Full Freeview on the Torosay (Argyll and Bute, Scotland) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 56.458,-5.730 or 56°27'30"N 5°43'47"W |  | PA65 6AZ |
The symbol shows the location of the Torosay (Argyll and Bute, Scotland) transmitter which serves 2,800 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 Torosay (Argyll and Bute, Scotland) mast?
Torosay transmitter - Torosay transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 27/10/2025 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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Torosay (Argyll and Bute, Scotland) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .
If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.
Which Freeview channels does the Torosay 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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Torosay (Argyll and Bute, Scotland) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .
If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Torosay transmitter?
BBC Reporting Scotland 2.4m homes 9.2%
from Glasgow G51 1DA, 112km southeast (129°)
to BBC Scotland region - 230 masts.
STV News 1.3m homes 4.8%
from Glasgow G51 1PQ, 112km southeast (129°)
to STV Central (Glasgow) region - 94 masts.
Are there any self-help relays?
| Ardtornish B | Active deflector | 68 km W Fort William | |
| Barguillean | Active deflector | 12 km E Oban | 3 homes |
| Br Of Awe | Transposer | 20 km E Oban | |
| Colonsay | Active deflector | Island of Colonsay | 59 homes |
| Glenuig | Active deflector | 43 km W Fort William | 9 homes |
| Loch Caolisport | Active deflector | 20 km SW Lochgilphead | 85 homes |
| Loch Caolisport | Active deflector | 20 km SW Lochgilphead | (second level) |
| Loch Caolisport | Active deflector | 20 km SW Lochgilphead | (second level) |
| Loch Caolisport | Active deflector | 20 km SW Lochgilphead | (second level) |
| Loch Caolisport | Active deflector | 20 km SW Lochgilphead | (second level) |
| Loch Sunart | Active deflector | ||
| Portuairk | Active deflector | 68 km W Fort William | 12 homes |
| Strontian | Active deflector | 32 km WSW Fort William | 14 homes |
How will the Torosay (Argyll and Bute, Scotland) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2010 | 2010-13 | 4 Oct 2017 | |||||
| A K T | A K T | A K T | A K T | A K T | |||||
| C22 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C23 | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C25 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C26 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C28 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C29 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C30 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C32 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
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 13 Oct 10 and 27 Oct 10.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 20kW | |
| SDN, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 4kW | |
| ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 2kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-22dB) 125W |
Local transmitter maps
Torosay Freeview Torosay TV region BBC Scotland STV Central (Glasgow micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Torosay transmitter area
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldFriday, 10 October 2025
Sunday, 26 October 2025
A
Andrew Oldacre11:45 PM
Andrew Oldacre here again - didn't realise the lack of info from me.
Postcode is PA64 6AP - like everone else in Lochdon. The signal is normally very good. My aerial is in the loft space, so will not have been adversly affected by any kind of weather. 'No Signal' has been intermittently on tonight - it's windy again - some sort of coincidence?
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Monday, 27 October 2025
C
Chris.SE3:22 AM
Andrew Oldacre:
Thanks for coming back with the postcode. You should get an excellent signal from Torosay, even with Planned Engineering being only 3 1/2km from the transmitter! It's not currently listed for Planned Engineering and I can't find any faults currently listed. Even though your aerial is in the loft, do check that it hasn't been disturbed, it should be pointing in a North-Westerly direction with its rods (or squashed Xs) vertical. Make sure there's, been no vermin damage to the cable.
I assume, given your location, that you don't have any amplification unless perhaps you have an amp/splitter, in which case please give some details of make and model.
Check in your TV Tuning section for Signal Information - Strength and Quality. The Quality should always be 100%, Signal Strength can (and should) be lower as too much signal can be a problem!
Now, are you sure you aren't getting signs of any problems except when it's windy? If not, then my immediate suspicion would be - are there any nearby trees on the line-of-sight in the direction of the transmitter? You ought to be able to see the mast at night with red warning lights on it, and if you have some tree branches now in the way, see if you can get them trimmed.
