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General Transmitter Features

There are about 1155 * TV transmitters in the UK, and they`re all listed here.

Of those 1155 transmitters 50 are “main” transmitters (like Crystal Palace),

and 30 are larger repeaters (like Sheffield). Together these make up the 80 original digital transmitters. Incidentally after DSO these 80 TXs will be the only ones to broadcast all 6 digital MUXES. The remaining 1075 transmitters are mainly smaller repeaters (like Oughtibridge) which after DSO will only transmit the 3 main PSB MUXES, though to be

fair that`s most of the channels the majority of people watch.

* source Ofcom Nov 2008 (excludes “self help” transmitters).

Antenna arrays (main transmitters) at Sudbury, Hannington and Waltham.  

Antenna arrays (relay/repeater transmitters) Oughtibridge, Birchover and Llanddulas.

Antenna arrays Links to manufacturers.

Base of masts (cylindrical) Belmont, and (spaceframe) Ridge Hill including figures for the

                        weight of masts and details of self supporting towers.

How high is high ? Man on a mission at Sandy transmitter.

Feeder cables for the signals (Waltham) including “duplication” information.

Log Periodic Aerials on the repeaters details of the GD2000.

Mast stays.  They aren`t straight !   The anchor blocks

Number of TV transmitters in the UK (main and repeater transmitters).

Painting Bilsdale transmitter, including pictures of the “Bosun`s Chair” system used

                                                        and details of the type of paint finish used.

Population coverage figures for the major transmitters

Transmitter Relative Heights                          

Just how big would Emley Moor transmitter (TX) look next to Belmont (as originally built) ?

How big would one of the shorter TXs, like The Wrekin, look next to Belmont ?

Just how small would our shop look next to the shortest of the main TXs, The Wrekin ?

Notes

All the pictures of the transmitters (TXs) are to scale.

The heights of the structures are estimates. Different sources give different heights, some

of which seem to include the transmitting array(s) at the top, and others don`t. In fact the only mast which I`m certain of the height is Waltham, because I`ve seen the actual plans

for the layout of its transmitting antennas ! On the subject of Waltham, there are three

other TXs of the same design, Winter Hill (in the graphic above), Bilsdale and Mendip.

Belmont is also similar, it`s just even taller and has six sets of stay levels, or did have till they shortened it up to April 2010..

The height of our shop is to the top of the roof.

Terminal velocity in the above table means the speed that an object would hit the ground,

but the times for that to occur are calculated in free space. Obviously these structures are not built in vacuums, but if the object being dropped was made of a dense material (like a spanner for instance....) I wouldn`t have thought the calculated figures would be that far out.

Belmont  385m  (as originally built)

Emley Moor 328m

Waltham 314m

Bilsdale 309m

Winter Hill 309m

Black Hill 307m

Mendip 280m

Moel Y Parc 240m

Sandy Heath 240m

Burnhope 229m

Holme Moss 228m

Sutton Coldfield 225m

Crystal Palace 222m

Oxford 160m

Ridge Hill 160m

Sudbury 160m

Pontop Pike 154m

Hannington 154m

Heathfield 145m

Rowridge 135m

Craigkelly 135m

Relative heights of the other major structures on this site.

Just to help put the above figures in context, you could put the Emley Moor signal at our test site through an 8 way splitter (loss 12 dB) and still have enough signal to put those outputs through another 2 way splitter (loss 4 dB), i.e.  83 - 12 - 4 = 67dBuV

You would have about a 3 dB loss on the cable, but that`s still 64dB, and that`s with up

to 16 ( SIXTEEN ) TV points, off one relatively low gain aerial !

Post code predictions can sometimes be highly amusing, and this is particularly the

case in sparsely populated areas where the geographical areas are larger.

The analogue reception predictor for our test site advises “High Gain” or even `Amplified Extra High Gain` aerials, yet as you can see the signal levels are either OK, or in the case

of Emley, too large, off a DM Log !

We got a call from a customer near Owler Bar (on the outskirts of Sheffield) who`d been advised by the checker that she couldn`t get Digital. But the site is over 1000ft in altitude,

on the NE side of a mountain facing Belmont, so what do you think ? ! ? In fact she could probably pick up Bilsdale and Crosspool (Sheffield), with a chance of Emley Moor as well !

You could also try this text reception test, though the results are not infallible by any means. I`d have thought that judging the quality of your analogue pictures was just as worthwhile for checking the signal strength of your analogue channels. Quite apart from anything else surely the text reception test is only checking the transmissions which

you`re receiving at the moment, not what you might get if you change your aerial, particularly if you have to swap from a grouped aerial to a wideband.

No aerial installation company would waste their time consulting a coverage map but

what they would want access to are the polar diagrams (radiation patterns) of the transmitters and preferably in all three dimensions. It is a pointless waste of time

identifying an alternative transmitter (and aligning onto it) if unbeknownst to you the

sodding thing is not putting much signal out in your direction ! Unfortunately, for reasons

I cannot comprehend, this information is not generally available. Whenever any radiation pattern anomalies come to light we add them to the relevant transmitter page and we are always more than interested to hear of any additional data in this regard.

Well OK we do provide a link to a site giving “coverage” for all the particular frequencies,

mainly out of interest but also because it can be helpful in identifying possible causes

of co-channel interference. Bear in mind that the vast majority of the repeater transmitters

aren`t included on this map, e.g. Winter Hill`s repeaters.

Use the linked map(s) in conjunction with the Channel Allocation Guides on our

transmitter pages.

For further reading on transmitters see Wikipedia article.

Problems with your signal ?

If it`s a "fault" on your digital, first try retuning your box (or TV).

Retuning help is available here www.tvretune.co.uk

and on telephone number 08546 05 11 22

If analogue is still being transmitted, is that OK ?

