Full Freeview on the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 50.446,-3.611 or 50°26'45"N 3°36'40"W |  | TQ3 1RT |
The symbol shows the location of the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmitter which serves 84,000 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 Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) mast?
Beacon Hill transmitter - Beacon Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 22/04/2024 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)
Which Freeview channels does the Beacon Hill 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)
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Beacon Hill transmitter?
BBC Spotlight 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL3 5BD, 37km west (262°)
to BBC South West region - 107 masts.
ITV West Country News (West) 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL7 5BQ, 30km west (260°)
to ITV West Country region - 107 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (East)
Are there any self-help relays?
| Lannacombe | Active deflector | 25 km SW Torbay | 4 homes |
How will the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 27 Mar 2019 | |||
| C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | E T | E T | W T | K T | |||
| C33 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C34 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C40 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C41 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C42 | SDN | SDN | SDN | SDN | |||||
| C44 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C45 | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | |||||
| C47 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C51tv_off | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | ||||||
| C53tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | +D3+4 | +D3+4 | +D3+4 | |||
| C57tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | +BBCB | +BBCB | +BBCB | |||
| C60tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | -BBCA | -BBCA | ||||
| C63 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
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 8 Apr 09 and 22 Apr 09.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 100kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 20kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 10kW | |
| com7 | (-11.4dB) 7.3kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B* | (-17dB) 2kW | |
| Mux C*, Mux D*, com8 | (-20dB) 1000W |
Local transmitter maps
Beacon Hill Freeview Beacon Hill AM/FM Beacon Hill TV region BBC South West West CountryWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Beacon Hill transmitter area
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Tuesday, 21 April 2015
T
Tony7:11 PM
Beacon Hill loss of transmission
The output of Mux on channel 42 seems to be missing.
my post code is tq123th
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J
jb388:40 PM
Tony: The problem referred to could possibly be down to a temporary glitch having occurred on the COM4 / C42 transmitter, as no engineering work is being carried out at this station.
The main point to remember being, "not" to carry out a retune in an attempt to recover the channel, as all this will achieve is to delete all the COM4 programme channels already stored in the tuners memory, this then requiring frequent retunes (manual tune on C42) being made in order to recover them.
However, it would though be prudent to check with a neighbour or someone else nearby purely for confirmation that the signal on Mux C42 is actually down, thereby eliminating any possibility of the fault being associated with your equipment.
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Sunday, 31 May 2015
M
Melvyn Clark12:13 PM
We have had no signal for freeview for the last 2 days and before that the signal was getting weaker.
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M
MikeB2:07 PM
Melvyn Clark: Almost certain a part of your aerial system has died. It must have been going for the past couple of days (hence the weakening signal), but now thats it. Perhaps a frayed/broekn cable, corrosion, etc.
Call out a professional, I'm afraid.
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Thursday, 11 June 2015
D
david denness8:45 PM
Exmouth
My freeview reception at postcode EX8 5EX is appalling. Which mast should my aerial be looking at for best reception please.
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david's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
10:17 PM
10:17 PM
david denness: There's no easy answer, other than to say you might be better off to go with satellite (free-to-air Freesat assuming you don't wish to subscribe to Sky).
The fact that aerials are pointing in all directions in your locality (as seen on Street View) is testament to it being a poor reception area, owing to it being at sea level.
Here are plots showing the terrain between you and the four transmitters:
Beacon Hill:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
Stockland Hill:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
Exeter St Thomas:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
Dawlish:
Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location
I would say probably Exeter St Thomas, or even Dawlish, as you would appear to have line-of-sight with them. You don't have line-of-sight with either Beacon Hill or Stockland Hill, which is undoubtedly the difficulty in receiving from them.
The thing is that the St Thomas transmitter doesn't provide all the channels -- it not carrying COM4, COM5 and COM6. Both Beacon Hill and Stockland Hill carry these channels at lower power and less rugged signal mode than the PSB channels (which are those that St Thomas gives you).
This begs the question: which channels are you having difficulty with and which transmitter does your aerial point to?
This is because there are a number of possibilities, such as:
- Your aerial points to one of the full service transmitters (probably Beacon I think) and the PSBs are good but the COMs are variable.
- Your aerial points to St Thomas or Dawlish and you have good reception of PSBs and no or intermittent reception of the COMs (which are being received from another transmitter).
Digital UK publishes a full list of Freeview services, including multiplex (PSB, COM etc):
Digital UK Industry - Channel listings
If you refer to the following you will in fact be viewing on service of each of the six main multiplexes:
PSB1 - BBC One
PSB2 - ITV
PSB3 - BBC One HD
COM4 - ITV3
COM5 - Pick
COM6 - 4Music
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Wednesday, 15 July 2015
Transmitter engineering
7:31 PM
7:31 PM
BEACON HILL transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air from 15:57 today to 15:57 today, HD Digital TV Off Air from 15:57 today to 15:57 today. [BBC]
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Thursday, 16 July 2015
Transmitter engineering
4:31 AM
4:31 AM
BEACON HILL transmitter - Freeview: BBC Digital TV Off Air from 15:57 yesterday to 15:57 yesterday, HD Digital TV Off Air from 15:57 yesterday to 15:57 yesterday. [BBC]
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Monday, 3 August 2015
Transmitter engineering
9:09 AM
9:09 AM
BEACON HILL transmitter - MainPossible service interruptions [DUK]
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Friday, 14 August 2015
Transmitter engineering
4:32 AM
4:32 AM
BEACON HILL transmitter - MainPossible service interruptions [DUK]
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