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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmitter._______
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 withheldWednesday, 6 July 2016
A
Alan Goss8:54 PM
I have 3 TV's in the house (different makes), working off a common amplifier with the aerial directed to Heathfield. It has worked fine for a number of years. Yesterday evening (5/7/16) only BBC was working properly, all other channels pixelated and broken with squeaks and noises on all TV's. I assumed it was a temporary problem. It was the same this evening so I checked the amplifier, which appeared OK, and tried retuning the sets. This appears to have generally cured the pixellation (although there is still odd random events) but I now do not have HD reception on any TV. They report 'no programme' when changing to HD channels. Has the signal from Heathfield changed?
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Thursday, 7 July 2016
M
MikeB12:23 AM
Alan Goss: Why would the signal have changed? There might be low power for work, but there is no sign of it. Check your signal strength - its almost certainly too low because of a problem with your aerial system.
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R
Richard Cooper8:41 AM
Norwich
Alan Goss: Hi, Alan. A visual banner supporting the caption, 'no programme' means exactly the same as 'no signal'; i.e. a signal strength below that required for the electronics inside to decode into a renderable picture and uninterrupted audio. In other words, your tvs are suffering from the 'digital cliff' effect. The only explanation other than issues with the tvs themselves is that the tvs are simply not being fed a sufficiently strong signal from your aerial via your distribution amplifier and so you need to check: condition, orientation and polarisation of the aerial on your roof or chimney pot, condition of the aerial cabling from the aerial to the distribution amplifier and the connections, whether the distribution amplifier is still actually working properly, the leads and connections between the outputs of the distribution amplifier and your three television sets. If you take the distribution amplifier out of the equation, not only must you unplug it from the mains, but you must also disconnect it from the aerial and provide direct feeds from the aerial to the three tvs via a three-way splitter. Remember that a non-functioning distribution amplifier acts as a signal 'attenuator', diminishing the signal instead of amplifying it! Richard, Norwich.
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Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
MikeP
1:32 PM
1:32 PM
Alan Goss:
Further to that said by Richard and MikeB, another factor to consider is whether you have too much signals. That tends rto give the same effect as too little. However, as you are getting the same effect on three different makes of TV, therefore having three different tuner sensitivities, it may not be relevant. The only way to check is, as suggested by MikeB, to check the signal strength reported by the three TV sets.
Ideally, for SD reception the strength should be between 60% and 80% or so. For HD reception, it varies between makes but generally you need at least 60% and not more than 85% - though it does depend on the set.
When you make your signal strength checks note down the values for each of the available multiplexes as shown on all three sets. They may well vary a bit as the software used differs. Then let us know what values you've recorded. That may help give us more clues as to the cause.
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A
Alan Goss9:12 PM
Thanks for all the responses. Some of the info requests are a bit beyond my knowhow. The signal strength does seem to have dropped:
Living Room - Sony - Quality 21-29, strength 38-42
Conservatory - Toshiba - Channels 41, 42, 44, 49, 52 - Strength weak to average, Quality Good
Bedroom - Logik - Channel 42 Quality 40, strength 48
Channel 49 Quality 35, strength 48
Channel 52 Quality 35, strength 54
I did note this TV (always a bit weaker, not HD) has lost channels 33-100
The aerial is in the loft so not subject to wind and weather. The amp is an SLX 6X and is not showing any fault lights. This has probably been there for around 10+ years without problems and tuned to HD OK when TVs were changed in the past.
From what is said in the responses above it would appear that the signal strength has dropped.
I have tried connection directly from the aerial to the living room and conservatory TV's with a 2 way splitter but just get 'No Signal' on the Sony and Toshiba sets. I then connected each TV separately directly to the aerial and only the Toshiba worked. The others showed 'No Signal'.
Put the amp back on with TV's connected and they are back to as above so the amp does appear to be working.
Any more comments gratefully received. I normally watch the F1 in HD and the British GP is on Sunday!
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A
Alan Goss9:17 PM
Just found another 'page' on the Tosh and the signal strength is 26-30%, Quality 92% Lots of other figures I don't understand.
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M
MikeB11:54 PM
Alan Goss: Since we have no idea where you are (hint - poscode into this site), we can't say if the signal strengths your quoting are normal for you, but since 75% should be perfect, it looks like your signal strength is too low.
Different TV's will have different tuners, and so they can slightly vary in just how sensitive they are, but it looks like there is a problem with your system, perhaps centrally. Yes, your booster looks fine, but something is not right, and since your setup is in the loft, its not that difficult to bypass it. To be honest, most people have no need of a booster these days anyway. And just because an aerial is in a loft, it doesn't mean that its totally free from corrosion, etc.
Perhaps the weak signal from the transmitter showed up an existsing problem that your ordinarily wouldn't have noticed until the whole thing went kaput.
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Friday, 8 July 2016
J
jb3812:14 AM
Alan Goss: These signal strength readings are far too low for reliable reception, and even although boosters are used in many areas of the UK in order to lift the strength of the signal received to a level well above the receivers lower cut off threshold, in virtually all instances the signal can "still" be received without said booster in line with the aerial, therefore as MikeB has said, information on your location relative to that of the transmitter is essential in order to assess the level of signal expected in your specific area, as numerous dead spots for reception exist within the published coverage area of the Heathfield transmitter.
By the way, could you also confirm (or otherwise) that your aerial is *not* fitted with a mast head amplifier?
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J
jb388:30 AM
Alan Goss : Regarding your SLX6 aerial amplifier, although you have already tried connecting your TV's directly into the aerial, I just wondered what the result would be if you have tried connecting one of them into the full output socket on your amplifier? as this output provides 18dB gain over the 8dB from each of the 6 individual sockets.
On the subject of mast head amplifier, what I am meaning is that its "not" one with a built in booster, such as the log periodic aerial manufactured by Philex.
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MikeP
1:59 PM
1:59 PM
Alan Goss: you shpuld never connect two, or more, TVs to the aerial system via a passive splitter and certainly not when your signal levels are so low. All the splitter will do is reduce the signals strengths even further - by anything up to 2/3s!
I concur with the comments from jb38 and MikeB. We really need to have a full post code (or that of a very nearby shop/post office/public building) so we can determine what would be a good reception for your location.
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