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 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
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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Sunday, 29 December 2013
B
Bruce4:00 PM
Swadlincote
JB 38 iam using a loft aerial as in this pic to the left if thats useful information for you
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J
jb384:45 PM
Bruce: If you are receiving EPG numbers 1 - 3 - 10 - 11 - 18 perfectly OK then its almost guaranteed that you will also be receiving C40 S/C's HD transmitter, that is "if" you are using a TV or box fitted with a DVB-T2 tuner.
That said, another point to be aware of is that HD reception can be killed off if the signal from the HD transmitter is overloading the receiver, and although you would appear to be located at 16 miles away from the transmitter and which would normally be too far away to cause this type of problem, but if you are using any form of booster then try by-passing it as unfortunately I am unable to view the picture of your aerial referred to.
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jb385:01 PM
Bruce: If you referring to the tri-element aerial under the banner of "digital high gain " then this could be classed as being a tad over the top, a log periodic such as a DM log or Log 36 being more appropriate to your requirements as according to the terrain checker you have a clear line-of-sight to the transmitter.
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B
Bruce7:24 PM
Swadlincote
Hi jb38:. need to try out some diff connections bye for now and thanks for your assistance to date
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Friday, 3 January 2014
K
kevin gardiner1:25 PM
Stourbridge
I have a Samsung 32 inch freeview hd smart tv. And recently, I started to check the tv's self diagnosis in the support section. The readings I get are, signal strength for sd freeview 100% on all multiplexes and no bit rate era.However, when I checked the hd multiplex, I get a signal strength of 94%, and a bit rate variable era of between 660 and 800 bits. The signal strength remains unchanged at 94% regardless of whether the bit rate era fluctuates up or down. If I had an obstacle such as hill or building blocking the signals between my house and Sutton Coldfield, the freeview standard version channels would get bit rate era and a lower signal strength, but they are all received here perfectly. It seems to me ,that it could be the parameters by which the hd mux is using which is causing the bit rate era. To try and resolve the issue, I bought a attenuator and connected it in sequence to my tv and although it helped lower the bit rate slightly, it did not eliminate it altogether.
My set up at home is a group e rooftop antenna pointed 46 degree to Sutton Coldfield, connected straight to my television, no splitters, amps etc attached.
On conclusion, I can only think that the parameters for hd need adjusting slightly to correct the bit rate era, or by turning the transmission power up slightly , or a mixture of both. Does anyone else get perfect freeview sd reception with no bit rate era, but has bit rate era with hd ?
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kevin gardiner1:26 PM
Stourbridge
I have done a re-tune and I'm receiving the new HD multiplex on frequency channel 33. The signal strength is 62%, and even though the multiplex transmission power is 6,400 watts, I'm still getting bit rate era. The bit rate era is A variable ONE 260 to 380 bits.Therefore, it must be the result of the parameters being used for hd that is the problem. I'M thinking of contacting BBC engineering to see if they can resolve my issue, and whether they have any intensions of altering the parameters for the HD multiplexes in the near future, or at a later date when the spectrum is cleared of standard Freeview and reverts completely over to the new broadcast standard.
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K
kevin gardiner1:31 PM
Stourbridge
I decided to test out the HD mux signal from Brierley Hill., which is a mile or so north of where I live. All multiplexes are Erp 2kw. And again, like Sutton Coldfield, I get perfect reception of all standard Freeview muxes with no bit rate eras, but when it came to the HD I received a variable bit rate era of between 160 - 320.
Something doesn't quite add up here. If you can receive perfect reception with no bit rate eras on standard Freeview multiplexes from both transmitters regardless of output power and distance from each transmitter, then surely that indicates that I have clear line of sight too both transmitters? And if that is the case, then I can only conclude that the parameters currently being used to transmit the HD multiplexes needs altering to correct the data loss at reception, Either by increasing transmission Erp or parameters, or a mixture of both.
