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Full Freeview on the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.424,-0.076 or 51°25'26"N 0°4'32"Wsa_postcodeSE19 1UE

 

The symbol shows the location of the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmitter which serves 4,490,000 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 Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name
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Which Freeview channels does the Crystal Palace 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
C23 (490.0MHz)324mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) London, 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
C26 (514.0MHz)324mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (London), 4 Channel 4 (SD) London ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 London ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (London),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C30- (545.8MHz)324mDTG-200,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD London, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV London), 104 Channel 4 HD London 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
C25 (506.0MHz)314mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C22 (482.0MHz)321mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C28- (529.8MHz)321mDTG-8200,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others

LW
 H -10dB
C35 (586.0MHz)324mDTG-1220,000W
Channel icons
from 31st March 2014: 8 LONDON LIVE,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Crystal Palace transmitter?

regional news image
BBC London 4.9m homes 18.4%
from London W1A 1AA, 12km north-northwest (335°)
to BBC London region - 55 masts.
regional news image
ITV London News 4.9m homes 18.4%
from London WC1X 8XZ, 11km north-northwest (345°)
to ITV London region - 55 masts.

Are there any self-help relays?

Charlton AthleticTransposerRedeveloped north stand Charlton Athletic Football Club130 homes
DeptfordTransposersouth-east London100 homes
GreenfordTransposer12 km N Heathrow Airport203 homes
HendonTransposerGraham Park estate50 homes
White CityTransposer9 km W central London80 homes

How will the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20122012-1321 Mar 2018
VHFA K TA K TA K TA K TW T
C1BBCtvwaves
C22ArqAArqA
C23ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesBBCABBCA
C25SDNSDN
C26BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4
C28-ArqBArqB
C29LW
C30C4wavesC4wavesC4waves-BBCBBBCB
C33BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavescom7
C35com8
C55tv_offcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off

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 4 Apr 12 and 18 Apr 12.

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

Analogue 1-4 1000kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 200kW
com7(-13.7dB) 43.1kW
com8(-14dB) 39.8kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*, LW(-17dB) 20kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Crystal Palace transmitter area

Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1992Thames†
Jul 1968-Feb 2004London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Carlton†
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc♦
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. Crystal Palace 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
Sunday, 19 August 2012
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:22 AM

Mark Fletcher: Thanks for your confirmation on that, as when I didn't seen the problem being referred anywhere else I was starting to get a bit concerned in case the problem was at my end, and so when I noticed that you were on I thought I would take my chance and enquire.


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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
M
Michael
11:49 AM
London

My digibox and HD recorder are still messing around. Tne Toshiba HD recorder retuned itself to a different transmitter this morning.

Main development: I took the digibox to my father's house half a mile away, where reception used to be worse pre-switchover, and where he used a loft aerial. Sure enough, signal strength on the digibox was about 49%. but signal quality was rock solid at 98%, pretty consistently over the muxes. I checked by phone that the HD recorder was still playing up at home at the same time.

This contrasts with the same digibox at out house showing signal strength of 85-90% and signal quality varying (and I mean varying, as you watch it) of 70-85% on UHF Ch 23 and 26 and 45-65% on the others. The corresponding readings on the HD recorder are 70-75% strength and 48-63% and 25-60% quality. These readings are for when there is a problem. When there isn't (typically in the afternoons) quality is consistent at around 75 or 70%.

So, it's not the digibox (or presumably the recorder) gone wrong. It is the signal quality, or the variation in the signal quality. The digital TV can cope with this but the digibox and recorder cannot.

I intend to do the same test next door when the neighbours are back, which should indicate whether it is the signal coming into the aerial or something between aerial and equipment. That "something" might be a powered signal splitter (and presumably amplifier) in the loft, given that could simply be amplifying errors, but the same setup has been working fine for years, and for several months post-switchover. And the signal strength reported by the HD recorder (and the digibox?) does not seem excessive on the face of it. I'm reluctant to mess around when I still think the incoming signal may be at fault, to the extent that the HD recorder thinks a dodgy signal from elsehwere is better. I have already had engineers round checking that the signal coming from the aerial is OK. They reported that it was fine at around 70% BUT when they came the setup seemed to be behaving I don't know for sure that they also looked at signal quality.

I was surprised that everything functioned with only 49% signal strength but I was even more surprised at the very high signal quality. What should I expect for quality? Should it work on a nice consistent 70% quality, say?

