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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Sunday, 28 June 2020
R
Roy12:14 PM
StevensOnln1: I am absolutely not blaming the owners of a private website like this for the lack of detailed/current info. I am impressed that this site comes up No.1 when googling such transmitter queries, but equally unimpressed that the owners of the stations or the Freeview organisation themselves do not come way before ukfreetv does as a source of web info. We are talking about large, high cost commercial ventures operating in the communications industry after all; a simple website kept uptodate with what changes are happening and exactly when, as a matter of plain fact not gifted speculation, should be well within the capabilities of these other organisations.
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S
StevensOnln11:43 PM
Roy: Upcoming frequency changes and planned engineering work is listed under Platform Management on the Corporate section of the Freeview website, along with a full up to date list of channel number allocations.
Platform management | Freeview
Channels moving from one multiplex to another is a commercial decision taken between the broadcaster and multiplex operator, which does not involve Freeview or Digital UK Limited. Such moved tend to be announced by the broadcasters themselves via onscreen messages and in most cases on the broadcaster's own websites, which generally get reported on various broadcasting news websites.
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C
Chris.SE4:55 PM
Roy:
I'm sorry you didn't find the information in my post that I linked to on the Sandy Heath page clear, I thought it was.
It explained that
1) OFCOM have actually got round to updating the Arqiva licence in preparation for the forthcoming auction selling off the 700MHz frequencies for mobile use
2) The fact that COM8 was closing now was a commercial decision by Arqiva with an explanation of the reasons
3) A bit of speculation about closure of COM7 not until well into 2021 at the earliest because of the factors mentioned, but in any event by 30th June 2022 as stated in the updated licence.
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R
Roy6:11 PM
Chris.SE - your post was clear thanks, in as much as it can be with some timings still uncertain such as when exactly COM7 will finish for example. Likewise the Freeview info linked to by StevensOnln1 is fine as far as it goes, e.g. confirming COM8 goes on 30 June this year. But the problem for the ordinary user is that they don't record (or typically even know of) multiplexes, they record channels & programmes. So when I read that COM8 is about to go for commercial reasons, the first thing to cross my mind is what will happen to BBC4 HD currently there?. Elsewhere you say that C4+1 HD and 4Seven HD are quitting COM7 for commercial reasons. Does that mean BBC4 HD can move into that vacated COM7 bandwidth for the time being, or does it not work like that? This may be obvious to those working in these industries, but for those simply wanting to record the week ahead in the best definition our lovely big TV's can handle, it is not clear.
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C
Chris.SE6:31 PM
Roy:
As per the various pages on Platform management | Freeview and help pages, that is precisely what BBC4 HD have done.
In addition to the pop-ups that have appeared on each COM8 channel that was moving, telling you to retune to continue to receive them -
See Platform management | Freeview /channel-listings
See also 22 Jun 2020 - Important channel broadcast changes | Freeview
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Tuesday, 30 June 2020
D
Darren8:01 PM
Hi, can anyone tell me the current mux frequencies for the sutton transmitter please? I've tried for an hour to figure it out. Help | Freeview doesn't seem to list them either. Need them to tune my PC PCIe tuner. Thanks. Darren.
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Wednesday, 1 July 2020
D
Darren12:11 AM
Ok have I got this right?
C39+(618.2MHz)
C40+(626.2MHz)
C42 (642.0MHz)
C43 (650.0MHz)
C45 (666.0MHz)
C46 (674.0MHz)
C51 (714.0MHz)
C55 (746.0MHz)
Is the offset still needed on channels 39/40? My humax lists the freq as 618000/626000 and the channels look ok.
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C
Chris.SE1:30 AM
Darren:
Well, yes and no! Unfortunately the site owner has not been able to keep up with all the 700MHz Clearance changes, so all the UHF channel numbers are not necessarily up-to-date.
In the order PSBs1-3, COMs4-7, Loc1, Loc2 -
UHF channels are C43, C46, C40+, C42, C45, C39+, C55, C36, C48
No doubt you found those frequencies at the top of the page ;) , however the offsets are actually 166kHz, so the 0.2 is a rounded figure. The offset is the same whether it's + or - .
One thing about this site, when you see a channel number with the C before it in a post, if you hover over it it'll give you the centre frequency, unfortunately it doesn't do the + or -
If you click on it, you go to a page full of information, but unfortunately it may not be up-to-date!
Whether you need the offset will probably depend on the tuner card, I doubt it'll object putting it in. The Humax may be rounding the displayed figure to the nearest MHz!
There's nothing on C51, that moved on 700MHz clearance. There's two channels used for the Local mux, beamed in different directions IIRC, whether you get them and COM7 will depend on your location.
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Saturday, 4 July 2020
B
B Stanton3:58 PM
Dear Sir.
I have picked up Birmingham tv on my tv many times. It was broadcast on UHF channel 36 it has been dead for over 3 months now, uses channel 7 on tv. Has it been removed or have the station had its power reduced.
Brian.
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C
Chris.SE10:46 PM
B Stanton:
It is still transmitting, I can find no listing of any faults or changes of power but it's not high power like the main multiplexes.
Have you changed anything in your set-up? Is your aerial still pointing the right way after many high winds?
As you know Birmingham TV is at LCN7. Do you get programmes at LCN's 48,50,60, 94 & 207 ? if you do, you are getting the Local multiplex, so try a retune to see if that resolves the problem.
If not, post back with a bit more detail about your installation - do you have any aerial booster/splitter to run more than one set? Have you got any new equipment? We need a full postcode to look at your predicted reception as well.
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