Full Freeview on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter
 | 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.
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 
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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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Wednesday, 11 July 2012
K
KMJ,Derby3:29 PM
Nick A: Check whether changing the position of the connecting leads relative to the box and TV makes any difference to the signal quality, as sometimes there is interaction between them.
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Nick A3:50 PM
Bures
Thank you all.
Questions:
1. the site Dave sent me to says that any signal above 75% is too high. Yet, that is what it has been registering since the day I installed it a year ago and without any problems. The problem has arisen and been intermittent since the signal boost at Sudbury in June. If I install an attenuator will it fix the problem ?
2. it does seem odd that I am the only person having this problem (or at least reporting it on this website). this leads me to believe it could be a localised issue. Yet, I have done the usual debugging (including the tip from KMJ, thank you). No difference.
And thank you to Les. I did toy with a Freesat, but am now fully invested in Freeview. So for the time being, and provided I can fix this, I will keep the status quo.
Sign me Nick A, frustrated but still working it !
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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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Nick A3:57 PM
Bures
Me again. Every channel is now completely stable. No reboot since this morning and signal strength at a steady 80%, signal quality at 100%. Hmmmmmmm.....
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Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Nick A: 1. Signal level meters vary between devices. So the levels indicated by different devices connected to the same aerial may show different levels. If they were more accurate then receivers would be more expensive as they would have to have more accurate components in!
An attenuator will reduce the level of the signals and will rectify the issue if it is caused by too high a signal level.
2. The level of the signal coming out of the aerial cable is relative to the strength of the signal in the air where your aerial is as well as the sensitivity of the aerial.
You have said that the problem seems to have arisen since the power increase of the three Commercial multiplexes from Sudbury last month. Each multiplex is a single signal which carries multiple services. For example, one carries all BBC standard definition services (BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three etc).
It is not necessarily just the signal in question that is tuned to that can overwhelm a receiver. High power signals on nearby frequencies can do so as well. Since June you have more higher power signals on nearby frequencies.
A solution to a technical problem isn't necessarily clear cut. It is a case of making observations of what is happening and making a change which may seem the most likely. In this case, trying reducing the signal level would seem the most likely possible solution based on what we know. It is also the case that its cost is low.
You may be able to crudely attenuate the signal (reduce its level) by removing the aerial plug and holding it close to the socket (either at the wall socket or the back of the receiver).
Or at your location you may be able to use a set-top aerial. These being to test the theory that it may be too high a signal level.
If it is too high a signal level, then the fact that it works without difficulty sometimes could be explained by signal levels varying a little bit at different times. At certain times they become too high.
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Nick A4:55 PM
Bures
and now it is back to the intermittent quality issue.......
i am assuming that if the signal 'overstrength' was an issue then the 'quality' would be consistently poor. it is not. it fluctuates from 100% down to 40% and back, and then is perfectly fine at 100% for half an hour or more.
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Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Nick A: It may be worth checking that your receiver is tuned to the signals from Sudbury and that you are, unknowingly, watching the output from a neighbouring transmitter.
Signal strength screens usually give the UHF channel (frequency) that it is tuned to. There are six signals (multiplexes) from Sudbury:
PSB1 | BBC One | C44
PSB2 | ITV1 | C41
PSB3 | BBC One HD | C47 (if applicable)
COM4 | ITV3 | C58
COM5 | Pick TV | C60
COM6 | Yesterday | C56
The "C" numbers are UHF channel numbers.
I have listed one service carried on each multiplex. To identify which multiplex a particular service is carried on, see this page:
http://www.dmol.co.uk/mux….php
Looking at the predictor for your location, Sandy Heath and Crystal Palace are perhaps possibilities. If you find any of the PSBs tuned (incorrectly) to channels in the 20s, then a simple way around this is to run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged for the first 30% of the scan (or until it gets past C30).
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Nick A5:36 PM
Bures
Hi Dave
Sorry, our posts went up at the same time. Thanks for your further notes. I will try a few things.
The aerial is in another location. I tried moving it off about 15 degrees and have reduced the signal strength down to 70%, but the quality problem is still there. So i will totter out and get an attenuator tomorrow.
But logic says to me, if i can reduce the signal to within tolerance and the problem remains, then the strength issue may not be the problem.
Yours ever hopeful,
Nick A
| link to this comment |
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Nick A5:53 PM
Bures
Dave
Thanks. I checked and the transmitter is verified as Sudbury.
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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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Nick7:47 PM
Aldeburgh
Hi Dave,
You were possibly talking to the other Nick, but here at Hollesley I am scratching my head.
I actually have three boxes on three separate Sudbury aerials. In analogue days, one aerial was much better for C5. Now I find that the main box, my pvr, on that aerial, shows virtually no signal on ch60 and therefore no reception, whilst the other boxes and aerials are now getting the mux on C60. Dover, on a homemade aerial, at upstairs window height only, brings in all channels!
| link to this comment |
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 12 July 2012
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Nick A2:15 PM
Bures
So, I tried an attenuator which reduced the signal strength but has no effect on the variable quality. I switched everything around so that the TV alone was carrying the signal and the quality is still variable. So the receivers are blameless (I think). The only thing left is trees, but they have been in full leaf since mid-June and the severest problem has only arisen in the last couple of days.
| link to this comment |
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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