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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.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) mast?

Crystal Palace transmitter - Crystal Palace transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/11/2024 Screen may go black 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 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), 71 That’s 60s,

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 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
C22 (482.0MHz)321mDTG-8200,000W
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
C28- (529.8MHz)321mDTG-8200,000W
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

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, 1 October 2017
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:16 PM

JohnM: COM7 & COM8 are expected to close in 2020 when the 700MHz frequency clearance is completed (this may be extended until 2022 depending on what Ofcom decide to do with the centre gap between the uplink and downlink frequencies that 4G/5G services in the 700MHz band will use) so they will either close before any 4G/5G services start on the 700MHz band or co-exist with them for a couple of years (although anyone close enough to a cellular mast to need the 700MHz band filtered out on their aerial once 4G/5G transmissions start will also loose COM7 & COM8 once the filter is installed).

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StevensOnln1's 3,672 posts GB flag
Monday, 2 October 2017
S
Scott
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:05 PM

Any ideas what will happen to the BBC channels presently on Com7

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Scott's 110 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 3 October 2017
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:31 PM

Scott:

It is expected that all, or at least most, of the channels on COM7 and COM8 will be subsumed into the multiplexes available when the forthcoming planned changes are implimented. I have no details of what will move where nor of which channels will remain and which will cease (if any).



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Monday, 9 October 2017
S
Scott
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

10:02 PM

Will this mean a reduction in the HD bitrate to fit them in?

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Scott's 110 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 10 October 2017
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:34 AM

Scott:

It is not expected that there will be any reduction in the HD bit rate. What is planned to happen is that more services will be broadcast using DVB-T2 encoding which is a lot more efficient and allows for more channels to be carried by a multiplex than is currently the case. Hence the expected abilitry to broadcast more HD channels and more channels without using the Com7 or Com8 services which will disappear.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Sunday, 15 October 2017
S
Stuart
9:12 AM

I am on the edge of the Crystal Palace reception area in Bucks. Consequently my aerial is mounted on a high mast. I bought a new 4k Hitachi TV yesterday. It does not pick up any channels from BBCB or COM7 muxes. At one stage it did register BBC4 HD (COM7) but I have since lost that. My previous Panasonic TV did not have this problem although I occasionally got service interruption and pixelation on the HD channels that are broadcast by these muxes.

Any suggestions as to how I might resolve the issue and/or why I only experience this problem on a new TV and specific muxes? Thanks.

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Stuart's 3 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:03 AM

Stuart:

Different TV sets have different sinsitivities of the tuner unit - even ones of thre same make.

We need to know what the TV set shows as the signal strengths of the received multiplexes are, including the ones giving problems, if possible. Your User Manual will tell you how to get that displayed. For SD channels you need a strength of between 50% and 85% and for the HD services you need between 60% and 85% for reliable reception. Note that Com7 and Com8 are lower power than the main services, so are likely to be more prone to problems.

It would also be useful to us if you would give a full post code for your location as then we can look up what the reception conditions are likely to be.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
S
Stuart
10:36 PM
Beaconsfield

Thanks Mike. The signal strength and quality are both barely registering (under 10%) when I do manual tune for those muxes with occasional spikes on strength but not quality. My post code is HP9 1BW. Strictly I think we may be about 10 metres off the Crystal Palace map. We are at the top of a hill. Our neighbours have resorted to FreeSat and maybe we'll have to do the same. I think the previous owners of our house erected a tall mast to compensate for the slope we are very much towards the top of. Do you think a high gain aerial might do the trick?

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Stuart's 3 posts GB flag
Stuart's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 16 October 2017
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:25 AM

Stuart:

Such a low signal strength suggests you have an aerial problem.

Firstly, check all your aerial cables are free from any damage and there is no water ingress. Also check that all the plugs are fitted to cables correctly, if in any doubt replace the cable and connectors. Then check that your aerial is undamaged and has not been moved by winds, etc. Then check that there are no tree directly in front of the aerial. Then check that you are tuned to the Crystal Palace transmitter and not the Wooburn or High Wycombe transmitters which are closer to you (they are 'Freeview Light' transmitters so don't carry all the channels). If you have an aerial amplifier in the system, check it is actually working (just having the power light on does not mean it's working). Likewise, if you have a signal distribution unit fitted, check that is working properly as well.

If you still have such low signal strengths then I suggest you need an aerial contractor to check your system from the roof downwards.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
S
Stuart
11:05 PM

Thanks Mike. I confess that, looking at the aerial, it looks to be pointing more due east than south east towards Crystal Palace so maybe the wind has caught it. I will also have a poke around in the loft where there's both an amplifier of some sort and a distribution unit but how I will check theyre working, I'm not sure! I wired a new cable from the wall socket to the TV at the weekend but that didn't help.

Thanks for all your help.

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Stuart's 3 posts GB flag
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