Full Freeview on the Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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52.518,1.139 or 52°31'6"N 1°8'22"E

NR16 1DW

The symbol shows the location of the Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) transmitter which serves 330,000 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 Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) mast?

Tacolneston transmitter - Tacolneston transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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Which Freeview channels does the Tacolneston 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C40- (625.8MHz)	263m	DTG-	100,000W
	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	C43- (649.8MHz)	263m	DTG-	100,000W
	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	C46 (674.0MHz)	263m	DTG-	100,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C42 (642.0MHz)	263m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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	C45 (666.0MHz)	246m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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	C39+ (618.2MHz)	246m	DTG-8	100,000W
	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
LNR	H -10dB	C32 (562.0MHz)	263m	DTG-12	10,000W
	7 Mustard,

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 Tacolneston transmitter?

BBC Look East (East) 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Norwich NR2 1BH, 16km northeast (37°)
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, 16km northeast (38°)
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?

Gt Yarmouth	Transposer	1 km S town centre	30 homes
Lowestoft (2)	Transposer	Rotterdam Rd	125 homes

How will the Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1950s-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2011	2011-13	2013-18	2013-17	17 Jul 2018
	VHF	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E	E	E T	W T	W T
C3	BBCtv_waves
C31							com7	com7
C32								_local
C37							com8	com8
C39						+ArqB	+ArqB	ArqB
C40								BBCA
C42					SDN	SDN	SDN	SDN
C43								D3+4
C45					ArqA	ArqA	ArqA	ArqA
C46								BBCB
C50_{tv_off}						BBCB	BBCB
C52_{tv_off}			C5_waves	C5_waves
C55_{tv_off}		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	-BBCA	-BBCA	-BBCA	com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}								COM8_{tv_off}
C57_{tv_off}							LNR	LNR
C59_{tv_off}		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	-D3+4	-D3+4	-D3+4
C62		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBCB
C65		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves

_{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 9 Nov 11 and 23 Nov 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
com7	(-9.6dB) 27.4kW
com8	(-10.2dB) 24kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, LNR	(-14dB) 10kW
Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-17dB) 5kW
Analogue 5	(-18dB) 4kW

Local transmitter maps

Tacolneston Freeview Tacolneston DAB Tacolneston TV region BBC East Anglia (East micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Tacolneston transmitter area

Oct 1959-Feb 2004	Anglia Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Tacolneston 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

I

Ian
9:10 PM

Cancel my post from the 15th January. BBC4HD on 106, will no longer record again.... YAWN!

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Ian's 11 posts GB flag

I

Ian
4:00 PM

I see the message is coming on our screen to re-tune on 7th February (well, area at least) The only change I can spot, is Com 8 (37) moving to 56, I wonder if this will cure our BBC4HD problems, that are currently on 37 ( 106) ?

Coverage Checker - Detailed View

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Ian's 11 posts GB flag

H

hardy

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

12:31 PM

Mardler the area can have poor from . That's why there is a transmitter there . You might find a stronger version of BBC4 hD from this transmitter using a vertically polarised . However the snag is that relays do not transmit all the commercial .
I suspect that the root of the problem is that Tacolneston cannot transmit at a higher on certain channels as that would conflict with Dutch transmitters . The situation may improve after the main retune this year.

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hardy's 137 posts GB flag

I

Ian
2:58 PM

All my recording problems on Com 7 and Com 8 returned to normal yesterday. All now recording fine. Several members on the website AV FORUMS "Panasonic HDD Recorder Won't Record" have also reported they can now record these channels once more.

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Ian's 11 posts GB flag

H

hardy

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

12:13 PM

Mike . I thought too that a aerial would be the best but when I compared a log aerial to a typical 18 element group B I find that the B has slightly more at the low end of the frequencies and 4 to 5 dbs more gain at the new com7 , com 8 frequencies (uhf 55 56) 2018/20

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hardy's 137 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:36 PM

Hardy:

You need to be thinking ahead and considering the channel changes expected between now and about 2021. Though some changes are already known, others are still uncertain. Because of that, you need an that give a decent performance over a wide range of signals between channel 21 and channel 60. Many 'wide band' aerials have poor performance at one end or the other, but a good log-periodic will give fairly flat performance over that range (mind you, cheap ones don't!).

I wonder if absolute is an essential for you? A good aerial with good performance is the starting point and if strengths are genneral below 50% then a good in-line usually helps. You should be aiming to have between 60% and 75% on all .

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

S

stevie
1:57 AM

ian wrote:
I see the message is coming on our screen to re-tune on 7th February (well, area at least) The only change I can spot, is Com 8 (37) moving to 56, I wonder if this will cure our BBC4HD problems, that are currently on 37 (channel 106) ?

Pre Feb 7th:
31, 37, 39, 42, 45, 50, 55, 57, 59

Post Feb 7th
31, 39, 42, 45, 50, 55, 56, 59

So it appears we are loosing a MUX, and what a surprise, I now have lost BBC News HD, RT HD, 4Seven HD etc.

When you see the channel number changes it makes no sense as we received all channels before (using a aerial) the only changes are 37 & 57 removed & 56 added.
It's not like the changes are out of band to what I was already receiving.

According to digitaluk they claim a horizontal C/D or horizontal W (which we have) for NOW but they state we will need a horizontal B or horizontal T for AFTER.

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stevie's 2 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:14 PM

stevie: It looks like you've lost the local mux, however it is due to move to UHF channel 32 on 6th June so you may regain it. What strength and do you get for COM8 now that it has moved UHF channel 56? Your existing aerial covers all UHF used for both now and in the next 10+ years so there is unlikely to be any need to replace it (unless it gets damaged). Group T is essentially wideband but without the band which is now used for 4G mobile .

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StevensOnln1's 3,668 posts GB flag

S

stevie
3:47 PM

|Hey StevesOnin1

Thanks for your reply, I can confirm we now have both com7 and com8, they reappeared after a retune this morning around 8am (according to the wife) :)

Still no local mux, but to be honest it was something we never watched anyway, glad to have BBC4 and BBC News back in HD though!

Looks like we should be all set from now on, but there appear to be a few more retunes this year as the UHF numbers get moved around.

Least the wife is happy now lol

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stevie's 2 posts GB flag

M

Mardler

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

11:45 PM

BBC4HD and BBC News HD gone.
All other stations on the BBC4HD mux remain available.
What is going on?
This has been going on for four or more years.
No changes to equipment.
Yet another unreported fault.

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Mardler's 85 posts GB flag

Page 97

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