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

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmitter.

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C44- (657.8MHz)	284m	DTG-	20,000W
	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, 250 BBC Red Button, plus 16 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C41+ (634.2MHz)	284m	DTG-	20,000W
	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)	284m	DTG-	20,000W
	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, 109 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H -3dB	C42 (642.0MHz)	285m	DTG-8	10,000W
	20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 Great! Movies Action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 CBS Reality, 69 HorrorXtra, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 203 CITV, 208 Pop Player, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, plus 16 others
COM5 ArqA	H -3dB	C45 (666.0MHz)	285m	DTG-8	10,000W
	Smithsonian Channel, 11 Sky Arts, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 pick, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 70 Quest +1, 71 That's 60s, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 70s, 233 Sky News, plus 9 others
COM6 ArqB	H -3dB	C40 (626.0MHz)	285m	DTG-8	10,000W
	Quest Red +1, Classic Hits, 12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 73 HobbyMaker, 76 That's 80s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 83 Together TV, 84 PBS America, 90 Together TV +1, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 19 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?

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
C51_{tv_off}				ArqB	ArqB	ArqB
C53_{tv_off}	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	+D3+4	+D3+4	+D3+4
C57_{tv_off}	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	+BBCB	+BBCB	+BBCB
C60_{tv_off}	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves		-BBCA	-BBCA
C63	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_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 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 Country

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

Apr 1961-Dec 1981	Westward Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992	Television South West (TSW)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004	Westcountry 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. 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

T

Terry Bannon
10:38 AM

I can no longer pick up ch 60 (radio) has anything changed.. The epg is available but it won't pick up a . Other stuff ok including stron HD.

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Terry Bannon's 11 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:34 AM

Terry Bannon: What do you mean by channel 60 (radio)? Are you referring to UHF channel 60 which carries the PSB1 from (BBC SD ) or do you mean LCN 60 (Sony Crime Channel +1) which is not broadcast from Beacon Hill?

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StevensOnln1's 3,547 posts GB flag

Transmitter engineering