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 18/11/2024 Screen may go black 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?

L

lesg
12:03 AM
Reading

I had BBCA mux breaking up this (Thursday)evening from about 20.10 for about half an hour (don't know the end time for sure as I switched over to BBCB during the period, as BBCA became unwatchable). All other muxes from were fine. Anyone else have a problem at that time, or know why this could have happened please?

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lesg's 6 posts GB flag

lesg's: L's Freeview map L's terrain plot L's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage

M

Mark Fletcher

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

1:08 AM
Halifax

Michael Sainsbury,.No !

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Mark Fletcher's 673 posts GB flag

Mark's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

N

NICK ADSL UK

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

9:31 AM

was spot on yesterday 100% for and strength where i live.

Now considering the day before i got nothing and i was told everything their end was perfect it does make me wonder if they who ever they are have a clue on what their doing

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NICK ADSL UK's 72 posts GB flag

N

Nick
1:49 PM

I have a PC based PVR which uses a Blackgold tuner which has 2 x DVB-T2 tuners. I receive my fro . Since the , I get a weak signal on the four HD (Channel 30). The breaks up or audio and picture freeze. Has the power been decreased or could it be due to the change in ?

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Nick's 2 posts GB flag

Dave Lindsay

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:43 PM

Nick: It depends on where you are, but it could be too much :

Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:28 PM

NICK ADSL UK: 100% for strength almost certainly indicates too much . It's likely that conditions yesterday meant that the levels received were *lower* than usual.

Too much signal causes the amplifiers inside TVs, PVRs and set-top boxes to leave their linear - where the of the is an exact multiple of the signal going in. Instead the signal is distorted, which starts to introduce errors in addition to the errors caused by noise and from other transmitters. The error-correction built into the signals can only handle so many errors: once that threshold has been exceeded, the and sound start to break up and, as the number of errors increases, very rapidly disappear completely.

The first thing to look at is to turn down or remove any additional amplification. You're distributing the signals to multiple rooms, so you may need to replace the distribution amplifier with a passive splitter. Unfortunately, amplifiers often won't pass the signals through if you just unplug the power supply, you actually have to bypass the connection.

If the signal levels are still very high, you will need to add attenuation to bring them back into spec.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

M

Mike Dimmick

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

3:54 PM

NICK ADSL UK: Incidentally, I noticed that the level of the BBC A , the last two evenings, was much lower than expected: only 34% on my Humax PVR, when it's usually around 60%. I'm out in Reading. The levels of the other four SD multiplexes were what I expected, around 60%. It was back to expected levels this morning.

It could of course be weather conditions or some device of my neighbours' interfering: the to my flat goes via a /splitter in theirs! Still, I wouldn't expect that to affect the strength of just one multiplex, particularly since BBC A is adjacent to ArqA (which was fine) and only two away from SDN (also fine).

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag

N

Nick
4:26 PM

Thanks for the reply. I think you are right about too much . I have a amp and a distribution amp. I put an attenuator in temporarily which has improved things. I'll take the masthead amp out tomorrow and see what happens. Thanks again.

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Nick's 2 posts GB flag

B

Big Mart

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

6:27 PM
London

So, has anybody got any suggestions why on my recorder for the HD breaks up? I have checked all other muxes and it is perfectly okay. The HD channels are okay on the television.

I have checked my signal is coming from , and have checked the cables are okay.

The only thing I cannot check is the , which is in a block of flats opposite and fed underground to the houses.

I live in NW9 which according to Google maps is 18 miles away from CP.

(Thanks to David Lindsay for his initial).

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Big Mart's 83 posts GB flag

Big's: B's Freeview map B's terrain plot B's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage

T

tim

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

6:56 PM
Radlett

I suspect you have tried this one, have you plug the directly into the back of the recorder to see if you still get break up on the HD ?

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tim's 32 posts GB flag

tim's: T's Freeview map T's terrain plot T's frequency data T's Freeview Detailed Coverage

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