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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Tuesday, 8 May 2012
SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - Over the next week Sutton Coldfield main transmitter: TV (digital) Liable to interruption, Radio (analogue) Possible weak signal, Radio (digital) Possible weak signal. [DUK]
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D
David Pound9:07 PM
Daventry
I have an HD TV with built in Freeview, and a Panasonic HDD recorder. I get good reception and I understand that my transmitter is Sutton Coldfield (I get Midlands Today on BBC1). But I cannot get any HD programmes. Ch 50 and 54 do not come up on the "Guide" on the Recorder nor when I try to enter them with the TV alone. How can I get these channels?
I should add that I am at present getting messages about a re-tune needed tomorrow (9 May) which seems to refer to Sandy Heath.
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jb3810:54 PM
David Pound: Are you sure that the TV in question is not an "HD ready" device? as if it is than cannot receive HD transmissions, if you have the manual for the set have a look in the specifications section / tuner and check if you see either DVB-T or DVB-T2 mentioned, as if its the former it cannot receive HD, if though you do not have the manual then if you provide the model number of the TV this can be checked out.
The re-tune message for tomorrow is because SDN is moving from ch31 to ch51 and increasing in power to 170kw, other than that nothing else is changing.
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Wednesday, 9 May 2012
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David Pound8:20 AM
Daventry
Thank you jb38. The TV (Hitachi 19LD4550U) does indeed say "HD Ready". My my understanding of that phrase is that it means the set is capable of receiving HD when that becomes available. That was certainly one reason I bought it. If it doesn't mean that, what does it mean?
I cannot see any mention of either DVB-T or DVB-T2 in the instruction manual. It does however have an HDMI input socket.
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Saturday, 12 May 2012
R
Rob9:38 PM
... HD ready - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (ST57SZ)
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Sunday, 13 May 2012
D
David Pound9:59 AM
Daventry
"It DOES NOT mean that the set can pick up Freeview HD, Freesat HD, Sky HD or Virgin Media HD without a set-top box."
Quite so. But the TV DOES have a box - or rather it has a built in Freeview box. So why can I not get the HD chanells?
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jb3811:06 AM
David Pound: Its simply because that the tuner fitted in HD Ready TV's is only capable of receiving DVB-T coded transmissions and doesn't recognise anything other than type of signal, whereas tuners in genuine HD receivers are capable of recognising DVB-T2 transmissions as well as DVB-T, the "T2" being the thing that differentiates between the two.
I, right from the start, have always disagreed with trading standards allowing "HD Ready" to be used on TV's that can only display a Hi-def image via an external source as this misleading statement was guaranteed to cause problems, which of course it did at the time and still does.
By the way, its because that a DVB-T2 transmission is in effect invisible to a DVB-T tuner that a "no signal" indication is always seen on any attempt to manually tune in an HD mux.
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David Pound10:18 PM
Daventry
Thank you jb38. That answers my questions perfectly - and confirms that I bought a pup! Unfortunately too long ago to do anything about it now. And I quite agree with you that most sensible people (which obviously doesn't include Trading Standards) would regard this as a breach of the Trades Description Act. But Hey, we're only the customers!
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Sunday, 20 May 2012
M
MJ9:07 AM
Birmingham
Anyone else in the Erdington area lost multiplex 2 (ITV1 Channel4, Channel5..) recently ?
Suddenly found reception was poor on these the other night - have retuned TV (built in Freeview) and they have now disappeared completely.....
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jb3810:49 AM
MJ: As you are located at only about 5 miles away from the transmitter you have always to beware of the fact that your TV could be receiving a signal that on the verges of being excessively high and that the ITV mux could actually have peaked over it, so try a test by taking the aerial out and using a short piece of wire (about 12") pushed into the inner part of the aerial socket and then carry out another re-tune on the TV giving an update on results, as if it works OK then you will have to insert an attenuator in line with the aerial socket.
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