Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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51.237,-2.626 or 51°14'12"N 2°37'33"W

BA5 3LB

The symbol shows the location of the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter which serves 720,000 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 Mendip (Somerset, England) mast?

Mendip transmitter - Mendip transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 11/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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Which Freeview channels does the Mendip 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C32 (562.0MHz)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) West, 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)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (West), 4 Channel 4 (SD) South ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (West), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C35 (586.0MHz)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C48 (690.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C33 (570.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C36 (594.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others
LBS	H -10dB	C30 (546.0MHz)	591m	DTG-12	10,000W
	from 22nd September 2014: 7 Made in Bristol,

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 Mendip transmitter?

BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 25km north (3°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.

ITV West Country News (East) 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS4 3HG, 23km north (11°)
to ITV West region - 61 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

Cheddar	Transposer	15 km E Weston-super-Mare	1674 homes
Luccombe	Active deflector	6 km w Minehead	38 homes

How will the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2010	2010-13	2013-18	2013-17	27 Feb 2018
	C/D E	E	E	C/D E	C/D E T	W T	W T
C30							_local
C32							BBCA
C33						com7	com7
C34							D3+4
C35						com8	com8
C36							ArqB
C37		C5_waves	C5_waves
C48				SDN	SDN	SDN	SDN
C49_{tv_off}					BBCA	BBCA
C51_{tv_off}						LBS	LBS
C52_{tv_off}				ArqB	ArqB	ArqB
C54_{tv_off}	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	D3+4	D3+4	D3+4
C55_{tv_off}							com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}				ArqA	ArqA	ArqA	COM8_{tv_off}
C58_{tv_off}	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB
C61	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA
C64	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves

_{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 24 Mar 10 and 7 Apr 10.

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

Analogue 1-4	500kW
Analogue 5	(-6dB) 126kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 100kW
com7	(-8.4dB) 72.4kW
com8	(-8.6dB) 69.1kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D, LBS	(-17dB) 10kW

Local transmitter maps

Mendip Freeview Mendip DAB Mendip AM/FM Mendip TV region BBC West West

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Mendip transmitter area

Jan 1958-Jul 1968	Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	Harlech Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Mendip 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

B

Bristol_Rich
5:01 PM

Chris.SE:

Hi Chris, thank you...Fortunately I had read one of your previous links about not retuning

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Bristol_Rich's 7 posts GB flag

B

Bristol_Rich
5:02 PM

Hi Chris, thank you...Fortunately I had read one of your previous links about not retuning...

I've just ordered a variable attenuator to see if that helps dial the strength down a bit. However, after numerous hours of faffing, leaving it, a quick check about an hour ago reveals that all is back to normal - all have returned so assume a issue or consequence tropospheric ducting...

Either way, it's working - thanks for taking the time to reply.

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Bristol_Rich's 7 posts GB flag

B

Bristol_Rich
5:03 PM

Hi Chris, thank you...Fortunately I had read one of your previous links about not retuning

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Bristol_Rich's 7 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:04 AM

Bristol_Rich:

Glad it's returned to normal. Sensible idea getting a variable attenuator, you can then check/ensure you don't have any overload issues.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag

P

Peter Salmon
8:22 AM
Bath

Good morning,
My postcode is BA2 7ES and I've had a full blackout on both TV and Radio via for the last 24hrs (still no this morning).
Are there currently any works or problems with the that might cause this?
I live in an apartment building with a shared , and distribution system. Other occupants of the building are experiencing the same issue, therefore I initially want to rule out any issues with the Mendip transmitter.
Many thanks,
Pete

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Peter Salmon's 3 posts GB flag

Peter's: P's Freeview map P's terrain plot P's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:45 AM

Peter Salmon: There's an notice warning of work taking place at this week immediately above your post.

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StevensOnln1's 3,670 posts GB flag

P

Peter Salmon
12:04 PM

StevensOnln1

Hi, yes I saw that message re the work, but it states that work was starting today and that there would only be some pixelation or flickering, whereas I completely lost all yesterday (possibly before that as I only tried at around 0900 yesterday).

But I do agree that it's more than likely related to the engineering work, as it has been intermittent this morning, currently at 1201, I have no channels at all, but when I tried at 0900, all channels were back.

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Peter Salmon's 3 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:18 PM

Peter Salmon:

work has been going on at off and on for a few weeks. It was also listed last week.
There have been some brief interruptions to some signals and currently some of the multiplexes seem to be on reduced or the Reserve (lower down the ).

However, you should not have had a "full blackout" for the last 24hours.
I you haven't made the mistake of retuning when you had because this will most likely just clear your correct tuning, you cannot tune to signals that are not there, nor should you do so if they are badly pixellated.

If you aren't retuning, and the fact that others in your building are having the same issues, it rather sounds like the installation there is not upto scratch or has a fault, as the location should have no problems with and the current work wouldn't be leaving you all with no signal for extended periods.

I'd suggest you all get onto the building management to get the system checked out.

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Chris.SE's 4,358 posts GB flag

P

Peter Salmon
3:30 PM

Chris.SE

Thanks for the information......No, thankfully I haven't made the mistake of re-tuning.

I think our problem maybe related to the maintenance, as it has been intermittent (fully available at times) which suggests our /distribution system is functioning.
If the reserve lower down the is being utilised for some , then I suspect my building aerial will will lose those channels as we will more than likely be obscured.

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Peter Salmon's 3 posts GB flag

C

Christopher Sercombe
3:56 PM

Here in Trowbridge, suddenly got weak and breakup on the following COM4 SDN H max (690.0MHz), can a engineer confirm please this may be the result of work on , effected below, thx

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, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, VisionTV, Racing TV, Arise News, Kiss Chat & Date, Proud Dating, ADULT Xpanded2, WION NEWS, 16 QVC, 22 TJC, 37 QVC2, 212 Pop Player, 237 TalkTV, 263 SonLife, 264 FailArmy, 265 On Demand 365, 266 Pet Collective, 268 AlJazeera Arabic, 270 Real Crime, 271 Channelbox, 272 Asharq News #2, 274 Asharq News, 275 Al Arabiya, 276 Shots!, 277 UK RADIO PORTAL, 278 Zee World, 279 Alaraby , 280 Rok, 281 Revelation TV, 282 God TV, 283 3ABN, 284 AmazingDiscoveries, 286 NHK WORLD, 287 Newsmax, 670 ADULT Section (start), 727 Absolute Radio,

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Christopher Sercombe's 9 posts GB flag

Page 212

Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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