Full Freeview on the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter

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

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50.676,-1.369 or 50°40'35"N 1°22'7"W

PO30 4HT

The symbol shows the location of the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter which serves 620,000 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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmitter.

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

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Which Freeview channels does the Rowridge 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 V max	C24 (498.0MHz)	320m	DTG-	200,000W 200,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) South, 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 V max	C27 (522.0MHz)	320m	DTG-	200,000W 200,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (South Coast micro region)), 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 (Meridian south coast), 71 That's TV 3,
PSB3 BBCB	H max V max	C21+ (474.2MHz)	320m	DTG-	200,000W 200,000W
	46 5SELECT, 57 U&Eden, 101 BBC One HD South, 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, 203 CBBC HD, 204 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	V -6dB H -6dB	C25 (506.0MHz)	299m	DTG-8	50,000W 50,000W
	20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 61 GREAT! mystery, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 74 U&DaveJaVu, 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, plus 21 others
COM5 ArqA	V -6dB H -6dB	C22+ (482.2MHz)	302m	DTG-8	50,000W 50,000W
	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, 76 That's Dance, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	V -6dB H -6dB	C28 (530.0MHz)	302m	DTG-8	50,000W 50,000W
	12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! player, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's Melody, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 207 POP UP, plus 10 others
LSO	H -13dB	C37 (602.0MHz)	299m	DTG-12	10,000W
	from 22nd December 2014: 7 That's Solent,

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 Rowridge transmitter?

BBC South Today 1.3m homes 4.9%
from Southampton SO14 7PU, 26km north (354°)
to BBC South region - 39 masts.

ITV Meridian News 0.9m homes 3.6%
from Whiteley PO15 7AD, 24km north-northeast (20°)
to ITV Meridian (South Coast) region - 39 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford

Are there any self-help relays?

Portsmouth Docks

Transposer

2 km N city centre

50 homes Estimate. Group of houses'

How will the Rowridge (Isle Of Wight, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1950s-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2012	2012-13	2 May 2018
	VHF	A K T	A K T	A K T	A K T	W T
C3	BBCtv_waves
C21		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C22					+ArqA	ArqA
C24		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C25					SDN	SDN
C27		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C28					ArqB	ArqB
C29						LSO
C31		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves		com7
C37						com8
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_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 7 Mar 12 and 21 Mar 12.

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

Analogue 1-4	500kW
PSB1≡, PSB1\|\|, PSB2≡, PSB2\|\|, PSB3≡, PSB3\|\|	(-4dB) 200kW
COM4\|\|, COM4≡, COM5\|\|, COM5≡, COM6\|\|, COM6≡	(-10dB) 50kW
com7≡	(-13.1dB) 24.4kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-14dB) 20kW
com8≡	(-14.3dB) 18.4kW
LSO≡	(-17dB) 10kW

Local transmitter maps

Rowridge Freeview Rowridge DAB Rowridge TV region BBC South Meridian (South Coast micro region)

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

Aug 1958-Jan 1992	Southern Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992	Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004	Meridian
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. Rowridge 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?

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:09 AM

tony:

Sorry, I haven't missed any point BUT I am missing a post. After posting the above I then saw your post on about your being Vertical, so made a further post here apologising and commenting then it must be the current weather conditions. That post seems to have disappeared!!
Making several posts in different places with different information isn't really that helpful.

Vertical polarisation doesn't unfortunately make signals immune from Tropospheric conditions, and also in some situations polarisation can change along a propagation path, so it's even possible that a signal that originated as horizontal could end up vertical in tropospheric conditions as there can be multiple reflections of the interfering signals.

Above, I didn't repeat the information that I'd posted in the post immediately prior to your Thursday one here (which I would have hoped you'd seen and read) albeit in response to another post in Nov.'24, I stated -
"How long have you had the problem? It could be current weather conditions, there is some tropospheric conditions around that will be causing problems for some on occasion. Such conditions can be very dependant, so not all multiplexes will be affected, if indeed any others, it just depends on where the interfering signals originate."

