Full Freeview on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter
Brian Butterworth first published this on - UK Free TV
Google Streetview | Google map | Bing map | Google Earth | 52.005,0.786 or 52°0'17"N 0°47'8"E | CO10 5NG |
The symbol shows the location of the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter which serves 440,000 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.
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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 Sudbury (Suffolk, 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 Sudbury 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 Sudbury (Suffolk, 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 Sudbury transmitter?
BBC Look East (East) 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Norwich NR2 1BH, 77km north-northeast (24°)
to BBC East region - 27 masts.
70% of BBC East (East) and BBC East (West) is shared output
ITV Anglia News 0.8m homes 3.2%
from NORWICH NR1 3JG, 78km north-northeast (24°)
to ITV Anglia (East) region - 26 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Anglia (West)
Are there any self-help relays?
Felixstowe West | Transposer | 1000 homes +1000 or more homes due to expansion of affected area? | |
Witham | Transposer | 14 km NE Chelmsford. | 118 homes |
How will the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 1 Aug 2018 | |||||
B E T | B E T | B E T | E T | K T | |||||
C29 | SDN | ||||||||
C31 | ArqA | ||||||||
C35 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
C37 | ArqB | ||||||||
C41 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
C44 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
C47 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | BBCB | BBCB | ||||
C51tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ||||||
C56tv_off | ArqB | ||||||||
C58tv_off | SDN | ||||||||
C60tv_off | -ArqA |
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 6 Jul 11 and 20 Jul 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
Analogue 1-4 | 250kW | |
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-4dB) 100kW | |
Analogue 5 | (-7dB) 50kW | |
Mux 2* | (-14.9dB) 8.1kW | |
Mux B* | (-15.2dB) 7.5kW | |
Mux 1* | (-15.5dB) 7kW | |
Mux A* | (-17dB) 5kW | |
Mux C* | (-22.2dB) 1.5kW | |
Mux D* | (-23.6dB) 1.1kW |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sudbury transmitter area
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Tuesday, 3 July 2012
Nick: Sudbury has had to wait for Dover to switch-over so as to throw free the three final COMs channels. A few other transmitters have had to go through similar "temporary" stages, although at a year, this is one of the longer ones.
See the DMOL link I provided as it lists services by multiplex which are identified as either "PSB" or "COM".
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Nick: For Sudbury, a Group E aerial is semi-wideband as it spans Group B and Group C/D channels.
The other alternative is to use a Group C/D aerial for the COMs and diplex it with a Group B for the PSBs. Or the wideband may be suitable for the PSBs with it being diplexed with a C/D to pick up the COMs.
For diplexers, see Online TV Splitters, Amps & Diplexers sales
The one that "splits" at C51 should be suitable if the two-aerial approach is to be employed.
As I say, I'm not a professional so I don't know under what circumstances that may be better than a single Group E aerial.
Clearly the diplexer acts as a filter so on the COMs channels only the C/D aerial is used, and on the lower PSB channels only the other aerial is used.
See also:
Sudbury Transmitter
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Mike Dimmick2:55 PM
Nick: For the BBC, it is the list of UK Public Services defined in the BBC's Agreement BBC - BBC Trust - Charter and Agreement , with any changes made by the BBC Trust since that was last revised. Basically, anything with 'BBC' in the name, plus CBeebies. On top of that you have the Qualifying Services: ITV1/STV/UTV, Channel 4/S4C, Channel 5, and the public service teletext provider (position vacant). That's it.
The +1 services are not counted as Qualifying Services, they are licensed as general TV services.
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Nick: I used Megalithia to plot the terrain between Hollesley and Dover transmitter and I reckon that you may have line of sight at 66 miles.
I am not so sure that the same is true of the location which is further north and closer to Aldeburgh.
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Robert B4:12 PM
Dave, thank you for explaining that channel 47 is the HD multiplex. I currently haven't got an HD tuner. I'm considering updating my equipment and think it would be better to switch to Freesat as there are more stations available and should I move into a poor reception area or one with just PSB coverage I'd be ok. I also believe that Freeview capacity is limited and that little expansion is possbile and it will limit the number of stations able to transmit HD over Freeview.
