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Full Freeview on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter which serves 440,000 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 Sudbury (Suffolk, England) mast?

Sudbury transmitter - Sudbury 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 Sudbury 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
C44 (658.0MHz)229mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) 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
C41 (634.0MHz)229mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Anglia (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 (Anglia east), 71 That’s 60s,

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)229mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD 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
C29 (538.0MHz)186mDTG-100,000W
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
C31- (553.8MHz)228mDTG-8100,000W
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
C37 (602.0MHz)228mDTG-8100,000W
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 Sudbury (Suffolk, 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 Sudbury transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Look East (East) 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Norwich NR2 1BH, 77km north-northeast (24°)
to BBC East region - 27 masts.
70% of BBC East (East) and BBC East (West) is shared output
regional news image
ITV Anglia News 0.8m homes 3.2%
from NORWICH NR1 3JG, 78km north-northeast (24°)
to ITV Anglia (East) region - 26 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Anglia (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

Felixstowe WestTransposer1000 homes +1000 or more homes due to expansion of affected area?
WithamTransposer14 km NE Chelmsford.118 homes

How will the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-131 Aug 2018
B E TB E TB E TE TK T
C29SDN
C31ArqA
C35C5wavesC5waves
C37ArqB
C41ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C44BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C47C4wavesC4wavesC4wavesBBCBBBCB
C51tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C56tv_offArqB
C58tv_offSDN
C60tv_off-ArqA

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 6 Jul 11 and 20 Jul 11.

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

Analogue 1-4 250kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-4dB) 100kW
Analogue 5(-7dB) 50kW
Mux 2*(-14.9dB) 8.1kW
Mux B*(-15.2dB) 7.5kW
Mux 1*(-15.5dB) 7kW
Mux A*(-17dB) 5kW
Mux C*(-22.2dB) 1.5kW
Mux D*(-23.6dB) 1.1kW

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

Oct 1959-Feb 2004Anglia Television
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. Sudbury 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.

Comments
Thursday, 14 March 2013
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

9:10 PM

DTR 2250, JB.
I don't believe it shows the stations it is finding. It does have manual tuning. Progress bar during the scan. I disconnect aerial till nearly half way through to stop it logging onto channels from local relay, 23 and 28.
Thanks

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Friday, 15 March 2013
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:40 AM

Nick: Although I have the manual for that particular box (also known as a Logic LDV2250) the information supplied therein is very limited in the technical sense, but I would like you to go into the main menu and select "reset set top box" to make sure that everything already stored in the EPG list will be deleted, that is excluding any programmes that you have already recorded and stored on the hard drive, as these are quite safe.

Once done then go into the manual tuning screen then enter and scan on BBC's mux Ch44 storing anything found, then change the search channel to 41 (ITV 1 etc) and carry out the same procedure as before.

Have a look at the EPG listings and you should only see BBC and ITV group channels being listed, once this is observed put the box into standby and then switch it off altogether to simulate it being switched off overnight.

Leave it that way for about an hour or so before switching it back on again then check the EPG programme listings and see if BBC is still being seen, if it is then just click on it to see if this results in normal reception, if though the screen is still blank then go into the tuning menu again and enter BBC Mux Ch44 but do NOT press search or scan as this action should result in the signal level being seen, make a note of the level and then compare it with that obtained whilst on ITV1, giving an update on results.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:35 PM

JB,
thank you very much, will try this.
Sorry to be thick, but just wondering what we are proving here. Are you suggesting I might have actually lost the signal when I turn on to a blank screen? It does not say 'no signal.'
I will tune it to channels 41 and 44, only as you say, although what gets me is that these strongest channels are the ones that disappear.
[I know which are the strongest channels thanks to Icecrypt box.]

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:18 PM

Please does anyone know why when I use a digibox with crt 12 inch screen tvs I get a buzz on the sound, but not with larger sets?

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Saturday, 16 March 2013
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:27 AM

Nick: I am really trying to determine as to whether or not your problem is simply being caused by your box picking up more channels during an auto-scan than the tuners memory capacity allows hence the ones picked up first are dropping out, this excluding the possibility of the tuners memory IC having developed a fault.

Of course it could also be found that the problem is being caused by one of the most common reasons of all, and being that the signal level is dipping under the reception threshold for the tuner, although to reiterate on a previous comment I made with regards to the box, insomuch that by it not having separate strength and quality indicators then this is a serious impediment to it being used for any form of meaningful tests, as when dealing with DTT signals a quality indicator is an absolute must.

And on that subject of quality, it would be advantageous if you had a variable attenuator in line with the boxes aerial socket albeit with it normally being kept set for zero attenuation, because going by what you have reported with regards to receiving a strong signal from the BBC mux, if indeed you are then what "might" be happening is that the signal is occasionally peaking over the top and causing intermittent blocking of that mux, as signals received at distances can rapidly fluctuate upwards as well as the reverse and if the former was applying then this is where the in-line variable attenuator would be handy, because should you find that the picture had vanished you could instantly verify (or not) if the problem was being caused by an intermittent signal level excess.

By the way the other reason for suggesting the variable attenuator is that it might be somewhat easier to use that rather than temporarily bypassing the booster.

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

7:40 AM

Nick: I would say that the size of the screen is not really connected in any way to the problem, but though does this buzz change in pitch with the content of the picture? insomuch varies with the intensity of the picture but with it generally being worse on a whiter screen likewise fades or darker ones, or is the noise constant no matter what the content of the picture is?

Is this being connected to the box via a scart lead?



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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:10 PM

JB,
You are a marvel.
Yes, connected by scart to small set, buzz does change pitch according to brightness, but only marginally. Have another small set, ancient Fergusson without remote facility connected by aerial socket to Icecrypt, no problem.
I think you may be barking up the right tree re too much signal on BBC/ITV. I have a whopping homemade aerial and booster to be able at last to pull in the naff mux on c60. Fortunately I also have a 'homemade' booster, it is one of those behind the set ones. I have split it, with the gubbins on the mast, powered by a cable, to the transformer in the attic. I will remove the transformer and replace with 6 volts, as I found during testing I could reduce the gain that way. What a palaver over a rotten mux on c60! If I lose c60 doing this, I will swear!
I will also do your experiment.

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:30 PM

JB, just to clarify.
Only my tvonics is on Sudbury. It is not overstretching itself with channels. I only connect the aerial when it looks close to channel 41, a trick difficult to achieve. If I do not do this, it logs onto the local Aldeburgh channels.
All small sets are on Aldeburgh.
Are you saying that if the BBC signal from Sudbury peaks too high it can cause the picture to vanish...and not be restored without a retune?

link to this comment
Nick's 431 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:32 PM

Nick: Basically yes! this based entirely on what you have reported with regards to the signal being strong etc.

But as far as the PSB channels being lost are concerned, if the action of selecting BBC1 results in a blank screen then the "only" way of determining the cause is by following (exactly) the manual tune test procedure as described in my reply on the 12th @ 07.53PM.

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

7:31 PM

Nick: Re: your 05.10PM posting concerning signal strength reductions etc, I would strongly recommend that you keep the test as simple as possible by "only" using an attenuator in line with the aerial socket as was described, because if you attempt to reduce the signal by changing the voltage being fed to the home made booster then you are effectively bringing something else into the equation thus making it difficult to evaluate the results as its effectively dealing with the unknown as far as signal attenuation is concerned.

Another problem that could be introduced by this action being, that there is always the possibility of the signal passing through the amplifier becoming corrupted due to the RF transistor being used for amplification becoming unstable because of insufficient voltage on its collector compared to that of the high level of RF on its base.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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