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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
Wednesday, 28 December 2011
Tim CO14
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

1:33 PM
Walton On The Naze

jb38: With reference to the last paragraph of your reply to Alan, the point about different tuners seems to have been proved. Having had no luck with my existing tuners trying (without success) to receive Ch63, I today installed a new Goodmans GDB18FVZS2 set-top box. Scanned for channels, and lo-and-behold, it found 112, including those on ArqB that had previously proved illusive! Compare that with the mere 64 channels the other tuners found.
OK, it means buying more equipment, but Goodmans STB's are cheap (priced as low as £25), and worth the expense if you get all the 'lost' channels back. Of course, there's no guarantee other people would get similar results, but it may be the best option for a lot of folks out there with similar problems.

link to this comment
Tim CO14's 34 posts GB flag
Tim's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 31 December 2011
M
Mr. J. Carrington
10:12 AM

We have problems in Leicestershire,with the Waltham transmiter but not when it is raining.?.
We are unable to get a clear reception for ITV.(Only ITV is affected ) The picture sudenly 'breaks up'.
Any Suggestions?

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Mr. J. Carrington's 1 post GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:51 PM

Tim CO14: Sorry for my delayed acknowledgement to your posting, however what you have mentioned highlights the difficulty in giving advice to anyone with Freeview problems, insomuch that the tuner fitted in the device (TV or box) they are using can be a contributory factor to the cause of their problems, that is coupled to many other factors.

The ironical aspect being that tuners that are inclined to be somewhat lacking in sensitivity generally perform better than sensitive types in situations where the signal strength is a bit over the top in strength, whereas the latter types mentioned score over the former when in weak signal areas.

What really causes problems with Freeview receivers is when they are used in situations where the powers that be have decided that its OK for a stations main multiplexes (e.g: Sudbury) to be operating with an ERP of 100Kw whilst another multiplex is only on 1.1Kw, as it takes an exceptionally good tuner to cope with that type of situation as its one that usually only communication receivers can deal with properly, this because of them having adjustable RF gain controls as well as in some cases variable RF input tuning, rather than in the case of Freeview equipment where both are not unexpectedly fixed, this obviously because of the equipment being very low priced compared to the semi-professional devices referred to.



link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:03 PM

Mr. J. Carrington: Leicestershire is obviously a very large area where many locations are somewhat screened by either valleys or forests, so you really have to indicate your location so that the reception possibilities as well as other factors can be assessed with the aid of the post code reception predictor, plus of course possible knowledge of the area.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Tim CO14
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:32 PM
Walton On The Naze

jb38: Thanks for the reply. As we know, the public face of Digital TV would have us all believe that the switchover would be easy, and everyone would get a wonderful service. But spending a year or more on this forum has shown me what a difficult job TV and aerial installers are having, dealing with a multitude of different situations.

link to this comment
Tim CO14's 34 posts GB flag
Tim's: mapT's Freeview map terrainT's terrain plot wavesT's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 2 January 2012
N
Norm De Plume
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:17 AM
Stowmarket

Was there an outage yesterday?

I lost Film4 and Dave (ArqA and ArqB) yesterday around 6pm, both from Sudbury and Tacolneston. This was experienced on 2 different TVs and with separate aerials.

link to this comment
Norm De Plume's 36 posts GB flag
Norm's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Brian O'Keefe
4:02 PM

having been brought up in Liverpool in the 60s with no football match having less than 44 players, at the start, due to horrible ghosting I was more than pleased when the same old aerial in my mother's house produced perfect Freeview pictures post Granada switchover.
So it was with great anticipation that I looked forward to the switchover in Chemsford (CM2) and wasn't disappointed until..
I didn't figure out why I lost channels when Tacleston switched, I only know now through this august website.

I do feel as though I've been short changed despite also having Sky etc downstairs I do rely on Freeview around the rest of the house and for PIP on my main TV.
I feel sorry for those who totally depend on Freeview, none of my equipment is older than May 2011, seems like poor planing and communications from the switchover team to me.

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Brian O'Keefe's 4 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:43 PM

Brian O'Keefe: You will have to wait until 27th June before the missing channels become available to you again.

Because of the way things are run these days, 8% of the population won't be able to pick up any of the commercial channels using a terrestrial television aerial. They will be limited to the Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) multiplexes which carry BBC TV and radio, ITV1, ITV2, C4, E4, More4, C5, HD channels and a few others.

Some others will be restricted to the PSBs unless they have a different or extra aerial fitted.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Thursday, 5 January 2012
A
Alan
6:31 PM

This may be the definitive answer.
A OAP friend of mine in Sudbury who has problems with C63, annoyed by the lack of interest with the Freeview Help Line wrote to all and sundry about the unreliable reception, ie BBc, OFCOM, Freeview etc
Well you may think what a waste of time.
However this morning an engineer travelled all the way down from Peterborough to visit his premises and test out his installation.
Sure enough when he arrived C63 was pixelating
After spending some time with test eqpt he told the owner, "there was nothing wrong with his installation which included the aerial on the roof"
He would return to Peterborough to inform his masters that the fault does not lie at the customers premises.
The only other place left is the Mast then ?

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Alan's 9 posts GB flag
Saturday, 7 January 2012
Martin nr Sudbury
11:00 PM

Are the frequencies shown on this page definitely correct for Sudbury as of today 7/1/12? I ask as I am trying to make sure I get a Windows Media Centre set up correctly and the frequencies here seem to contradict what the Ofcom switchover document says:

BBC A Ofcom: 44 here: 44
D3&4 Ofcom: 41 here: 41
BBC B Ofcom: 47 here: 47
SDN(A)Ofcom: 49 here: 49 (will move June 2012)
Arq A Ofcom: 60- here: 54
Aeq B Ofcom: 56 here: 50+

As you can see you disagree on Arq A and Arq B.

I can see so many signals where I am (aprrox 10 miles North of Sudbury) that signal strength at any moment is very variable so I want to tune to the definitive signals off Sudbury which is on average the most reliable signal.

Thanks

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Martin nr Sudbury's 14 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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