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Full Freeview on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter which serves 440,000 homes. 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.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) mast?

Sudbury transmitter - Sudbury transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels Digital tick


Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Sudbury 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C44 (658.0MHz)229mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) East, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 16 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C41 (634.0MHz)229mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Anglia (East micro region)), 4 Channel 4 (SD) South ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 South ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (Anglia east), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)229mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD East, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others

COM4
SDN
 H max
C29 (538.0MHz)186mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C31- (553.8MHz)228mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C37 (602.0MHz)228mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

The Sudbury (Suffolk, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .

If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.

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

regional news image
BBC Look East (East) 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Norwich NR2 1BH, 77km north-northeast (24°)
to BBC East region - 27 masts.
70% of BBC East (East) and BBC East (West) is shared output
regional news image
ITV Anglia News 0.8m homes 3.2%
from NORWICH NR1 3JG, 78km north-northeast (24°)
to ITV Anglia (East) region - 26 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Anglia (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

Felixstowe WestTransposer1000 homes +1000 or more homes due to expansion of affected area?
WithamTransposer14 km NE Chelmsford.118 homes

How will the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-131 Aug 2018
B E TB E TB E TE TK T
C29SDN
C31ArqA
C35C5wavesC5waves
C37ArqB
C41ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C44BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C47C4wavesC4wavesC4wavesBBCBBBCB
C51tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C56tv_offArqB
C58tv_offSDN
C60tv_off-ArqA

tv_off Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) after November 2020 / June 2022 - more
Table shows multiplexes names see this article;
green background for transmission frequencies
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W T
waves denotes analogue; digital switchover was 6 Jul 11 and 20 Jul 11.

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

Analogue 1-4 250kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-4dB) 100kW
Analogue 5(-7dB) 50kW
Mux 2*(-14.9dB) 8.1kW
Mux B*(-15.2dB) 7.5kW
Mux 1*(-15.5dB) 7kW
Mux A*(-17dB) 5kW
Mux C*(-22.2dB) 1.5kW
Mux D*(-23.6dB) 1.1kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sudbury transmitter area

Oct 1959-Feb 2004Anglia Television
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. Sudbury 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.

Comments
Saturday, 14 May 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:11 AM

Nick: You can get quite good, an quite expensive, powered speakers such as
GigaWorks T3 2.1 Audiophile Speakers | Creative Store (UK)
- a snip at £150.

As for the source of the interference - take your pick - UK TV Frequency map - channel C51 (714.0MHz) before switchover map | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

I thought I said that Bluebell Hill was a potential future source of digital interference?

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Monday, 16 May 2011
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

11:12 AM
Woodbridge

Thanks Brian. So we can definitely rule out continental xmitters as a source of interference to channel 51 as all are digital?
The interference to channel 51 has been permanent for many weeks, though not serious. I wondered if it was a problem with my set, but we all get it round here.. Quite a mystery, will look to see what uk xmitters might be causing it.

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:31 AM

Nick: Given that the signals would have to come all the way from Norway or Cean in France, I would have thought so.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

11:06 PM
Woodbridge

Many thanks. A friend who used to work in the industry tells me he understands the herringbone to be caused by the digital channels from Sudbury itself, even though not on the same channel 51. What do you think of that one? I think it fair to say the herringbone is there all the time and therefore possibly not caused by atmospheric conditions.

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:42 AM

Nick: No, the digital channels look like low power white noise to the analogue domain and can never cause "herringbone" type interference. This is because COFDM (like most digital transmission systems) uses interpolation, as this is necessary to ensure the signals do not generate sidebands, as analogue signals do.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:49 AM

Here's a diagram from Crystal Palace showing the analogue and digital signals:



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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
C
Chris Jenkins
9:32 AM
Bracknell

Dear Brian,
Our postcode is RG42 4UW.
We have a class 2 wideband aerial mounted on our chimney. Unti recently it was pointed at Hannington and we had good Freeview reception. We were very keen to try FreeView HD so we recently got an aerial company to re-orient it to point at Crystal Palace. We get still get good Freeview reception but Freeview HD reception is flaky. Sometimes it is fine but other times it is non-existent or drops out a lot. Our PVR and TV show good strength but poor (and variable) 'quality' for the HD signal (regular signal is high strength and high quality). We already have an amplifier/splitter connected and are wondering if a better aerial (class 1) might help? I suspect that when Freeview HD switches to full power transmission we might also be okay but that is some time away. Any advice before we invest in a better aerial? Many thanks.

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Chris Jenkins's 2 posts GB flag
Chris's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

10:50 AM

Chris Jenkins: I would say that, yes, your Freeview HD reception will be flaky from Crystal Palace, and will continue to be so until Wednesday 18th April 2012.

You might want to try removing the amplifier, they are often the cause of problems for digital reception.

To be honest, for the money you would have to spend on a new aerial, it might be better to use Freesat HD for HD reception as you can get a dish, installation and receiver for less than you would spend on a new aerial that may not actually improve things.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

11:49 AM
Woodbridge

Thanks Brian. This permanent herringbone on ch 51 remains a mystery then.
You have opened another can of worms with your reply to Chris Jenkins saying amps can cause interference on digital. At my friend's house in Aldeburgh they use an amp for Sudbury and hope to continue to use it and Sudbury, rather than Aldeburgh with its few channels after switchover. Can you briefly outline any symptoms to look for if we get problems, so we can work out if they may be due to the amp? Many thanks.

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 20 May 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:05 AM

Nick: Your herringbone problem may be caused by a reflected signal that just happens to be awful on C51 on a permanent basis.

The problem with amplification is that it does nothing to increase the quality of the digital multiplex reception.

This is because the amplifier will boost the interference in the signal as much, if not more, than the COFDM signal. This is because amplification does not change the signal-to-noise ratio.

You usually see this problem when you have 90%-100% signal strength showing on a set-top box, but the signal quality goes from 100% to 0% and you get sound dropouts and picture freezes.


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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
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