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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.
Note MUXES 4 to 6 will change frequency (in Autumn 2011) to CHs 48, 52 and 56.
Also check Mendip`s fifty four smaller repeaters
The frequencies given are for the analogue channels, for (most) digital MUXES add 3MHz.
Note the gaps in the table below for channels 31 to 35, 37, 39 to 40 and 63 to 68, they`re reserved for “other uses”....
Mendip television transmitter at dusk, looking towards the South West.
Mendip transmitter into the clouds, and out of the top........
Mendip TV transmitter Picture Justin Smith (ATV)
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. Picture Justin Smith (ATV)
Mendip`s channels in relation to the UHF TV band and the gain curves of the aerials
we recommend for it. DM Log Log40 Yagi18C/D 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 Shepton Mallet since 1972.
External links
Mendip transmitter page at MB21
For Mendip we recommend the DM log for strong signal areas, the Log 40 for
medium signal areas, the Yagi18CD 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.
Note, as work takes place on various digital transmitters (to prepare for the DSO) you may
experience problems, e.g. with certain MUXES disappearing. First try rescanning your
TV / set top box (do it manually if possible), but if this fails to work check on transmitter work
or call the reception advice phone numbers. Also see basic digital fault finding.
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.
Transmission power is 100kW on Digital MUXES 1 to 3.
However MUXES 4 to 6 will only be transmitted at 10kW until autumn 2011 (due to co-
their full post DSO power of 50kW from 2012.
Note that MUXES 4, 5 and 6 will be on 62, 56 and 59 respectively until autumn 2011.
The transmitter was originally a horizontally polarised C/D group for digital and still is for
all the digital are still within the C/D band, see the graph for Mendip.
This may not apply to some cheap crappy Contract aerials though......
It is relatively common to find people wanting to receive both Mendip and Wenvoe transmissions (with a different aerial for each of them) and this can be accommodated quite well by using a diplexer split at CH51 to combine the cables from the two aerials into one downlead. The low leg (CHs 21 to 50) would be connected to the Wenvoe aerial, and the high leg (CHs 52 to 68) to the Mendip aerial. MUX4 from Mendip will be lost after the 2011 MUX reallocation, though you`d still be get it from Wenvoe, and it`s all crappy QVC anyway.
Mendip has fifty four smaller repeaters to improve its coverage in areas of poor reception.
For Mendip`s TV Channels/frequencies see its Channel Allocation Guides for before
and after the (full) DSO. These 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 causes of co-
also be invaluable if you are trying to find a spare channel for a modulated output
(e.g. for a Sky box or CCTV system) to be added to your TV setup/distribution system without suffering from co-
DSO occurred between the 24 Mar and 7 April 2010.
HDTV (via Freeview) transmission on MUX3 commenced from Mendip at switchover on 7 April 2010, not that there would have been many STBs or TVs capable of receiving the HD signal at that time because a Freeview HD box (or TV) will be required to decode the signal and they only went on the market in spring 2010 !
There are two interleaved spectrum channels allocated to Mendip, CH55 and CH59, which are both within the previously announced post DSO group.
Spectrum = Interleaved Spectrum Channels
Some post switchover MUX allocations will be changed due to the 800MHz clearance.
If you`ve found this site informative and, hopefully, interesting as well,