1st May 2013 retunes for Norfolk and Suffolk using Tacolneston and Kings Lynn

As part of a rolling programme in the regions that experienced the early digital switchovers, some viewers in Norfolk and Suffolk will need to retune on Wednesday. However, viewers of relays (other than Kings Lynn) will lose Freeview HD channels during the daytime but are best advised not to retune.

^{Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV 30th April 2013 at 12:35}

The original plan for digital-only television services had created a set of cleared (unused, for resale as 4G) frequencies in the range C31 to C40, and a smaller one in the C63-C68 range. However, to align the frequencies with the rest of Europe and to provide the mobile internet companies with more desirable frequencies the allocations were changed - see Digital Dividend - changes to the 800MHz band.

In the regions that switched-over after the decision was taken, the new frequency plan has been used. In the regions that switched before, viewers will have to perform one more retune.

This week, on Wednesday 1st May 2013, viewers of the Tacolneston transmitter group experienced another minor Freeview change.

Tacolneston transmitter and transmitter group

At some point before 6am, Tacolneston will change the BBCB (or PSB3) multiplex from C62 to C50. This multiplex carries 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, and the Arqiva B (COM6) multiplex will move from C50 to C39+ effecting 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 Russia Today English, plus 21 others.

The following relay will also change their allocated frequencies:

Kings Lynn: BBCA/PSB1 C49- to C40

However, the relays of Tacolneston that are not changing will be "retuned" to Tacolneston at some point during the day. If you find you have no high-definition (Freeview HD 101, 102, 103 and 104) channels and you are using on of the other relays, then don't retune, just wait for the service to be restored.

Notes about retuning

If you are not on the list, you should scan your box from around 6am.

When you now rescan, you MUST do a "first time installation" or "factory reset" scan (sometimes called "shipping state"), not a simple "add channels". Do the procedure you did on "national retune day", September 30th 2009, see Freeview Retune - list of manuals.

If you can't recall the procedure or find the manual, please see generic clear and rescan procedure.

Some people may find problems with the newly allocated frequencies - if so, please see Single frequency interference.

Cable and satellite

Cable (Virgin Media) and satellite (Sky, Freesat, fSfS) viewers are not affected by the changes. Remember, however, that you may be using analogue TV to watch on a second or third set and it might need a Freeview box.

Next to change

The next changes are on 15 May 2013:

Brighstone: PSB1 28W to 71W PSB2 28W to 71W PSB3 28W to 71W
Hunmanby: PSB2 C49 to C39
Olivers Mount: COM6 C61 to C49
Salisbury: COM4 C62 to C50
Ventnor: PSB1 C54 to C48
Winterborne Stickland: PSB1 200W to 400W PSB2 200W to 400W PSB3 200W to 400W