Full Freeview on the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter

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

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52.801,-0.801 or 52°48'4"N 0°48'5"W

LE14 4AJ

The symbol shows the location of the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmitter which serves 770,000 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 Waltham (Leicestershire, England) mast?

Waltham transmitter - Waltham transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 17/02/2025 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 Waltham 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)	442m	DTG-	50,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) East Midlands, 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)	442m	DTG-	50,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Central (East 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 TV 3,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C35 (586.0MHz)	442m	DTG-	50,000W
	46 5SELECT, 57 U&Eden, 101 BBC One HD East 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, 203 CBBC HD, 204 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H -3dB	C29 (538.0MHz)	442m	DTG-8	25,000W
	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	H -3dB	C37 (602.0MHz)	449m	DTG-8	25,000W
	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	H -3dB	C31 (554.0MHz)	449m	DTG-8	25,000W
	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
LNG	H -10dB	C41 (634.0MHz)	442m	DTG-12	5,000W
	from 27th May 2014: 7 Notts 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 Waltham transmitter?

BBC East Midlands Today 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Nottingham NG2 4UU, 28km northwest (306°)
to BBC East Midlands region - 17 masts.

ITV Central News 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 83km west-southwest (244°)
to ITV Central (East) region - 17 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Central (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

Braunstone

Transposer

5 km SW Leicester city centre

170 homes

How will the Waltham (Leicestershire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2011	2011-13	2013-18	2013-17	4 Mar 2020
	C/D E	E	E	W	W T	W T	W T
C26						LNG	LNG
C29				SDN	SDN	SDN	SDN
C31						com7	com7
C32							BBCA
C34							D3+4
C35		C5_waves	C5_waves				BBCB
C37						com8	com8
C41							_local
C49_{tv_off}					BBCA	BBCA
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}
C57_{tv_off}				ArqB	ArqB	ArqB
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 17 Aug 11 and 31 Aug 11.

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

Analogue 1-5	250kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 50kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB	(-10dB) 25kW
com8	(-12.7dB) 13.4kW
com7	(-13.9dB) 10.2kW
Mux 1*	(-14dB) 10kW
Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B*	(-14.9dB) 8kW
Mux C, Mux D, LNG	(-17dB) 5kW

Local transmitter maps

Waltham Freeview Waltham DAB Waltham AM/FM Waltham TV region BBC East Midlands Central (East micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Waltham 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. Waltham 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?

T

Tony
9:40 AM

Does anyone have the up to date manual tuning numbers please. Living where I do I'm finding conflicts heavily with the . Thanks

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S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:34 AM

Tony: uses 32/34/35/29/37/31 (plus the local mux on 41 broadcasting directionally towards ).

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Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:28 PM

Tony:

FYI uses 22/25/28/30/23/26 with a Local mux on 32 That's TV Humber, beamed northwards towards , Hull, Beverley etc.

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Trevor Hesselwood
11:33 AM
Leicester

: Were there problems on Sunday 8th Sep 2024? We had blank recorded from about 20:20 on ITV1 (part way through Grace). Also continued 21:00 to 22:00 Sherwood BBC1 and 22:00 to 23:00 Grace ITV1+1.
Our record has worked perfectly before and since.
We are LE3 6SQ Western Park area of

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Trevor's: T's Freeview map T's terrain plot T's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage

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Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:09 PM

Trevor Hesselwood:

The was listed for Planned last week but not this, so that's one possibility.
Finding any BBC reports of any faults more than 5 days ago is not readily possible, so if your recorder has been working fine since, it's probably not worth worrying about that.
Also IIRC there was some Tropospheric weather conditions with the high pressure last weekend which may have caused brief disruptions to .

Your location is predicted to get very good signals from , but it's also possible to get signals from which could be received off a "reception side-lobe" on the rear of the but do check two things - that your aerial is still pointing correctly at Waltham, compass bearing 53 degrees, that's fractionally east of NE, with its rods horizontal. Also that you are correctly tuned to Waltham's UHF as listed at the very top of this page, check in the tuning section.

One other possibility is that you are surrounded by mobile phone masts. It's possible that some of them are upgrading 4G/ using the band and that may cause . This might be intermittent if they are testing periodically.
Your postcode should have received postcards from Restore TV. You can check at
https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/

In your TV Tuning section you should find figures for Strength and Signals (or Errors) for each multiplexes UHF channels. If the Quality is not 100% for each and/or the signal strength is quite low, you may already be suffering inetrference but not noticing any visible effects. If you post those figures for each UHF channel we may be able to offer further advise.

If you find that persistent interference problems start affecting pictures and sound then contact Restore TV for the Free Filter giving them details of your aerial installation and any pre-amp or amp/splitters you may have to feed more than one set.

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J

John Ath
10:39 PM

I live in DE1 area. I have not been able to receive TV signals for the East Midlands for a couple of weeks. Previously, I was having some problems with tv of some . Currently, I can only receive Midlands TV channels. Is there something wrong at ?
Thank you

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Steve Donaldson

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

12:03 AM

John Ath: is currently listed by as having works:

Planned engineering works | Freeview

The Midlands programming must be from . If your is pointing roughly south west then it is directed to Sutton Coldfield. Providing you are in a location where you can receive it then your aerial is also pointing to the which is situated on the of the hospital. This provides East Midlands programming, as a relay of Waltham.

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Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:24 AM

John Ath:

When you say "I can only receive Midlands TV " are you meaning that your local news is now just West Midlands (or maybe a mix of both West and East)? Is this just the BBC or is it ITV as well?

Is anyone else on your communal system having similar problems? Do have a quick look up at its TV (s) to see if they are still pointing correctly - fractionally S of due E (compass bearing 106 deg.).
Do of course check you are still correctly tuned to 's UHF channels -
In the order PSBs1-3, COMs4-6 the UHF channels for Waltham are , , , , , but of course your communal system might mean you cannot get signals on other UHF channels from other transmitters.

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