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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 25/03/2024 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),

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 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C31- (553.8MHz)228mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C37 (602.0MHz)228mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 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
Thursday, 19 April 2012
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

11:52 PM

How do I align my aerial in Aldeburgh to get the Sudbury transmitter? I believe whichever way I turn it, a meter will log on to Aldeburgh instead.

link to this comment
Nick's 425 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

11:57 PM

Why does a non hd freeview box not show the channels used for hd, albeit not in HD?

link to this comment
Nick's 425 posts GB flag
Friday, 20 April 2012
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

12:00 AM

In Aldeburgh I would like to align my aerial to Sudbury to get more channels, but understand the meter would simply log me on to Aldeburgh because of its strength. How do I align to Sudbury please? It was easy with analogue, just turned for the best picture.

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
N
Norm De Plume
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

6:13 AM
Stowmarket

@Nick - signal meters don't 'log on' and turning the aerial to point to Sudbury should be sufficient.

You will need to to rotate your aerial so that the wire elements are horizontal because Aldeburgh is a repeater a Sudbury is a master transmitter.

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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
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:36 AM

Nick: "Why does a non hd freeview box not show the channels used for hd, albeit not in HD?"

Because the HD signals are transmitted with a new modulation standard, DVB-T2. A regular DVB-T box simply cannot understand the data stream that's transmitted, it just sees it as very loud noise.

"How do I align to Sudbury please?"

Cheap meters simply show a raw signal strength across the entire UHF band. These are basically useless. You'd be better off selecting the manual tuning screen on a Freeview box, telling it to tune in a known frequency (e.g. C44) and watching the strength meter on the tuning screen. That assumes the box shows the strength/quality on a specific channel before actually tuning it.

Proper meters allow you to select the channel to monitor. Professional equipment does a full decode and recode of the signal, comparing the actual received signal and the ideal to get a quantity known as the Modulation Error Ratio. The aerial should be positioned to get the best MER. However, equipment that does this is quite expensive: the Promax TV Hunter, which is fairly basic, is over £400.

Unfortunately most Freeview boxes have a pointless quality meter, showing the number of uncorrectable errors. You need to know how many errors are being corrected and optimize for the fewest errors, as this will give the most chance of reliable reception in adverse weather conditions.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:41 AM

Nick: Unless you changed the aerial for a wideband at some point in the past, you should do so now. An aerial erected for Aldeburgh would be a Group A aerial, designed for C21-C37, whereas Sudbury requires a Group E or wideband designed for at least C35-C68. A wideband is recommended to ensure that you can still pick up the COMs in the future: it's looking like they will have to move again to release even more spectrum for mobile phones.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:57 PM

Thank you Mike for very full answers. I think I will have to do it the hard way, with someone on the ground, and hope for the best.
The aerial is home-made. One of my hobbies, and tested on analogue when I could see the difference as I added directors. I don't like wideband as they tail off so much at either end, and with Sudbury in the mid band, I prefer an aerial for that group, and hope for the best with channels outside it. In essence it is an old J Beam, with the square slot dipole and reflector, but modified now with 2 extra sets of directors, tribeam

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
R
russ grooms
8:54 PM

We have just switched over in North Kent and I cannot pick any signal up. I've tried a different box, switched the booster in and out and I'm using a brand new wide bad aerial which I've been waving around like a ship in a storm and still nothing. I've called the set-top box makers, Digital TV helpline and tuned manually to 5 differnet frequencies and still nothing. Basically, it f**ked. All I'm being told is to spend more money, either on new equipment or getting an 'expert' round to help me. Can anyone help???

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russ grooms's 2 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:01 PM

russ grooms: Its not really possible for anyone to be able to assist without knowledge of your location (pref: post code or one nearby) as the signal levels expected at your location from the various transmitters involved cannot be assessed.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:47 PM

Thanks Norm, but I think I will get the Aldeburgh transmitter whichever way I point the aerial because it is so strong, and apparently the meter cannot be set to look for a particular set of channels.

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
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