Full Freeview on the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter

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

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51.237,-2.626 or 51°14'12"N 2°37'33"W

BA5 3LB

The symbol shows the location of the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmitter which serves 720,000 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 Mendip (Somerset, England) mast?

Mendip transmitter - Mendip transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 29/05/2023 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 Mendip 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)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) West, 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 16 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C34 (578.0MHz)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (West), 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 (West),
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C35 (586.0MHz)	591m	DTG-	100,000W
	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	C48 (690.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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	C33 (570.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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	C36 (594.0MHz)	591m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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
LBS	H -10dB	C30 (546.0MHz)	591m	DTG-12	10,000W
	from 22nd September 2014: 7 Made in Bristol,

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 Mendip transmitter?

BBC Points West 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS8 2LR, 25km north (3°)
to BBC West region - 60 masts.

ITV West Country News (East) 0.9m homes 3.4%
from Bristol BS4 3HG, 23km north (11°)
to ITV West region - 61 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

Cheddar	Transposer	15 km E Weston-super-Mare	1674 homes
Luccombe	Active deflector	6 km w Minehead	38 homes

How will the Mendip (Somerset, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2010	2010-13	2013-18	2013-17	27 Feb 2018
	C/D E	E	E	C/D E	C/D E T	W T	W T
C30							_local
C32							BBCA
C33						com7	com7
C34							D3+4
C35						com8	com8
C36							ArqB
C37		C5_waves	C5_waves
C48				SDN	SDN	SDN	SDN
C49_{tv_off}					BBCA	BBCA
C51_{tv_off}						LBS	LBS
C52_{tv_off}				ArqB	ArqB	ArqB
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}
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 24 Mar 10 and 7 Apr 10.

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

Analogue 1-4	500kW
Analogue 5	(-6dB) 126kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 100kW
com7	(-8.4dB) 72.4kW
com8	(-8.6dB) 69.1kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D, LBS	(-17dB) 10kW

Local transmitter maps

Mendip Freeview Mendip DAB Mendip TV region BBC West West

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Mendip transmitter area

Jan 1958-Jul 1968	Television Wales and the West
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	Harlech 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. Mendip 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?

G

Gammerx
7:44 AM

BBC channels may vanish from 760,000 homes across Mendip as Freeview stations move to new airwaves - Somerset Live says:

"Further at the group to move other will take place on 5 June and 19 June. On both dates, work will be carried out overnight at the main transmitter and be completed by 6am. Viewers can then retune at any time after this."

Wonder if this will fix things without needing a new ?

FAQs here https://www.freeview.co.u…D.97 mentions:

"4) I've retuned but I'm still missing some channels. What do I do?
Carrying out a full retune on your TV or box should restore your channels. However, in some cases you may need a new aerial to continue watching all available . For more information or with this call the Freeview Advice Line on freephone 0808 100 0288. You may be eligible for free in-home support, including aerial work if needed."

Some form of compensation? Who would be eligible?

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Gammerx's 2 posts

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:05 AM

Gammerx: The retunes in June will see further multiplexes move to new allocations. If you have a fault now, you should contact the Advice Line, as you have quoted above. Any viewer who has issues following the recent frequency change (where there wasn't a pre-existing fault) and who doesn't also have or cables will be eligible to have a replacement aerial fitted free of charge. This must be arranged by contacting the Freeview Advice Line, they won't reimburse you for the cost of having work carried out by anyone else.

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StevensOnln1's 3,510 posts

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:03 AM

Gammerx:

Did you carry out a retune as I advised in my Friday 9.10pm post? Clear the existing tuning, then do a MANUAL tune using the UHF (mentioned again to Brian ).
Current Mendip UHF channels 32, 54, 58, 48, 33, 52, 36, 35.

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Chris.SE's 3,453 posts

I

Iain Davies
9:14 AM

I think a Manual tune is the answer if people are still finding problems. A lot of the coverage area is also covered by and , which confuse many boxes on an auto set up option.

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Iain Davies's 11 posts

B

Brian Newcombe
9:22 AM

To whom it may concern:

Mendips is still sending out a on .

1) this is a waste of electricity.

2) My old Sony vcr DOES NOT have a manual search (it has one for ...) which means the auto search always locks on to c49 first, over-riding the new BBC1 channel ().
.
Please will someone do something about this??
Brian 17 May 2019

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Brian Newcombe's 1 post

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:59 AM

Brian Newcombe: There's nothing anyone on this website can do as no one here has any connection with any broadcaster or the company (Arqiva). There are further changes due at on 15th and 19th June so perhaps the additional mux will be switched off on one of those dates.

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StevensOnln1's 3,510 posts

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:42 AM

StevensOnln1:

Typo there ;) The retune dates are 5th June & 19th June.

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Chris.SE's 3,453 posts

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

11:09 PM

- : HD TV Reduced from 20:26 today to 20:32 today. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 140,848 posts

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

5:09 AM

- : HD TV Reduced from 20:26 to 20:32 yesterday. [BBC]

link to this comment

Transmitter engineering's 140,848 posts

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

5:09 AM

- : HD TV Reduced from 20:26 on 24 May to 20:32 on 24 May. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 140,848 posts

Page 187

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.

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