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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.

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.

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),

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 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C43 (650.0MHz)300mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C46 (674.0MHz)300mDTG-820,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 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
Sunday, 10 July 2016
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).

link to this comment
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.

link to this comment
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?

link to this comment
Alan Goss's 19 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 13 July 2016
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:23 AM

Alan Goss: No, as either that model or alternatively the single port type referred to in the undermentioned link should be perfectly OK for this purpose if installed between the aerial and the existing distribution amplifier, the variable output being adjusted to a low level to start off with then advanced as necessary to lift the signal strength up to around the 85% or thereabouts, that is if achievable!

The qualification on using this or any other variable booster, is to ensure that the output level of the multiplex already received at the highest level isn't lifted to above 95% or so.


Slx 27840-HSG 1 Way Plug In Aerial Amplifier Booster Variable Gain control 4G | eBay


link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Friday, 15 July 2016
A
Alan Goss
7:54 PM

Now put an SLx2 between the aerial and the existing SLx6x amp (needed the mains lead to the socket). I now have 100% quality and 98% strength on the reference Sony but needed the SLx2 turned up fully to get that.

Odd thing is there is about 1-2second delay between the Sony and Tosh TV's on the ground floor. How can that happen on the same amplifier?
Thanks all for the help.

link to this comment
Alan Goss's 19 posts GB flag
A
Alan Goss
8:00 PM

Answered my own query - Sony was on standard and Tosh was on HD, obviously gives a difference in output, presumably due to processing time or something. They are in sync on the same format.

link to this comment
Alan Goss's 19 posts GB flag
Saturday, 16 July 2016
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:51 AM

Alan Goss: Re Answered your own query (six minutes between postings), Yes, that's exactly the reason.

On the subject of signal strength, pleased to see that the addition of the SLX2 has had the desired effect, although I would back its gain control off slightly to give around 90% or so strength, this action being as a safeguard against the possibility of any slight fluctuations in the signal received (which can be up or down) intermittently taking the strength over the 100% level, as this "might" result in the occasional glitch being seen on the picture.

By the way, 100% strength on a Freeview receiver corresponds to the maximum dB level that the device is capable of operating at without being overloaded, the problem being that any intermittent rises in dB levels above this maximum will still be indicated as 100% strength, this being why its always advisable to keep it a tad lower in order to accommodate for this possibility.


link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Sunday, 17 July 2016
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:31 AM

HEATHFIELD transmitter - Freeview: HD Digital TV Weak Signal from 04:09 today to 04:12 today. [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,601 posts xx flag
Monday, 18 July 2016
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:32 AM

HEATHFIELD transmitter - Freeview: HD Digital TV Weak Signal from 04:09 yesterday to 04:12 yesterday, HD Digital TV Very Weak Signal from 03:57 today. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,601 posts xx flag
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