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 25/09/2023 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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Thursday, 23 June 2022
C
Chris.SE1:24 AM
nick:
Hi Nick, ignore any fatal error message when posting, the posts do get through although there can often be a delay (due to caching, not the error).
Even with your technical knowledge, I'm sure you know you are in a very tricky location and even small changes to aerial location can make a big difference to reception. I assume you've checked out your predicted reception, it's not clever, even the Aldeburgh relay can be poor in some spots.
Whilst the frequency planners can and sometimes do make mistakes, I'm sure that in coastal locations like yours where there is potential for interference from the continent in "lift" conditions (Tropospheric ducting/Temperature Inversion) and likewise interference to them from us, the UHF channels chosen for the primary services (PSBs in our case) will have been to minimise this possibility, hence what you are experiencing. However there's still the possibility of interference not just from the continent, but from other UK transmitters in the "wrong" lift conditions. In your case, considering your aerial direction then Oxford and Wenvoe come to mind as possibilities, but even then under extreme conditions interference could come from anywhere using the same frequencies.
Are you using a "traditional" yagi, or still using a home-brew? If it's a traditional yagi then you're probably aware that it'll have a bit more gain on the higher channels which will help a bit with the BBC (PSB1) and ITV/C4/C5 (PSB2) muxes.
These days a quality Group K or Group B aerial can have similar performance BUT it will depend on the individual aerial as to which will have the best gain towards the bottom end of the band as well as the top end.
Attempting to position an aerial to make use of building screening from the most common source of interference (the continent) can conflict with the height required to get adequate signal from the intended source. Use of stacked arrays can sometimes help reducing sidelobes etc. but this is much more of a specialised technique.
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Friday, 24 June 2022
R
Rex Watson3:39 PM
Any news about what will happen to Freesports? It seems odd that Sky will just abandon it.
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S
StevensOnln14:16 PM
Rex Watson: Freesports have announced that they will be leaving Freeview next week but will continue to broadcast on Sky and cable, as well as via their online player FreeSportsPlayer.tv Live and On Demand and Samsung TV Plus.
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Friday, 22 July 2022
N
nick10:05 PM
Chris SE
Just come across your comments, thanks.
I think the mux on C31 is probaly the worst of the lot, though all are affected at times. When I lose BBC and ITV I have tried the HD mux, which does not work either.
I am talking about all my aerials. When one loses signal, so do the rest. I am wondering if a log periodic would be better, we have plenty of signal strength for one.
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Saturday, 23 July 2022
C
Chris.SE5:26 PM
nick:
If you are feeling like experimenting, then certainly a log periodic would be worth trying as it will have less sidelobes and rejection from the rear is better, beamwidth is also generally narrower. There's quite a few appearing now in recent times, so they are getting more popular.
There's a bit of tropo around at present (BBC & Freeview have warnings) and certainly last weekend ish during some of the hot weather continental reception was coming in on parts of the east coast.
As you undoubtedly know, LPs will have a flatter response over the band which could give a bit more gain on the lower channels but less at the top depending on what you choose and compared to what you currently have.
With your previous experimenting etc., you'd know what sort of gain you have with your current setup and therefore what sort of LP to choose. There's quite a few "K" group LPs around now as well (Blake are making some, as well as others). "K" group is the "new" wideband now that COM7 has gone, there's nothing above C48 (except Mobile as and when it appears!).
Whilst wideband ones are still available, I get the impression that stocks of same are "winding down" in favour of K group, unless you have a filter (or can get a free one from restoretv.uk because there's a new mobile mast near you), K group is worth considering to help being a bit more future-proof from possible mobile interference.
Search carefully as there are many which are quite sensibly priced, there are a number where rip-off prices are being charged for things which aren't special. It depends on what sort you want to go for and where you buy from!
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Monday, 5 September 2022
M
Mike H6:01 PM
Woodbridge
My location IP12 1JJ
I have been having picture break up for several weeks now. TV in one room seems O.K. Another is faulty most of the time. In attempting to fault find I observed that neither TV is receiving Ch 47 ! Is that a known problem with the Sudbury transmitter?
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Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Every evening I briefly lose tv signal (using sudbury transmitter). I receive a message on screen "no or poor signal". After about 30 seconds the signal returns. My post code is CO9 4LN. Any thoughts?
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david's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE10:29 PM
Mike H:
UHF channel C47 is the PSB3/BBCB HD multiplex. Your sets need to have an HD/T2 tuner to receive it.. Do your sets have T2 tuners - have you ever had the HD channels eg.on EPG LCNs 101-105 ?
Now unfortunately there's some factors which together don't help with good reception in your postcode although reception is quite variable across the postcode. Even though there is a Relay transmitter in Woodbridge with only the 3 PSB multiplexes even reception of that can be variable depending on where you are, predicted reception from Sudbury - the nearest main transmitter is also "variable" but probably the "best bet" for all 6 multiplexes. So a good quality aerial installation will be essential for the best chance of good reception.
Sudbury has been listed for Planned Engineering the last couple of weeks with "Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels" which if reception is poor could mean no signal (Do NOT retune).
The other factor is Current Weather conditions - Tropospheric Ducting - causing interference from more distant transmitters in Europe or the UK. This can be very variable and is usually short term at any instant but conditions have been persisting for several days, different parts of the UK are being affected at different time (East Anglia can be quite vulnerable). Not all multiplexes will be affected at the same time or at all.
Both Freeview and the BBC have issued warnings about short term interference to reception.
Check that your aerial is still pointing in the correct direction which should be ~250 degrees (that's almost WSW) with the rods (or squashed Xs) horizontal. Make sure the downlead isn't flapping in the wind and just check your coax connections behind the TV etc.
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C
Chris.SE10:40 PM
david crowdell:
As mentioned in my reply to Mike H, you have the combination of Planned Engineering and the Current Weather Conditions. Even though your aren't too far from the transmitter, from what you've described the interference from Tropospheric Ducting sounds like the most likely problem.
However, worth checking your aerial is still pointing correctly, for you it should be bearing 96 degrees (6 degrees S of due E) with the rods (or squashed Xs) horizontal. Also check your downlead and coax connections.
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Sunday, 2 October 2022
N
nick11:09 PM
Chris SE. Thank you for your comments. I thought log periodic only came in wideband form, and that was also why they existed. I have experimented with one I reconstructed which was found in a skip, and found the perfomance at least matched that of a triboom yagi.
I see that the elements are spaced at different measurements, thus also having some of the director /reflector attributes of a yagi.
I test my aerials only 6ft above ground, and assume that at height their differences in performance will remain the same.
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