Full Freeview on the Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) transmitter

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

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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 Screen may go black 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 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C23 (490.0MHz)	324m	DTG-	200,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) London, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 16 others
PSB2 D3+4	H max	C26 (514.0MHz)	324m	DTG-	200,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (London), 4 Channel 4 (SD) London ads, 5 Channel 5, 6 ITV 2, 10 ITV3, 13 E4, 14 Film4, 15 Channel 4 +1 London ads, 18 More4, 26 ITV4, 28 ITVBe, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV1 +1 (London), 71 That’s 60s,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C30- (545.8MHz)	324m	DTG-	200,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD London, 102 BBC Two HD England, 103 ITV 1 HD (ITV London), 104 Channel 4 HD London 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 max	C25 (506.0MHz)	314m	DTG-8	200,000W
	20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 Rok Sky +1, plus 29 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C22 (482.0MHz)	321m	DTG-8	200,000W
	11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C28- (529.8MHz)	321m	DTG-8	200,000W
	12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 18 others
LW	H -10dB	C35 (586.0MHz)	324m	DTG-12	20,000W
	from 31st March 2014: 8 LONDON LIVE,

DTG-8 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	BBCtv_waves
C22					ArqA	ArqA
C23		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	BBCA	BBCA
C25					SDN	SDN
C26		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	D3+4	D3+4
C28					-ArqB	ArqB
C29						LW
C30		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	-BBCB	BBCB
C33		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves		com7
C35						com8
C55_{tv_off}						com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}						COM8_{tv_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 London

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Crystal Palace transmitter area

Sep 1955-Jul 1968	Associated-Rediffusion†
Sep 1955-Jul 1968	Associated TeleVision◊
Jul 1968-Dec 1992	Thames†
Jul 1968-Feb 2004	London Weekend Television♦
Jan 1993-Feb 2004	Carlton†
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc♦
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. Crystal Palace 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?

J

James Bevan
6:50 AM

js: Appreciate the pointer, thanks - same result unfortunately now but yes previously this was a necessary step. I can only suppose the problem is lower down the stack as w_scan2 also reports the LCNs as null/zero, and it's the same for both tvheadend/w_scan2 on a different tuner type. No doubt my ignorance is a factor here, happy to take this thread offline if you're willing to pursue it as well?

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James Bevan's 6 posts GB flag

J

James Bevan
7:34 AM

Potentially not just me then:

No LCN since freeview reshuffle | AVForums

Is there some technical body responsible for the broadcast I could take this up with?

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James Bevan's 6 posts GB flag

R

Robert Hellier

_{sentiment_satisfied}Silver

3:24 AM
Reading

I have done a retune again find Come 7/8 is back..... whats going on.... i wish i knew which its coming from as i have via and Meridian from transmitter
I am in Reading RG8 8DB you will see i an right on the edge on both transmitters

Rob

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Robert Hellier's 171 posts GB flag

Robert's: R's Freeview map R's terrain plot R's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:02 AM

Robert Hellier:

According to the Detailed Coverage Checker you are 68km from , 24km from , 36km from (and 64km from the quite low powered - no COM7). Those 3 main transmitters are horizontal polarisation whereas Reigate is vertical polarisation.

It will of course depend on which way your is pointing (and what it is) as to what you are actually picking up off the main beam and maybe some side-lobes/rear of aerial. From you, bearings are as follows -
Crystal Palace is 94 degrees, that's fractionally S of due E, Hannington is 214 degrees, that's slightly S of SW, Oxford is 344 degrees, that's slightly N of NNW. (Reigate is 112 degrees, ~ESE).

Neither the Freeview Detailed Coverage Checker nor the BBC predictor show any from Oxford (presumably terrain, but that doesn't mean you won't get any signal!), other than that predicted reception of the 6 main muxes does vary slightly across your postcode, with overall Crystal Palace & Hannington being similar BUT no predicted reception of COM7 () from Crystal Palace, but there is from Hannington which can be Good to Variable.
Note Hannington and Oxford supposedly transmit the same ITV Meridian Local news, whereas the BBC Local news should be Oxford from the Oxford transmitter and South Today from Hannington.

In the order PSBs1-3, COMs4-7, Local multiplexes, the UHF are as follows
Crystal Palace , , , , , , C55, (London Local mux)
Hannington , , , , , , C55, (Reading Local Mux)
Oxford , , , , , , C55, C22 (Oxford Local mux)

Oxford COM7 is lower than Hannington. Crystal Palace being the highest (but no predicted reception!)
Note, Arqiva closed COM8 in June for Commercial reasons, see Rebuilding Freeview High Definition from 2019 onwards | free and easy

I'd think that you are most likely getting COM7 C55 from Hannington, but I repeat it depends on what your aerial is and which way it's pointing.

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:13 AM

Robert Hellier:

Had meant to include a remark that can of course be affected by some weather conditions. There is predictions at the weekend for some quite strong "Tropospheric Ducting" (see Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | RTIS and How does good weather affect my television? | RTIS ). It's not just reflections of signals, they can travel along what is like a tunnel in a layer of atmosphere.
So there could well be some disruption to reception coming up.

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:18 AM

There is a slightly better explanation of Tropospheric Ducting at Tropospheric Ducting: Everything You Need to Know

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:20 AM

The BBC used to post this image (I'll stop looking now!)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/rec….jpg

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Chris.SE's 4,365 posts GB flag

D

Dave
10:29 PM

ucyrqsibbd: anyone got trouble in

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Dave's 2 posts GB flag

S

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

10:47 PM

Dave: You'd be better off posting on the page, as this is the page for the transmitter in London.

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StevensOnln1's 3,672 posts GB flag

J

James Bevan
7:12 AM
Harpenden

A followup on this - Crystal Palace (Greater London, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy - the LCNs are back after a retune yesterday. FWIW I changed nothing in my setup, guess this one will just remain a mystery!

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James Bevan's 6 posts GB flag

James's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Page 203

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