Full Freeview on the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.424,-0.076 or 51°25'26"N 0°4'32"W |  | SE19 1UE |
The symbol shows the location of the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmitter which serves 4,490,000 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 Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) mast?
Crystal Palace transmitter - Crystal Palace transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 18/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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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
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Crystal Palace 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
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Crystal Palace transmitter?
BBC London 4.9m homes 18.4%
from London W1A 1AA, 12km north-northwest (335°)
to BBC London region - 55 masts.
ITV London News 4.9m homes 18.4%
from London WC1X 8XZ, 11km north-northwest (345°)
to ITV London region - 55 masts.
Are there any self-help relays?
| Charlton Athletic | Transposer | Redeveloped north stand Charlton Athletic Football Club | 130 homes |
| Deptford | Transposer | south-east London | 100 homes |
| Greenford | Transposer | 12 km N Heathrow Airport | 203 homes |
| Hendon | Transposer | Graham Park estate | 50 homes |
| White City | Transposer | 9 km W central London | 80 homes |
How will the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1950s-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 21 Mar 2018 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | A K T | A K T | A K T | W T | ||||
| C1 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C22 | ArqA | ArqA | |||||||
| C23 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C25 | SDN | SDN | |||||||
| C26 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C28 | -ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C29 | LW | ||||||||
| C30 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | -BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C33 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | com7 | |||||
| C35 | com8 | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_off |
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 4 Apr 12 and 18 Apr 12.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 1000kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 200kW | |
| com7 | (-13.7dB) 43.1kW | |
| com8 | (-14dB) 39.8kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*, LW | (-17dB) 20kW |
Local transmitter maps
Crystal Palace Freeview Crystal Palace DAB Crystal Palace AM/FM Crystal Palace TV region BBC London LondonWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Crystal Palace transmitter area
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Monday, 8 June 2020
S
StevensOnln111:54 AM
Graham Osborne: The chart on this page is incorrect, PSB3/BBCB is on UHF channel 30 from Crystal Palace, not 48.
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Friday, 19 June 2020
Regarding the note on the COM7 & COM8 multiplexes:
"Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) by 30 June 2020"
The website rxtvlog.com has an article which says that OFCOM has pushed back the auction of the 700MHz spectrum:
"Temporary Freeview multiplexes COM7 and COM8 can continue broadcasting without any risk that telecoms operator with a licence to use the 700MHz can serve notice on Arqiva's use of the frequencies"
TV frequency sale pushed back to the end of the year - RXTV Info | RXTV log
I've Googled for some other posts to verify this, particularly on OFCOM's site, but not found any evidence. The next to useless Freeview website has plenty of out of date information, but nothing about this "stay of execution" - I guess we will know when the notifications start appearing on our TV sets and PVRs!
Robin
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Sunday, 21 June 2020
C
Chris.SE12:52 AM
Robin Bettridge:
The note "Being removed from Freeview (for 5G use) by 30 June 2020" on this, and many other web-sites is incorrect, & has been for a long time (a lot longer than this year) and has never been corrected. The date was an "ambition" by OFCOM but was never agreed by Arqiva who wanted it pushed back to a later date. The only licence held by Arqiva for COMs 7&8 published on OFCOM's website was updated in July last year and still shows an expiry date of 2026. It does contain a notice about a two year notification for termination, but there is no record of such notification being issued, on OFCOM's website.
On March 13th this year, OFCOM published a number of documents about the auction of the 700MHz spectrum (but no specified date for the auction - (TBD), but that depended on the then current 700MHz Clearance programme being completed on time - where COMs 7&8 moved to UHF 55&56 and all other multiplexes moved to channels below UHF 49. In those documents OFCOM was proposing that whichever MNOs (if any) bought those centre frequencies where C55&56 are, they would give Arqiva 3 months notice of when they wished to start using them (so Arqiva would have time to reorganise programme channels & close COMs 7&8).
Since then the Covid-19 situation took off and the remaining clearance events were postponed - no date was specified. Subsequently a number of Freeview/DUK dociments were updated to show merely a date of 2021 for the remaining clearance.
