Full Freeview on the Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) transmitter

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

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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.

Are there any planned engineering works or unexpected transmitter faults on the Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) mast?

Caradon Hill transmitter - Caradon Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 22/04/2024 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 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C28+ (530.2MHz)	602m	DTG-	100,000W
	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	C25+ (506.2MHz)	602m	DTG-	100,000W
	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	C22+ (482.2MHz)	602m	DTG-	100,000W
	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	C21+ (474.2MHz)	579m	DTG-8	50,000W
	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	C24- (497.8MHz)	579m	DTG-8	50,000W
	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	C27- (521.8MHz)	579m	DTG-8	50,000W
	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 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	ITV_waves
C21					+SDN	SDN
C22		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	+BBCB	BBCB
C24					-ArqA	ArqA
C25		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	+D3+4	D3+4
C27					-ArqB	ArqB
C28		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	+BBCA	BBCA
C30					_local	_local
C31						com7
C32		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves
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 Country

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Caradon 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

J

Jeanette Phillips
5:18 PM
Falmouth

Hi Chris . My Ariel is outside on the side of the . My husband said it is pointing 45 degrees North east. My full postcode is Tr11 5DB. Everyone's is pointing the same way. I always thought the one would be nearer.

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Jeanette Phillips's 2 posts GB flag

Jeanette's: ...

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

4:11 AM

Jeanette Phillips :

Hi. The precise compass bearing is supposedly 51 degrees which is 6 degrees E of NE, not only well within the beamwidth of your but may not be the optimum in a specific location due to the way signals propagate. A few degrees either way can often give the best results. But is 62km away and although more powerful than (compass bearing 306 degrees almost NW) which is only 12km away, Caradon Hill is predicted to give quite variable across your postcode, whereas predictions by both the Freeview and BBC checkers for Redruth are much better.

However, predictions are that, a quick check of the local terrain will give a better feel for this, and we'll post further comment on that in due course.
Everyone's aerials pointing the same way may be for historic reasons, I'll see if I can find any information.
Do you know how old (roughly) your aerial is? Has it been changed since ( Switch Over) ~10 years ago?

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Chris.SE's 4,153 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:41 AM

Jeanette Phillips :

Hmm, I wonder if your is a but far better a Group K which it might be if replaced recently - Group K is in effect the new wideband as it covers all upto and so give some protection from Mobile that may use/start using the band above C48.

If either, then re-orientating it for might be worth a try, I say might because despite the predicted , there are hills in the way. A professional installer with a signal strength meter should be capable of checking how good or not it is, especially those Commercial multiplexes COMs 4/5/6, (SDN/ArqA/ArqB), otherwise the only guidance is what your set tells you.
If it's an older aerial it could be a Group A (might have red plastic bungs in the ends of the main bar) which wouldn't receive the higher UHF channels used by Redruth so would be a waste of time - you need a Group K (as an aside Group A would give some protection from mobile band interference).

Now, the hills in the way (on the line of sight) are obviously the one you are on (wow good views S but not in the direction of Redruth!) then about 1&1/2 to 2km out there is a more significant one. Signals do "bend" over hills but it weakens them, a huge hill would mean zero signal.
Are there any aerials in your road pointing at Redruth, if so, ask them about their reception.
There's also a hill on the line of sight to , but it's quite small. It may have been in the days you could more easily get ghost free/minimal ghosting from Caradon Hill but not Redruth, I can't find any definitive information on that.

As far as mobile interference is concerned, I note you do have a few masts close by, mainly in the general direction of Caradon Hill. If it became a problem then https://restoretv.uk are the people to deal with it, they can supply free filters (or in worst case instal a new aerial f.o.c). I note the website says they haven't sent postcards to your postcode but I've come across cases where they haven't and there was still a problem!!

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Transmitter engineering