Full Freeview on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 52.005,0.786 or 52°0'17"N 0°47'8"E |  | CO10 5NG |
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 18/11/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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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 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 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.
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?
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
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 West | Transposer | 1000 homes +1000 or more homes due to expansion of affected area? | |
| Witham | Transposer | 14 km NE Chelmsford. | 118 homes |
How will the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 1 Aug 2018 | |||||
| B E T | B E T | B E T | E T | K T | |||||
| C29 | SDN | ||||||||
| C31 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C37 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C41 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C44 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C47 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C51tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ||||||
| C56tv_off | ArqB | ||||||||
| C58tv_off | SDN | ||||||||
| 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
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Friday, 29 September 2023
S
Steve Donaldson7:07 PM
nick : Have you tried to receive the full complement of channels from Tacolneston?
Neither Tacolneston nor Sudbury are ideal, as there is much terrain in the signal path, including the Fresnel zone. Tacolneston is a bit closer too.
At DSO Tacolneston got a new, taller mast, and the transmission power was effectively doubled. All six multiplexes are at the same power (there are quite a few main transmitters whose COMs are at half power with respect to the PSBs).
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nick 11:37 PM
Chris and Steve.
Thanks for all this info. Please clarify, you believe Rouncefall now transmits all channels? I have not found that info. Is it not going to cause problems having two adjacent transmitters using the same frequencies?
To get that French transmitter my aerial would have to be about 70 degrees off how it is set on Sudbury and pointing to Dover, which transmitter recently appeared but only briefly.
Tac is no use, zero reception in my situation, but aerials on it nearby, and on houses at tops of hills.
Have none of those appliances, and my aerial is some distance from neighbours.
I do not really know when signal q is 30%. I only experiment during the day in my garage. Evenings I am inside watching tv, or trying to, but 37 is the first to go.
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nick 11:40 PM
what is the purpose of a transmitter at Rouncefall when the area is served by other transmitters?
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Saturday, 30 September 2023
C
Chris.SE6:57 PM
nick :
The area isn't "fully" served by other transmitters, there are a number of blackspots, hence the In-fill with Rouncefall, which also covers parts of the north Kent coast that are poorly served by other transmitters.
It was originally a "Light" transmitter. The COM muxes were added during the 700MHz Clearance programme. Note my comments about coverage maps Rouncefall (new) (Essex, England) Freeview Light transmitter | free and easy for 21 years
Rouncefall is fully SFN with Sudbury across all multiplexes.
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Chris.SE7:10 PM
nick :
Most aerials have "side-lobes". Although the "gain" is significantly lower than the main beam, 70degrees sounds about right for a typical side-lobe, so under strong tropo who knows what is possible, it's not uncommon!
Is the Quality on 37 always a good 70/80% in the evenings?
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Sunday, 1 October 2023
N
nick 12:32 AM
Chris SE.
what does sfn mean please?
So you are saying having two transmitters using the same channels and in nearby locations does not lead to reception problems?
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Chris.SE12:53 AM
nick :
SFN means Single Frequency Network. They are "linked/synchronised" so that they don't interfere with one another. It's never 100% perfect as in a very small number of locations the signals aren't in perfect sync so you can at worst get a "not spot". All National DAB station transmitters are SFNs as are some local ones where they have more than one transmitter.
Sudbury/Rouncefall aren't the only TV transmitters that are SFNs. There are some eg. around Birmingham - I'd have to look them up if you really wanted to know.
The now deceased COMs 7&8 were SFNs on C55 & C56.
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nick 11:54 PM
Chris SE
Thanks.
I don't think it says here that Rouncefall is now no longer light, but if they can upgrade there, why can they not upgrade Aldeburgh which has twice the power and serves a large area, thus removing our reception problems from Sudbury? Can Sudbury not have a second 'sfn?'
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Monday, 2 October 2023
C
Chris.SE7:55 AM
nick :
Only part of the Rouncefall page got updated as I mentioned in a second comment after coverage in the link I gave.
Theoretically the number in an SFN can be unlimited, however the "separation" between them is also a factor and is also related to the guard interval used in transmission but I don't know enough about the maths to comment on that in more detail. HOWEVER the other more major factor is the channels used and hence the capability of the transmit antenna as well as the receive aerials that people already have on their rooftops, never mind the cost of transmitters etc. Changes have to be paid for!
Aldeburgh is outside Sudbury's aerial group and is also a "Light" transmitter. One of the reasons for that is historical, they always been within Group A. Also the number of households in the coverage area is small that the commercial operators have not considered it cost effective to pay for all the antenna changes and the extra transmitters that would be need to provide the COM muxes.
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Tuesday, 3 October 2023
N
nick 12:05 AM
Chris SE.
Surely the channels used is a matter for the whole country, and just because Aldeburgh was historically A seems irrelevant. Sudbury has had several changes to its channels, and I for one have had to change aerials more than once as a result.
I suppose this is another plus for freesat. It provides the same variety of channels for all, rather than freeview which gets away with treating a large number of viewers as second class.
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