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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 22/04/2024 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
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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
Friday, 4 December 2015
G
George Govier
12:09 PM
Torquay

I understand that Transmitter engineering:is very necessary,but cannot understand why ALL BBC channels are pixelated and breaking up - signal strength being 38%.when the weather is clear, wind strength force 2 or 3 and No leaves on trees.BBC 1 strength 38% BBC 2 strength 37% compare this to ITV & Sky on channels 3 and 132 at 60%.WIth the following exceptions the remaining channels are at 56%to 58% . Channels 12.19.20.25,31,34.38,42,45,47,50,57,59,63,64,70,71,81 are all in the 45%to 50% range resulting in pixelation. The HD channels are un-watchable! If you can transmit channels 3 and 132 at a strength to give 60% reception why not ALL channels especially the licensed paid for BBC channels 1 to 4 and News' TV engineers for residential call out are expensive when we find out the signal is weaker for selected channels. I want to be able to watch all channels this month and over Christmas. My post code TQ2 6UH confirm You will renew BBC broadcast strength asap. Thank you G E Govier

link to this comment
George Govier's 1 post GB flag
George's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:08 PM

George Govier: Firstly, the BBC has nothing at all to do with transmission (if Brianist had a pound for every person who used the phrase 'licence fee' when they had a problem, he'd do very well), and I'm certain that demanding 'You will renew BBC broadcast strength asap' will have no effect what so ever. Its possible that there might be interuptions in service, but you can see at the top of the page that both the BBC and ITV mux's broadcast at exactly the same power.

You are 4km from the transmitter. Let me repeat this - you are just 4 km from the transmitter. You seemingly have a clear line of sight to it, and as you say, there are no leaves on the trees. Its possible you dont even need an aerial at all at that distance, so to get a poor signal strength almost certainly means a problem with your aerial system. Yes, someone will mention 4G, but I can't check where the base stations are.

A damaged aerial lead can make certain muxes vanish, while others (even weaker) will remain. The fact that your getting a max of 60% signal strength 4km from the transmitter on the ITV mux possibly points to a general problem, but one which is particularly showing up on the BBC muxes.

Check your aerial lead (perhaps replace it, they are very cheap), and then follow the path up to the aerial. Could be a corroded connection, water, etc.

link to this comment
MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 8 December 2015
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:31 AM

BEACON HILL transmitter - Possible service interruptions [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,866 posts xx flag
Sunday, 3 January 2016
T
Terry Bannon
10:32 PM
Teignmouth

Com 7 stopped working completely.
On all my TVs. Since had some intermittent trouble now completely gone.
Samsung TVs all ok since it started transmitting.

Is it the Kingskerswell bypass.. I only looks at bbc4 occasionally and news24.

24 Fore Street Bishopsteignton Tq14 9qp.

link to this comment
Terry Bannon's 11 posts GB flag
Terry's: ...
T
Terry Bannon
10:36 PM

The signal strength on channel.33 com7 keep going from zero to 91%

link to this comment
Terry Bannon's 11 posts GB flag
Monday, 4 January 2016
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:30 PM

Terry Bannon :

Looking at the terrain plot information, on the blue box below your submission, there is a large hill between you and Beacon Hill transmitter. I suspect this has a lot of trees near the summit, the by-pass being mainly below that area so unlikely to affect your reception. It is more likely that the trees can be causing the variation, especially with the recent/current high winds.


link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
T
Terry Bannon
9:34 PM

MikeP:Thanks for your thoughts. working fine today (tonight) not working all day though .. We have been here since transmition started. It is interesting that all other channels were working at strength. I also suspect weather or some other activity in the line. Why just com 7?
Tonight ch33 was at 100%.

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Terry Bannon's 11 posts GB flag
Monday, 11 January 2016
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

9:09 AM

BEACON HILL transmitter - Possible service interruptions [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,866 posts xx flag
Thursday, 14 January 2016
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

1:33 PM

BEACON HILL transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 11:28 today to 11:30 today. [BBC] Possible service interruptions [DUK]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,866 posts xx flag
Friday, 15 January 2016
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:32 AM

BEACON HILL transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 11:28 yesterday to 11:30 yesterday. [BBC] Possible service interruptions [DUK]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 150,866 posts xx flag
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