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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 07/10/2024 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, 26 May 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:18 AM

Nick: The whole point of wideband aerials is that with digital reception it doesn't matter if you pick up "out of group" channels, as this was a interference problem that belongs only to the analogue domain.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Friday, 27 May 2011
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:14 AM

Thanks Brian.
I am not certain it tells me which channels the foreigners are on. I will install yet again and see if I can find out.
The wideband aerials are a compromise as it is not possible to get max gain across channels which use elements and spacings almost twice the length at channel 21 from 68. The graph of their performance tails off at the extreme ends, but not so much as if you try a mid group aerial instead, eg, group B. However, the performance graph also shows that their performance, say on group B, is lower than using a group B aerial. So if you look only at the BBC and ITV channels, which hopefully will be all within the old group B, your signal for these channels is worse with wideband. Hope that makes sense.
Where can I find a full explanation of 'signal quality?'
Best wishes.

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:59 PM

Nick: Please don't get hung up about "maximum gain", this is not an analogue service, the quality of the picture and sound will not improve.

As long as you have stable reception above the threshold of reception, you have a perfect service. Below that threshold, nothing.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Saturday, 28 May 2011
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:30 AM

Thanks, Brian, I appreciate that.
I would like to know, though, where to find the definition of signal quality. Since you mentioned that a booster can reduce this, I have been concerned. My box does not show me signal quality. The Sky box shows both. Sometimes the quality is low yet reception good.

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:39 AM

Nick: The signal quality actually refers to the BER, the Bit Error Rate, which is the number of bits transmitted before a error is made.

The planning standard has a BER of 10^7 (ie, one error every ten million bits).

As the transmissions have Forward Error Correction (FEC) in them, this error can be detected and corrected.

Most Freeview devices will show this as "quality: 100%".

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Monday, 30 May 2011
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

6:57 AM

Um. Thank you Brian. If you could briefly tell me what affects it I would be grateful. Can I have a good signal yet poor quality? It seems I get a good signal on some channels yet poor quality and thus no picture. I do not understand why.
After plaguing you with questions, you might be interested to know I have bought a flat screen. I now get an intermittent picture from stations on c68. The box, though, still refuses to find anything there. [same aerial.]
The curious thing is that on my inferior aerial, the box finds channels on most mux, yet the flat screen finds nothing at all, although it hangs around the stronger groups trying, before telling me nothing found.
I cannot tell you more about the foreign channels. Since reinstalling they have gone.
Kind regards.

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:40 AM

Nick: Like I said, the signal strength does not matter, ONLY the signal quality is required for digital reception.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:09 AM

Thanks Brian, but I still do not understand what can cause quality to be poor yet signal good, and what can be done about it. Can you refer me to some document that explains?
Do you know why the Sky pic on a flat screen is less sharp than Freeview?
Also, why is the freeview sound a couple of secs behind analogue? It is not bouncing off a satellite.
Many thanks, kind regards, Nick.

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

9:00 AM

Nick: Right. This is an excellent document to read if you want to understand more about what effect the signal - http://tech.ebu.ch/webdav/site/tech/shared/tech/tech3348.pdf .

Sharpness is not necessarily a good thing - if your TV has a "sharpness" setting, turn it off or right down.

All digital signals require compression and packetizing - see How digital television works | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice - there always has to be a buffer for this to work efficiently.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

11:47 PM

Brian, as expected, the analogue picture on flat screen is worse than on crt, freeview is good where available but Sky is somewhere in between, quite blurred. I thought that it would be as good as freeview, so I could see the missing channels clearly. My local retailer says freesat is clearer and believes Sky deliberately blur the picture to encourage people to pay for their hd. Is this true? Many thanks.

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Nick's 431 posts GB flag
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