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.
Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) mast?
Sutton Coldfield transmitter - Sutton Coldfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 05/06/2023 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
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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Friday, 7 October 2011
S
Sean9:45 AM
Posted a week or so regarding problems leading to several channel scans being required, and leading to:
- duplicate channels being found
- another transmitter being found
- losing PSB1/BBCA
From Coventry, tuning into Sutton Coldfield.
Update - Did another scan last night, and based on advice here, removed my aerial booster & did an initial scan without the aerial plugged in. Then scanned again.
SUCCESS! All now seems fine. Thank-you, great advice from those concerned.
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C
Chris.SE10:21 AM
KEVIN GARDINER: If you read my reply to Keith Ratcliffe more carefully you would have seen my reply clearly inferred there was a distribution system. If you had have read BOTH his posts you would have seen he was in flats.
Secondly, if you are going to go quoting signals strengths (which you are presumably getting from Wolfbane or somewhere similar), it would be nice if you quoted them correctly ie. 65dBuV/m, also it would be good if you got them the right way round - in one of your posts on another board, the figure you quoted for the COM muxes was in fact for the PSB muxes and what's more the COM muxes were not on full power, so that figure was wrong.
Thirdly, when people are using boosters, masthead amps or distribution systems the figures are meaningless with regard to what is arriving at the set as it will depend on amp gain and losses in the cables etc.
Fourthly, the figures will in the main be meaningless to most of the people posting here with problems and to the people where the figures do mean things, they are generally people who are helping out and know a bit about what they are talking about.
My conclusion - it is pointless posting the figures, it only confuses the people who need help and perhaps puts them off posting back IMHO.
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C
Chris.SE10:28 AM
steve: In addition to what jb38 has suggested, did you get all the Multiplexes before DSO? Do a full reset following the link in the yellow box below "Freeview reset procedure" which will clear all previous setting & channels in case you set is getting mixed up with all the channels.
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C
Chris.SE10:55 AM
C Richards: You are posting on the Sutton Coldfield board - you would see a lot of useful advice on the Oxford board :)
That said, since the transmitter power increases at DSO, you should be getting a much stronger signal. If you are using a booster you may now be getting too strong a signal at your sets, so it's worth trying it without a booster.
But first, try the full reset procedure from the link in the yellow box below "Freeview reset procedure".
You may need to do a manual tune with your Humax, I'm not sure how fussy that model is, also make sure you have the latest firmware.
If your Pace is a Pace DTR730 or DTR735 then I'm afraid it's a recycle job and get a new one. Those models do not work with the 8K transmission mode used after DSO.
If you continue to have problems, please post back on the Oxford board with full details of your installation and what you have tried, and someone will help. It's possible that because you have a loft aerial you may not get away with no booster, but may still need an attenutor to reduce the signal a bit.
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C
Chris.SE11:11 AM
pete: Is the aerial pointing NNE with the rods horizontal? Try the full reset procedure using the link in the yellow box below "Freeview reset procedure"
If you still have no joy, post back with as much detail as you can of your aerial, splitter and model numnber of boxes beinmg used in the bedrooms.
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C
Chris.SE11:57 AM
andrew dyke: This could get complicated because it depends which way your aerial is pointing as you have a choice of Transmitters.
Your best & most reliable signals for all 6 multiplexes should come from The Wrekin 4.5 miles to the NW and the aerial rods should be horizontal.
Sutton Coldfield is 27mi to the E, the rods should be horizontal, and although Ironbridge is nearly on your doorstep to the NE it is very low power and only transmits the 3 PSB muxes, the rods would be vertical.
I would advise that you do a full reset of your equipment using the link in the yellow box below "Freeview reset procedure" BUT do a MANUAL tune NOT an automatic one. This should clear the equipment of unwanted settings and channels.
The UHF channels to tune to will depend on which transmitter you are pointing at, they are at the top half of the relevant transmitter page.
For Sutton Coldfield they are C39,C42,C43,C45,C46 and if you have an HD tuner C40.
For the Wrekin they are C23,C26,C41,C44,C47 and C30 for HD.
If you are pointing at the Wrekin the chances are that you may have too strong a signal with the booster and should try without it, if the reset and manual tune does not solve the problem. It could be a similar situation with Sutton Coldfield.
If you continue to have problems, please post back on the relevant transmitter board with as much detail as you can of your aerial, booster, box model numbers and what you've tried, and I'm sure someone will help.
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J
jack1:40 PM
Is engineering still going on (friday 1pm) as we have had nothing but break ups all week and now I notice some channels such
as 42 for instance are randomly (every 10-20 seconds or so) dropping to quality zero and power 10-20% then bouncing back up again.
