Full Freeview on the Dover (Kent, England) transmitter
 | 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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Saturday, 16 June 2012
G
Gordon Ormston8:49 PM
Dover
Hi Dave
Sorry to bother you again but I have spent most part of today trying to resolve the reception problem without any success. To recap I had no problems at all receiving BBC broadcasts prior to switch over even without a booster, only used a booster because some of the commercial channels were sometimes a bit weak. Following change over and re-tuning BBC reception has been constantly poor with lots of pixellation and intermitant breaking up of sound signals to the extent the programmes are unwatchable. Have followed your advice by removing the booster and fitting a 12dB attenuator. This has resulted in nil signal strength and nil quality on ch50 and ch55 and very week signal and quality on ch42 with pixelation and intermitant loss of sound. Removing the attenuator makes no differance to ch50 or ch55 but much improves reception for ch42. Changing back to the booster resulted in variable signal strengths between 0% and 47% for ch50 and variable quality up to a max of 36% but mostly well below 20%. Similar variable signal strength and quality for ch55 but much more stable signal strength of 73% for ch42 with 100% quality. The loft aerial is not of the high gain type and I have made no changes other than re-tuning several times. I know from what you have said in other posts that attenuation should have worked and would be grateful for your further advice. Is it possible to make contact with whoever is responsible at the Dover transmitter to let them know people are experiencing problems.
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Gordon's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Gordon Ormston: What sort of reception do you get on the three remaining analogue channels? (56, 66, 53)
Try with and without attenuation.
Some other things to try are:
- a 12 to 18 inch piece of wire inserted into the inner part of the aerial socket.
- a set-top aerial.
- connect the inner part of the aerial socket to the lead from your aerial leaving a gap unscreened so as to "loose" some signal.
The transmitter is only 3 miles away and you're not far of having line of sight.
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Sunday, 17 June 2012
D
Declan12:00 AM
Canterbury
As luck would have it the the outside aerial pole broke in the high wind the other day. I have a HD TV and am considering installing a loft aerial. However, reading some of the information on the net it seems that an indoor loft aerial will not be sufficient for Freeview HD. Is this correct? Or can I get away with a loft aerial. Digital UK indicates that I need a C/D aerial for the Dover transmitter.
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Declan's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Declan: What is sufficient depends on the location. Loft aerials get less signal due to it having to pass through the roof. Some roof slate isn't particularly conducive to a loft aerial.
See this plot which would suggest that you may have good line of sight at 14.5 miles:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
Obviously this doesn't take local obstructions into account, which is why I say "may have". If you're in a house, then that's obviously better because the aerial is higher up than a bungalow. If you're in a bungalow, then it might be best to mount it on a pole so that it's above the roof line.
You may be able to conduct some tests in your loft with your former roof aerial, if it is still in one piece.
See ATV Sheffield's website for lots of information and an online shop www.aerialsandtv.com
See:
Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial
It does hinge on how much your roof will attenuate the signal, but it does look like a log might work in your location.
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Monday, 18 June 2012
J
Jim O'Shea3:48 AM
Ramsgate
Hi
I have retuned but have lost the ITV channels and the Yesterday channel on Freeview can you advise.
Regards
Jim
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Jim's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
A
Andrew Walter7:29 AM
Dover
Since my last post the Dover transmitter has had some engineering carried out and the BBC channels are now sort of watchable ( sound break ups and small pixelation). I still believe that I need more signal as my problems are exactly the same as Gordon ormstom's. It does seem though that whatever happened at Dover on Friday has made some sort of improvement.
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Andrew's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Jim O'Shea: There is the possibility that your receiver could have tuned to the Ramsgate relay instead of Dover. At the first stage, BBC comes on air on C26 and next week ITV1, C4 etc will be switched on on C23 and HD services C30. There are now Commercial services such as ITV3, Film 4 and Dave from this transmitter, so you are probably best advised to continue using Dover.
If you find that BBC is tuned to Ramsgate by looking on the signal strength screen, then you can avoid this by unplugging the aerial for the first 30% of the scan. This is probably good practice so as to avoid this as a possibility.
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G
Gordon Ormston1:17 PM
Dover
Hi Dave
I can only pick up a signal on the three remaining analogue channels by using a booster and then the image is very snowy, nothing with or without an attenuator. A set top aerial does not work at all on any channels. Not sure what you meant about your last option 'loosing some signal by leaving a gap on the aerial unscreened' ? As with Andrew Walker there has been some improvement with the BBC channels over the weekend but still well below an acceptable standard and still need the booster to pick up the signal. Where do you go from here surely somebody has to be accountable?
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Gordon's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Gordon Ormston: The fact that analogue is very poor and snowy suggest that the problem isn't too high a signal level.
The bit about connecting loosing some signal was intended to be a crude attentuator to reduce the signal level.
Based on poor analogue reception, this would tend to suggest that you are in a poor reception area and not one where your receiver could be suffering from the effects of too much signal.
I used Megalithia to plot the terrain from the transmitter to your location:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
This suggests that you may (just) have line of sight, although bear in mind that ground levels for the plot are sampled at intervals and it may go higher within these samples. This also does not take into account any obstructions such as trees and buildings.
It could be that you have poor reception because of the umbrella effect. You will note that you are 100m below the ground that the transmitter is sat on.
Transmitters put their main beam out towards the horizon. Its strength helps carry it. Thus, the closer to the transmitter you are, the more likely it is that you will be under the main beam, as it were. But there should still be sufficient signal. But the issue you "may" have is due to being so low down.
Could you (can you) receive (the lower power) Freeview signals before switchover?
I'm not an aerial installer, so I'm not sure what else you could try.
Having read your comments, perhaps the only thing that you can do in an effort to receive terrestrial television is to get an aerial installer in. Or go with Freesat.
There are some channels that are on Freeview, but not on Freesat, e.g. Yesterday and Dave. However, these are carried on the (Freeview) Commercial multiplexes and these are on lower power than the Public Service ones from Dover. So you "may" find that you can only receive the Public Service channels from Dover, all of which are available on Freesat.
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Thursday, 21 June 2012
G
Gordon Ormston5:13 PM
Dover
Hi Dave
Many thanks for your detailed explanation. Prior to switch over we were able to receive the majority of the Freeview signals without any problems but a couple of the commercial channels were not always 100% reliable hence the booster. I am still able to view the mainstream commercial channels OK but suspect that may change after the 27th. Having carried out the tests you suggested I became less convinced our problem was due to higher BBC signal strength and your conclusions make a lot of sense. I will wait until after the 27th to see what happens before I decide what to do. I am in the meantime most grateful for your time and trouble in helping resolve the issue.
Regards
Gordon Ormston
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Gordon's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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