I'm not sure where rxtvlog has got it's information about November for the auction, there is nothing on OFCOM's website, nor is there anything on Freeview's website, so I'm thinking this could be pure speculation, whilst the auction could take place then, any use of the 700MHz frequencies would still be dependent on the clearance programme being completed. I doubt that would be completed before 2021 as there's likely to be need for significant In-home Support with the Winter Hill changes and I can't see installers wanting to be on roofs changing large numbers of aerials late autumn/winter. In any event, to use those centre frequencies where COMs 7&8 sit (allocated primarily for SDL) means "encoding" hardware has to be developed, as does suitable handsets to use SDL. This is not as straightforward as the current FDD mobile Tx/Rx, and it has to be manufactured/installed (I'm not sure any suitable equipment currently exists) so in reality will the frequencies be used before 2022 - it's all speculation.
To slightly complicate matters Arqiva has recently made a "commercial decision" to close COM8 - quote from Freeview -
"The initial licence period comes to an end in June and Ofcom has issued revised licence terms reflecting the fact that the services may have to terminate at short notice if the spectrum is needed for mobile data services. Given this uncertainty, and through discussions with the channels on Com 7 & 8, Arqiva has taken the decision to rationalise the services onto one multiplex.
The Covid-19 crisis has caused some uncertainty over the precise duration of the licence for some of the channels using Com 7 & 8. This has meant that there was not enough demand to make it financially viable to maintain two multiplexes.
While channels are closing and we do appreciate that this may cause concern, a lot of work has taken place to ensure that viewers will still have access to the same content via main channels and on demand services."
As already mentioned, I can't find any "revised licence" merely the part of the auction rules where Arqiva would get 3 months notice.
A retune event is happening on June 22nd where channels will be moved (and some closed), see 22 Jun 2020 - Important channel broadcast changes | Freeview and COM8 will go off-air on June 30th.
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Wednesday, 24 June 2020
C
Chris.SE6:32 PM
Robin Bettridge:
After some whinging, OFCOM have now actually published the revised licence. Once the centre frequencies have been auctioned and 700MHz clearance has been complete, Arqiva may be given 3 months notice that the frequencies are required, or if not before, COM7 will close on 30/6/2022.
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Tuesday, 7 July 2020
J
James Bevan3:30 PM
Since the June 30th clearout/switcharound, I'm seeing only "null" LCNs on all the services I receive on rescanning the Crystal Palace frequencies. Fully ready to accept it might be something awry in my setup - DVB-T/T2 tuner card in a Linux host - any pointers on a technical authority I can check with, to confirm the problem isn't in the broadcast?
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C
Chris.SE7:54 PM
James Bevan:
Just to clarify (as has been mentioned a few times around these pages) the listing at the top of the page has an error, the BBCB/PSB3 multiplex is on C30- not on C48. The frequencies quoted are also rounded to 0.2MHz. The offset is actually 0.166MHz (also applicable to C28- ArqB).
I can't find any reports of transmitter problems in the last 5 days, and it's not listed for Planned Engineering.
If there were any transmitters issues I would have expected to see many posts here and elsewhere and there isn't ;)
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Wednesday, 8 July 2020
J
James Bevan4:58 AM
Chris.SE:
Thanks for the follow-up, yes the absence of clamour here is a pretty good indicator my problem is very very local indeed! I mainly reference https://en.digitalbitrate…te=2 and DTT & Freeview Updates to make sure I'm up to date with changes, are there further authoritative web resources I should check, so I don't waste anyone's time or attention here?
ATB
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J
James Bevan5:15 AM
js:
Thanks for responding, primarily I use tvheadend, which until very lately had been picking up the LCNs (and everything else) correctly. I also did a comprehensive scan with w_scan2 (https://github.com/stefantalpalaru/w_scan2), which also showed "null" LCNs for every service, on both my main TBS tuner card and on a USB tuner from a different vendor. I'd ruled out the tuner software and the device type so am at something of a loss to account for what I'm seeing, and unsure where to go, to connect with experts in this technical domain. Any pointers or insights would be most welcome!
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J
js5:59 AM
James Bevan: I think you may need to "map all services" to get them on LCNs. See the screenshot:
Imgur: The magic of the Internet
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