Bassenthwaite digital TV transmitter (no analogue)

Bassenthwaite digital switchover schedule

Note: This is the only schedule for digital switchover. Digital services cannot be introduced before the dates listed for "testing purposes" as they will generally use the same transmission frequencies as the services they replace. Another alternative, available today, is Freesat.

June 2009 S M T W T F S - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 - - - -	BBC Two England analogue switched off. The following Freeview digital services will be available: 1 BBC One North East 2 BBC Two England 7 BBC Three 9 BBC Four 70 CBBC Channel 71 CBeebies 80 BBC News 81 BBC Parliament 105 BBC Red Button 301 BBCi 301 700 BBC Radio 1 701 1Xtra BBC 702 BBC Radio 2 703 BBC Radio 3 704 BBC Radio 4 705 BBC Radio 5 Live 706 BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra 707 BBC Radio 6 Music 708 BBC Radio 7 709 BBC Asian Network 710 BBC World Service
July 2009 S M T W T F S - - - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 -	BBC One North East, ITV-1 Border England and Channel 4 analogue switched off. The following Freeview digital services will be available: Freeview HD coming soon 3 ITV1 Border England 4 Channel 4 5 FIVE 6 ITV2 13 Channel 4+1 14 More4 28 E4 33 ITV2+1 100 Teletext 102 Rabbit 106 Direct Gov 107 Gay Rabbit 728 Heart It will be necessary to perform a full rescan of your Freeview box on this day.
July 2010 S M T W T F S - - - - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 - - - - - - -	The following Freeview services will be withdrawn: Freeview HD coming soon The following Freeview digital services will be available: 50 BBC HD 51 ITV1 HD 52 Channel 4 HD It will be necessary to perform a full rescan of your Freeview box on this day.

Transmission frequencies

Before Sunday 15th November 1998

C42*	C45*	C49	C52
C4	BBC TWO	ITV1	BBC One

Sunday 15th November 1998 to Wednesday 24th June 2009

C42*	C45*	C49	C52
C4	BBC TWO	ITV1	BBC One

After Wednesday 22nd July 2009

C42*	C45*	C49
Mux BBCB	Mux D3+4	Mux BBCA

Colour bands denote aerial groups: Red:A Yellow:B Green:C/D Brown:E Grey:K Black:Wideband

Notes

'Out of group' frequencies are marked with a star. Analogue power output 160 Watts, post switchover average digital multiplex output will be 32 Watts.

To receive signals from this transmitter, the aerial must be mounted for vertical polarization - the elements going from top to bottom.

Before switchover, the public service broadcasting multiplexes were 1, 2 and B; afterwards they were first PSB1, 2 and 3 but now called BBCA, D3+4 and BBCB. The commercial multiplexes A, C and D had initial post-switchover names COM4, 5 and 6; now they are SDN, ArqA and ArqB. At switchover BBCA, ArqA and ArqB will switch from 16QAM to 64QAM mode transmission, so five multiplexes will transmit in the 64QAM (2/3) 8k mode. BBCB is used for Freeview HD (DVB-T2, 256QAM), and has a pre-switchover service on selected main transmitters.

Before digital group C/D will not receive "five". (Aerial group appears to be: B E W). Upgrade to Wideband aerial requried to watch all Freeview channels during dual running of analogue and digital television. After switchover, you will have needed to upgrade to a Wideband aerial to receive some or all digital television services.

See full list of analogue transmitters for a complete list of shutdown dates.

itv1 - Caldbeck transmitter area*

Date	Incumbent ITV company
1st Sep 1961 to date	Border Television
1st Feb 1983 to 31st Dec 1992	TV-am (breakfast)
1st Jan 1993 to date	GMTV (breakfast)
Note	For digital switchover this region is now known as Border England.

* The Bassenthwaite transmitter was not an original ITV VHF 405-line transmitter: the historical information shown above includes the details of the company reponsible for the Bassenthwaite transmitter when it began transmission.

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