Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter

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

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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.

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

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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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C43 (650.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) West Midlands, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 19 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C46 (674.0MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) Midlands ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 Midlands ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Central west), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C40+ (626.2MHz)	433m	DTG-	200,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD West Midlands, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Central West), 104 Channel 4 HD Midlands ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C42 (642.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 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 Sky +1, plus 29 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C45 (666.0MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C39+ (618.2MHz)	433m	DTG-8	200,000W
	12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others
LB	H -13dB	C48 (690.0MHz)	433m	DTG-12	10,000W
	from 31st October 2014: 7 Big Centre TV,

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 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	BBCtv_waves
C33						com7
C35						com8
C36						LOCAL2
C39					+ArqB	ArqB
C40		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C42					SDN	SDN
C43		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C45					ArqA	ArqA
C46		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C48						_local
C50_{tv_off}		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves
C51_{tv_off}						LB
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 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

Local transmitter maps

Sutton Coldfield Freeview Sutton Coldfield DAB Sutton Coldfield AM/FM Sutton Coldfield TV region BBC West Midlands Central (West micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area

Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968	Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004	Central Independent 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. Sutton Coldfield 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?

A

Andrew Hannay
11:31 PM

PS. It put ?'s in place of the degree's symbol in the post above for the bearings.

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Andrew Hannay's 3 posts US flag

Andrew's: A's Freeview map A's terrain plot A's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:44 AM

Andrew Hannay:

Yes, it puts ? for pounds as well :o
I'm not an expert on transmission modes but I'm lead to believe when the is QSPK 8K 3/4 it's effective range can be upto 10x 8K 3/4 for the same (but of course it has very limited bandwidth in that mode) and you don't need as strong a to correct the errors. In other words you can have a tenth of the power but still have similar coverage!
256QAM is more vulnerable to errors, so with weaker signals you might not find it decodable, then of course there's the chance of co- which will increase errors, reducing the .

Have you got any binoculars or a telescope to see if you can make out the colour of the bung in the end of your ?

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Chris.SE's 4,393 posts GB flag

N

Nick frazer
6:11 PM

We have been having issues since 5/4/2020 getting a Dtv on all our TV sets
Supposedly we are likely to be using the
but can't find any definitive info that there are problems only work planned ?

Can anyone advise ?

Best regards
Nick

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Nick frazer's 1 post GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

8:40 PM

Nick frazer :

is listed this week for Planned with "Possible weak ", so this may be the reason. But without a full postcode it would be impossible to comment further on the effect at your location.

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Chris.SE's 4,393 posts GB flag

R

Roy
5:54 PM

Well the dark day of 21 June 2020 arrived for the , when Com7 and Com8 were set to go away for a long and uncertain holiday. True enough, Channel4+1 HD and 4Seven HD vanished, or rather transmit nothing more than a notice redirecting viewers to non their HD or non +1 channels. But also living on Com7 is BBC4 HD, which is still alive and well. I also note that in the last few days, the long set 21 June date has since become 30 June. Assuming this relates to some schedule update somewhere or other, do I assume that BBC4 HD will also be sacrificed by then for the cause of giving the kiddies better on their mobiles?

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Roy's 18 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:14 PM

Roy:

There was never any final decision by to close COMs 7&8 this June, Arqiva wanted a later date, and a lot of websites, this included hadn't corrected their information. There's also a lot of inaccurate information about COMs 7&8. Have a read of this more factual info -
Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy
The losses are commercial decisions by them!
What the BBC intends to do remains to be seen, there's supposedly some sort of review gong on now? with a decision in November? Haven't checked for myself.

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Chris.SE's 4,393 posts GB flag

R

Roy
7:17 PM

Chris.SE - thanks for that info. It's interesting but about as clear as mud really. Nobody at the consumer end seems to know what's going on. It's just a matter of waiting and seeing. Given the huge market of TV viewers, I'd really have expected something firmer and more widely accessible, but from what I've learned here, I can't say I'm surprised. I'll just wait for to go dead. Thanks again.

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Roy's 18 posts GB flag

A

Aerialman

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

9:55 PM

Com 8 is closing Com 7 is continuing for the time being.
For example BBC 4 HD and Quest HD has migrated to Com 7.
As of today Com 8 is still producing a from ,but with no broadcast programmes.

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Aerialman's 140 posts GB flag

R

Roy
10:46 PM

Aerialman - interesting, but BBC4 HD is listed as being Com8 at , but has nevertheless worked all week. Meanwhile the 'still working' Com7 has lost Channel4+1 HD and 4Seven HD, according to Chris.SE that was a voluntary decision. How does the ordinary viewer have any clue if the channels he sets to record programmes on at the start of the week will still exist, or else have moved elsewhere, by the end of it?

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Roy's 18 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:35 AM

Roy: The owner of this website has not been able to keep the 1,100+ listings up to date with all of the changes taking place due to the clearance programme. There have been on screen notices on all of the affected advising viewers of their closure, or the need to retune to continue receiving relocated channels (although many TVs will handle the retune automatically).

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StevensOnln1's 3,680 posts GB flag

Page 213

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