menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Freeview

 

 

Click to see updates

Full Freeview on the Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.518,1.139 or 52°31'6"N 1°8'22"Esa_postcodeNR16 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 Digital tick


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

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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C40- (625.8MHz)263mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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)263mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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)263mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
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

COM4
SDN
 H max
C42 (642.0MHz)263mDTG-8100,000W
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
C45 (666.0MHz)246mDTG-8100,000W
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
C39+ (618.2MHz)246mDTG-8100,000W
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

LNR
 H -10dB
C32 (562.0MHz)263mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
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?

regional news image
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
regional news image
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 YarmouthTransposer1 km S town centre30 homes
Lowestoft (2)TransposerRotterdam Rd125 homes

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

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-1717 Jul 2018
VHFC/D EC/D EC/D EEE TW TW T
C3BBCtvwaves
C31com7com7
C32_local
C37com8com8
C39 +ArqB+ArqBArqB
C40BBCA
C42SDNSDNSDNSDN
C43D3+4
C45ArqAArqAArqAArqA
C46BBCB
C50tv_off BBCBBBCB
C52tv_offC5wavesC5waves
C55tv_offBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves-BBCA-BBCA-BBCAcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C57tv_offLNRLNR
C59tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves-D3+4-D3+4-D3+4
C62BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCB
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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

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

Oct 1959-Feb 2004Anglia Television
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. 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.

Comments
Monday, 11 June 2018
P
Paul Thompson
9:59 AM

It's back!

link to this comment
Paul Thompson's 3 posts US flag
B
Bill
10:41 AM

As mentioned by Paul, everything seems to be up and running again.

link to this comment
Bill's 9 posts GB flag
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

1:00 PM

there has been some work going on in the last few days at Tacolneston. Probably this is mostly a final transmitter tuning to ensure that the reception is as intended on com7 and com8. All the other multiplexes should be fine or even slightly better than before but the reduction in the number of available frequencies has forced com7 and com8 (which have always been designated as temporary bonus channels) to lower their power. As the weather warms up there are also going to be periods of high pressure which will throw a red herring into reception problems. I think the transmitter authorities have done their best . They have no control over the amount of frequency space they have available which is allocated by government policy.
Near the Norfolk/Suffolk coast the best you can do to get Com7/8 is to use an amplified group K or B aerial or high gain wideband type . (Not the cheap DIY store wideband) . Personally I switched to freesat.

link to this comment
Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
J
JP
1:21 PM

Seem to have lost some HD channels after recent retune. 113, 107 etc. Are these channels coming back?

link to this comment
JP's 1 post US flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:32 PM

JP:

They are still there! Maybe you do not have ideal reception or are too far away from the transmitter, or maybe do not have a wideband type aerial.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
R
Richard Russell
3:21 PM

> there has been some work going on in the last few days at Tacolneston. Probably this is
> mostly a final transmitter tuning to ensure that the reception is as intended on com7 and com8.

None of which explains or justifies channel 55 (COM7) being completely off-air for two-and-a-half days! Arqiva have apparently said that the cause was a cooling system failure, but it's not very satisfactory that the fault wasn't spotted until 9 a.m. today.

link to this comment
Richard Russell's 11 posts GB flag
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

3:23 PM

JP. due to the government making less frequencies available for tv (given to new radio/phone services) the transmitting authorities have been forced to reduce power for tv groups (multiplexes) com 7 and com 8 which carry channels like BBB4 HD and BBC news HD. So in some areas viewers may need a wideband and/or amplified aerial for these channels.

link to this comment
Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
R
Richard Russell
3:26 PM

> Seem to have lost some HD channels after recent retune. 113, 107 etc.

Those services are in the COM7 multiplex, which was completely off-air from Tacolneston from around lunchtime Friday until about 10 a.m. this morning. If you retuned in that period, it explains their loss. Try retuning again now the transmission has been restored.

link to this comment
Richard Russell's 11 posts GB flag
D
DJB
5:01 PM

Still no joy for me with COM7 and COM8 through my BT Youview box.

However no probems at all with them with the aerial plugged directly into the TV.

The readings from the TV for BBC1 HD is 95% quality 100% signal.

The readings from the TV for BBC News HD is 62% quality 100% signal.

The readings for BBC1 HD from Youview is 100% quality 96% signal.

Cannot supply figures for BBC News HD through Youview as it won't tune in.

I have another aerial for the kitchen that used to point at Tacolneston but now points to Sudbury. This was in the low power days and Sudbury was very patchy. In comparison Tacolneston was good. The quality and signal levels in those days were much lower than todays and the picture did get interrupted by the fridge motor. The point I'm making is, I could always pick something up despite much lower signal.

The one thing that I notice when I call up BBC News HD is it always has a slight delay before the picture comes on. Thereafter it is fine. I think these Youview boxes don't give their tuner enough time to lock on to the channel. This is something that could be easily resolved with a manual tuning option.

link to this comment
DJB's 7 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:38 PM

DJB: If you have 100% signal strength you may be overloading the tuner with too much signal. Try fitting an attenuator to reduce the signal strength.

link to this comment
StevensOnln1's 3,668 posts GB flag
Select more comments

Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.








Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.