Full Freeview on the Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmitter
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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 22/04/2024 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
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 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.
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?
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 17km north (6°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
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?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 19 Jul 2018 | |||
| C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | W T | W T | W T | K T | |||
| C29 | _local | _local | _local | _local | |||||
| C40 | SDN | ||||||||
| C41 | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | BBCA | |||||
| C42 | SDN | SDN | SDN | ||||||
| C43 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C44 | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | D3+4 | |||||
| C46 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C47 | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | |||||
| C49tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C52tv_off | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | BBCA | |||
| C64 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ||||||
| C67 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
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
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldMonday, 2 July 2012
kaz: The downside to using Hastings is that the three COM channels (from Heathfield these 42, 44 and 41) are on the same channels as used by the transmitter in Eastbourne on the South Cliff Tower which, like Bexhill, is PSB only. So it may be the case that these are now wiped out, or at least intermittant at your mother's location.
Getting the desired sub-regional BBC and ITV is possible when picking up from Hastings, albeit starting to get more costly. A second aerial could be installed on Bexhill with diplexer (which combines signals from the two). It is unfortunate that Bexhill is horizontal as a single aerial would have worked for both otherwise (because they're in the same direction). As I say though, this is getting costly with the extra aerial and diplexer, and is not forced to work, what with the Eastbourne PSB transmitter being co-channel with Hastings' COMs.
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What was observed with the channels being available one day and not on another is what can happen with digital reception. It may be that when these services were picked-up, the signal level was "just" above (or a "bit" above) the threshold required (by the receiver) and that now it is "just" below that threshold. The difference in levels between the two may be small, but the effect is stark (which is digital reception for you).
Signal levels vary all the time due to the weather etc. Had the level been "quite a lot" above the threshold, a reduction of the level experienced could have still left it above the threshold and therefore it would have continued to work and your mother would have noticed nothing.
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K
kaz12:25 PM
Eastbourne
Thanks Dave, that is really interesting - although it's not going to make any of our family feel warmer towards Freeview!
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kaz's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
kaz: Following on from what I said about the signal level dropping just below that needed, it does make me wonder whether a signal booster may improve matters. Signal boosters aren't the be all and end all and can have a negative outcome depending on the circumstances.
jb38, as the expert, perhaps you can advise as to whether a signal booster may be worthwhile here, particularly if a replacement aerial for Heathfield is not likely.
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Mark Fletcher4:41 PM
Halifax
Kaz,Eastbourne.There are other alternatives to Freeview,there is Freesat or if you are affluent enough there is always Cable TV known as Virgin Media or Sky TV,either free to view satellite or subscription satellite.
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Mark's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb388:16 PM
Dave Lindsay / Kaz: The "only" way that it could be said with a reasonable level of accuracy as to whether or not a booster would help the situation is by knowing what signal level Ch42 & Ch44 is sitting at on a "manual test without scanning" as indeed as previously mentioned on my 4:15pm posting yesterday, although to ensure that the test is being conducted properly (for the TV) first try entering Ch52 or Ch49 and making a note of the strength / quality, then change the entry to Ch42 / Ch44 making similar notes and giving an update on both sets of readings seen.
If though anything seen (that is if at all!) on either Ch42 or Ch44 is observed to be violently fluctuating from zero to whatever then obviously a booster will not help, and so it gets back to what I mentioned about experimenting with the aerial position as its only this type of action that's liable to bring results, and indeed frequently does if carried out with an open mind without pre-conceived negative attitudes regarding position, although most with comprehensive experience wont have!
That said though, I really feel that the situation regarding reception is always going to have a strong element of hit and miss about it as far as reliability is concerned because of the tree problem, likewise would be inclined to go along with Mark Fletchers suggestion of resorting to satellite, either Freesat or Sky's free to view channels with that being the only way to guarantee 99.9% reliability of reception 24/7.
Kaz: Just out of interest, what model number of TV does you mother have?
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Tuesday, 3 July 2012
K
kaz9:23 AM
Eastbourne
Thanks again to all of you - you're all very helpful I must say! As I said before (I think) she'll be phoning Sky soon to cancel her subscription. As she only has the cheapest subscription anyway, and their first year was up yonks ago, she'll be keeping her box and presumably they can't ask for the card back either (she'd have to buy a FsFs card otherwise). Hopefully that will be a success. It's not Sky+ or anything fancy.
Her TV is a Sony Bravia, I'm not 100% sure of the number because the manual I have here serves 5 different 32" models, it starts KDL-32[*****] (the five characters at the end could be
D27**
T28**
S30**
D26** or
T30**
but the manual is for all five plus five 40" models.
The manual digital tuning is on page 29 and goes;
"Digital Manual Tuning
Tunes the digital channels manually. This feature is available when Digital Auto Tuning is set to Antenna.
1 Press the number button to select the channel number you want to
manually tune, then press up/down to tune the channel.
2 When the available channels are found, press up/down to select the channel
you want to store, then press +
3 Press up/down to select the programme number where you want to store the new channel, then press +
Repeat the above procedure to manually tune other channels."
In other words, you put in the channel you want, and let it search nearby wavelengths either going up or down. Of course it just goes past the one you want.
Anyway, I think I'll buy a signal booster from a shop which will give a refund if it isn't suitable, and we'll see later in the week if that helps or not.
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kaz's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
P
Paul12:07 PM
Lewes
I live in Newick, BN8 4LS as do my in laws, same postcode different house number. Since the changeover, the previously fanatsic Freeview signal to both aerials has now degraded, with pictures breaking up and sometimes failing, with a need then to reselect the channel on the remote. Today I did a factory reset on my TV and watched carefully as ot retuned through the various channels to ensure that it was only picking up the channel at the correct points as set out in the manual retune guidance issued for the postcose by digital UK. The moving bar only stopped at those cahnnels picking up stations and moving on. The signal is still breaking up - is this now a case for an aerial retune. Our AE is in the attic and was originally fitted by a an engneer to the best signal using an audible meter. Thanks.
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Paul's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb3812:27 PM
kaz: Going by what you had mentioned regarding tuning etc I had a suspicion that a Sony TV might be involved, the tuning facilities in these sets not being very user friendly when it comes to using them for carrying out signal tests on, and if that model takes off as soon as the manual tune channel number is entered "without" actually requiring a second button to be pressed, then its not really of any use for the purpose intended.
However, and although I have serious doubts about the effectiveness of a booster in your mothers type of situation as the level / stability of the drop out channels are not known, but the booster referred to below is one of the best types to use for test purposes by it having a controllable gain level, the only problem being that if it does recover Ch42 & Ch44 when the gain is set to a high level its likely to be at the expense of the BBC / ITV by taking their signal levels over the top and causing blocking.
Still, I will be interested in your findings.
Argos page 650 item number 534/4235 and which doesn't seem to come into the 16 day exclusion clause that applies to quite a number of items, and so if its carefully unwrapped there shouldn't really be any problem with any refund that might be required.
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Paul3:29 PM
Lewes
Paul: Thanks there is a booster in the attic so I will try disconnecting it and seem what happens
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Paul's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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