In my direct reply to your post here, I did say we had such "tropo conditions" at present with links to current BBC and information.
Unfortunately, in your locale, from predicted information, COM5 would appear to be the most vulnerable of the COM muxes to this sort of interference.
Though you haven't explicitly said, from your recent comments I would deduce that your issue only started again recently with this current high pressure weather.

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Chris.SE's 4,399 posts GB flag

B

Barrie Gibson
5:47 PM

I have been using the for 6 months without issue. However this week it has breakups and pixelation. The freview site does indeed mention maintenance will start this week, which probably explains it. However it goes no indication how long this will take.

Does anyone have the answer?

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Barrie Gibson's 1 post GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:23 PM

Barrie Gibson: Arqiva (the company operating the transmitters) don't give any information about their work, so unfortunately nobody is likely to know what sort of work they are carrying out or how long it is expected to last.

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StevensOnln1's 3,740 posts GB flag

T

tony
2:01 PM

i am now going to give up on this site as it is hoplessly outdated
By the way Arqiva muxes from are practially uselss from my location

ALL the other muxes are peachy , just fine, perfecto....... a Banging and no dropouts..

Arqiva is a joke right? its not supposed to work ????

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tony's 13 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:59 PM

tony:

Give up if you wish, your choice. One of the few, if only, places that you'll get free, independent and usually accurate responses to technical queries from generally experienced engineers.

And the site is not "hopelessly" outdated - yes there are some inaccuracies and errors, virtually all of which have been pointed out by ourselves when posters have a query relating to such errors and they've then been given factually correct information.

I you read my previous reply (and the Nov.24 one which it mentioned) the one before that was not helped by the post that went missing.
Unfortunately we have "tropo" conditions again, the latest BBC warning is here -
Latest engineering works and warnings | Help receiving TV and radio

It's not Arqiva's fault either. Here's a few more facts, whilst having been mentioned in various places on this site in the past, haven't been mentioned in direct response to you -

All frequencies used by (as well as European broadcasters) are shared and always have been. OK there are less of those frequencies now, which can cause problems on occasion.

You live near the south coast which makes you a little more vulnerable to from overseas transmissions (hence why has Vertical and Horizontal polarisations, vertical helping to reduce the problem somewhat).
Part of your propagation path to Rowridge is over water which can add to problems on occasion.

The COM muxes share frequencies with a lot more transmissions that the PSBs, this makes them more vulnerable. This is so that the PSBs (Public Service Broadcasts) are protected as much as is possible from these potential interference issues, but none of this makes any of them immune.

Looking at the predicted for your locale, COM5 seems to be more vulnerable BUT there may also be some very local conditions near you that can also be having an effect which general postcode checks won't necessarily show up.
As previously explained, polarisation can change a bit over a propagation path in some conditions and sometimes due to signal reflections near your location as as result of very local buildings, trees and etc.

It seems from the dates of your posts that your issues do primarily arise when there are "tropo" conditions around, but as you are never explicit about how long they've being happening on a particular occasion or when they started, it's impossible to offer any other constructive advice, except - Do you have a (free) Filter fitted between your and any amp/splitter or just TV if only one?

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Chris.SE's 4,399 posts GB flag

G

Graham Scott
10:49 PM

HD transmissions are poor/not available. Even BBC non-HD transmission also have intermittent non-availability issues.

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Graham Scott's 1 post GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:52 AM

Graham Scott:

As per the note at the top of this page, it is currently subject to Planned .
Do NOT retune if you have of badly pixelated pictures, it will likely just clear the correct tuning. You cannot tune to signals that aren't there or can't be decoded.

As you haven't provided a full postcode we can't advise on your predicted , however it's very likely that a lot of the rest of the comment in my previous post here will be applicable to you.

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