menuMENU    UK Free TV logo Freeview

 

 

Click to see updates

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 25/03/2024 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
_______

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
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
C
Chrisonahill
8:07 AM

Are there any plans to increase power from Beacon Hill? I notice the COM muxes on Stockland Hill will be upgraded next year and Beacon Hill will require wideband antenna. We're outside Weymouth and often get a better signal from Beacon Hill than Stockland Hill - probably partly due local topography - but we lose signal from the former - one mux at a time - in high atmospheric pressure conditions so may switch to Stockland. Suggestions welcome.

link to this comment
Chrisonahill's 12 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:54 PM
Wareham

Chrisonahill: The signals from Beacon Hill are at their final power levels. It's unlikely that there will be further power increases.

If your location is still BH20 6JG, I would guess that Rowridge on the Isle of Wight would give better results than either of the mentioned transmitters, once it switches over in March. You're likely to get best results using a vertically-polarized Group A aerial, once the VP services are running at full power from 18 April 2012. The commercial multiplexes from Rowridge will use the same channels as Stockland Hill, which will have some effect, though the use of VP should help (as Stockland Hill is horizontally-polarized).

Your reception of commercial multiplexes from Stockland Hill is liable to be clobbered by Rowridge once it completes switchover, even with Stockland Hill's power increase, and Rowridge's horizontally-polarized COM transmissions being one quarter of the power of VP.

Please note that this is my guess, rather than a prediction from Digital UK, whose website is currently not accepting that postcode.

link to this comment
Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
C
Chrisonahill
7:39 AM
Weymouth

Thanks Mike, but I don't know how you got BH20, I'm at DT3 6ED so I guess Rowridge would have much less effect.

link to this comment
Chrisonahill's 12 posts GB flag
Chrisonahill's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:40 PM

Chrisonahill: If you click the number of posts next to a user's name (yours currently says '10 posts'), you can see that user's previous posts. A post attributed to you had a BH20 postcode attached.

Looking at the prediction for your postcode, it still looks like a significant interaction between Stockland Hill and Rowridge. Indeed the prediction for Rowridge VP COM muxes (after April 2012) is still better than for Beacon Hill - ArqA and ArqB, at least.

I can't really see why the prediction for ArqB is so poor, there aren't that many other sites using C51, although one of them is Redruth, which is in the same direction as Beacon Hill and double the distance, and has equal power. The poor predictions for C42 and C45 may be because they're adjacent to the PSB muxes at Redruth.

link to this comment
Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:41 PM

Chrisonahill: And C42 and C45 are also adjacent to the PSB transmissions from Weymouth and Charmouth transmitters.

link to this comment
Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
C
Chrisonahill
8:49 AM

Mike, thanks for that. I'm surprised Rowridge prediction is so significant. Local topography here definitely favours Beacon Hill - almost line of sight despite the distance - and is against Rowridge, less favourable to Stockland than Beacon but Stockland closer and more power. The situation is not the same throughout this postcode. I guess we'll have to experiment.

link to this comment
Chrisonahill's 12 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:30 PM

BEACON HILL transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 14:23 today to 14:44 today [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:30 PM

BEACON HILL transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 14:23 today to 14:44 today [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:30 AM

BEACON HILL transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 14:23 yesterday to 14:44 yesterday [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:30 AM

BEACON HILL transmitter - Freeview BBC Digital TV Weak Signal from 14:23 yesterday to 14:44 yesterday [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Select more comments

Your comment please
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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

UK Free TV is here to help people. If you are rude or disrespectful all of your posts will be deleted and you will be banned.








Privacy policy: UK Free Privacy policy.