Even a tree that is extremely close and adjacent to where the aerial is in the roof could cause a problem.
Tree foliage waving around on the line-of-sight, especially when wet, will disrupt the signal.
Sometimes repositioning the aerial slightly can improve the situation.
Other than trees, have you had any new construction very close by, anything metal like scaffolding being erected which can cause signal reflections and so maybe trees which otherwise wouldn't be a problem, become one.
Give us an update when you can.
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A
Andrew Oldacre3:39 PM
Thanks for your comments Chris.SE
Unless there is a vermin problem, which is less likely, then I think tree growth may be the culprit. There are trees lining the other side of the road behind our house [between us and the transmitter, perhaps 30 metres away] that could be the problem. They're on private [don't know the owner] land unfortunately, so unlikely to be able to trim/fell them. There are some trees in our garden at the back; I'll have to look at the line of sight to see if that might be the problem too.
This has been going on for perhaps a year or more, and only in high wind do we loose signal. Between the aerial [quite inaccessable at my age in the loft] there is internal wiring to a splitter [Labgear] that feeds the main TV and then three other TV sockets about the house. The wind last night was pretty fierce; as it was when Storm Amy came in the other week; then we had an outage that lasted more than an hour at one point, with several smaller instances of 'No Signal' during that evening.
I did wonder if something up on the Torosay mast itself was to blame; that only occured during very high wind situations?
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C
Chris.SE6:08 PM
Andrew Oldacre:
Hi again. Do have a look in your TV tuning section for these Signal Strength and Quality figures. That could help point a way of trying to deal with this.
Also, it's highly improbable that there's something at the transmitter causing this, that would have been spotted long ago. Main transmitters are monitored.
Are any particular channels affected in these windy situations, or does it appear to be a broad spectrum?
As you may or may not know, the TV channels are carried in groups on what are called Multiplexes. Sometimes in these situations only one or two multiplexes are affected.
For which TV channels are carried on which multiplex, see
https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management/channel-listings-industry-professionals
See if you can narrow down the multiplexes affected (of course it could be all of them!).
If you can find the Signal strength and Quality figures, as best you can, make a note of how much they individually vary in the wind.
Is the Labgear splitter a powered one with an amp? If so which model, does it have a gain control?
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Tuesday, 28 October 2025
A
Andrew Oldacre7:28 PM
Hi again Chris
I've had a look at the Labgear splitter. It is plugged in to an adjacent mains socket, but there are no types/serial numbers etc. to be seen, other than the word 'Booster'. It was installed when the house was built [2000] about five years before we bought the property. There are no controls for it; and I looked to see if there was a leaflet left by the previous owners [they were generally VG at that kind of thing, but in this case nothing].
Regarding signal strength/quality: When we get updates/new channels from Freeview I notice that there is a figure of 10 shown against each channel as it is displayed during the update. So I assume this is good. Otherwise I can see no way of checking this via my TV setup etc.
We're usually watching BBC 1 when this problem occurs, but then we rarely watch anything other than one of the BBC channels. We do record a lot, and then there is simply a break in the recording for two or three seconds. This shows visually as a frozen picture for a second or three, then continues as it should.
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Wednesday, 29 October 2025
C
Chris.SE12:15 AM
Andrew Oldacre:
Hi again. Somewhere (usually a button on the remote) you can go to the TV's "Settings". There should be options there for Tuning etc. Usually there is an "Automatic" Retune and a Manual Retune. There could be a setting similar to/such as Automatically Retune when there are changes. That function needs to be turned OFF. It would cause the set to try retuning when it finds no signal and you can't tune to a signal that's not there! The usual result is to clear existing correct tuning!
Somewhere amongst the Tuning settings, there should be something that will show the Strength and maybe Error rate if it doesn't show Quality.
What make and model TV set is it?
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