If it is it`s less likely to be an aerial fault.

Also see basic fault finding.

Next try Digital UK planned transmitter work, somewhat bizarrely,

but very usefully, this also includes analogue TV and radio transmitters.

The BBC page for reception problems today used to be useful when it listed all

the transmitters experiencing problems, unfortunately in April 2010 it changed

to a post code search type format which is rather less useful/accurate.

The BBC didn`t seem bothered by this, arrogant gits.

But you can always try it if you`re desperate.

Remember that wherever possible transmitters aren`t worked on in the evenings and, particularly, at weekends. So if your signal gets poor all of a sudden check

it`s still poor that night, or over the next weekend, if you can wait....

There is an embargo on transmitter work over Christmas and at other periods

of peak viewing, e.g. when big sporting events are on. So if the signal goes off

half way through the Mens 100m final at the London 2012 Olympics,

it`s unlikely to be (planned) transmitter work.......

Reception advice phone numbers :

03700 100 123 (for BBC)

0844 881 4150 (for ITV)

0845 076 0191 (for C4)

0207 421 7270 or 0845 705 0505 (for C5)

If you`ve found this site informative and, hopefully, interesting as well,

please help us increase the number of people reading it.

Back to the top of aerialsandtv.com Nationwide Transmitters

Also see How High is High ? and Emley v Belmont v Taipei 101.

Which Transmitter Am I On ?

If you`re already on a transmitter and just replacing your aerial then you can identify the transmitter from the frequencies (or channel numbers) of the programmes you have tuned

in on your TV. The best way is to consult the Channel Allocation Guides (e.g. Crystal Palace) of the transmitters we have a dedicated page for, see list above. Alternatively try

this BBC page for analogue frequencies.

Most digiboxes will tell you which transmitter is being received, though in the case of a repeater (e.g. Nottingham) it may just indicate the main transmitter feeding it.

In the case of Nottingham it would be Waltham.

If your aerial is vertically polarised it is almost certainly aligned on a repeater transmitter

because all main transmitters are horizontal.

On the other hand over 99% of horizontally polarised aerials are on main transmitters.

If you`re searching for a new transmitter then bear in mind that TV aerials are very

directional (particularly if they`re “high gain”) so the simplest way to find out which transmitter you may be on is by checking which way your antenna faces !

Alternatively, in your locality, which way do most (or preferably all....) of the other antennas face ? This is a good guide but it`s not infallible. We`ve occasionally done installs where every other aerial is utilising a particular transmitter (usually the nearest one......) with imperfect results, we`ve decided to try a different one and it`s come up trumps !

Now check on Transmitter Maps or Digital Transmitter map or

MB21`s map page or BBC maps or Ofcom Maps

Bear in mind that they`re hundreds of the smaller repeater / relay transmitters (which don`t transmit digital yet) and do not appear on our Digital Nationwide page.

If there is more than one transmitter in that particular direction check if the polarity of the aerial(s) gives an indication as to which is the correct one.

You should bear in mind that some transmitters have restricted radiation patterns.

An example of the latter being Sheffield which only broadcasts digital at low power to the south so as to avoid co-channel interference with the Totley repeater. Finding out which transmitters have restricted radiation patterns is very difficult because Ofcom (or “arqiva”

(spelt wrong, and I don`t like them anyway) or National Grid Wireless) do not publicise this

information. In fact when I managed to talk to Channel Five`s Broadcast Technical Manager he informed me that it was company policy to keep this information confidential !

It`s pathetic, I cannot comprehend why they feel it`s so secret, does the security of the

country depend on it ?  Possibly.......

These days it seems that not giving out any information is the “default position”.

That said, Ofcom can be more helpful in this regard than any of the others.

It`s all a long way from the Public Service ethos that the broadcasters used to adhere to.

If anyone knows of any restricted radiation patterns which we have not included on our

site please contact us and we`ll add the information to the relevant section.

When considering which transmitter to receive your signals from always remember the critical factor is “Line Of Sight”, generally speaking this is far more important than which is the nearest.               (also see Major Transmitters: Which Aerial To Use)

Remember that if you are realigning your aerial to test the signal from a different transmitter, you MUST retune your TV or you won`t get anything at all !

Coverage Maps

This site does not provide TV transmitter coverage maps because at best they are misleading and at worst they are downright inaccurate !

In the case of accuracy Hannington transmitter is one of the best examples, it has large

attenuation on all its digital output to the East, and this is not shown on most of the

published coverage maps for that transmitter..

On a more general level the use of coverage maps is misleading because they cannot

conceivably take into account local conditions (e.g. trees or high buildings) and they over

emphasise distance to the transmitter. Any professional installer will tell you the over riding

importance of the former and the relative lack of importance of the latter. For instance if a

locality has a choice of two different main transmitters, one 10 miles away through a

bleedin` great tree (or high building) and one 40 miles away but with clear line of sight,

any installer worth his salt will choose the latter of the two options.

You`re better off working out your own signal strength.......

As a “worked example” of coverage predictions accuracy (or lack of it.....) try using one

of them for the site of our shop or our test site, the Post Codes and Grid References are

given in the table below. Bear in mind that you don`t want signals smaller or larger than

the range shown in the table or interference may result. It should be noted that a DM Log

is a relatively low gain aerial but gain figures of all our aerials are measured relative to it.  

Digital UK coverage prediction  or  DTG (installers) UK reception predictor

Wolfbane analogue TV coverage prediction

Wolfbane digital TV coverage prediction

The “powers that be” keep

changing the name of the

MUXES, so we just refer to

them as MUXES 1 to 6, as

they should be anyway....

Don`t you just hate all this

name changing b****x ?

Also see :

MUXES and PSBs