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 27/01/2025 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 TV 3,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C35 (586.0MHz)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	46 5SELECT, 57 U&Eden, 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, 203 CBBC HD, 204 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, 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 28 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, 76 That's Dance, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C36 (594.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	Al Jazeera Eng, 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 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?

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:22 PM

Jackie Hone: Arqiva (the company who operate the transmitters) never say when the work is due to finish as it is often dependent on factors such as the weather which are beyond their control. Retuning was a bad idea as you have likely deleted all of your which were previously correctly tuned. You will now have to retune periodically until you get your channels back.

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StevensOnln1's 3,694 posts GB flag

J

Jim Paterson
12:18 PM
Yeovil

I live in TA12 6DS Martock Somerset area for the past few days I have been having problems with the sound level going up and down just enough to notice it rather than a total loss of sound on BBC1 using (no problems with via ).

My daughter who lives in Yeovil BA21 3TL was telling me she had the same problem yesterday evening

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Jim Paterson's 1 post GB flag

Jim's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

B

Bruce

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

4:49 PM
Yeovil

Hi

Any one suffering the same...........
We have a Humax set top box; until a few weeks ago it was possible, using the EPG, to see all the upcoming programmes on most for a full week. Now we are lucky if we see the programmes on any channel for one day!

With the most recent changes to , I thought that this could be the source of the no-show'!

I did a re- this morning but the problem is still present.

The Humax box is relatively old, could it be that this piece of kit is passed its sell-by' date.

Any suggestions? My location is BA21 4NW.

Regards

Bruce

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Bruce's 57 posts GB flag

Bruce's: B's Freeview map B's terrain plot B's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:07 AM

Bruce:

I've a feeling this is related to some recent bugs in the EPG due to some changes in some on the Local and as usual Humax and Sony boxes seem to be affected.
Just bear with it, I'll post back if I can get any update.

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Chris.SE's 4,252 posts GB flag

J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

7:45 AM

Bruce: I had a look around and found this:

Humax EPGs not displaying properly My Humax Forum

The thread seems to be about what you are experiencing, and presents a solution of deleting that are not required, thus reducing the amount of EPG data that needs to be stored.

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js's 839 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:11 AM

js:

Well done and thanks for that, I wonder if Bruce has tried it?
I found something similar but it was years old so I didn't consider it, I didn't see that recent one!

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Chris.SE's 4,252 posts GB flag

G

Graham Preston
9:09 AM

: Everything on PSB1 and 2 has vanished and cannot be retuned all other OK

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Graham Preston's 2 posts GB flag

G

Graham Preston
9:12 AM
Merriott

Ta16 5pt
: Everything on PSB1 and 2 has vanished and cannot be retuned all other OK

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Graham Preston's 2 posts GB flag

Graham's: ...

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:13 AM

Graham :

You should normally have excellent of the 6 main multiplexes from .
As per the post before yours, Mendip is listed for Planned (again!), therefore there could be brief interruptions to transmission etc.

If you were correctly tuned, then if there was due to weather, engineering, faults etc. OR badly pixelated pictures Do NOT Retune. You cannot tune to signals that aren't there or cannot be decoded. The usual result is to clear your correct tuning so you then have to retune again when signals are normal.

Mendip was transmitting normally at various times when I checked in the morning and this evening.
If you are still having a problem please post back with some further details.
Where is your located? How old is it (roughly)?
Do you have any amp/splitters feeding more than one TV and where is it located? Are there any tall trees etc on the line of sight between the aerial and the ?

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Chris.SE's 4,252 posts GB flag

B

Bruce

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

10:11 AM

Problem posted earlier on the site was subsequently sent to HUMAX
For several months now, probably started around time of the introduction of ITV-X, the EPG has consistently shown 'no-programs'

I have tried all possible option and suggestions given by others to rectify the problem, to no avail
I have gained from Internet searches knowledge that on the model 5000T there is a EPG reset option, I can find no similar option on the 'settings' menu on my 4000T.

Is there a solution to the problem that doesn't need the complete loss of all saved programs?

Humas response
Since the device has a lot of available on it, the gets divided which results in the EPG (program guide information) not populating like usual.
However, there is an easy fix for this which is to delete some unused channels on your device.
Please follow the steps below to delete your unused channels successfully:
Press the play button > Settings > Channel settings > Edit channel list > delete unused channels from the channel list (once you click OK on a channel you don't want to have, press the + button on the remote and you will get the option to DELETE the channel).
By deleting your unused channels, the signal will become better for the ones that you do use, which should result in the EPG populating once again.

Result of the above
I got as far as Channel settings; the only option available was 'signal test' all other options were 'greyed out' and so unavailable.

Is there a 'plan B' available?

Humas response

If the other options are still greyed out, please try a Power Cycle on your device to see if there's any difference afterward:
Power OFF your device and unplug the POWER CABLE. Allow for about 15 minutes.
Plug the POWER CABLE back IN and Power ON your device.
After the Power Cycle, please follow the steps in the previous email to delete your unused channels once again.

Tried this..................SUCCESS!

A big thanks to all who responded to my original enquiry. I post the result of the Humax information in case there are others having problems with the EPG.

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