Freeview: Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) Full Freeview transmitter
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Full Freeview on the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter

Google StreetviewGoogle mapBing mapGoogle Earth52.600,-1.835 or 52°36'1"N 1°50'5"WB75 5JJ

Transmitter faults and engineering works

SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - Over the next week Sutton Coldfield main transmitter: TV (digital) working normally, Radio (analogue) Possible weak signal, Radio (digital) working normally. Digital tick


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The symbol shows the location of the Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham, England) transmitter which serves 1,870,000 homes.

Other maps:Sutton Coldfield DABSutton Coldfield AM/FMSutton Coldfield regionBBC West MidlandsCentral (West micro region)

Radiation patterns

Radiation patterns withheld

Map key

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.


List by multiplex|List by channel number|List by channel name|See terrain plot

Sutton Coldfield transmitter Freeview broadcasts

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.

MuxAerial positionFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 horizontal max
C43 (650.0MHz)433m64QAM 8K 2/3
24.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2		200,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One West Midlands, 2 BBC Two England, 7 BBC Three, 9 BBC Four, 70 CBBC Channel, 71 CBeebies, 80 BBC News, 81 BBC Parliament, 301 301, plus 12 others

PSB2
D3+4
 horizontal max
C46 (674.0MHz)433m64QAM 8K 2/3
24.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2		200,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV (Central (West micro region)), 4 Channel 4 Midlands ads, 5 Channel 5 Part Network ads, 6 ITV 2, 13 Channel 4+1 Midlands ads, 14 More 4, 28 E4, 33 ITV +1 (Central west),

PSB3
BBCB
 horizontal max
C40+ (626.2MHz)433m256QAM 32KE 2/3
40.2Mb/s DVB-T2 MPEG4		200,000W
Channel icons
101 BBC One HD (England no regional news), 102 BBC Two HD (England), 103 ITV HD (ITV Central West), 104 Channel 4 HD Midlands ads, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 horizontal max
C42 (642.0MHz)433m64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2		200,000W
Channel icons
10 ITV 3, 20 G.O.L.D. (not free), 25 Dave ja vu, 26 Home (not free), 27 ITV 2 +1, 30 5*, 31 5USA, 34 ESPN UK (not free), 38 Quest, 39 The Zone, 44 Channel 5 +1, 72 CITV, plus 22 others

COM5
ArqA
 horizontal max
C45 (666.0MHz)403m64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2		200,000W
Channel icons
11 PICK TV, 12 Dave, 17 Really, 29 E4+1, 32 Movie Mix, 46 Challenge, 48 Food Network, 82 Sky News, 87 Community Channel, plus 9 others

COM6
ArqB
 horizontal max
C39+ (618.2MHz)433m64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2		200,000W
Channel icons
15 Film 4, 18 4Music, 19 Yesterday, 21 VIVA, 24 ITV 4, 41 Sky Sports 1 (not free), 42 Sky Sports 2 (not free), 47 4seven, 83 Al Jazeera English, 85 RT English , plus 21 others



Regional news from the Sutton Coldfield transmitter


BBC Midlands Today 2.9m homes 10.9%
from Birmingham B1 1RF, 15km south-southwest
to BBC West Midlands region - 66 masts.

ITV Central News 2.6m homes 9.9%
from Birmingham B1 2JT, 15km south-southwest
to ITV Central (West) region - 46 masts.

Self-help relays

Burton (shobnall)Transposer1 km W Burton-on-Trent60 homes
CoalvilleTransposer18 km NW Leicester600 homes
SolihullTransposerLand Rover building400 homes

How the transmission frequencies change over time

years1950s~851984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-18
aerial groupVHFB EB EEB E KB E KW
C4BBCtv
600C33com7
C35com8
C39+ArqB+ArqB+ArqB
C40BBC2BBC2BBC2+BBCB+BBCB+BBCB
C41+1
C42SDNSDNSDN
C43ITVITVITVBBCABBCABBCA
C44+2
C45ArqAArqAArqA
C46BBC1BBC1BBC1D3+4D3+4D3+4
C47+A
700C50C4C4C4
C51+Blocal
C52+C
C55D

orange background for multiplexes names moregreen background for transmission frequencieslilac background for power levels in watts800MHz band: 4G mobile to start in 2013700MHz band: possible 4G in 2019 more600MHz band: new or moved digital TV services more
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W
Italics for analogue, digital switchover was Wednesdays 7th September and 21st September 2011.

  • Ofcom have projected that a local television service for Birmingham including Greater Birmingham area, part of Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley could use an Interleaved Frequency on the Sutton Coldfield transmitter using C51
  • COM7, COM8 projected for 2013-16. COM7 and COM8 to operate as Bromsgrove,Sutton Coldfield, The Wrekin SFN.

Comparison of old analogue and current digital signal levels

Analogue 1-4 1000kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, com7, com8, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 200kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-21dB) 8kW

History of Channel 3 in the Sutton Coldfield transmitter area

Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision†
Feb 1956-Jul 1968Associated British Corporation◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Associated TeleVision
Jan 1982-Feb 2004Central Independent Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
Feb 1983-Dec 1992TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014ITV Daybreak•
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Sutton Coldfield was not an original Channel 3 VHF 405-line mast: the historical information shown is the details of the company responsible for the transmitter when it began transmitting Channel 3.


Your comments: most recent posts are at the bottom

firstFirst comments prevEarlier comments  ◊ 

Your comments are always welcome. Please use the form below to add your thoughts or questions to this page. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

Mike Dimmick
Friday 5 April 2013 6:44PM
P Silverman: The masts are owned by Arqiva, the BBC no longer owns any of its own transmission infrastructure (it was sold off in around 1995).

