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.

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

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, plus 17 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, 107 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! 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)	285m	DTG-8	10,000W
	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)	285m	DTG-8	10,000W
	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?

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?

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:52 PM

John and N L Bell:

Becon Hill has been having some work done recently, see the posts above yours.

Retuning was the worst thing to do. To get your back you will need to manually tune. Put your post code into the Digital UK Coverage Checker, select the Detailed view and scroll down to the channel listing for the prefered .

Use that information to manually tune your equipment to the correct .

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

Transmitter engineering

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Owner

5:09 AM

- Freeview: BBC TV Off Air; related from 00:20 on 27 Mar to 05:30 on 27 Mar, HD Digital TV Off Air; DSO related from 00:20 on 27 Mar to 05:30 on 27 Mar. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,632 posts xx flag

G

Gordon Twist
6:29 PM

Hi,
Does actually transmit com7 and com8?

The tables say the should be on 33 & 34 - 570Mhz and 578Mhz, but my scanner shows nothing but background noise on those frequences... all other QAM's are coming through fine...

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Gordon Twist's 1 post GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:59 PM

Gordon Twist: COM7 & COM8 closed at on 27th March.

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StevensOnln1's 3,622 posts GB flag

D

dave dowde swell
9:38 AM
Paignton

I have 4 tv,s which all went blank last week
was able to retune all but one
DO I have to reposition my ariel?
thanks
dave

tq4 6ha 25 st andrews

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dave dowde swell's 1 post GB flag

dave's: ...

J

John
2:37 PM

Why can I not receive 57 (USA +1) after recent changes? I've re-scanned twice and still it's absent

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John's 2 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:51 PM

John: 5USA +1 is broadcast on the COM7 which closed at (along with COM8) last week.

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StevensOnln1's 3,622 posts GB flag

P

Peter Cole
4:46 PM

Hi, Since March 29 we have lost a number of HD . In particular BBC . I recently upgraded my etc so that I could get BBC4HD in order to receive the proms with better sound . Has it been trashed in this for me total downgrade of ?

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Peter Cole's 1 post US flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:34 PM

Peter Cole: As per other posts above, COM7 & COM8 (which carries BBC Four HD) closed at last week. COM7 & COM8 are temporary multiplexes and will close at all transmitters over the next few years.

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StevensOnln1's 3,622 posts GB flag

T

Thomas Tregenna
7:38 AM

Is anyone else having trouble with poor on ARQ A since the work on the 27th?

Dave, for example was working just fine prior to this, I've checked that I'm tuned to at the center value of exactly 666Mhz, and all of the mux configuration looks correct (QAM64, 8Mhz, 8k, 1/32, 3/4, etc.) but all of the from this mux are now blocky and choppy.

I mean, it could be the weather, but I've never noticed such issues prior to the recent changes and removal of COMs 7 and 8.

Thanks.

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Thomas Tregenna's 1 post GB flag

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Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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