Freeview: Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) Full Freeview transmitter
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Full Freeview on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter

Google StreetviewGoogle mapBing mapGoogle Earth51.324,0.520 or 51°19'25"N 0°31'13"EME5 9RD

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter. Click to recheck

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The symbol shows the location of the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmitter which serves 200,000 homes.

Other maps:Bluebell Hill DABBluebell Hill AM/FMBluebell Hill regionBBC South EastMeridian (East micro region)

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Radiation patterns withheld

What do the colours on the map mean?

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

Which Freeview channels does the Bluebell Hill 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.

MuxAerial positionFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 horizontal max
C46 (674.0MHz)242m64QAM 8K 2/3
24.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2		20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One South East, 2 BBC Two England, 7 BBC Three, 9 BBC Four, 70 CBBC Channel, 71 CBeebies, 80 BBC News, 81 BBC Parliament, 301 BBC Red Button 1, plus 12 others

PSB2
D3+4
 horizontal max
C43 (650.0MHz)242m64QAM 8K 2/3
24.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2		20,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV (Meridian (East micro region)), 4 Channel 4 South ads, 5 Channel 5 Part Network ads, 6 ITV 2, 13 Channel 4+1 South ads, 14 More 4, 28 E4, 33 ITV +1 (Meridian south coast),

PSB3
BBCB
 horizontal max
C40+ (626.2MHz)242m256QAM 32KE 2/3
40.2Mb/s DVB-T2 MPEG4		20,000W
Channel icons
101 BBC One HD (England no regional news), 102 BBC Two HD (England), 103 ITV HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 303 BBC Red Button HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 horizontal max
C45 (666.0MHz)242m64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2		20,000W
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 21 others

COM5
ArqA
 horizontal max
C39+ (618.2MHz)245m64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2		20,000W
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, 302 BBC Red Button 2, plus 9 others

COM6
ArqB
 horizontal max
C54 (738.0MHz)245m64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2		20,000W
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 22 others



Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Bluebell Hill transmitter?


BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 28km southwest
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.

ITV Meridian News 0.8m homes 3.1%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 5km south-southeast
to ITV Meridian (East) region - 39 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford

How will the Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

years1984-971997-981998-20122012-132013-182013-18
aerial groupEEWEEW
C242
C27A
C28local
C39D+ArqA+ArqA+ArqA
C40BBC1BBC1BBC1+BBCB+BBCB+BBCB
C42-C
C43ITVITVITVD3+4D3+4D3+4
C45-BSDNSDNSDN
C46BBC2BBC2BBC2BBCABBCABBCA
700C54ArqBArqBArqB
C591
800C65C4C4C4

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 13th June and 27th June 2012.

  • Ofcom have projected that a local television service for Maidstone could use an Interleaved Frequency on the Bluebell Hill transmitter using C28

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4 30kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-1.8dB) 20kW
Mux 1*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-10dB) 3kW
Mux 2*, Mux A*(-11.8dB) 2kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Bluebell Hill transmitter area

Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1981Thames†
Jul 1968-Dec 1981London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Meridian
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. Bluebell Hill 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.

Dave Lindsay
Tuesday 11 June 2013 4:22PM
Bert: Excellent. And you didn't require a replacement aerial.
S
Simon27
Friday 14 June 2013 12:51AM Dartford
Hi I'm no expert and also have zero funds so no fancy boosters for me, I recently moved into a property in Dartford DA1 2TG. when i moved from my parents in Whistable and first tried the TV bbc southeast worked without a re-tune, however the signal was very poor. Would turning and fixing the existing leaning aerial from a west to a southeasterly direction work? as i prefer the south east local news.
M
Michael
Friday 14 June 2013 1:24AM
Simon27: If you haven't retuned the TV it will still be tuned in to UHF channel 46 from Bluebell Hill, which as you say is not going to give you a good signal in Dartford. This confirms the predictions of the Digital UK postcode checker and of the green areas in the map above.

You may get a slightly better SE signal by turning your aerial, but it's never going to be as good as the Crystal Palace transmitter to the west, which is what you will pick up should you retune.
Dave Lindsay
Friday 14 June 2013 12:30PM
Simon27: Of the Dartford area in general, to the south east, which in the direction of Bluebell Hill, there is higher ground which prevents, or at least makes difficult, reception from it. For that reason I assume that most Dartfordians receive London programming from Crystal Palace.

You don't have line-of-sight to Bluebell Hill and to make matters worse you are at the bottom of a slope:


Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
Dave Lindsay
Friday 14 June 2013 12:42PM
Simon27: Crystal Palace uses Group A channels exclusively, so your aerial may be a Group A one (red tip):

www.aerialsandtv.com link icon Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial

Bluebell Hill uses Group B channels except C54 which is one channel out which is probably neither here nor there.

Bluebell's COM channels are reckoned to be variable to poor, although predictors are somewhat rough owing to so many variables that can't possibly taken into account. Indeed, it takes into account possible interference from other transmitters and sometimes appears to be over-egging that interference.

You may have to use manual tuning. Have a look on your different boxes and TVs to see which will be most useful to you.

On the manual tune screen, enter/select the UHF channel number, but don't press the button to scan the channel; instead see if it gives you a reading of scrength and quality as many receivers do.
S
Simon27
Friday 14 June 2013 10:16PM
Hi thanks Micheal and Dave for your advice, as for the "red tip" the only thing i can see using the camera zoom is what looks like a grey stopper on each end not sure if that's what you mean, I will have to get up there tomorrow as next-doors worried about it falling on her conservatory, I' ll swing it round to the SE and see what happens. Seems strange network planning as SE news frequently mentions Dartford yet reception is difficult another anomaly is sandy heath reception at 82km away is better than Bluebell hill at only 26km away.
Dave Lindsay
Friday 14 June 2013 10:57PM
Simon27: For lots of information and products (other retailers are available) see A.T.V (Aerials And Television) FM DAB TV Aerial, plus poles and brackets
C
Clive g
Tuesday 18 June 2013 2:00PM
Simon27 from Dartford. I have just come across your post and curious to know if your endeavors worked?? I live less than mile from you and have also moved to Dartford from down south. I would love to have my native region reinstated I currently have a virgin box and a aerial that is aligned in a westerly direction both are incapable of receiving BBC.SE.
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