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

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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 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 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C23 (490.0MHz)324mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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)324mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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)324mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 H max
C25 (506.0MHz)314mDTG-8200,000W
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
C22 (482.0MHz)321mDTG-8200,000W
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
C28- (529.8MHz)321mDTG-8200,000W
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

LW
 H -10dB
C35 (586.0MHz)324mDTG-1220,000W
Channel icons
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?

regional news image
BBC London 4.9m homes 18.4%
from London W1A 1AA, 12km north-northwest (335°)
to BBC London region - 55 masts.
regional news image
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 AthleticTransposerRedeveloped north stand Charlton Athletic Football Club130 homes
DeptfordTransposersouth-east London100 homes
GreenfordTransposer12 km N Heathrow Airport203 homes
HendonTransposerGraham Park estate50 homes
White CityTransposer9 km W central London80 homes

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

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20122012-1321 Mar 2018
VHFA K TA K TA K TA K TW T
C1BBCtvwaves
C22ArqAArqA
C23ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C25SDNSDN
C26BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4
C28-ArqBArqB
C29LW
C30C4wavesC4wavesC4waves-BBCBBBCB
C33BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavescom7
C35com8
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_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

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

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

Comments
Thursday, 3 May 2012
M
Mark L
12:45 PM

Location: Kemsing TN15
on CP although this site says I am on Otford Transmitter.

I am experiencing the same problem, all 4 HD channels are breaking up, all have the same readings:
Signal 68%
Quality 0%
yet all of my SD Channels are fine.

This started two days ago and seemed to fixed yesterday afternoon and The Killing on C4HD recorded fine last night but today HD is unwatchable.

I have just re-connected my aerial amp and all seems now to be OK but not sure what has changed sinc 18APR re-tune.

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Mark L's 2 posts GB flag
N
NICK ADSL UK
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

1:21 PM

Hi Big Mart
just to confirm on where you live and that you have an A band Aerial installed for CP
i am 22 miles from the transmitter with a loft aerial

Now i should add that samsung and lg tv's will struggle after all they dont work in my house so you could be suffering from a chip set that needs a much greater and cleaner signal

Do please let us know how far you are from CP And what band of aerial that you have as it will invariably be that some small detail is missing from your set up

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NICK ADSL UK's 72 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:44 PM

Big Mart: Apologies for late reply which was unavoidable due to pressure of work, but the thick brown coax you mentioned should be perfectly suffice for your requirements, but if you wish to verify this then assuming that your DVD recorder is coupled to the TV via a scart (or HDMI lead) select BBC1 (or anything) and note the signal level indicated, then whilst still on that screen swap the thick brown coax jumper lead over for the white one with moulded plugs and check if the level seen is different, and if "significantly" not then there is nothing wrong with the jumper leads.

However further detailed back checking of your various postings concerning the issue of variable HD reception seemingly indicates that this problem has really plagued you since early March, the significant thing about March being that you did indicate at one point that the HD reception was OK and that dates to before DSO1, but the fact of it being OK at anytime in March when the HD service was still on low power indicates that the communal aerial sited on the other side of the road is capable of receiving a reasonable level of signal from Crystal Palace, but since CP's high powered switchover is now maybe one where its running at a level that is bordering on the verges of being "problem inducing" excessively high and is causing instability to creep in, the point about this being, that signal overloading will usually always show up on HD before SD because of the formers signal complexity, and with in many cases (dependant on tuner) SD not being particularly affected which can mislead a viewer by giving the impression that the signal is OK.

The other snag about this problem in cases such as yours being, that should the high level of signal be affecting the communal aerial systems distribution amplifier, then the signal that you receive could be corrupted before it even reaches your apartment, and is something which might possibly account for the relatively low HD signal level you have reported, as signal readings obtained in an overload situation are very seldom ever accurate and by nearly always indicating low, with in the more extreme cases a level of 100% strength being indicated accompanied by zero quality, this always associated with "no signal being received" in situations where a signal has totally swamped the tuner.

There is a test I would like you to try albeit that on the face of it might appear to be a waste of time, but not! that being to see if HD reception is at all possible when using a set top aerial, because this is one of the best non-technical ways of checking if a person resides in an exceptionally high signal level area.

Other than that you will have to suss out if any of your neighbours use HD reception and if so what their reception is like, as should it be a problem with the communal amp then they "might" also experience the problem, might being emphasised as they could be on a different circuit.



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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:46 PM

NICK ADSL UK: I havent had time to properly check as yet, but what has allegedly been done to improve the situation regarding transmissions from Crystal Palace?

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
N
NICK ADSL UK
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

5:39 PM

Hi jb38
They told me that there was nothing specificity done but i can say for sure my own readings were that the signal had been up and down form the second switch-over till just last Friday

Everything in my house has been very stable the past four years and i would be the first to know of a drop in power as my sons Phillips TV stops working and that's never happened apart from the second switch over date

My sony tv however and my sony freeview recorder have worked perfectly throughout the whole of the switch over it's only my Panasonic v20 that has struggled the past few weeks but as i have said above it's all 100% now

Whatever they have or haven't done i doubt they would tell me anyhow but all i do know is that a vast amount of people in and around of where i live have had a lot of additional expense with new aerials and boosters put in place

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NICK ADSL UK's 72 posts GB flag
Saturday, 5 May 2012
B
Big Mart
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

1:29 PM
London

JB38: Had time this morning to catch up!

I am approximately 19 miles (north) of the CP transmitter, according to Google Maps.

I connect from the digital recorder through an HDMI lead, I don't use a scart.

I tried swopping the white lead with the brown lead and they don't fit vice versa. I presume one is 'male' and the other 'female' at both ends.

I don't think I will buy a set-top aerial just for an experiment! As I have previously said, if I want to record anything from the BBC 1/2 or ITV/Ch4 I will use the SD channels, it is not as if I get a significant difference in picture (it is only marginally better on HD).

Thanks for your help.

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Big Mart's 83 posts GB flag
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B
Big Mart
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

1:57 PM
London

PS ! The neighbours I have checked with about their reception, all view through Sky.

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N
NICK ADSL UK
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

2:38 PM

The latest update from crawley on freeview is that all is now stable and I'm not hearing of anyone with a reception problem from CP OR Reigate

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NICK ADSL UK's 72 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:41 PM

Big Mart: Yes you are correct about the coax plugs, as the jumper from the wall socket will have male coax plugs at each end, I suppose I forgot about the fact that I always go around armed with a multitude of couplers for all sorts of applications.

Regarding the set top aerial, I wasn't really advocating that you purchase one but just mentioned it in case you could borrow it from someone, but you can even do the test using a short piece of wire of of about 12" minimum pushed into the inner part of your aerial socket, as should any strong signals be in existance at your location then a piece of wire will pick something up.

I do though have a feeling that you might well be receiving a defective signal from the communal aerial system distribution amplifier, and with this being the reason for your limited success in getting over the problem.

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B
Big Mart
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:01 PM
London

jb38: I will try the long wire!

Would I get a defective signal on just the HD channels? As I said all the others seem to be okay.

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