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Full Freeview on the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps50.446,-3.611 or 50°26'45"N 3°36'40"Wsa_postcodeTQ3 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 25/03/2024 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 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C44- (657.8MHz)284mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C41+ (634.2MHz)284mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (West Country), 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 (West Country),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C47+ (682.2MHz)284mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South West, 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 -3dB
C42 (642.0MHz)285mDTG-810,000W
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 -3dB
C45 (666.0MHz)285mDTG-810,000W
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 -3dB
C40 (626.0MHz)285mDTG-810,000W
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

DTG-8 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?

regional news image
BBC Spotlight 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL3 5BD, 37km west (262°)
to BBC South West region - 107 masts.
regional news image
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?

LannacombeActive deflector25 km SW Torbay4 homes

How will the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20092009-132013-182013-1727 Mar 2019
C/D EC/D EC/D EE TE TW TK T
C33com7com7
C34com8com8
C40ArqB
C41D3+4
C42SDNSDNSDNSDN
C44BBCA
C45ArqAArqAArqAArqA
C47BBCB
C51tv_offArqBArqBArqB
C53tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves+D3+4+D3+4+D3+4
C57tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCB+BBCB+BBCB
C60tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves -BBCA-BBCA
C63BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Beacon Hill transmitter area

Apr 1961-Dec 1981Westward Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South West (TSW)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Westcountry 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. Beacon Hill 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, 11 August 2019
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:09 AM

BEACON HILL transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 15:04 on 09 Aug to 15:05 on 09 Aug. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Sunday, 18 August 2019
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:08 AM

BEACON HILL transmitter - Freeview: HD Digital TV Reduced Quality from 23:13 yesterday to 23:23 yesterday. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Monday, 19 August 2019
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:08 AM

BEACON HILL transmitter - Freeview: HD Digital TV Reduced Quality from 23:13 on 17 Aug to 23:23 on 17 Aug. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Thursday, 22 August 2019
J
John Llloyd
1:44 PM

Why have you stopped transmitting BBC4 HD which used to be on freeview channel 106?

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John Llloyd's 1 post GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:31 PM

John Lloyd:

This website doies not control what is broadcast on any transmitter, that is determined by Freeview, Arqiva and the channel owners. The services on programme 106 were carried on the temporary multiplexes COM 7 and COM 8, both of which have been withdrawn from the Beacon Hill transmitter.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 8 October 2019
E
Elaine Pretty
10:36 AM

can you recommend the best camping ariel to use as we camp in Salcombe. Your assistance would be most grateful to point us and an Ariel in the right direction as we have no idea!!

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Elaine Pretty's 1 post GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:26 PM

Elaine Pretty:

There is a Freeview Light transmitter in the Salcombe area, see About us | Freeview for details. That listing also gives you the channels it uses for each availab;e multiplex to help you tune your TV set. None of the Freeview Full Service transmitters cover the town, so there will be a limited range of programmes available.

I would strongly recommend a wideband aerial so you can use it in other locations as well. That should not be one of the 'cheap' aerials available as they give very poor performance but a standard log-periodic might well suit - though you may need an attenuator if you are close to a powerful transmitter. They can be bought cheaply from Amazon, etc.

You should also invest in a tripod style mast so the aerial is reasonably firmly mounted and doesn't get blown around by the wind, etc. They can also be bought from Amazon, etc. Search for "Camping aerial tripod mast"

As for the direction, that all depends on where you will be staying. If you have a post code for that location, put it into the Digital UK Coverage Checker, select the Detailed View option and press Go. The scroll down the results to look at those for the Salcombe transmitter. It will tell you the compass direction to aim your aerial.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 31 December 2019
N
Noel
4:11 PM

Hi. I live in Exmouth, East Devon.
I have just manually retuned my Panasonic HDR to the channels provided by the Beacon Hill transmitter.

I can see all the HDR channels now, in pretty good quality but I am perplexed because the programs supposedly being broadcast on channel 47 are actually showing up as channel 33. This might explain how, when scanning channel 47, as the last scan, it produced no additional programs. (I tend to scan in numerical order of channels - ch 33 first and ch 47 last).

Why is this happening? Should I perhaps do a re scan and omit channel 33, so as to force my HDR to use channel 47 for the various HD channels (e.g. BBC 1 HD, BBC2 HD, ITV HD, Channel 4 HD and Channel 5 HD)? Or maybe I should re scan and scan for ch 47 before I do Ch 33 - perhaps it is important to scan in the order given on your web page for Beacon Hill (not numerical order)?

Thanks.

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Noel's 2 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:05 PM

Noel:

The listing above on this page may be confusing you as it hasn't been updated - the site owner has not kept up with all the 700MHz clearance changes. COMs7&8 listed on UHF C33&C34 are no longer broadcast from Beacon Hill.
There are no multiplexes from Beacon Hill on C33, so if you are getting the HD channels BBC1HD - Ch5HD etc on C33 then it'll be from another transmitter, possibly Dawlish or Sidmouth.
Without a full postcode we can't look at the predicted reception at your location, the checkers don't work with partial postcodes or places.

Receiving from the wrong transmitter (or one with a poorer signal) may lead to signal break-up/loss of picture etc. at certain times, especially with the sort of tropospheric propagation we've had in recent days.
C47 is the correct channel for the HD channels at Beacon Hill.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
N
Noel
6:03 PM
Exmouth

Thanks for this Chris. My full postcode is EX8 3DS. Does that help?

How do I find out which channels I should be tuning to, for best results?

Curiously the signal quality on ch 33 is better than ch 47 - strength is the same.

Thanks again.


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Noel's 2 posts GB flag
Noel's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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