The mast is, as far as I know, temporary. Arqiva recently applied for, and were granted, a variation of the planning permission under which they extended the permanent mast. That variation (number 2012/05959/PA) says they must remove the temporary mast and its access road by 28 February next year. In practice that means it will come down this summer.

Arqiva asked for the extension of time basically because Ofcom are threatening to reorganize the TV spectrum once again, which could mean further changes to the antennas on the permanent mast. The current plan for launching the interim multiplexes in the 600 MHz band does not require any changes, however. www.arqiva.com link icon http://www.arqiva.com/cor….pdf
jack
Thursday 11 April 2013 3:06PM Birmingham
what is going on now

for about 2 weeks we've been getting random break-ups on multiple channels
This morning every mux except 1 went dead for about 2 minutes - no signal nothing

is freeview EVER going to be a service that can be relied on?
What are they playing around with now?
Sally Clayton
Thursday 2 May 2013 1:04PM Leicester
Hello

My mother gets wonderful reception all day then at 7pm her picture breaks up for the rest of the night this has just started happening 3 nights ago. There is nothing new in the house that switches on at that time. It is really maddening as she relys on her TV. It is always 7pm on the dot.
She has an ariel on the roof that has been checked. We have also taken her Freesat box off to see if that makes any different.
Do you have any suggestions?
Dave Lindsay
Thursday 2 May 2013 1:11PM
Sally Clayton: It sounds like there is some source of interference in the form of a noisy electrical appliance that cuts in by timer. It could be in a neighbour's house.

See here for a suggestion to someone else encountering a similar issue:

Feedback | Feedback | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
jb38
Thursday 2 May 2013 7:41PM
Sally Clayton: In addition to that already said by Dave Lindsay, in cases such as you have described its always advisable (and without exception) to make a few checks with others around your locality (or mothers anyway) for the purpose of finding out if the problem is solely confined to your mothers installation or if others are also being affected, because if its found out that they are then there is obviously no point in making needless checks within your mothers household.
Transmitter engineering
Sunday 12 May 2013 11:36AM
SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - Over the next week Sutton Coldfield main transmitter: TV (digital) working normally, Radio (analogue) Possible weak signal, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]
Transmitter engineering
Sunday 12 May 2013 11:41AM
SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - Over the next week Sutton Coldfield main transmitter: TV (digital) working normally, Radio (analogue) Possible weak signal, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]
Transmitter engineering
Monday 20 May 2013 4:32AM
SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - Over the next week Sutton Coldfield main transmitter: TV (digital) working normally, Radio (analogue) Possible weak signal, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]
Transmitter engineering
Monday 20 May 2013 4:32AM
SUTTON COLDFIELD transmitter - Over the next week Sutton Coldfield main transmitter: TV (digital) working normally, Radio (analogue) Possible weak signal, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]
Peter Hedges
Thursday 23 May 2013 2:48PM Cheltenham
I receive signals from Sutton Coldfield most of which are OK but I have a problem with COM 5 on channel 45. My Samsung TV shows 100% signal quality on channels 43 and 46. Dave comes in at around 10% on channel 45. It's not my PVR interfering. Any ideas?

I tried the suggestion of removing all channels and then retuning. I now have Dave at 100% from Oxford on a loft aerial in Stow on the Wold pointing at Sutton Coldfield. Good suggestion, thanks.

Samsung have told me I can't have a mixture of channels from different transmitters!
Dave Lindsay
Thursday 23 May 2013 3:03PM
Peter Hedges: I suggest that the reason for your difficulty, and the reason that Digital UK suggests such poor reception of the COMs from Sutton Coldfield, as against its PSBs, is down to the fact that Hannington's PSBs are co-channel.

The channels allocated to the COMs result in inferior coverage to the PSBs because they are re-used by other transmitters within closer proximity.

If you can move your aerial you may find that you can reduce the level of interference (without one of the other channels being affected). That said, you don't know how seasonal changes might affect reception. Or perhaps your aerial can be mounted somewhere where Sutton Coldfield's reception is good, but where the signal from Hannington is block, such as by fitting it on one side of your building.
Dave Lindsay
Thursday 23 May 2013 3:49PM
Peter Hedges: I think that the reason for that it has been suggested that you can't have a mixture of channels from different transmitters is down to EPG data and particularly the starting of timed recordings where they are linked to the EPG (so that the recorder starts when the programme starts).

The EPG data for all services are carried by all multiplexes from any one transmitter. So, for example, the EPG data for BBC One is carried by all multiplexes.

Different transmitters can be of differing regions and therefore may carry different EPG data.

I write here as a technical-bod and not a professional, so this is where my understanding is a bit woolly. Personally I would be trying it out to see if it works!

Oxford carries different BBC and ITV regions. I don't know whether the EPG data carried by Sutton Coldfield and Oxford are the same. Perhaps it (using two transmitters) is only likely to be an issue when recording regional programming. I would be interested to find out what the answer is and reasons behind it.

In any case you may not be able to combine the feed from Oxford and Sutton Coldfield and receive all channels because COM4 from Oxford is moving to C50 on Wednesday. If a C51 diplexer is used to combine feeds then COM4 will fall below that and hence be picked up by the Sutton Coldfield-facing aerial.

That said, if it is only Sutton Coldfield's COM5 that you are having difficulty with then COM5 from Oxford won't be affected by the change on Wednesday.
Dave Lindsay
Thursday 23 May 2013 3:55PM
Peter Hedges: I now see that you have your loft aerial pointing to Sutton Coldfield, but are managing to receive COM5 from Oxford with it.

Perhaps then, the answer is to look at relocating it in the loft so as to reduce the level of unwanted signal from Hannington.

Hannington is at 154 degrees, so consider where may be better screened from it, but which will get a good signal from Sutton Coldfield.
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