Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 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 
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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 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.
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?
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 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C48 | SDN | SDN | SDN | SDN | |||||
| C49tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C51tv_off | LBS | LBS | |||||||
| C52tv_off | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | ||||||
| C54tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | COM8tv_off | |||||
| C58tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | |||
| C61 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCA | |||||
| C64 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
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 |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Mendip transmitter area
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Wednesday, 6 December 2023
Steve Donaldson
Wow, what a awesome in depth post, thx very much, you gave me alot to think about, and yes you guess right, i live at the farthest house of the semi, one without the extension, we have the big shed at bottom of garden, the other house has a brick garage and shed, just for your info, that large tree is now almost twice as high and wide as it is on google and owned by the council, so the tree is going no where, now in winter our gardens swim in leaves from that tree, and we have asked council to lob and prune the tree, but no joy, i will look at doing something you said, thx alot for great post, cheers
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Thursday, 7 December 2023
C
Chris.SE6:25 AM
Christopher Sercombe:
Steve does periodically do a very thorough analysis of some of these situations. I did take a quick look and noted two trees that were potential problems if you lived in the "wrong" house, which is why I mentioned trees in my previous post. I didn't look in depth further as you'd originally mentioned reception was ok in normal circumstances, and it seemed as though the issue was only present with this current engineering.
The booster is fine BUT iirc earlier versions did not have the 5G filtering, so you need to confirm what is marked on the packaging or the booster. If you need to try additional 5G Filtering, as previously mentioned, it should be on the input side of the amp/booster.
The "problem" with that aerial, from such suppliers as Argos, is they don't say which version it is. Although some previous versions were CAI approved, they were also Wideband. Some later versions had 4G filtering and some versions were what's called by some as"bacofoil" aerials - easily damaged by winds and pigeons perching on them. You may only know from what it said on the packaging, and keep an eye on it for damage.
I certainly wouldn't be rushing to change anything, the aerial is high gain which you probably need because of the tree, albeit the highest gain is at the "wrong" end of the band - nearest/into the 700MHz band, hence the importance of the 5G filtering. You'll probably struggle to get as much gain from a standard log-periodic although Blake make a 56 element Group K which has high gain.
If problems were to continue after the engineering was completed then I'd look at the possibility of relocating the aerial first.
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Chris.SE
As with all your great posts, thx, i do apricate your help, aerial is in loft, not ideal, but should not get damaged, i will see how it goes after work finished on mendip transmitter.
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S
Steve Donaldson9:24 PM
Christopher Sercombe: I'm surprised you're using a loft aerial. I can see you have a rooftop aerial. Indeed, I looked closer at the series of Street View photos and saw that both you and your neighbour had your aerials replaced some time between May 2009 and June 2014, when the first and second photos of the road passing your house were taken. May I ask why you are not using your rooftop aerial?
I was thinking about your neighbour and that if you were having difficulty with reception via your rooftop aerial then your neighbour may be, as his/her aerial is closer to the tree.
Having looked a little along your road and nearby streets, I can see there are a number of trees. I would have thought the council must have a plan on maintaining them and wonder why the one near you is not being maintained. Indeed, in May 2009 it was much smaller than it is now, albeit that even then the top of the canopy was above your apex.
Noting you have Wiltshire Council as a unitary authority and Trowbridge Town Council at parish level, it begs the question as to which council is responsible for it. If you haven't already done so I would raise the matter with elected councillors of your wards at both levels.
Engaging with the department responsible for the environment, one is seeking to have something done. It is civil servants you are dealing with who follow procedures. By contrast, elected members are there to represent their constituents (or supposedly at least), and they may be able to exert influence in the necessary place to get a result.
Potential damage to building foundations is one such issue, and of course your neighbour has it overhanging onto his/her property. There is also the aesthetics of the overgrown ground around it. I guess having put the railings there then the council stopped coming along to cut the grass.
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Steve Donaldson
Thx for post, our neighbour don't use there aerial, there on cable, and our aerial is very old on rooftop, and aint worked for years at all, so i just got loft aerial, and roof aerial goes straight through the tree.
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Saturday, 9 December 2023
B
Bruce12:24 PM
Until Thursday my Wife was able to get TXT on BBC1 & BBC2 to keep herself up-to-date on News & Sport. Yesterday & today this is not available.
Has this Service been lost as one of the upcoming Budget Cuts?
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C
Chris.SE9:24 PM
Bruce:
Hi Bruce. The service hasn't been cut, it is still working.
Mendip has been on Planned Engineering for a few weeks, whilst we've no idea of the exact work that has been done, PSB1 appears to have been on reduced power or the Reserve Antenna this week and it's possible there may have brief interruptions to the service but not that I've noticed.
I've used it during the last couple of days and it was working earlier and just now.
Do check obvious things such as your aerial still pointing correctly, check all your accessible coax connections for corrosion or water and check the downlead is not flapping in the wind.
And of course check you are still tuned to Mendip PSB1 on UHF C32.
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Thursday, 28 December 2023
N
Neil12:56 AM
Is anyone still having problems with channels breaking up? Just wonder if the transmitter is still on reduced power.
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C
Chris.SE3:57 AM
Neil:
You haven't said which channels you are having breakup on!
Whilst it's not listed for Planned Engineering, we know the lists aren't always 100% however nothing has changed over the Christmas period which might simply mean no-one is there actually doing anything but I'm not convinced that it's necessarily running as normal!
Whilst I'm not getting any pixellation, I'm not getting my usual signal strengths on PSB1, ArqA and SDN.
I'm not sure if that's due to reduced power, reserve antenna, or something else!
I am however getting 100% Quality on all of them!
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N
Neil11:05 AM
Chris.SE: I'm at my parents house for Christmas and they have seen pixellation on all channels over the last week and a half, I've witnessed it to since arriving on Boxing Day. BBC channels can be stable sometimes but all ITV channels are very bad and the signal strength goes from 0 to 60+, plus the other channels can fluctuate in strength.
An aerial man came out about 6 weeks ago to check all the wiring and areal on the roof and all seemed good then.
Just for info they are based in Trowbridge.
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