Full Freeview on the Dover (Kent, England) transmitter
Brian Butterworth first published this on - UK Free TV
Google Streetview | Google map | Bing map | Google Earth | 51.112,1.247 or 51°6'41"N 1°14'51"E | CT15 7AQ |
The symbol shows the location of the Dover (Kent, England) transmitter which serves 190,000 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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Dover (Kent, England) transmitter._______
Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Dover (Kent, 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 Freeview channels does the Dover 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.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Dover (Kent, 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 Dover transmitter?
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 69km west (270°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 52km west-northwest (289°)
to ITV Meridian (East) region - 36 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford
How will the Dover (Kent, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
1960-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 16 Oct 2019 | ||||
VHF | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E T | W T | ||||
C10 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
C33 | BBCA | ||||||||
C35 | D3+4 | ||||||||
C36 | BBCB | ||||||||
C39 | SDN | ||||||||
C42 | ArqA | ||||||||
C48 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
C50tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCA | |||||
C51tv_off | D3+4 | ||||||||
C53tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | BBCB | |||||
C55tv_off | SDN | ||||||||
C56tv_off | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | ||||||
C57tv_off | _local | _local | |||||||
C59tv_off | ArqA | ||||||||
C66 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves |
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 13 Jun 12 and 27 Jun 12.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
Analogue 1-4 | 100kW | |
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-1dB) 80kW | |
SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-4dB) 40kW | |
Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B* | (-17dB) 2kW | |
Mux 1*, Mux C* | (-20dB) 1000W | |
Mux D* | (-23dB) 500W |
Local transmitter maps
Dover Freeview Dover DAB Dover TV region BBC South East Meridian (East micro region)Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Dover transmitter area
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Thursday, 14 June 2012
Gordon Ormston: The high power post-switchover signals are such so as to provide equivalent coverage to that of the former analogue (at least for BBC, ITV1, C4, C5 and other Public Service channels).
Due to fewer frequencies being available, transmission powers had to be kept down so that they could be re-used by transmitters within a closer proximity than they otherwise would have been. Also, power was low so as not to interfere with analogue transmissions already on air which were co-channel.
In essence, it was a quasi-national network; i.e. there were gaps in coverage which is why we have a "switchover" and not just a "switch-off" (of analogue).
I assume that they covered as much of the population as they could with this network giving greater preference to those transmitters with more viewers (the assumed objective being to cover as many as possible). In any case, international clearance would have had to be granted with any signals along the coast being more likely to affect the continent.
So there was probably little that could be done if the pre-switchover service was to be crammed in.
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See ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
A variable attenuator such as that shown on that page will cost £3 or £4 from online sources such as eBay. These are usually 20dB ones.
As an example (others are available!) I found this one:
VARIABLE ATTENUATOR TV SIGNAL REDUCER 20dB 3 5 6 9 10 12 15 18 DIGITAL FREEVIEW | eBay
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Friday, 15 June 2012
Gordon Ormston: Yes, come the 27th it could happen to other channels.
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Andrew Walter7:28 AM
Dover
It seems that myself and Gordon have the same problem. I already had a signal amplifier on the aerial as I live under the shadow of hill that improved things vastly pre switchover. Since the switchover I have not been able to get the BBC channels. I have checked, rechecked, retuned and can confirm that the BBC channels are on C50. Yesterday with the amplifier still in place I had a signal strength of 60% and quality jumped from 40% upto 100% constantly. The suggestion of fitting an attenuator was proved by removing the amplifier (thought that this would prove one way or another without buying one) this made things even worse. The signal strength went down to 20% and quality (still jumping) from 0% upto 20%. By the way I live within 3 miles of the Dover mast. It looks like I might have to call in an aerial guy and spend a vast amount of money just because of the switchover.
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Andrew's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Andrew Walter: There is always the possibility that you need even more attenuation than you have. Perhaps connecting two attenuators inline with one another, one of them being a variable one.
The mast head amp needs removing, no doubt. With it in installed, its the signal from the aerial could be too high for the amp to cope with. Thus the signal will distort at the amp.
So the output of the amp will always be distorted. Adding attenuation will therefore give you a smaller distorted signal.
To pick-up less signal, whilst tuned to C50, try a 12 to 18 inch piece of wire inserted into the inner part of the aerial socket. Or use a set-top aerial. Or, as a crude attenuator, try your roof top aerial with a section of the screening removed so as to "loose" some signal.
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David 2:08 PM
so how come im ok with my signal here in sandwich then. also my aerial is in the loft & i get 90%
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David: The two main factors that increase the likelihood are:
1. Proximity - the closer you are, the stronger the signal that is in the air. (Obviously the more off line of sight you are, the less likely that you are going to get too much signal, e.g. if you are in a valley but not very far from the transmitter).
2. People who upgraded their aerials because there old ones weren't sufficiently sensitive to pick up the low power pre-switchover signals may find that their aerials are now too sensitive. These would "tend" to be further away than those who aerials were sensitive enough.
Again, distance isn't everything. People can live close but with obstructions and without line of sight.
The point is that the difference between the pre-switchover digital and post switchover digital is big.
Digital reception is about thresholds. So you need enough level of signal to get a picture (the lower threshold) and not too much as to exceed the upper threshold.
Those who, before switchover, had sufficient signal level (to be above the lower threshold), but which was below the upper threshold by an amount greater than the increase in strength (before vs after) will therefore be OK.
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Kathie5:20 PM
Following switchover on Wednesday I could not receive any BBC channels. After speaking with the helpdesk of my digibox supplier I managed to complete the "factory retune" and all of the BBC channels appeared. Now however I can't get Yesterday or ITV4. My signal comes from the Dover transmitter covering the "south east area" (rather than the Kent area which only has 17 available channels). Any ideas what else I can do to recover Yesterday and ITV4 without losing BBC? Thanks
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Kathie: Yesterday, ITV4 etc from Dover is currently on C55, so if your set has manual tuning, try tuning to it.
If you can't get it, it could be that previously you were "only just" able to receive it due to its weak strength. The strong BBC signal may have had an adverse effect on reception of other channels. This should correct itself when you retune on 27th.
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derek strand10:53 PM
Ashford
Just to say that we are in Ashford and have had problems with our digital recorder not saving BBC1 after the switch over on 13th - since reading this forum we have turned our booster down and it appears that this has corrected the missing BBC chanels from Dover, many thanks - it is just a shame that this information is not made available via local press etc so that those who do not have internet could be aware.
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derek's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 16 June 2012
4:45 PM
Thanks for the advice, I will wait until after 27th to see what happens. Interestingly our neighbour can get channels that we can't, don't know whether he's got better equipment than us or whether he's just lucky. Not much of this information is available anywhere else, we were beginning to worry that we'd bought all this new equipment only for the TV service to be WORSE.
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