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Nick5:46 PM
Aldeburgh
Thanks, Dave, yes, Dover too far from Aldeburgh. Might try Tac if Sud misbehaves.
Guess you don't know what constitutes a psb channel.
Can you tell me what happens if, say, the ITV on channel 23 and 41 are different regions? If the box tunes to both, can I see both and where would I view the second one, channel-wise?
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Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Nick: For which channels are PSB (and which are COM), see the "DMOL" link I provided in my posting at 1:48PM.
Also see this page, particularly starting at the heading "Independent Television Commission: 1, 2, A, B, C and D":
Why do the six Freeview "multiplexes" have twenty different names? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
For more general information on what Public Service Broadcasting is, type into a search engine something like {uk public service broadcasting}.
Basically, as explained in the link above, BBC, Channel 3 (branded "ITV1" by ITV Plc in England), Channel 4 and Channel 5 are Public Service Broadcasters and as such have obligations placed upon them. This includes achieving a particular level of coverage and which means the installations of small relay transmitters in populated areas that aren't otherwise served.
The PSB1 multiplex is for exclusive use of the BBC. PSB2 is licensed to D3&4 which is collectively owned by Channel 3 licencees and Channel 4. This multiplex must carry ITV1 (or STV in parts of Scotland and UTV in Northern Ireland), Channel 4 and Channel 5. The Public Service broadcasters can decide which other of their sister services they wish to carry on their PSB multiplexes.
You're now going to ask, why have they included ITV1+1 on PSB2 instead of ITV3? I imagine that the answer is down to the return they expect from the advertisers. Presumably providing an ITV1 one hour behind is seen as being more lucrative than ITV3. So it is all down to money and only ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 must be carried on PSB2.
PSB3 is the only HD one, and whilst licensed to the BBC also carries HD services on behalf of ITV1 and Channel 4.
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I am not sure that Aldeburgh 23 and Sudbury 41 are classed as different "networks" or "regions".
Aldeburgh is a relay of Tacolneston. According to this site, both Tacolneston and Sudbury carry BBC East and ITV Anglia East. I would be interested to know whether, as far as the receiver is concerned that these are the same network/region.
Sandy Heath is the third Anglia transmitter and it carries "ITV Anglia West". So there appear to be two variants of ITV Anglia; "East" broadcasts from Tacolneston and Sudbury and "West" comes from Sandy Heath. Do you know different?
I receive from Emley Moor, but I'm in a location where I can usually pick up Belmont up off the back of the aerial.
Emley Moor and Belmont are part of different BBC and ITV1 sub-regions. When I run the automatic tuning function on my Sony RDR-HXD870 is removes 80-odd duplicates once it completes. This leaves me with all services from Emley Moor plus the BBC One and ITV1 from Belmont. So I end up with two BBC Ones and two ITV1s but not two of everything else.
On another TV, I have all the duplicates, with the highest logical channel number (LCN) being 937! So it would appear that how it works depends on the design of the set.
Freeview TVs usually store duplicates starting at LCN 800.
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Nick7:24 PM
Aldeburgh
Thanks again, Dave. I only go up to 300 odd, and they are blank. Yes, Sud and Alde are the same region, I was just wondering if I opted for Dover, which seems crazy, if I could get Anglia from Aldeburgh also, as Aldeburgh comes in with a bit of damp string, no need for separate aerial. In any case, diplexing aerials leads to loss of gain on both.
Yes, Sandy is Anglia West, all others mentioned, East.
Thanks also to Mike.
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Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 4 July 2012
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Mark Fletcher1:59 PM
Halifax
Nick.Aldeburgh.As i mentioned in an earlier text to you on Monday 2 July 2012,12.44am,if you decide to opt for Dover go for it.
A good quality semi-wideband group E (brown tipped) X-Beam XB16E aerial plus copper-copper black coloured co-ax cable and brass co-ax plug will be sufficient for Dover transmissions.
Or if you prefer Aldeburgh relay then a group A aerial (red tipped) will do.
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Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Nick4:00 PM
Aldeburgh
Thanks Mark,
I will give Sudbury a few days and see if it settles down, otherwise I think Tacolneston is worth a try. I understand since going digital it has a higher mast and coverage, Aldeburgh is no good, not even got ITV 3.
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Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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