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Full Freeview on the Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps50.976,0.229 or 50°58'34"N 0°13'45"Esa_postcodeTN21 0UG

 

The symbol shows the location of the Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmitter which serves 170,000 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 Heathfield (East Sussex, England) mast?

Heathfield transmitter - Heathfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 04/11/2024 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
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Which Freeview channels does the Heathfield 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
C41 (634.0MHz)298mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South East, 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
C44 (658.0MHz)298mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (East micro region)), 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 (Meridian south coast), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)298mDTG-20,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South East, 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 max
C40 (626.0MHz)298mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
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
C43 (650.0MHz)300mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
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
C46 (674.0MHz)300mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
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

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

The Heathfield (East Sussex, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: .

If you want to watch these channels, your aerial must point to one of the 80 Full service Freeview transmitters. For more information see the will there ever be more services on the Freeview Light transmitters? page.

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Heathfield transmitter?

regional news image
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 17km north (6°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
regional news image
ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 41km north-northeast (31°)
to ITV Meridian (East) region - 36 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford

How will the Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20122012-132013-182013-1719 Jul 2018
C/D EC/D EC/D EW TW TW TK T
C29_local_local_local_local
C40SDN
C41ArqBArqBArqBBBCA
C42SDNSDNSDN
C43ArqA
C44ArqAArqAArqAD3+4
C46ArqB
C47BBCBBBCBBBCBBBCB
C49tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesD3+4D3+4D3+4
C52tv_offBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCABBCA
C64ITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves
C67C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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 30 May 12 and 13 Jun 12.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4 100kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 20kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*(-18dB) 1.6kW
Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-20dB) 1000W

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Heathfield transmitter area

Aug 1958-Jan 1992Southern Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Meridian
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. Heathfield 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?

Radiation patterns withheld

Comments
Saturday, 9 July 2016
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:02 AM

Alan Goss: Digital UK's reception predictor indicates / suggests that reception of PSB3 / BBC HD is not possible from Dover, nor is ArqB / COM6, I only say suggests as reception predictors aren't exactly an exact science.

Coverage Checker - Detailed View


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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Sunday, 10 July 2016
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:00 AM

Alan Goss: The model featured in your link is a much later version than the one I referred to, as witnessed by your model having protection against problems caused by 4G transmissions, this being a relatively recent event that didn't come into the equation until around three to four years ago.

However, apart from that. With regards to you having said that your aerial hasn't moved since it was installed, it most likely hasn't! but the angle the signal is received at most likely has, as in non line-of-sight reception of a nature such as yours, the angle the signal reaches your aerial can change slightly at certain times of the year due to weather etc causing changes in the reflective surface of the terrain, i.e: the summer / winter effect, atmospheric related reasons also playing a role, aerials in many instances having to be turned a few degrees to the left or right to peak the signal again, or in some cases physically moved to the left or right or even up / down.

This is something which has always applied in situations such as yours, but which was not really noticeable in the years analogue reception by this mode being far less critical as far as exact aerial alignment is concerned, the only thing that some viewers might have observed being the picture having developed a slight grainy effect at times.








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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
R
Richard Cooper
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:21 AM
Norwich

jb38: Morning jb: Brilliant idea to suggest Alan rotates or tilts his aerial slightly. Richard, Norwich.

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Richard Cooper's 471 posts GB flag
Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:29 PM

Alan Goss: The undermentioned is a link to the older version of your SLX6 distribution amplifier, each of the six outputs rated at 4dB less than the later model featured in your link.

http://www.labgear.co.uk/….pdf



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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:58 PM

Richard Cooper : Well thanks Richard, but though not exactly "rotate", as that's inclined to suggest altering the polarity, which isn't involved, but to move the aerial a few degrees to the left or right from the angle of 190 degrees that the station is listed as being at from Alan's location.



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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
A
Alan Goss
3:53 PM

Thanks, I have rotated the aerial clockwise a few degrees but will have to change the mounting to get any further as the roof angle is bending the reflector (in fact the top rod is now bent). The picture is now OK on normal reception but breaks slightly and drops out at times on HD.

I appreciate what you mean about the reference to 4G on the amp instructions, which I didn't think would have been around at that time, but the picture is definitely the format of my amp, it is a 6X as shown.

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Alan Goss's 19 posts GB flag
A
Alan Goss
4:18 PM

Interesting, I remembered my phone has a compass and tried various angles with the Sony on Channel 4 (following the F1):
190 deg: 80% quality, 46% strength
195 deg: 99% quality, 50% strength
200 deg: 99% quality, 54% strength
205 deg 100% quality, 58% strength
Can't go any further due to the roof but seems to be a fair way off the nominal 190 deg. (Have now broken the top bar of the reflector trying to bend it further, hopefully no real detrimental effect).

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Alan Goss's 19 posts GB flag
A
Alan Goss
4:35 PM

Alan Goss: Interesting, I remembered my phone has a compass and tried various angles with the Sony on Channel 4 (following the F1):
190 deg: 80% quality, 46% strength
195 deg: 99% quality, 50% strength
200 deg: 99% quality, 54% strength
205 deg 100% quality, 58% strength
Can't go any further due to the roof but seems to be a fair way off the nominal 190 deg. (Have now broken the top bar of the reflector trying to bend it further, hopefully no real detrimental effect).

(sorry, last post seemed to go in a new thread, hope this will work).

link to this comment
Alan Goss's 19 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:23 PM

Alan Goss: As you have now successfully achieved 100% quality @ 205 degrees, I would say that even although you might well be unable to turn the aerial any further because of the roof, your likely to find that you are only the proverbial stones throw away from the signal being peaked anyway, therefore I would be inclined to leave it at that for the time being.

That said, I feel that your reception would benefit (as far as reliability is concerned) by running at a slightly higher strength level (80%) with the aid of a low powered booster, the output of same fed into your distribution amplifier, but though it all depends on the maximum signal strength levels received from the other multiplexes with your aerial in its present position.

By the way, I wouldn't worry too much about the top bar of the reflector, as its most unlikely to have made any difference to the situation.

Another point I meant to include in my previous reply, is that in situations such as yours its quite common for multiplexes to be received at different levels even although they are all radiated at same power level, which in the case of Heathfield is 20Kw.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 12 July 2016
A
Alan Goss
9:14 PM

Thanks.
What would be a low powered booster? I was thinking of something like an SLX2 between the aerial and existing amp. Is that too powerful?

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Alan Goss's 19 posts GB flag
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