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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Thursday, 19 May 2016
Transmitter engineering
8:32 AM
8:32 AM
SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Weak Signal from 11:23 on 16 May to 11:32 on 16 May, BBC National DAB Radio Weak Signal from 11:13 on 16 May to 11:23 on 16 May. FM: Radio 1 FM Weak Signal from 15:09 yesterday to 15:35 yesterday. [BBC]
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Friday, 20 May 2016
Transmitter engineering
5:32 AM
5:32 AM
SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Weak Signal from 11:23 on 16 May to 11:32 on 16 May, BBC National DAB Radio Weak Signal from 11:13 on 16 May to 11:23 on 16 May. FM: Radio 1 FM Weak Signal from 15:09 on 18 May to 15:35 on 18 May. [BBC]
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Transmitter engineering
11:31 PM
11:31 PM
SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Weak Signal from 11:13 on 16 May to 11:23 on 16 May, BBC National DAB Radio Weak Signal from 11:23 on 16 May to 11:32 on 16 May. FM: Radio 1 FM Weak Signal from 15:09 on 18 May to 15:35 on 18 May. [BBC]
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Sunday, 22 May 2016
M
M Griffith8:28 PM
I experience picture flicker on all channels on COM7. This occurs every few seconds and looks like when a traditional film ' jumps a sprocket '. There has been speculation that this is due to automatic switching between 1080i and 1080p - I locked my TV onto 1080i, rather than setting it to auto and this has cured the problem. However this problem was only ever experienced on COM7 - is someone experimenting on this multiplex only? My transmitter is Sutton Coldfield.
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Monday, 23 May 2016
MikeP
1:34 PM
Trowbridge
1:34 PM
Trowbridge
M Griffith:
COM7 is an HD multiplex and many TV sets are somewhat sensitive to the signal strength on such multiplexes. Can you please check what the signal strength reported by you TV set is on this multiplex. It should not be below 50% and not above 80%. Any strength less than 50% will cause the problems you report, as will any signal strength above about 80% (it does vary slightly dependent on make of TV). Having too much signal is well known to cause these type of problems. If that is the case for your reception, search this website for 'too much of a good thing' and take the advice to reduce the signal strength by fitting attenuators in the aerial lead at the back of the TV or removing any amplifiers you may have.
If you give us a full post code for where you live (or that of a very nearby shop or post office) we could examine the signal path and advise if there are any other possible causes.
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Sunday, 29 May 2016
M
Michael Griffith12:49 PM
Hi
I tried all signal strength investigations before posting my question, although the flicker that I am experiencing led me to believe that it was not related to signal strength. COM 7 is running at 75% strength. This multiplex is a lower power one from Sutton Coldfield ( around 90kw whereas the main multiplexes are 200kw ). Incidentally I experience no flicker on the other HD multiplex ( PSB 3 ) although the signal strength on this one is 100%!
The flicker doesn't involve freezing, pixilation or any of the commonly seen problems, which it why I described it as like a film jumping a sprocket every few seconds. Also, if it were a signal issue, I don't think that locking the TV onto 1080i would solve the problem as this is signal processing within the receiver. This is beyond the receiver front end, which is ( I think ) what is affected by signal strength / quality issues.
I have seen reports that Freeview is experimenting with switching between 1080i and 1080p, depending on the programme format / type and therefore my question was posted to see whether this is happening on the lesser used HD multiplex.
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Monday, 30 May 2016
M
MikeB3:11 PM
Michael Griffith: If its the TV, you can check easily what the TV is doing by bringing up the screen res - usually in the left hand corner of the TV screen, and should be something like 576/50hz, etc.
Have you tried varying the sources the TV uses? If the TV itself is auto-switching between screen res settings, you can normally switch that feature off and do them manually, but of course the source itself can also be varied. If you have a Blu Ray player, then that will of course output at 1080p as well, so try to see what combinations actually cause that 'picture jump'. If its on varying sources, is it the TV settings?
If not, then perhaps its a cabling problem. Narrowing it down takes some time, but its the only way.
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Don't forget there could be the possibility of interference from any of the local 4G tranmitter(s) or in house RF devices, as is becoming a more frequent issue.
A 4G filter on the incoming terrestrial coax can fix the first item, moving your wireless router-modem and / or cordless phone / cellphone could be a fix for the other.
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Tuesday, 31 May 2016
Transmitter engineering
8:32 AM
8:32 AM
SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 07:32 today. FM: Radio 1 FM Off Air from 07:32 today, Radio 2 FM Off Air from 07:32 today, Radio 3 FM Off Air from 07:32 today, Radio 4 FM Off Air from 07:32 today. [BBC]
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Transmitter engineering
11:31 AM
11:31 AM
SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Weak Signal from 08:41 today to 08:56 today, BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 07:32 today to 08:41 today. FM: Radio 1 FM Weak Signal from 08:41 today to 08:56 today, Radio 1 FM Off Air from 07:32 today to 08:41 today, Radio [BBC]
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