All Rights reserved
Main Page List
Online Shop
Search This Site
Free delivery on orders over £100.
That`s a big bolt.....
Close up of one of Mendip television transmitters stay tensioning assemblies where it attaches to the anchor block.
Note the £1 coin (to give an idea of the scale) and also the earthing straps.
Mendip transmitter`s TV channels*, note the gaps in the table below for channels 31 to 37 and 61 to 68, they`re reserved for “other uses”........
Also check Mendip`s fifty four smaller repeaters
The frequencies given are for (most) digital MUXES, for analogue channels deduct 3MHz.
* There are a few retune events (temporary MUX reallocations) which may not be shown on these tables.
Mendip television transmitter at dusk, looking towards the South West.
Mendip transmitter into the clouds, and out of the top........
Mendip TV transmitter
That`s a big piece of concrete (and there`s a lot more of it underground)...... One can imagine how much pull is exerted on the stay lines (particularly in a high wind) by the size of the block required to anchor it.
Mendip`s channels in relation to the UHF TV band and the gain curves of the aerials we recommend for it. DM Log Log36 Yagi18C/D / Yagi 18E DY14WB XB16E
Also see other relevant C/D group curves.
Mendip has no railways within 12 miles of it now but the old Somerset & Dorset line (from Bath to Bournemouth) used to run only three miles to the west of it. The S & D was opened between 1862 and 1874 but finally closed in 1966, thus no travellers on it would have seen the transmitter as it was opened in 1967 ! Part of the original Great Western line (which ran from Yatton to Witham and ran within two miles of Mendip) does still exist and is used by aggregate traffic from the huge quarry at Merehead. This same line is also used by the East Somerset Railway which has been based near Hampton Mallet since 1972.
External links
Mendip transmitter page at MB21
Mendip Transmitter page at The Big Tower
Mendip Transmitter page on Wikipedia
Mendip television transmitter (TX) is a "guyed mast" structure (309m in height see How High is High?) and it is identical to Waltham and Bilsdale. It was built in 1967 by British Insulated Callender`s Cables (or B.I.C.C) who were responsible for much of the infrastructure built in this country from 1945 up to the 1980s. The company is still going but now called Balfour Beatty. The mast is a tubular structure to the top and has in internal lift, though this is thought to be out of use following the accident at Belmont.
Mendip transmitter was originally owned by the BBC before being sold off to Crown Castle then to National Grid Wireless and finally to Arquiva (sic).
Situated 18 miles South of Bristol Mendip has a population coverage of around 1.5 million and its signals are picked up in many towns/cities including Bristol, Bath, Chippenham, Weston Super Mare and areas of South Wales including Cardiff. In fact there are a lot of houses in Cardiff which can actually see Wenvoe transmitter, but still use Mendip ! I wonder why..... Anyway, it`s also fairly common for people to have two aerials, one for each transmitter combined onto one downlead. A decent splitter in reverse will often work but use of a channel 51 diplexer will work better. The only problem with the latter being that Mendip`s MUXES 1 and 4 would be lost.
Note, due to the new phenomenon of MUXICAL chairs you may experience problems with certain MUXES disappearing. First try rescanning your TV / set top box, do it manually if possible. If this fails to sort it check on transmitter work or call the reception advice phone numbers.
Also see basic digital fault finding.
Switchover occurred at Mendip in April 2010 but there were further MUX reallocations and power increases to March 2012
There was a 4G clearance retune event at Mendip on the 27 March 2013
The transmitter was originally a horizontally polarised C/D group for digital and still is for all its digital output, see the graph for Mendip. Though this may not apply to some cheap crappy Contract aerials though......
Mendip is a powerful transmitter, joint eighth highest output in the country but it still needs fifty four smaller repeaters to improve its coverage in areas of poor reception.
Note the huge increase in power after the (full) digital switchover.
There is one interleaved spectrum channel allocated to Mendip on CH51 (this is within the C/D group) for a possible Bristol local TV station.
A slight chance exists of more TV channels being transmitted between CHs 31 and 37, These can by picked up be (decent) C/D group aerials but it must be admitted that an E group (or wideband) aerial would work better.
For Mendip`s TV Channels/frequencies see its channel allocation guide. This also
includes the same information for Rowridge, Stockland Hill, Wenvoe, Ridge Hill, Bristol
Kings Weston, Bristol Ilchester, Oxford, Hannington and Salisbury. This data can
be of great use in determining possible alternative transmitters to try if Mendip
fails to give an adequate signal, see the importance of “Line Of Sight”. Notice how
all the transmitters outputs dovetail together particularly Ridge Hill, Mendip and
Wenvoe. The channel allocation guides can also be very useful in the diagnosis of
co-
For Mendip we recommend the DM log for strong signal areas, the Log36 for medium signal areas, the Yagi18CD / Yagi 18E* or the DY14WB for poor signal areas, and the XB16E for those with the most marginal signals. The dimensions and test performance of the aerials can be found on the relevant tables. If requiring a “high gain aerial” in the loft we recommend the DY14WB over the XB16 because of the former aerial`s smaller size.
* See "covering all eventualities"
We are more than willing to give advice to those actually purchasing from us. Could those only seeking information please just find the answer somewhere on this site, or ring an aerial installer local to them, or call the reception advice phone numbers.
If you`ve found this site informative and, hopefully, interesting as well,
please help us increase the number of people reading it.
