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 26/05/2025 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 TV 3,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C46 (674.0MHz)	263m	DTG-	100,000W
	46 5SELECT, 57 U&Eden, 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, 203 CBBC HD, 204 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, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 61 GREAT! mystery, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 74 U&DaveJaVu, 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, plus 21 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, 76 That's Dance, 233 Sky News, plus 11 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! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! player, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's Melody, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 207 POP UP, plus 10 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?

D

David

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

5:56 PM

basically anything on 5HD !

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David's 36 posts GB flag

D

David

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

9:04 PM

The game....on now

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David's 36 posts GB flag

J

js
10:28 PM

Caught the last 10 minutes of it . Perfect sync.

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js's 14 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

1:05 AM

js:

First problem is the 3 of us (and any other observers that might wish to add comment!) managing to watch the same programme where some sync issues are seen by at least one of us.

I'm wondering if the problem isn't showing itself on all main transmitters, WH being one maybe, (mine is ) and as I don't know how C5 HD is distributed to the PSB3 mux I can't make any sensible comment on that. IIRC there was some "regionalisation" for advertising reasons several years ago, but that was changed when Paramount/Viacom took on the C5 , it's supposedly all national now I believe, but from a distribution pov, that "regionalisation" may still exist.

One thing I might try is switching to a live stream when I see the issue on broadcast. I haven't been watching much C5 recently and even when it's been on I've not necessarily watched closely enough to spot a sync issue!
I might also try altering my arrangement so that I can look at the HD mux from - but that wont' happen for a while I'm afraid.

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J

js
4:41 PM

Chris.SE:

You make a good point about distribution.

The EIT for the SD has a stack of HD Simulcast Linkage descriptors as in this example event:

005 5, Thu 15 May 2025 21:00:00 BST - Thu 15 May 2025 22:00:00 BST: New: The Game
Conclusion of the tense thriller starring Jason Watkins, Robson Green and Sunetra Sarker. Sending Alice and Margot away for their own safety, Huw vows to confront Patrick on his own. (Ep4/4)[AD,S]
(tag_hex89: Contains violence, mild language and blood)

Linkage: 233A.4082.4540 = not_found, event_simulcast, target_listed, target_event_id = A7C0
Linkage: 233A.4083.4540 = not_found, event_simulcast, target_listed, target_event_id = A7C0
Linkage: 233A.4084.4540 = not_found, event_simulcast, target_listed, target_event_id = A7C0
Linkage: 233A.4085.4540 = not_found, event_simulcast, target_listed, target_event_id = A7C0
Linkage: 233A.4088.4540 = 5 HD, event_simulcast, target_listed, target_event_id = A7C0
Linkage: 233A.4089.4540 = not_found, event_simulcast, target_listed, target_event_id = A7C0
Linkage: 233A.408E.4540 = not_found, event_simulcast, target_listed, target_event_id = A7C0
Linkage: 233A.40BB.4540 = not_found, event_simulcast, target_listed, target_event_id = A7C0
Linkage: 233A.40BC.4540 = not_found, event_simulcast, target_listed, target_event_id = A7C0
Linkage: 233A.40BD.4540 = not_found, event_simulcast, target_listed, target_event_id = A7C0
Linkage: 233A.40BE.4540 = not_found, event_simulcast, target_listed, target_event_id = A7C0

MPEG-2 , 16:9 aspect ratio without pan vectors, 25 Hz (und)
MPEG-1 Layer 2 audio, stereo (2 channel) (eng)
DVB subtitles (normal) with no monitor aspect ratio criticality (eng)
MPEG-1 Layer 2 for the visually impaired (eng)

crid = /V85BUBO, Type: 31 (item), crid = /R120K, Type: 32 (series)
eventID = A7C0, ONID.TSID.SID = 233A.200B.2134, default_authority = www.five.tv, 578 MHz, uhf 34

The one that is found is 4088 - the TSID of BBC B .

The (4087) and (4081) BBC B are absent.

You can see the (in decimal - UK DVB-T TSIDs only make sense in HEX) TSIDs on digitalbitrate at the bottom of these pages:

https://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.php?mux=BBCB-PSB3-TACOLNESTON&liste=1&live=35&lang=en

TSID = 16519 = 4087

https://www.digitalbitrate.com/dtv.php?mux=BBCB-PSB3-MENDIP&liste=1&live=35&lang=en

16513 = 4081

So, the SI is divided into at least two groups.

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js's 14 posts GB flag

J

js
12:02 PM

Chris.SE:

Scrap that. I remembered I had a sample of arqb from , courtesy of a bout of tropo, and reading the EIT out of it revealed the same set of TSIDs in the linkages.

So, it turns out to be just another example of half-baked data from .

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J

js
12:41 PM

Talking of half-baked data, here is the target event of the linkages:

105 5 HD, Thu 15 May 2025 21:00:00 BST - Thu 15 May 2025 22:00:00 BST: New: The Game
Conclusion of the tense thriller starring Jason Watkins, Robson Green and Sunetra Sarker. Sending Alice and Margot away for their own safety, Huw vows to confront Patrick on his own. (Ep4/4)[AD,S]
(tag_hex89: Contains violence, mild language and blood)

MPEG-2 , 16:9 aspect ratio without pan vectors, 25 Hz (und)
MPEG-1 Layer 2 audio, stereo (2 ) (eng)
DVB subtitles (normal) with no monitor aspect ratio criticality (eng)
MPEG-1 Layer 2 for the visually impaired (eng)

crid = /V85BUBO, Type: 31 (item), crid = /R5120K, Type: 32 (series)
eventID = A7C0, ONID.TSID.SID = 233A.4088.4540, default_authority = www.five.tv, sdtCMD = F7,

The point to note is that the components are wrong - they are identical to the SD version.

The correct components are:

H.264/AVC high definition video, 16:9 aspect ratio, 25 Hz (und)
HE-AAC audio, stereo (eng)
DVB subtitles (normal) for display on a high definition monitor (eng)
HE-AAC audio description for the visually impaired (eng)

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D

David

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

8:56 AM

so, is that what is causing the problem ?

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David's 36 posts GB flag

P1

P130

P131