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Full Freeview on the Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmitter which serves 170,000 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 Heathfield (East Sussex, England) mast?

Heathfield transmitter - Heathfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 11/11/2024 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 Heathfield 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
C41 (634.0MHz)298mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South 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
C44 (658.0MHz)298mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (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 (Meridian south coast), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)298mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South 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
C40 (626.0MHz)298mDTG-820,000W
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
C43 (650.0MHz)300mDTG-820,000W
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
C46 (674.0MHz)300mDTG-820,000W
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

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

The Heathfield (East Sussex, 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 Heathfield transmitter?

regional news image
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 17km north (6°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
regional news image
ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 41km north-northeast (31°)
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 Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20122012-132013-182013-1719 Jul 2018
C/D EC/D EC/D EW TW TW TK T
C29_local_local_local_local
C40SDN
C41ArqBArqBArqBBBCA
C42SDNSDNSDN
C43ArqA
C44ArqAArqAArqAD3+4
C46ArqB
C47BBCBBBCBBBCBBBCB
C49tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C52tv_offBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCABBCA
C64ITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves
C67C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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 30 May 12 and 13 Jun 12.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4 100kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 20kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*(-18dB) 1.6kW
Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-20dB) 1000W

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Heathfield transmitter area

Aug 1958-Jan 1992Southern Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Meridian
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. Heathfield 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?

Radiation patterns withheld

Comments
Thursday, 21 June 2012
D
Dupree
1:36 PM

I have yet to test using the main cable for any HD reception. WIll give updates as soon as I can. Thanks.

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Dupree's 7 posts GB flag
Friday, 22 June 2012
D
Dupree
10:42 PM

Here are the results. Surprisingly using our main cable I got all the HD channels all in good form. Hurray! The signals for HD channels are around 28-29% (no booster at all) and quality varies from
0-36%.

But when I put back the telly in my bedroom with the newly retuned HD channels (HD box), produced horrible results. Quality flicker back and forth from 0-5%. Every 10 sec I got blank screen on all HD channels. Is this the result of the splitter? Do I have to replace it? I am not using any booster. Thank you for your patient.

link to this comment
Dupree's 7 posts GB flag
Saturday, 23 June 2012
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:15 AM

Dupree: Thanks for the update. I will say though that the signal strength / quality indications given cannot by any means be classed as good considering the relatively short distance that the transmitter is away from you, however I did notice that others also seem to be suffering from reception problems in your particular area, and in your own case this not being helped any with that type of passive splitter you use, as it does have quite a high insertion loss to the extent that its like fitting a 6db attenuator in line with your aerial, so should this be easy to access try by-passing it so that the aerial is feeding directly into your TV, checking what the results are and giving an update.

Regarding the aerial referred to, where is it installed? and are you positive that is facing at the correct angle for the transmitter? that of 151 degrees.

Another thing I would like you to check is that the HD mux channel indicated on the signal strength check screen is actually Ch47, just in case by any chance that a signal has been picked up from another transmitter and not Heathfield.

Finally, as no two brands of equipment have the same sensitivity, I would like you to try the Freeview HD box in both locations using the same channel for the test, as this would also reveal if any fault existed in the connections to both locations, as if not then the results should be the same in both locations. (Ch47 ju) 

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

7:45 AM

Dupree: By the way, my reason for requesting that you try by-passing the passive splitter is two fold, insomuch that if your reception gets worse strength / quality wise then that's a positive indication that you are receiving an excessively high level of signal, but on the other hand if reception improves then that indicates the reverse, and this is something that hasn't exactly been determined as yet.

If though reception does improve with the splitter by-passed, then for another test try connecting a short piece of wire of about 600mm (or longer) into the TV's or boxes inner core of the aerial socket and check if any form of reception is possible by doing that, try the test whilst on the BBC.

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

2:44 PM

Dupree: Correction to my last paragraph, "not" should have been inserted after does, i.e:- If though reception does NOT improve with etc.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
D
Dupree
6:59 PM

Thanks for the replies. The results I replied before is for using freeview HD box + LCD TV on both locations (by-passed and split[bedroom]). But if you are suggesting to directly connect it to my telly, my telly only have freeview built in but not HD hence the need for hd box. Sorry If I confused you somehow.

The results clearly shows that I can scan HD channels tru by-passing the splitter but won't show HD on split cable.


My aerial is attached to a long pole connected via our fire escape stairs. we live in a flat area and living on the first floor. Currently it is facing at a bearing of 104°. If I'm going to face it 151 deg bearing, the aerial would be facing my flat's wall directly with just a few meters away from it. Will it be fine if I change the aerial's facing position eventhough it will be facing the wall directly? And for 2 months now there is a scaffolding constructed around the flat for re-painting purposes. Could this be the culprit of low signal reception?

I really appreciate your help. Thank you.


link to this comment
Dupree's 7 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:48 PM

Dupree: I didn't pick up on the fact that you were transferring the TV "and" HD box together to the second location and with that being why I had only mentioned the box, however on looking at your posting on the 21st @ 1.34pm I get the impression that although the aerial goes straight into the passive splitter without having any form of amplification, the coax lead that comes from one of its outputs for purposes of feeding the signal to the living room is boosted at some point? should this be correct then why don't you place the booster in line with the aerial and connect the boosters output into the splitters input? as doing it that way will result in all outputs having the same signal strength.

Regarding your aerial, I suspected that something odd must be applying to your set up as you should (in theory anyway) be getting a strong signal from Heathfield, that said though was the post code given an approximate one? as the location I see, being Croft Road near to The Golden Thai / Hospice in the Weald does not really match up with the description you have given of your circumstances, and aerials around that area would appear to be pointing more in the direction of Crystal Palace or whatever, maybe you could clarify on this point, as me having indicated that Heathfield is located at 151 degrees is based purely on the code having been given.

Of course should the location described be correct, then I can fully understand why the signal strength is so low coupled to the quality being erratic, as although scaffolding can have a bad effect on reception, but the fact of your aerial being so far out of alignment will be compounding the problem, and so if you can easily access the aerial you should leave the box set on its signal strength check screen whilst its tuned to an HD channel, then loosen the aerial clamp and try swinging the aerial around to approximately the heading given irrespective of where its facing into observing the results whilst doing so, should this be possible.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Monday, 25 June 2012
D
Dupree
11:17 PM

I have some good news. After being frustrated with the signals and all, I decided to rewire and re-positions all my cable connections and even moved my television to different spot. You wouldn't believe what happen next, I got HD reception in my split cable connection. Signal/quality varies 26-28%/54-65% on all HD channels. I didn't place any booster at all. Thank you all the support. Sorry for the trouble.

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Dupree's 7 posts GB flag
M
Mark Fletcher
sentiment_satisfiedGold

11:37 PM
Lytham St. Annes

Dupree.No trouble at all !

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Mark Fletcher's 673 posts GB flag
Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 28 June 2012
L
Linda Taverner
6:24 AM
Haywards Heath

My TV is showing no signal on all channels I live in a flat and all are the same. I have tried re tuning and that just shows no channels are available!! This has been like it since last night. When I switch on my BT Vision box it is exactly the same, although I can watch catch up TV without any problems. Any answers! I am not sure exactly where the arial is.

link to this comment
Linda Taverner's 1 post GB flag
Linda's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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