Full Freeview on the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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51.424,-0.076 or 51°25'26"N 0°4'32"W

SE19 1UE

The symbol shows the location of the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmitter which serves 4,490,000 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 Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) mast?

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

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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Which Freeview channels does the Crystal Palace 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C23 (490.0MHz)	324m	DTG-	200,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) London, 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	C26 (514.0MHz)	324m	DTG-	200,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (London), 4 Channel 4 (SD) London ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 London ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (London), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C30- (545.8MHz)	324m	DTG-	200,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD London, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV London), 104 Channel 4 HD London ads, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 107 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C25 (506.0MHz)	314m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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	C22 (482.0MHz)	321m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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	C28- (529.8MHz)	321m	DTG-8	200,000W
	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
LW	H -10dB	C35 (586.0MHz)	324m	DTG-12	20,000W
	from 31st March 2014: 8 LONDON LIVE,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

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

BBC London 4.9m homes 18.4%
from London W1A 1AA, 12km north-northwest (335°)
to BBC London region - 55 masts.

ITV London News 4.9m homes 18.4%
from London WC1X 8XZ, 11km north-northwest (345°)
to ITV London region - 55 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

Charlton Athletic	Transposer	Redeveloped north stand Charlton Athletic Football Club	130 homes
Deptford	Transposer	south-east London	100 homes
Greenford	Transposer	12 km N Heathrow Airport	203 homes
Hendon	Transposer	Graham Park estate	50 homes
White City	Transposer	9 km W central London	80 homes

How will the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1950s-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2012	2012-13	21 Mar 2018
	VHF	A K T	A K T	A K T	A K T	W T
C1	BBCtv_waves
C22					ArqA	ArqA
C23		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C25					SDN	SDN
C26		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C28					-ArqB	ArqB
C29						LW
C30		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	-BBCB	BBCB
C33		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves		com7
C35						com8
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_off}

_{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 4 Apr 12 and 18 Apr 12.

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

Analogue 1-4	1000kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-7dB) 200kW
com7	(-13.7dB) 43.1kW
com8	(-14dB) 39.8kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D, LW	(-17dB) 20kW

Local transmitter maps

Crystal Palace Freeview Crystal Palace DAB Crystal Palace AM/FM Crystal Palace TV region BBC London London

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Crystal Palace transmitter area

Sep 1955-Jul 1968	Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1992	Thames†
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1993-Feb 2004	Carlton†
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc♦
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc†

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Crystal Palace 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

A

Andrew Benham
1:53 PM

Any Linux DVB-T users getting their from might find this page useful:

Linux TV stuff for Freeview from Crystal Palace

I'm in the process of regenerating the .conf file.

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Andrew Benham's 5 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:03 PM

Linda, Thea, Matt (and others with the same issue): In addition to knowing whether my suggestion of unplugging the at 30% solves the problem, it would be useful to know the make and model number of the problematic box or TV.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

T

Thea
2:10 PM

Dave: I have just given that a try, the blue box came back it seemed to take a bit longer and the signals on other seem to be weak, turned off and back to square one, any other suggestions...

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Thea's 8 posts GB flag

E

Ed
2:18 PM

Thanks Mike... i just removed my box from the chain and tried again - Success!

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Ed's 2 posts GB flag

T

Thea
2:23 PM

Dave: the tv is a Samsung Slim about 3 years old, the box is about a month old and is a (argos)bush BU11FVZS2/A, do you think I need to replace anything...

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Thea's 8 posts GB flag

M

Matt
2:37 PM

Dave - Goodmans GDB18FVZS2. I'm afraid your fix didn't work.

The other sets in the house have no such message after retuning.
I'm guessing it must be a system-wide message. Maybe it will disappear after today.

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Matt's 2 posts GB flag

R

rob

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

4:00 PM

Hi There. I have a ferguson tv box which i brought from comet recently. Today i re tuned my box as part of process.. I am confused i get BBC1 and BBC2 new service but .. I found working bbc 1 + 2 on 801 and 802.... i cant re order it so is on 1 and 2.. any will be gratefull

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rob's 171 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:16 PM

Those constantly getting retune messages should probably contact the box or TV's manufacturer.

I'm aware that some equipment might do this if it picks up signals from more than one . You could try doing a manual retune - unplug the before doing a full reset (first time installation, factory reset, full retune, virgin , default setting), allow it to complete its (not finding anything), then manually tune in , , , , and . If you don't have a Sports through BT Vision or Top-Up TV you can skip C28. If you have an HD box (and I sincerely this problem doesn't occur on them!) you can try tuning in as well.

If your box doesn't offer manual tuning, try starting the reset process with the aerial plugged in, then unplug the aerial when it gets to about 28% through. If you can see it listing the found, unplug when it sees the on Mux C (PICK TV, Dave, Really) and leave it until it completes. You can find other tips on how to handle this at .

I did read from a poster on Digital Spy's forums that was carrying service information last night for both pre- Mux 1 and post-switchover BBC A. I hope that isn't the cause of the problem.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

M

michael adams
5:07 PM

I have the same problem with the persistent update request Blue Boxes on two different
Goodmans models
GD 11 FV ZS2
GD B18 FVZS2
However when I hooked up a Grundig box
there was no problem after retuning
just the once. I stopped using the Grundig
due to problems with aspect ratios and subtitles.
Its maybe intersting to note that both Grundig Boxes and the Bush box mentioned earlier all terminate "ZS2" - possibly this is the same softwarefirmware version as shared by all three models ?

michael adams

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michael adams's 2 posts GB flag

T

Thea
5:08 PM

Thanks Mike, I will contact the manufacturer, and let you know how it goes.

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Thea's 8 posts GB flag

Page 87

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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