straight forward thing to do especially with differing signal strengths.
So to try and get an idea of what is going on, what is the strength you are getting on the other multiplexes?
Perhaps I should have explained that with too much signal and the front end getting overloaded, you can actually see a reduction the strength figure so you get the wrong impression about what's happening. That's why I was interested in the other figures and what happens if you can remove any additional 4G filter etc.
| link to this comment |
Sunday, 17 November 2019
C
Chris.SE12:24 PM
John: Any news, how did the return visit go?
| link to this comment |
Tuesday, 19 November 2019
J
John4:34 PM
Glasgow
Hi Chris with one thing and another I haven't managed to be available for the aerial installer yet, soon I hope. What I have noticed is that on occasion when blackhill stops broadcasting for a very brief moment of time my tv auto-tunes into other transmitters, I had bbc1HD from Craigkelly the other day. I have changed the auto settings for this. However I wonder if on Com7 I am receiving it from darvel or craigkelly as they all seem to broadcast on the same frequency, 746kHz. COM8 seems to have settled down and is ok. Any thoughts.
The other multiplexes are all showing 100 on quality and signal, more or less. They all work great.
I still have the high gain aerial connected and have now fitted a filter and booster and it works ok on the other tv, which is only dvt not dvt2, many thanks again.
| link to this comment |
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE8:02 PM
Hi John:
Yes all COMs 7&8 are being moved to UHF55&56 as Single Frequency Networks (SFNs). Whilst you'll be getting the "watchable" signal from Black Mountain, it's possible that you may be getting enough interfering signal from I would maybe have thought more likely Craigkelly but Darvel is a possibility. This is because the bearing for Black Hill is 106 degrees, 78 degrees for Craigkelly and 178 degrees for Darvel. Darvel's power is much lower although it's closer but I would have thought it's not as likely to be picked up by the log periodic as Craigkelly which although further away and slightly higher power than Darvel might just be within the beamwidth of the aerial. Whether it's worth tweaking the aerial 3 or 4 degrees further S, your installer should be able to check. Both are much lower power that Black Hill but you might be in one of those "awkward" spots where the unwanted signals give interference.
You may be better off btw with this log28 and booster rather than a log36, it depends on make. Some log36 gain with in-built filtering is a couple of dB lower at UHF55&56.
Do you have an external 4G filter fitted on this aerial? If so is it a Ch.59 or Ch.60 one?
| link to this comment |
J
John8:11 PM
Glasgow
The filter is a Televes 40503, not sure of channels
| link to this comment |
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
John8:11 PM
Glasgow
Sorry 405403
| link to this comment |
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE9:04 PM
John:
Filters from At800 are free! For reference they do two, a Ch59 & Ch.60. The Ch.60 one from At800 is a very high spec. with a sharp cut-off. The Ch.59 one is more suitable where there are no channels being broadcast at the top end of the band.
According to the Televes spec. for the 405403 although they say it's a Ch.59 one, the claimed insertion loss from 47 - 782MHz is only one dB, so it would appear to be a high spec. filter.
It doesn't look as though you could easily take it out of circuit to see what effect it had on Ch.55&56 as it's hard wired in, but with that low insertion loss it probably won't make any noticeable difference. If either of those channels is that close to the "cliff-edge", that needs to be resolved.
| link to this comment |
Saturday, 30 November 2019
J
John3:36 PM
Glasgow
Hi Chris, I managed to get the aerial fitter back and all channels are now working really well. Thanks again for all your help, it has got me to this point. Great.
John
| link to this comment |
John's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE5:07 PM
John:
That's good news. Do you know what he did to sort it out, it could be useful info for future reference?
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please