Freeview Light on the Margate (Kent, England) transmitter
 | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.380,1.404 or 51°22'49"N 1°24'16"E |  | CT9 3RG |
The symbol shows the location of the Margate (Kent, England) transmitter which serves 9,400 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 Margate (Kent, England) transmitter._______
Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Margate (Kent, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: U&Yesterday, 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, DMAX, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, GREAT! action, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance, GREAT! romance mix, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, TCC, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, U&Dave, U&Dave ja vu, U&Drama +1, U&W.
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 Margate 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 | V max | C33 (570.0MHz) | 86m | DTG- | 200W |
 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 | V max | C51 (714.0MHz) | 86m | DTG- | 200W |
 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 | V max | C53 (730.0MHz) | 86m | DTG- | 200W |
 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 | |||||
Are you trying to watch these 44 Freeview channels?
The Margate (Kent, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: U&Yesterday, 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, DMAX, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, GREAT! action, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance, GREAT! romance mix, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, TCC, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, U&Dave, U&Dave ja vu, U&Drama +1, U&W.
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 Margate transmitter?
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 84km west-southwest (249°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 61km west-southwest (258°)
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 Margate (Kent, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 16 Oct 2019 | |||||
| A K T | A K T | A K T | B C/D E T | W T | |||||
| C22 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ||||||
| C25 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ||||||
| C28 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | ||||||
| C32 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | ||||||
| C33 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C39 | SDN | ||||||||
| C42 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C48 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C50tv_off | BBCA | ||||||||
| C51tv_off | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||||||
| C53tv_off | BBCB | BBCB |
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 13 Jun 12 and 27 Jun 12.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | 200W | |
| Analogue 1-4 | (-10dB) 20W |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Dover transmitter area
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Wednesday, 21 August 2013
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Dave G9:56 AM
Margate
hi col stjj. My TV is an HD tecnika set. It had no problems until the last couple of weeks. Signal on ch 53 was 80% plus as were all the other muxes. Now ch 53 is totally NO signal (0%) and none of the other muxes have changed (85 to 90%) It is very strange. Several of my neighbours that I have asked have the same problem.
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Dave's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Dave G10:05 AM
Margate
UPDATE. I can receive HD from Sudbury on ch 47 with no problems except for the occasional dropout so it is not the set, got to be reception,
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Dave's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Dave G2:37 PM
Dave G:
Just had a 20 min talk with a very nice man from the BBC. He is going to look into the ch 53 problem, but if anyone else has problems, please report them to the BBC reception desk on 03700 100 123. The more people who phone in the better as they can localise the problem more efficiently.
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jb386:02 PM
Dave G: Purely out of curiosity, when you report no signal being received from your Dover facing aerial does this refer to that obtained by carrying out an auto-tune? because if so then that message does not necessarily indicate that absolutely no signal at all is being received but possibly one that is under the level required by your receiver to decode, hence no picture.
Although this is neither here nor there to a viewer who is unable to obtain a picture, but a proper test of whether a signal is there or not is achieved by going into the tuning menu / manual tune and entering Ch53 but NOT being followed by pressing search or scan, as this procedure will on most equipment cause the tuner to act like a form of signal strength meter devoid of reception cut off thresholds thereby giving an indication of very low signal levels.
Some TV's or boxes have rather restrictive menu systems that may not allow this procedure to be carried out, but should yours not be one of those types then I would be interested in the result.
The other aspect that somewhat puzzles me is that both Dover and Margate's HD service operates on Ch53, and when considering the fact that in your case the Margate 200 watts transmitter is located at only 1 mile or so away from you then I find it somewhat strange that you are unable to receive it from either source, although the result of the aforementioned manual tune signal test procedure might give some clues.
By the way, if you can receive Ch47 from Sudbury @ 50miles / 324 degrees then that's with your aerial being approximately 55 degrees out from reverse pick up "if" its facing Dover.
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Dave G7:01 PM
jb38:
Thanks jb 38. I take on board all your comments. I am a retired telecomms technician. so I probably tend to think that everybody understands me and I gloss over some important points. Please bear with me.
My tv on manual tune with channel 53 selected (730 MHz) therefore using it as a signal strength meter shows 0% signal. This is before I even try to scan for programs. The scan process will not decode stations below about 55% signal strength. At this level the signal quality (A measure of the decoding probability I presume) drops from poor to none.
All my muxes apart from channel 53 are showing between 80 and 95% signal strength and very good signal quality. Channel 53 on the other hand displays 0% signal and none signal quality.
As far as the aerial alignment, I have not measured the angles, but just assumed it is on the back lobe.
The Margate transmitter is on a single frequency network with Dover and as such should augment the Dover signal. Historically, the Margate transmitter was just to fill in a "hole" in the valley at Dane Valley and was not receivable where I live. It has now changed both frequencies and polarization to suit the SFN. So virtually everyone here is on the Dover transmitter. Before the BBC B mux disappeared, I was getting ch 53 at about 80% signal strength. Something has happened about 2 weeks ago that has affected just 730 MHz reception. Very strange!
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jb389:39 PM
Dave G / col stjj: Thanks for the update on the situation with regards to my Ch53 query, zero signal being indicated on the pre search (or scan) manual tune entry verifying that it isn't just the case of a signal under the reception threshold problem, this introducing an air of mystery into the situation as it could even indicate that the problem is being caused by a TX panel misalignment (tilt) having occurred on the Dover mast and something which would only affect the signal being radiated in a particular direction, and of course if this was the case then its not surprising both of you are affected as there is only 3 degrees of a difference between your locations.
The reason I am inclined to think along these lines is due to the fact that I haven't as yet noticed anyone else complaining of this problem, although I do admit not to having had the time to troll though all of the postings made, however should anyone else make complaint then provided that they do not withhold their post code I will be eager to check their angle in relation to the transmitter.
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Thursday, 22 August 2013
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Dave G12:22 PM
Margate
hi jb38, I had a call from the BBC this morning. They are now sending out engineers to check both the Dover and Margate transmitters and masts. They will check the alignment of the tx panels and do full checks. Hopefully we should have ch 53 back soon. Hooray! I have to say that the BBC are being extremely helpful.
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Dave's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Dave G12:54 PM
Margate
UPDATE:
Ch 53 in Margate is now back on. It was one of the "exciters" at the Dover transmitter. Now the engineers are investigating what happened.
Many thanks to all who helped to get this solved.
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Dave's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 24 August 2013
C
Col stjj11:36 AM
Margate
Dave G/jb38,
I have just caught up with the posts on here as i am away at the moment, but can confirm (after phoning home that they have now got C53 back Yippee!!!) Many thanks to you both for your tips/advice as i am no engineer and appreciated your help.
Just one question ? what`s an exciter & what does it do!
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Col's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb383:44 PM
Col stjj: The exciter is effectively a low powered RF transmitter that is used to drive the high powered output stages of the main transmitter, all high powered transmitters work in this manner.
I will say though, that if indeed this was the full reason for the problem and not an abbreviated version, then this could account why no complaints were noticed from viewers other than from around the Margate area and being due to the fact that the Dovers HD signal would still have been receivable in locations closer to the transmitter, the Margate transmitters on top of Invicta House dropping out when they could not and the reason for zero signal on the Ch53 manual entry test.
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