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.
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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, 25 March 2018
S
StevensOnln15:24 PM
Vic: You're 23km away so you may be able to get some channels on an indoor aerial but you may struggle to get the ones on COM7 & COM8 which are broadcast at a lower power level.
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R
Richard5:51 PM
Very puzzled. Successfully re-configured after BBC FOUR HD move, but now...
- 570 MHz and 714 MHz scans fail repeatedly, so no services reported.
- 586 MHz scan succeeds but reports channels actually on 626.2 MHz.
- 690 MHz not listed above, but scan reports 8 services.
Anybody aware of any problems with Sutton Coldfield?
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Thursday, 29 March 2018
D
Digital9:47 PM
Richard:
Your TV / Freeview receiver / recorder may have been obsoleted due to the changes requiring the receiving device to be compatible with T2 transmissions.
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Friday, 30 March 2018
R
Richard5:26 PM
Digital - many thanks for your response. My tuners are all DVB T2 compatible AFAIK, and I'm picking up other HD channels (e.g. BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, C4, C5). And now I also appear to be scanning all of the muxes successfully as well... but apparently still not detecting BBC Four HD and C4 HD +1.
Have I missed something?
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S
StevensOnln17:22 PM
Richard: The COM7 (C4 +1 HD) & COM8 (BBC Four HD) multiplexes moved to UHF channels 55 & 56 at Sutton Coldfield on 7th March. Have you tried manual tuning on these frequencies?
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R
Richard7:35 PM
OK - so I've discovered more information on this issue now, and it appears to be to do with the redistribution of channels, and specific to this transmitter. The quote goes:
"It has reduced coverage and is only available on newer Freeview devices."
Who on earth came up with the notion that reducing service for anybody that has anything other than the very latest equipment was a positive move? I bought my equipment in 2017, and it's still on sale. What exactly is a 'newer' device?
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R
Richard7:36 PM
Sorry Steve - didn't see your comment until I'd posted mine. Thanks for the input - that does appear to be the problem, but you can probably tell I'm not excited about it!
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S
StevensOnln111:29 PM
Richard: You seem to be getting confused. The only recent changes have been the frequencies used to broadcast each multiplex. COM7 & COM8 have always been DVB-T2 since they launched. The only multiplex to be converted from DVB-T to DVB-T2 was PSB3 which was converted at Digital Switchover in order to provide capacity for HD versions of PSB channels to launch on every transmitter. All other multiplexes are able to be received by any Freeview TV/box/PVR regardless of whether they are capable of receiving HD channels or not.
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Saturday, 31 March 2018
R
Richard10:33 AM
OK - so the confusion is that this site is showing the incorrect frequencies for the changed muxes. Just had a discussion with Freeview and confirmed the correct details. And yes, if I'd read all of the posts very carefully I would probably have discovered the information buried there.
For anybody else coming across this - the new frequencies are 746 and 754.
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Wednesday, 4 April 2018
K
Keith Cunliffe 6:20 PM
Itv3 on Sutton Coldfield has moved from COM4 ch.42 to PSB 2 on ch 46: this will also give those viewers who use relays with freeview lite access to ITV3 ch. 10: this took place on Tuesday 3:4:18
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