Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter

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

Google Streetview

Google map

Bing map

Google Earth

51.324,0.520 or 51°19'25"N 0°31'13"E

ME5 9RD

The symbol shows the location of the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter which serves 200,000 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 Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter.

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

_______

Which Freeview channels does the Bluebell Hill 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)	242m	DTG-	20,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) South East, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, 250 BBC Red Button, plus 15 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C34 (578.0MHz)	242m	DTG-	20,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (East micro region)), 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, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Meridian south coast),
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C45+ (666.2MHz)	242m	DTG-	20,000W
	56 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD (England no regional news), 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, 109 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C40 (626.0MHz)	242m	DTG-8	20,000W
	20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! movies action, 46 Channel 5 +1, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 CBS Reality, 74 Dave ja vu, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 89 ITV4 +1, 203 CITV, 208 Pop Player, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, plus 15 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C43+ (650.2MHz)	245m	DTG-8	20,000W
	11 Sky Arts, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 pick, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 57 Smithsonian Channel, 60 Drama +1, 70 Quest +1, 75 Yesterday +1, 83 Together TV, 233 Sky News, plus 9 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C46 (674.0MHz)	245m	DTG-8	20,000W
	12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 71 Quest Red +1, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 88 Classic Hits, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 19 others

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Bluebell Hill transmitter?

BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 28km southwest (219°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.

ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 5km south-southeast (156°)
to ITV Meridian (East) region - 36 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford

How will the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2012	2012-13	19 Jul 2018
	E	E	E	W T	W T
C21					_local
C28				_local
C32					com7
C34					com8
C39				+ArqA
C40	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	+BBCB	SDN
C43	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4	ArqA
C45				SDN	BBCB
C46	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBCA	ArqB
C54_{tv_off}				ArqB
C55_{tv_off}					com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}					COM8_{tv_off}
C65	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_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 13 Jun 12 and 27 Jun 12.

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

Analogue 1-4	30kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-1.8dB) 20kW
com8	(-7.8dB) 5kW
com7	(-8.1dB) 4.7kW
Mux 1, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-10dB) 3kW
Mux 2, Mux A	(-11.8dB) 2kW

Local transmitter maps

Bluebell Hill Freeview Bluebell Hill DAB Bluebell Hill TV region BBC South East Meridian (East micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Bluebell Hill transmitter area

Sep 1955-Jul 1968	Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	Thames†
Jul 1968-Dec 1981	London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1982-Dec 1992	Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004	Meridian
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. Bluebell Hill 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?

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:31 AM

transmitter - Possible weak [DUK]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 140,875 posts

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

7:32 PM

transmitter - Freeview: BBC TV Weak from 18:46 today. [BBC]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 140,875 posts

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

10:32 PM

transmitter - Freeview: BBC TV Weak from 18:46 today to 19:10 today. [BBC]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 140,875 posts

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:32 AM

transmitter - Freeview: BBC TV Weak from 18:46 to 19:10 yesterday. [BBC]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 140,875 posts

M

mark
9:38 PM

Since the work at I have no free view channels at all please advise

link to this comment

mark's 1 post

M

mark
9:43 PM

I live in seasalter Kent and have NO free view at all can you tell me why please

link to this comment

mark's 1 post

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

4:31 AM

transmitter - Freeview: BBC TV Weak from 18:46 on 23 Dec to 19:10 on 23 Dec. [BBC]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 140,875 posts

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

5:06 PM

Mark:

According to the entries, is on weak signals at present. Hence some may have problems. DO NOT retune.

link to this comment

MikeP's 3,056 posts

K

Ken Reaveley
12:10 AM

Once again BBC4's is lost tonight, trying to watch James May's re-assembler about 4472 Flying Scotsman at 21;00. Will it be working tomorrow at 21:00 when 60103 (AKA 4472) Flying Scotsman on the SVR?
BBC 4 part of the 32 Group @ 562.00MHz 107 108, 109,110, 113 124, 56, 67,71,77,81,82, 86 & 87 at least all displaying . Kept retuning including , nothing. So according to you post is experiencing weak signals, don't retune!
At least with , you could still see a picture, even if it was a bit noisy.
So why are we fiddling with the equipment over Christmas Holidays, - just like the trains. We can't go anywhere and if we stay at home our Freeview signal is un-reliable. Great planning.

link to this comment

Ken Reaveley's 11 posts

D

Donna hills
5:22 PM

Why have i got no singal from blue bell hill had nothing all day is there a problem

Page 78

Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.
Your comments
Your name
Your email
Your site or @twitter
Email me updates
Save my details

Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.