Full Freeview on the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.997,-2.540 or 51°59'49"N 2°32'25"W |  | HR8 2PG |
The symbol shows the location of the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmitter which serves 270,000 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 Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) mast?
Ridge Hill transmitter - Ridge Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 29/05/2023 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Ridge 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.
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 Ridge Hill transmitter?
BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 69km northeast (39°)
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.
ITV Central News 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 69km northeast (39°)
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?
| Whitton | Transposer | 35 km NW Hereford | 40 homes |
How will the Ridge Hill (County of Herefordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1968-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 1 Mar 2018 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | A K T | A K T | W T | W T | ||||
| C6 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C21 | +SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C22 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C24 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C25 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C27 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C28 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C29 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C30 | _local | ||||||||
| C32 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | com7 | |||||
| C34 | com8 | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C51tv_off | _local | _local | |||||||
| 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 6 Apr 11 and 20 Apr 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-5 | 100kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, PSB2 iw, BBCB | (-7dB) 20kW | |
| com7 | (-9.8dB) 10.5kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 10kW | |
| com8 | (-10.1dB) 9.8kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-17dB) 2kW |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Ridge Hill transmitter area
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldSaturday, 5 December 2015
J
jb385:34 PM
Richard Sutton : In addition to that said in my previous reply. The fact of you having observed an increase in the signal strength of Mux29 over that of Mux25, somewhat backs up reports seen of the signal from the former having been biased to favour towards the Gloucester area. Unable to check, as the radiation patterns are withheld.
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Richard Sutton6:28 PM
jb38:
Thanks for all the info. At least it shows I'm probably not going mad and something has changed in the way that Ridge Hill directs its signal.
I've spoken to the Freeview technical help desk. I'm not sure how technical they are but they say that C29 is still broadcasting the same TV channels as C25 and that if I can only get ITV on C29 it must be because there is something wrong with my system and, because all my TVs and Humax have the same symptoms, it must be a "common" problem like water in the aerial cable.
I asked how could this be possible because C29 is in the middle of the frequency range of all the Muxes I can receive and I can receive ITV on C29 perfectly. I asked if it was possible for a fault to be so specific that one station can be received on a mid-frequency mux but all the other stations on that mux to be blocked? They said that it was difficult to understand but that all the stations were on C29 as normal.
I now have all my devices tuned to ITV on C29 and Ch4 and Ch5 on C25 as that's the best I can do until someone suggests something new to try.
This is really strange but I'm not a broadcast expert so am well out of my depth with all this.
Richard
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Richard Sutton6:34 PM
I should also add that the only reason I've been persuing this is because if we want to want Channel 5 we have to use C25 as it's not available in HD. We can, and usually do, always watch ITV and Channel 4 in HD and the HD muxes are fine.
If I could get Channel 5 on C29 I'd be happy but that seems not to be possible.
Richard
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J
jb387:45 PM
Richard Sutton: Yes, but have you as yet carried out the "factory default" procedure on your Humax?, this procedure always being one of the last resort as far as a viewer is concerned, as its the only way of correcting any data errors that may have occurred in the system, this action being even more effective if the mains supply to the box is switched off (rear switch?) after having carried out said procedure, "before" any attempt is made at retuning.
I did not initially mention this procedure simply because of it deleting any personal settings that you might have made on the box, whereas an auto-tune minus the aerial doesn't, likewise that had to be tried first. However as that procedure failed to make any difference to the situation, factory default "is" now the last resort.
By the way, this is also known under other names (factory reset / first time installation, etc, etc) dependant on the brand of equipment, but most Humax devices generally refer to it as "factory default", usually accessed via: Menu / Settings / Installation / Factory Default.
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js8:20 PM
jb38: Surely D3&4 UHF25 carries the same services, on the same LCNs, as D3&4 UHF29. If both are scanned in, wouldn't the missing channels appear in the 800s because of LCN collision?
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J
jb389:16 PM
js: Yes, that's quite correct, and admittedly I suppose I could have suggested checking this out, but the reason for emphasising carrying out the reset procedure, is because of Richard having already scrubbed that stored in the tuner by carrying out an auto-tune minus the aerial, witnessing the result by a "no signal" warning on any attempt to select a programme channel.
If though the default procedure also fails to rectify the situation, then its time to look at other possible reasons for the problem, such as that suggested by the Freeview help desk of possible water contamination in the coax, although the symptoms experienced with that type of problem usually varies between different devices, seldom the same on more than one.
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Sunday, 6 December 2015
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Richard Sutton9:10 AM
js:
Yes. I don't know if this helps but that's exactly what happened with the Toshiba TV. When I scanned C29 it picked up only ITV exactly the same as the Sony TV and the Humax FVP-4000T but it put the new ITV on number 800. I then did the aerial unplug and rescan and a fresh manual scan and this time it put the C29 ITV into 3 as expected.
The Sony and the Humax seem to be smarter than the Toshiba and seemed to understand that the new ITV on C29 needs to replace the old ITV on C25. However, since those early experiments they've all been unplugged and rescanned as suggested by JB38. ITV is the only station on C29 that is ever picked up.
I'll do the factory reset today with the Sony and see what happens.
Many thanks for you help.
Richard
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J
js4:06 PM
Richard Sutton: After the factory reset, carry out a manual scan of UHF29 alone and tell us what services are present. A signal strength/quality report would be useful.
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Richard Sutton6:26 PM
js:
Thanks for helping me with this guys.
OK, I did afactory reset on the Sony HD TV which means that after a few minutes it started by asking me for the language, then country etc. When it asked whether I wanted to do an auto tune I said no. I then did a manual tune for C29 scanning Up followed by a manual tune of C29 scanning Down. Each time is scans for a 15 seconds or so and then says "1 services found on CH 29" - ITV.
The listing at the side of this dialogue say Prog 001, 002 No Service Started. 003 CH29 ITV. Prog 004, 005 No Service Started. If I scroll down all the Progs below 005 they all say No Service Started.
When I go back to normal TV, ITV is playing "The Mummy Returns" and if I Prog + or Prog - it just flickers and goes back to ITV.
If I go into System Information it says:
Frequency 538.172 MHz
Signal Quality 100
Signal Strength 100
Pre Viterbi flashing 2.00ish to 3.50ish e-4
C/N 54
UEC 0
Post Viterbi 0
5s 0
AGC 157
I've no idea what any of that means of course!
Richard
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Richard Sutton6:32 PM
PS I'll just leave the Sony as it is with only C29 ITV scanned in case you want me to try something else. In the meantime we can watch live TV through the Humax.
Many thanks
Richard
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