Yes I have retuned unplugded and so on.
WHY is there no TV channel broadcasting work progress? Havn't they ever heard of the "red button?"
Are they incapable of common sense? Or deliberately trying to keep all this quiet? How much longer is all this going on for? They've had YEARS to get this right.
getting really annoyed with this now.
And even more annoyed they cant be bothered to keep anyone informed.
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B
Billy3:42 PM
Thanks Ian.
Yes I had considered, well looking at online and sadly Maplins not have them as such, but a band filter, or another masthead amp but grouped.
I'm 17.4 miles direct from Sutton, but have massive hill in the way, hence why many a moon ago, after moans, they put in Allesley Park.
Anyway, log periodic and not the one supposed to be, and box was open, when bought from Maplins, better one really, 22 element, can not find online, all 16 or 18 or 28 30 and 40, or was it 26, not 38 elements, anyway, so yeah, mine unusual.
Found the so called 25db gain amplifier, again not the 16db find in Argos and normal Maplins version, was not as good as an old screened, think maxview one, but 23db gain one.
Now right at the top of the loft, normally, not recommended, as roof should affect it and pointing upwards by a fair bit as well.
Trouble I'm having, every now and then, thought was interference, I reckon now, is due to signal strength, as I've noticed, nearly all channels 90% of the time remain on 100% quality.
But sometimes, the SS drops to 45% amber, or yellow, and seen other day very bad 30% and red.
So I'm wondering, anything passing in the way at the top of the hill, is it coming in different, or, who knows.
I have decided, can live with it, miles better than years ago on Waltham and least the wind does not affect it.
I thought I'd gotten too much signal and so on you see, with 80 over 95%, but as I said, some channels are, dropping off at times, badly, then comes right back up again.
On average might get pixels and mess up say, oh, when did that test on sky sports 1, golf, over 2 hours, about 7 or 8 times.
Just that cause I've been used to Satellite since 2003, which hardly ever get any probs, it can be just annoying, but nothing major.
Okay on sport, annoying on something like Big Brother or film, cause might miss odd words or something of what they are saying.
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B
Billy3:59 PM
Jack my sincere sympathies, I think the problem, obviously lie in the whole Digital thing itself, better for those that had some ghosting and a bit of grainy Analogue, but no doubt, over the many, many years, they obviously got used to that.
Bad weather, whatever, lines, and grainy and ghosting, but normally, what, there, watchable.
With Digital, not so, there or not, or there, but glitch, glitch, pixels, and sound drop off, GRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Get my point.
Massive flaw also, was those who wanted it from day one, but not close enough to these transmitters where they live.
So they paid guys, or did themselves with what:
Hi gain Aerial.
Low lose satellite cable.
Masthead Ampilifer or booster.
GREAT, yippee, odd glitch now and then, usual thing, interference, nothing major, gotten used to it.
You now lulled into thinking, actually come switchover, it will get better.
Switchover happens.
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Where's my darn channels gone, why is this playing up now, was fine before switchover, gotten worse, GRRRR.
Now power has gone from lousy 8,000 kws to 200,000 kws, and you are 15 miles away with your hi gain aerial and 16 db or more amp, oops, too much signal strength, making you think weak, cause breaking up.
As far as I know Jack, it was that one day as I understood, switched and that's it, not carrying on work for weeks, that I'm aware of.
People now need to remover the amplifier.
I can't, on roof, I did not install it, scared, not going up there, GRRRRR.
Calm down, pop down to Maplins and buy an antenuator now.
Oh great, so gonna cost me more money still now and what if that does not cure it.
TOTAL mess.
If you know what you are doing and learned all about it, can be sort of good fun, if into points and percentages like me.
But even after a while, can get fed up and annoyed, fiddling to try and get the best reception toy can.
I'd love to know officially how much complaints, calls, places like Digital group, whatever they called, not remember off top of my head and BBC and so on have had.
Also, worryingly, will be the con-coyboys who will make up stories and charge loads, laughing.
All needs to be done is the Amplifier removed and call out charged, but no doubt be duping people into another aerial and goodness only knows what.
It all rather then seems a total disgrace and farce, but then, did the British ever do anything right first time?
Look at the DAB mess and yes sadly I do have one, too many channels, we need better quality and less channels.
Freeviews needs to lose the +1 channels and up the mb's for other channels, or add some better decent channels, and so does DAB radio.
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S
steve5:38 PM
Coalville
thanks for that but tried that and still no difference we do use sutton one so would you think a new ariel is in order ? dont no what else could be .thanks
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