Full Freeview on the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 50.446,-3.611 or 50°26'45"N 3°36'40"W |  | TQ3 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 15/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
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.
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?
BBC Spotlight 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL3 5BD, 37km west (262°)
to BBC South West region - 107 masts.
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?
| Lannacombe | Active deflector | 25 km SW Torbay | 4 homes |
How will the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 27 Mar 2019 | |||
| C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | E T | E T | W T | K T | |||
| C33 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C34 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C40 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C41 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C42 | SDN | SDN | SDN | SDN | |||||
| C44 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C45 | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | |||||
| C47 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C51tv_off | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | ||||||
| C53tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | +D3+4 | +D3+4 | +D3+4 | |||
| C57tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | +BBCB | +BBCB | +BBCB | |||
| C60tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | -BBCA | -BBCA | ||||
| C63 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
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 |
Local transmitter maps
Beacon Hill Freeview Beacon Hill AM/FM Beacon Hill TV region BBC South West West CountryWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Beacon Hill transmitter area
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Friday, 19 January 2018
S
StevensOnln12:13 PM
Terry Bannon: The Digital UK predictor shows COM8 to be weaker than the other muxes at your postcode, although this should improve when it changes frequency early next year. Does your TV or set top box/PVR have a manual tuning function in the menu somewhere? If it does, try a manual tune on UHF channel 34.
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Friday, 26 January 2018
M
Michael Dicker3:34 PM
Torquay
TQ2 8PH Torquay , signal strength is 100% but quality about 75% on BBC , standard picture slight ghosting , HD is quite good . But obviously some channels are not in HD , channel 5 is poor .
Would a booster help .
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Michael's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeB10:19 PM
Michael Dicker: If your getting a 100% signal, then by definition, you dont need one. Which is hardly surprising, since your just 8km from the transmitter!
You should actually be 75% signal strength, and 100% quality - the reverse of what you've got. Search for 'too much of a good thing' on this website, and get an attenuator or two - they are pretty cheap on Amazon in various strengths.
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Saturday, 27 January 2018
M
michael scott12:54 PM
Dawlish
MikeB:
I am really disappointed with the recent two BBC HD (BBC FOUR HD and CB BEEBIES HD) changing muxes on the BEACON HILL TRANSMITTER because of the even lower radiated power causing widespread lost of BBC FOUR HD to freeview hd recorders in the local area previously recordable.
First BBC THREE HD went online and now BBC FOUR HD becomes a problem.
I KNOW all about channels 56 and 57 changing NEXT YEAR but the problem is now.
Will the radiated power on the new BBC FOUR HD mux C34 be raised to the previous BBC FOUR HD mux 33 ? And the radiation area matched to mux C33?
I have gone to great lengths to receive beacon hill freeview as it is my nearest main transmitter and it is also blessed with muxes COM 7 and COM8.
I live in a very high position,the highest in my location,so all the muxes were receivable until ARQIVA changed the broadcast parameters AFTER successful reception for some considerable time!
I am a retired techie and could easily use all the alternative ways to watch the channels concerned as I have them all (Sky Q,freesat and internet)but that leaves my freeview pvr(s) missing recording a channel I want to and one that I watch in other rooms via DLNA.
I do wonder what radiated levels and patterns the forthcoming next-year HD muxes on BEACON HILL transmitter channels 56 and 57 will be ????
Ah well,such is life.........ARQIVA was (?) owned by SKY ? Pure coincidence that freeview competes with viewers for Sky ?
I wish we had the BBC engineering and IBA engineering still doing our freeview/DAB/fm/am transmitters!
Perhaps any of us is wrong to wish for what our license fee pays for? The technical support as well as programmes ?
A storm in a small teacup?
Kind regards,
michael scott G1ZVO.
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michael's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Peter3:20 PM
Dartmouth
Location: TQ6 0LH
Transmitter: Beacon Hill
Hi
I have been having problems with reception on multiplex PSB1 and PSB3 (all other mupliexes are ok and showing as 100% signal strength/quality) over that last week in particular, PSB3 was ok up until a week ago.
I have a high gain aerial on a 30ft mast on a hillside above my property with masthead amplifier. Ever since Freeview became available we have received it at this location but over the last year and the last week in particular signal strength on the 2 main BBC multiplexers has got worse.
1. Why are these 2 multiplexers so bad relative to the other 6 (8 in total) multiplexes?
2. Why is DigitalUK website showing most (38) UK transmitters intermittently transmitting as weaker signal this week (including Beacon Hill), when BBC website shows no problems on the Beacon Hill transmitter?
Anything you can do to shed light on this problem would be welcome as 10 properties are connected to this aerial (through a distribution system) and all owners are unhappy!
FYI: I am a retired electrical/electronic engineer so have a good understanding of the equipment/transmission etc.
Peter
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Peter's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
S
StevensOnln17:00 PM
Peter: What signal strength and quality readings do you get on PSB1 and PSB3? As there are over 1,000 transmitters across the UK, 38 is no where near being most of them and represents a small number which currently have planned engineering work taking place.
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Sunday, 28 January 2018
P
Peter2:18 PM
StevensOnln1: The signal strength this morning on both PSB1 and PSB3 are the very similar with a signal of around 20% and quality varying around 10% (this historically has been 80-100%).
Thanks for the help.
Peter
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MikeP
11:49 PM
11:49 PM
Peter:
From the information you have given, it rather looks as if you could have an aerial fault. I suggest you have it checked. Also make sure you are tuned to the correct transmitter as Slapton is fairly close so the set may be trying to get those signals.
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Monday, 29 January 2018
SStevensOnln1:: couldnt tune to ch 34 manually.. Changed ariial to a wideband.. Fixed..
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Tuesday, 30 January 2018
Hi
I live in Stoke Gabriel and have been having signal breakup problems for some time on all channels multiplexed onto 666MHz - on the TV tuning menu the signal power is down and quality poor. The 614MHz channels (which are transmitted using the same 10kW) have slightly lower power but perfect quality.
Putting an extra amplifier in front of the main distribution amp/splitter has made the channels on 666MHz just about acceptable, even though there are odd errors reported.
Are you really using the same power on 666MHz as 642MHz? I assume the antenna pattern is similar (it will never be identical at all frequencies)
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