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jb386:48 PM
kevin gardiner: With regards to your HD reception problem, although you may well have purchased an attenuator and with the result of having partially improved the situation, but considering the fact that you do appear to have a clear line-of-sight (excluding trees or man made objects) with Brierley Hill (@ 1.7 miles / 330°) and also Sutton Coldfield (@ 15.6 miles / 47°) the RF level on your Samsungs tuner could still be a little too high for the decoder to operate correctly on HD, Samsung and LG tuners being particularly intolerant to overloading in this mode over that of many other devices, myself having witnessed situations where although SD was operating quite normally HD reception was virtually non existent due to the signal being a tad on the high side.
The other aspect about the aforementioned being, that the strength / quality readings indicated by a TV or box cannot be relied on as being in any way accurate, as the measuring circuitry only indicates the part of the signal that's not corrupted by overloading hence readings always tend to be low, sometimes with the quality being almost zero.
A couple of points I would like to know being, (1) what was the attenuation rating on the reducer you purchased?, and (2) as you reside in an area with an abundance of trees does your aerial face into any of them? as foliage can cause problems with HD reception much more so than on SD.
Finally, to get a rough idea of your signal level in your area can you receive anything using either a set top aerial or alternatively a short piece of wire (6 feet or so) coupled into the TV's aerial socket?
I am not saying that any of the aforementioned is the reason for your problem, but it has to be kept in mind.
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Sunday, 5 January 2014
K
KEVIN GARDINER4:06 PM
Stourbridge
JB38,I have read what you outline regards to my Freeview HD reception problem. And taking everything into account, and taking note of the readings I get both from Brierley Hill and Sutton Coldfield, this is what I got. Set top antenna on top of wardrobe in front bedroom facing BH, signal strength 62% and data loss variable 120 - 220 bits. When I manually tune in BH using the roof top antenna pointed at SC, I get a side signal strength of 82% and the data loss 120 - 220 the same as indoor set top antenna . .Even though the roof antenna is 12 feet higher , the data loss readings are the same, so I can only conclude that the signal is being reflected or partially blocked by the roofs of the houses opposite to my house.
However, the signal/ data results are somewhat revealing from SC. The readings that I get are signal strength of 95% and data loss of 640 - 880 bits for the psbc3 multiplex, and for the new com8 multiplex ,I get 62% signal strength and data loss of 240 - 400. From this data we can conclude that you may be right in your theory that the HD tuner in my Samsung tv is being overloaded, hence it's inability to then process all the data properly, resulting in a high data loss level.
With regards to my location, I do seem to have roof tops effecting my HD reception from BH, and a slight likelihood of reception problems of HD due to a row of garden trees some 200 yards away in line with SC on conclusion, i'm thinking of trying to resolve my reception problem by replacing my group E antenna with a LOG PERIODIC (as it has no gain) thus reducing any antenna gain that I have from the group E , then place the log periodic on a 12 foot pole strapped to the chimney, making it 40 foot above ground level, to try and gain extra height to avoid the trees.Hopefully, with an antenna change and placing it an extra 12 higher than my present set-up, I;m sure it will greatly decrease my data loss problem. I live in hope.
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jb389:04 PM
KEVIN GARDINER: Sorry for the delay in replying but I was taking time to digest all said your detailed report before I replied.
It would appear to be the case that nothing you do results in an error free signal, and which as was previously mentioned could (but not definitely) be caused by receiving an excessively high signal level therefore this requires attenuating, preferably by using a variable gain type attenuator of the type seen on the link.
However, although I also feel that your bedroom positioned set top antenna is inviting quality errors into the signal you could use it for test purposes, being, by selecting a channel on the TV and then leaving it sitting on its signal test screen, this then followed by positioning the aerial low down near to the floor level to reduce the signal pick up properties followed by "slowly" rotating the aerial to see what effect it has (if any) on the bit error rate, with this being irrespective of what the strength may indicate no matter how low it might be, giving an update on the results.
On the subject of your location, tree foliage can be a menace to digital signals and especially if HD is involved, and although I fully endorse your idea of using a Log periodic aerial (DM log being ideal in your situation) you should initially position it lower down rather than at the top of the mast as this does not always achieve the results expected.
Online FM DAB TV Aerial sales
TV Aerial Attenuator Variable 0-20Db Freeview Digital | eBay
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