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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 25/03/2024 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),

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 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others

COM5
ArqA
 H max
C31- (553.8MHz)228mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 90s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others

COM6
ArqB
 H max
C37 (602.0MHz)228mDTG-8100,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies extra, 63 GREAT! romance mix, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 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
Saturday, 9 July 2011
K
Karl
4:00 PM

I saw someone comment about a problem about loosing the BBC Red Button on a Philips TV.
If the TV model number has either 5522 ,5602 ,or 7662 in it then there is a firmware update to fix this.
It's not on the Philips (P4C) or the Servicer website. The local appointed service agent quoted a minimum of 7days to fix it. And Philips said that it had been broadcast and any set that missed it would have to be manually updated. Our service department did eventually get Philips to email the files.
To do this you need a Compact Flash card and an adaptor to convert the card to PCMCIA.
The prceedure is straight forward but you must have the about hardware first and your TV must be one of the models listed above.
I have been given the files by our engineer and can forward them on if needed.

Karl

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Karl's 1 post GB flag
Dale
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:29 PM
Ipswich

Will : I think you are confirming my supposition. Cheers.
The only question now is : WHY did they do anything at all to MUX 2 at DSO1, when DSO2 switches it to a different channel(41) on high power. Someone must have gone out of their way to make an early (unhelpful) change when surely it would have been easier (and in line with the plan!) to do it with the other changes on 20th July? Mind you, they've also upped the power on MUX A to 14k, which is a good thing, when that was also not meant to happen until DSO2 according to the Digital UK postcode predictor (though the latest OFCOM document DOES say it happens at DSO1 : just checked!)

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Dale's 78 posts GB flag
Dale's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeH
10:47 PM
Woodbridge

Since switchover on 6th July I have seen several installations where Mux2 (CH56)will not tune in. I have tried removing aerial and re-scanning but no joy. The signal level seems to be quite low - approximately 36% on my Sharp PVR. Is this likely to improve at the second stage on 20th July?

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MikeH's 7 posts GB flag
MikeH's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 10 July 2011
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:26 AM

MikeH: According to the trade predictor, Ch56 is not showing as being receivable on IP12 post code areas until the 20th of this month when the channel number changes to 41 at switchover stage 2.

Even then only the first three Mux's are shown as having good reception, these being Ch44-Ch41-Ch47, the latter being the HD Mux, the remaining three being classed as variable until June 2012, although MuxD (Ch63) does improve slightly on 16th of November this year.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Dale
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

11:31 AM

MikeH : as I found out and posted a few days ago, at DSO1 they changed Mux 2 on CH56 to 8K FFT mode from 2K : apparently this is the equivalent of a few decibels drop in signal power, meaning that many people have lost those channels. My signal quality has gone down from 90% to 50% but I can still get the Mux here (IP2). It should be ok on 20th July when it moves to CH41 and goes from 1.1kW to 100kW!
More details here : Freeview on Sudbury TV transmitter | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice (IP29XY)

link to this comment
Dale's 78 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:39 PM

MikeH: If I could just add what I omitted to mention on my original posting, insomuch that a "signal" level of 36% is not usually sufficient to resolve a picture on most digital equipment, this no matter what the transmission mode might be, albeit that what Dale has mentioned would apply to any equipment that wasn't capable of operating on 8K irrespective of how strong the signal might be. (or not!)

Dales post code location (IP2) indicates variable reception on Ch's 56/68, whereas your post code indicates no reception being possible, this because anything received will be under the so called "digital cliff", an effect that I think you are experiencing.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
B
Bob Smith
5:59 PM

Hi folks... I live in Chelmsford CM1 area and purchased a new Digital TV to connect to my Anglia aerial (old TV pre SCART era) Reception good to excellent except for Sky News (Ch 82) which was fine for a day or two - then went on the "blink" - came back yesterday (Sat) - but on the "blink" again today with numerous coloured fuzzy lines - no sound. Any problems reported ??

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Bob Smith's 6 posts GB flag
Dale
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

7:00 PM
Ipswich

The point I was making is that the signal level (quality) drops significantly on 8K compared to 2K mode : I would guess that MikeH had much more than 36% before 'they' made the odd decision to switch Mux 2 to 8K Mode while still on low power (1.1kW).

link to this comment
Dale's 78 posts GB flag
Dale's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
M
MikeH
8:09 PM
Woodbridge

Dale & jb38: Thanks for your comments. It is fair to say that the installations I referred in my post had previously received this MUX with no problem prior to switchover. Hopefully that means all will be restored to normal on the 20th !

For interest I'm running with a DAT75 aerial so that is most likely why my setup still works, albeit with low signal level.

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MikeH's 7 posts GB flag
MikeH's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
R
Ron Purcell
4:02 PM

I live in Chelmsford, Essex and until the 6/7 I was able to receive BBC1 London on freeview 1 and BBC1 East on freeview 806, both with good reception.

Now after a requested retune by the TV freeview 806 has disappeared completely

I have two wideband ariels, one pointing at Crystal Palace and another pointing at Sudbury.

How can I retune to be able to pick up both BBC1 London and BBC1 East?

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Ron Purcell's 2 posts GB flag
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