I have a horrible feeling that the answer to this one is "it depends", but would my Toshiba recorder base its retuning decision on strength, quality or a mixture of both?

Annoyingly, none of the televisions we have appear to indicate strength and quality separately, simply giving an overall measure.

The only other possibility I can think of which is unrelated to what is emerging from Crystal Palace, is the Shard. I dismissed this in my mind as the building was essentially there for some time before its opening a few weeks back, but is it possible that some cladding was added late in the day? I know that a small area of Ponders End had issues with Canary Wharf, for example, so a very localised effect is not impossible.



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Michael's 14 posts GB flag
Michael's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:35 PM

Mark Fletcher / Dave Lindsay: Just tested out DUK's post code reception checker and pleased to be able to say that the problem appears to have been rectified.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:45 PM

jb38: Thanks for posting about DUK Postcode Checker working now. I tried it an hour or so back and it was still off. It is now working for me.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
M
Mark Fletcher
sentiment_satisfiedGold

1:51 PM
Barnsley

JB38:Just clicked the digital UK tradeview link to the side of my last text and now working normally again !

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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
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:49 PM

Dave Lindsay / Mark Fletcher: Yes thanks, and long may it continue to do so, as it's an essential aid into providing assistance to anyone with problems of a reception nature, as without it anyone providing assistance is (up to a point anyway!) just about as much in the dark as the person seeking help, and in many cases with that even applying when the person seeking assistance has provided non-post code info on their location.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Monday, 20 August 2012
M
Michael
11:13 AM
London

Michael: To add to my last night's post, I found the HD recorder getting BBC1 etc off 698K this morning. After wiping all chanells as usual, for a change I let it do an auto retune. I found that while it did pick up Ch23 successfully it then went on to pick up the same mux on other UHF channels, evidently overwriting the Ch23-generated ones (i e not storing them as 801+). This was despite the Crystal Palace signal being stronger and of higher quality than the alternatives. However, it does dispose of the theory that Crystal Palace must somehow be next to non-existent at 8am. Hard to know why the HD recorder is doing this. But if the signal as received by the tuner was as it was six weeks ago, presumably it would not be!

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Michael's 14 posts GB flag
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Tuesday, 21 August 2012
P
Peter Suthers
10:22 AM

Several times since Chrystal Palace Digital Switch Over, messages appear informing that new TV Channels are available & suggest a re-scan.
Does anyone know where one can find information regarding what the changes are each time?
Due to the height of my block I have to manually tune all 5 of my receivers (TV, DVD, PC & 2 x PVR) to prevent reception from other transmitters.
This is only worth it if the changes are relevant to me. I'm not interested in data & chat channels (& most of the TV channels to be honest, the guy who sang "57 channels & nothing on" was a prophet for our times).

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Peter Suthers's 5 posts GB flag
M
Michael
11:42 AM
London

Michael: Peter - I am probably wrong but I have a suspicion that the "new services" detected may be the same old services coming from a different transmitter.

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Michael's 14 posts GB flag
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Thursday, 30 August 2012
M
Michael
2:48 PM
London

Michael: Finally tried our digibox next door. Same result as at my father's house - reduced signal strength, steady 98% quality, fine picture.

So we have:
- digital TVs that work fine on our signal;
- a digibox and a HD recorder which do not work on our signal, producing a lot of pixellation and breakup, but the digibox does work next door and (in a dip) at my father's house. I haven't moved the HD recorder but I am assuming it would also work elsewhere;
- one older digital TV (not mentioned before) which is a bit iffy;
- results similar whichever TV points I use, and whatever configurations of equipment and cabling I use.
- it was worse in mornings and evenings, but more recently yhe problem seems to there all day.
- an aerial engineer confirmed some weeks a go that the signal as received at the TV point was OK, but (a) I'm not sure he looked at quality as wella s strength and (b) it was behaving when they called.

So it appears that the digibox, HD recorder and (to some extent) older digital TV cannot cope with the low (and highly variable) signal quality, but the newer digital TVs can.

There are four TV points in the house, fed from a rooftop aerial with a distribution amplifier/splitter in the loft. As far as I know there is no masthead amplifier (not sure how I can tell, though).

If I switch off the amplifier, the signal goes, as I would expect. So to test if it is the problem I would have to mess around up in the loft playing around with what I have found in the past to be rather awkward connections.

With this setup, is it possible that I could have too much signal strength, and that quality problems not apparent next door are being amplified into something which is upsetting half my equipment?

Is there anything else I can try?



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Michael's 14 posts GB flag
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