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Full Freeview on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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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.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) mast?

Sudbury transmitter - Sudbury 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 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C44 (658.0MHz)229mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) 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
C41 (634.0MHz)229mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Anglia (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 (Anglia east), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)229mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD 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
C29 (538.0MHz)186mDTG-100,000W
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
C31- (553.8MHz)228mDTG-8100,000W
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
C37 (602.0MHz)228mDTG-8100,000W
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 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?

regional news image
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
regional news image
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 WestTransposer1000 homes +1000 or more homes due to expansion of affected area?
WithamTransposer14 km NE Chelmsford.118 homes

How will the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-131 Aug 2018
B E TB E TB E TE TK T
C29SDN
C31ArqA
C35C5wavesC5waves
C37ArqB
C41ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C44BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C47C4wavesC4wavesC4wavesBBCBBBCB
C51tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C56tv_offArqB
C58tv_offSDN
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

Oct 1959-Feb 2004Anglia Television
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. Sudbury 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
Wednesday, 4 July 2012
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

6:56 PM
Aldeburgh

Please would someone explain what is meant by 'line of sight' re tv transmissions? Presumably this does not mean that with sufficient magnification we could see the transmitter. I ask as Dave kindly said from my location Dover was 66 miles, line of sight. Apart from North Kent, there is just sea between here and Dover, and the curvature of the earth means there is a huge wall of water between.
Incidentally, it was only in summer I could get good analogue from Dover, with C4 particularly unwatchable in winter, so guess I am currently getting some help to get all digital channels. In winter the signal could vary significantly minute to minute, sea mist being suggested as the cause. Thanks.

link to this comment
Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
R
Russell Battle
7:30 PM

Had new high gain aerial fitted yesterday. All the channels are back. Had to do a complete new auto tune to get them back all is good now. I tried to add new channels first, no good.

link to this comment
Russell Battle's 3 posts GB flag
Les Nicol
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:46 PM

Nick - Line of sight in simple terms means that you have no immediate obstruction i.e. Trees, Buildings, Ground terrain obstuctive issues that may impede the digital signal coming to your TV via your TV aerial from the transmitter. Unlike the analgue transmissions the digital transmission is precise similar to that received by satellite to a satellite dish. If you have an unobstructive clear line of sight to the tramsmitter and everything locally in terms of your aerial, connectivity etc should see you free of any recxeption issues. Satellite reception can be a little bit more problamatic in certain weather conditions extreme heavy rain or snow build up on the LNB - the item that's seen on the end of the dish boom arm. In this scenario it's a case of usually a brief or interrupted signal signal.

link to this comment
Les Nicol's 991 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:17 PM
Aldeburgh

Thanks Les, but what about all that sea? I can't see beyond a few miles from my upstairs window which overlooks Dover, theoretically, nor can my aerial, because of the curvature of the earth giving me 60 odd miles of deep water in the way.

link to this comment
Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:24 PM
Aldeburgh

Why is it that the info, top, is out of date re xmitter power/frequencies, yet there is a seemingly current message about xmitter works?
On the other page about Sudbury switchover it says xmitter works from 18 June for a week, so how do we know if they have finished?

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 5 July 2012
M
Mark Fletcher
sentiment_satisfiedGold

1:11 AM
Halifax

Nick,Aldeburgh.Oddly enough i did mention in my text on Wednesday 27 June 2012,1.40pm then on my hols in St Annes on Sea,Lancashire in my first paragraph that the Sudbury page requires updating due to the COM multiplexes increasing in strength to 100kw apiece,albeit i forgot to mention the change in frequencies back then.
Im sure Briantist the owner of this ever valuable and useful website will ultimately update this page in due course once he catches up with the Sudbury pages,after all he is a very busy man assisting us all.

link to this comment
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
Les Nicol
sentiment_satisfiedGold

6:55 AM

Nick - The sea shouldn't make any difference it's the transmitter coverage - whether it's a main or relay transmitter and their respective outputs. In most cases an existing aerial should suffice, but if your on the fringes of a transmitter(s) you may well need to consider if a particular aerial, cabling etc is up to the job. Alternaitvely as in my area Low Powered Relay transmitters and ground terrain and obstruction issues often dictate the installation of "Freesat" service over "Freeview".




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Les Nicol's 991 posts GB flag
D
david
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:14 AM
Eye

could someone update the transmitter power info etc. - it is STILL showing the pre-DSO levels

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david's 26 posts GB flag
david's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:46 AM
Aldeburgh

Thanks Mark.
Les, I am afraid I still do not follow your reasoning about the sea. I have a shed at the bottom of my garden where I play about with tellies. I cannot get my local transmitter, Sudbury, as there is a tree in the neighbour's garden.
I can, however, get Dover as it comes from a different direction with no tree in the way. There is, however, a wall of sea, probably 50 miles thick due to the curvature of the earth between here and Dover 66 miles away.
What is the difference between that tree and the wall of water?

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:43 AM

Nick: I used Megalithia to plot the terrain between you and Dover:


Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location


The curvature of the Earth would appear to be exagerated which is what I've experienced with Megalithia before over such long distances. What I did then was click the link below the plot to view the map between the two points.

I then found the co-ordinates for the point on the Kent coast where the signal path line intersects; this is at Birchington.

A plot from Dover to this point shows that there is clear line of sight:


Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location


Unless there is any obstruction between your house and the coast, then this would appear to suggest that you do have line of sight to the top of the Dover mast.

The curvature of the Earth is said to be 8 inches per mile. This works out as 13.4 metres over the 66 miles.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
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