Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"W |  | B75 5JJ |
The symbol shows the location of the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter which serves 1,870,000 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 Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter._______
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 Sutton Coldfield 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 Sutton Coldfield transmitter?
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest (200°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 15km south-southwest (201°)
to ITV Central (West) region - 65 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (East)
Are there any self-help relays?
| Burton (shobnall) | Transposer | 1 km W Burton-on-Trent | 60 homes |
| Coalville | Transposer | 18 km NW Leicester | 600 homes |
| Solihull | Transposer | Land Rover building | 400 homes |
How will the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1950s-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 7 Mar 2018 | ||||
| VHF | B E T | B E T | B E T | B E K T | W T | ||||
| C4 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C33 | com7 | ||||||||
| C35 | com8 | ||||||||
| C36 | LOCAL2 | ||||||||
| C39 | +ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C40 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C42 | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C43 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C45 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C46 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C48 | _local | ||||||||
| C50tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | ||||||
| C51tv_off | LB | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_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 Sep 11 and 21 Sep 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 1000kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 200kW | |
| com7 | (-10.5dB) 89.2kW | |
| com8 | (-10.7dB) 86kW | |
| LB | (-20dB) 10kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-21dB) 8kW |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area
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Thursday, 31 October 2019
Friday, 1 November 2019
C
Chris.SE1:22 AM
Steven Woolley:
Channel 4+1 is on the COM7HD multiplex which although broadcast from Sutton Coldfield, may not be receivable at your location. Go to Freeview | All your favourite TV shows, all in one place and all for free scroll down the page to the box "Check Freeview at my home" and enter your postcode and house number/name. Scroll down the following page where available channels are shown in "tiles". Below the initial block there is a "down arrow" if not all are displayed. But if you are only interested in the HD channels click on that button on the RHS of the top row (PS. if it says 13, you can get them all). If you scroll down just after half way down the page, there is a button "Detailed view". If you click on that it will show the predicted reception of transmitters and multiplexes that may be receivable at your location.
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Monday, 4 November 2019
R
Roy9:13 PM
When Sutton Coldfield transmitter turns off Com7 & Com8 in June 2020, will the channels listed against them above be the ones to vanish or might there be some rearrangement/horsetrading with the lower Com channels as to what is dropped? There are some useful/major HD channels within 7 & 8, as well as some minor ones, and I like others have seen the 5G clearances of 2019 make reception of Com 7 & 8 get harder.
And does anyone know how soon the interim 209Mbps period will follow the above switch-off?
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S
StevensOnln111:24 PM
Roy: There has been no confirmation that COM7 & COM8 will close at Sutton Coldfield next June (it has been announced that COM7/8 will close at 5 transmitters by next Summer but Sutton Coldfield is not on that list). Ofcom have previously stated that COM7 & COM8 will be able to continue broadcasting on UHF channels 55 & 56 for up to another 2 or 3 years until those frequencies start to be used by the mobile networks (those channels fall within the centre gap between the new 700MHz uplink and downlink allocations - hence why COM7/8 have been moved to those frequencies). No announcement has been made about any channels moving to other multiplexes.
I'm not sure what you mean by interim 209Mbps period?
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Tuesday, 5 November 2019
C
Chris.SE12:18 AM
StevensOnln1:
I think what Roy is referring to is the speculation here Rebuilding Freeview High Definition from 2019 onwards | free and easy that once the HD muxes COMs 7&8 close then COMs 4-6 will go HD. It is of course pure speculation that they will all go HD, one may do so initially, but it will be purely a commercial decision (we think at present) by Arqiva and the broadcasters. So the answer to Roy's question is we don't know, nothing has been announced and nothing is expected to be announced soon!
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R
Roy8:04 AM
Hi both. I was referring to what it says on this very page Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy namely 'Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) by 30 June 2020' with the crossed-out logo against Com7 & Com8 and against C55 & C56 where they currently reside. The linked page Rebuilding Freeview High Definition from 2019 onwards | free and easy states that Com7 & 8 'Expire 21 June 2020' which I took to mean scheduled rather than just speculated.
I find Channel4+1 HD and 4seven HD which reside on Com7 very useful, as repeats of a major channel are useful when the major broadcasters put out their prime content 8pm-10pm and some (BBC channels) may not repeat even once. So I've clung to the Com7 channel despite a power reduction this year (I'm 30 miles from the transmitter) with more reduction to come I think I read. The Interim 209Mbps quote was again taken from the second page I mention. What I was getting at in my post was whether there was going to be a temporary (or even permanent) loss of these C4 HD repeat channels during these rearrangement phases.
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C
Chris.SE1:00 PM
Roy:
As mentioned by StevensOnln1, UHF55&56 are in the gap between Uplink & Downlink allocations for 5G. It is the rest of the 700MHz band that will be cleared by June 2020. I'm afraid there are many listings on various pages on this site that are wrong and information that has not been fully updated by the site owner to reflect the current situation, there are over 1100+ transmitters in the UK. Some main transmitters have already lost COMs 7&8 as has been mentioned in part due to technical aspects of SFNs, but mainly due to the fact that existing equipment (mainly pre-DSO AFAIK) has to be repurposed for the new SFN allocations and it's not always technically possible and/or cost effective for Arqiva to do this.
The current allocation (gap) is planned for 5G SDL for which there is yet no proposals by the mobile operators AFAIK.
As you know there are no other HD muxes other than BBCB on which there is no more room. So until there is some future proposal by Arqiva, or intervention by HMG/OFCOM (or new agreements resulting from CEPT proposals) it's all speculation.
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R
Roy1:35 PM
Chris.SE - so if I understand you correctly, that switchoff info for Com7 & 8 may be wrong? And that Channel 55 & 56 (on which they reside) is not under threat from 5G for some time? If so, I'm hoping that gives a stopgap until the later stages create more TV stations via higher bps transmissions. Assuming that's correct, would you know if Ch55&56 will for now retain their current power output? They were reduced earlier this year, presumably interference to something else was the issue, but for outlying areas any more reduction becomes serious.
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S
StevensOnln12:10 PM
Roy: Nothing has been formally announced regarding what will happen with COM7 & COM8 beyond next year. The centre gap frequencies are due to be auctioned by Ofcom to the mobile operators for 5G SDL (as mentioned by Chris.SE) next year, however it is not expected that whichever mobile operator(s) end up with those frequencies will make use of them for some time (SDL is additional downlink capacity which can only be used in conjunction with another pair of downlink and uplink frequencies), hence Ofcom have said that COM7 & COM8 can continue to broadcast on those frequencies until the mobile operators are ready to use them. Reductions in broadcast power have taken place at various transmitters in order to reduce interference, whereas other transmitters have increased their output power in order to overcome additional losses at higher frequencies.
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R
Roy2:39 PM
StevensOnln1 - OK thanks. A slightly uncertain picture but at least some hope that Com7 & Com8 may limp along for a while yet. I'll have to keep a close eye on Sutton Coldfield's 'events' schedule to see if they'll be reducing it further.
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