Full Freeview on the Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 50.511,-4.437 or 50°30'38"N 4°26'14"W |  | PL14 5LT |
The symbol shows the location of the Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) transmitter which serves 180,000 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 Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) transmitter._______
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 Caradon 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 Caradon Hill transmitter?
BBC Spotlight 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL3 5BD, 26km east-southeast (123°)
to BBC South West region - 107 masts.
ITV West Country News (West) 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL7 5BQ, 32km east-southeast (116°)
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?
| Barleycombe | Active deflector | 25 km E Plymouth | 3 homes |
| Parracombe | Transposer | 17 km NE Barnstaple | 80 homes |
How will the Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1961-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 27 Mar 2019 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | A K T | A K T | A K T | A K T | ||||
| C12 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C21 | +SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C22 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C24 | -ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C25 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | +D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C27 | -ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C28 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | +BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C30 | _local | _local | |||||||
| C31 | com7 | ||||||||
| C32 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | ||||||
| C37 | com8 |
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 12 Aug 09 and 9 Sep 09.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 500kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 100kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 50kW | |
| com7 | (-16.3dB) 11.6kW | |
| Mux 1* | (-20dB) 5kW | |
| Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-21dB) 4kW | |
| com8 | (-24.2dB) 1.9kW |
Local transmitter maps
Caradon Hill Freeview Caradon Hill DAB Caradon Hill AM/FM Caradon Hill TV region BBC South West West CountryWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Caradon Hill transmitter area
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Sunday, 5 January 2025
J
Jeremy Greenaway11:24 PM
Plymouth
For the past three weeks, we have had mediocre, poor or no signal on various Freeview channels which continue today. Our location is Plymouth PL2 1BR - north west facing and in line of Sight of Caradon Hill at Blockhouse, Stoke.
We have returned numerous times but this has not resolved the issues, which continously vary from one channel to another. Often Sky News channel (233) is completely absent with a no signal report but Blaze and others are similarly affected. We have had our aerial and cabloing inspected and a new cable junction box installed at a cost of nearly 200, and while this has had some improvement, it has not resolved the persistent low poer problems.
WHAT IS GOIN ON!?
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Jeremy's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 6 January 2025
C
Chris.SE12:39 AM
Jeremy Greenaway:
It would be more helpful if you could be more specific about exactly which channels you've had problems with, Sky and Blaze are carried on two different multiplexes although they are both commercial ones.
For which TV channels are carried on which multiplex see
Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview
You aren't the only one who has had some reception difficulties recently but there are a variety of reasons, one being location dependant.
About a week ago, it was Weather conditions, the High Pressure was causing some Tropospheric Ducting which resulted in interference from distant transmitters in Europe and/or the UK. This affected various parts of the country at different times. Freeview and the BBC issued warnings.
2nd, earlier in December, the Caradon Hill transmitter was having Planned Engineering where power may have been reduced or transmissions may have been on the Reserve Antenna which may have resulted in lower signals at your location.
Another (3rd) reason is specific to your postcode, but I'll come to that in a minute.
But first, Retuning is a BAD idea when you have No Signal - you cannot tune to signals that aren't there or can't be decoded, the usual result is to clear the correct tuning, and maybe in some circumstances tune you to weak and unreliable signals from other transmitters that disappear or come and go. In your location you might get some signals from the Plymouth North Rd. Relay (PSB multiplexes only) or the Plympton transmitter. These may be received off rear sidelobes on your aerial.
So the first check is go into your TV Tuning section and check you are correctly tuned to Caradon Hill's UHF channels.
In the multiplex order BBCA/PSB1, D3&4/PSB2, BBCB HD/PSB3, SDN/COM4, ArqA/COM5, ArqB/COM6
As detailed at the very top of this page, the UHF channels are C28, C25, C22, C21, C24 and C27.
In your TV tuning section, do you also see Signal Strength and Quality figures for each multiplex's UHF channel? If so, please post each of them, this may help identify problems
Some further detail about your installation would be useful. How old is your aerial and coax (roughly)?
Do you have an amp/splitter that feed more than one TV or box? Where is it located?
Now you mention a new "cable junction box" what exactly is it and where is it?
For the price you've mentioned I've expected an new aerial and coax downlead!!
Did the installer measure the signal strengths with a professional meter and did he check for interference issues with a spectrum analyser?
The 3rd possible cause of your problem may be interference from a new/upgraded phone mast now using the 700MHz band. You should have received a postcard from Restore TV. You are surrounded by a number of masts very close to you.
If you can update with as much information as possible, we should be able to make some practical suggestions to resolve the problem.
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S
Steve Donaldson1:50 AM
Jeremy Greenaway: With reference to your location, the Caradon Hill transmitter has a notch in its radiation pattern on the three COM channels, 21, 24 and 27 in your direction. This is due to agreement with France because the Saint-Pern transmitter near Rennes uses those three channels at 79kW. The notch means the signal isn't as strong in the direction of the Saint-Pern transmitter coverage area so as to reduce the potential for its viewers to suffer co-channel interference from Caradon Hill.
The Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker is not showing the predictions per channel at the moment for some reason. However, having checked Google Street View I can see there are several aerials pointing to Plympton on your road. Perhaps the solution may be to use it instead.
Caradon Hill and Plympton offer the same range of channels. Previously there were the COM7 and COM8 multiplexes carrying extra HD channels, and these broadcast from Caradon Hill but not Plympton. When these were on the air there may have been an advantage to using the former, but as they now both transmit the same channels there is no benefit going for Caradon Hill.
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S
Steve Donaldson3:24 AM
Jeremy Greenaway: The source link for the international agreement between the UK and France I referred to is here:
https://www.anfr.fr/fileadmin/mediatheque/documents/coordination/Accords_par_pays/France_UK_700MHz_Clr_DTT_Agreement_07Dec17_Final_signed.compressed.pdf
There is a PDF file embedded on page 4, "UK TVD and PLT Report". Open it and see pages 40 to 43 for Caradon Hill's patterns.
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C
Chris.SE5:26 AM
Steve Donaldson:
Whilst your analysis is always thorough, earlier when I checked, both the BBC transmitter checker and the Freeview one predicted good reception at that location.
Additionally Plympton would require a Group K aerial rather than a Group A currently needed for Caradon Hill and therefore likely require additional expenditure.
This is clearly a recent problem and therefore I don't believe the radiation patterns have any bearing on the current problem.
There are other issues at play!.
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M
michael4:50 PM
With a log-periodic aerial on the North Devon coast, I used to get some Caradon channels. Viewers in Woolacombe got reasonable reception from Caradon. I don't know if this is still the case. Sometimes signals from Huntshaw Cross broke up under high atmospheric pressure, possibly due to interference from France. Now that we are all more or less in Band A, I assume there will be greater congestion. My smart TV delights in automatically retuning when it thinks it has temporarily found a better signal from Wales. Very annoying!
This might be part of the Caradon enigma. Tuning with an older non-smart TV would clarify whether this is an issue.
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C
Chris.SE7:32 PM
michael:
Hi michael, Happy New Year to you.
Can you not turn off the automatic updating on that obviously not very clever "smart" TV?
What brand and model is it? One to avoid in my book!
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Tuesday, 7 January 2025
M
michael11:16 AM
Chris : The bad boy is a Panasonic. Their customer service confirmed that this wonderful feature cannot be turned off... We have another smartie which does allow turn-off. I can check models, if that would help.
Didn't have such embellishments in the glory days of 405 and 625 lines ...HNY to you, Chris!
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