Full Freeview on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter
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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 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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Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Nick: Negative offset means that the signal is centred 200kHz lower than the "centre" of the channel. A positive offset is 200kHz above the centre of the channel.
For example, C60 is centred on 786.0MHz, C60- is 785.8MHz and C60+ is 786.2MHz.
In all but a handful of cases, PSBs are on channels within the former four-channel analogue Groups for each transmitter. Where possible, COMs are also in Group, but there are now a number of high power transmitters that have COMs outside of their native Groups.
Sudbury's three PSBs are in Group B and its COMs are in C/D.
Tacolneston's PSBs are Group C/D and its COMs are Group B.
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Thursday, 19 July 2012
N
Nick12:17 PM
Woodbridge
Thanks Dave.
I get from this that C60- is slightly less out of group B aerials than C60.
Does this mean that if they chose, they could put some stations on three frequencies all centred on C60?
I suppose there is some good reason for Tac and Sud not to be able to swap some muxes so as to return to their traditions of groups C and B so that we don't have to buy new aerials.
I am still not certain why you mentioned the minus part of C60. Are you saying it may be harder to receive than if it were not minus?
I am amazed that there is a good signal on C58, but almost zero on C60, particularly on one aerial.
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Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 20 July 2012
J
Jason8:05 PM
Thanks for the replies and making the situation clear in a manner that i can understand, i had also noticed that the com muxs at Sud were in C/D and those at Tac were in B, was going to ask the same question as Nick as to why they could not be swapped over, but i guess that seams to be the way things have gone during the switch over {nothing was ever going to be simple} doing a bit of reasearch i think I have found six main transmitters that are broadcasting coms out of the transmitters orignal group, think there may probably be some repeaters as well, so we are not the only ones to suffer. And thanks to all that post as it makes this a very informative and helpful site.
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Sunday, 22 July 2012
N
Nick g2:29 PM
Since the power has been turned up on all multiplexes my hd signal is now really poor with regular breakup. Why is this?
Please help!
Any help appreciated
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J
jb387:31 PM
Nick g: This is nearly always caused by the signal received verging on being excessively high, as this situation will affect HD reception even although SD appears to be OK, and although you havent mentioned your location nor anything about your aerial if you are using any type of booster then try by passing it.
Another test to try is by using a set top aerial or a short piece of wire (about 18" min) connected into the aerial socket of your TV / box, but if you come back with your post code or one from nearby (a shop / pub etc) then further advice appropriate to your situation can be given.
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Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Nick: C60- is still above C59 and C59+ for that matter!
If there is a signal on C60-, then there can't be one on C60 or C59+ or, I believe C59. There could be on C59- though. Each signal has a specific bandwidth; that is the "width" of frequency it uses.
As an example, take Caldbeck. Transmitters that use C30 have a negative offset, so it is always C30-.
Caldbeck uses C22- C23- C24- C25- C26- C27- C28- C29- C30-
So because C30 has a negative offset, then C29 must do so as well, and so on and so forth.
Had there been no C28-, for example, then C27 and below wouldn't have had negative offsets.
The reason for nine channels is because Caldbeck transmits English and Scottish regional variants.
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Nick, Jason: There are many transmitters and only a relatively few channels. Had there only been two transmitters Sudbury and Tacolneston then no doubt they would have had all channels within each one's Group.
The main plan was to have PSBs in the same Group as the former four-channel analogue. Crucially this was so as to ensure that existing aerials would work; in some cases replacement aerials would be needed to receive the COMs and in others the COMs would be unavailable.
C61 to C68 which were formerly used for analogue are to be cleared. Some C/D transmitters have given up use of these channels at switchover and others will do so over in the next year or so. These frequencies are being set aside for 4G mobile operators. What it does mean is that there are now less C/D channels available than before.
Also, C31 to C37 have been ringfenced and are not used after switchover. Consequently available Group A channels are now C21 to C30.
Belmont is traditionally Group A. Its PSBs and COM4 are Group A, but the other two COMs are on C53 and C60. Similarly, Sandy Heath is also formerly Group A, with its PSBs being in that Group, but COMs being on C48, C51 and C52. Also consider Waltham which has five muxes in C/D but COM4 on a lowly C29.
These transmitters overlap, so the channels are:
21 Sandy Heath PSB3
22 Belmont PSB1
24 Sandy Heath PSB2
25 Belmont PSB2
27 Sandy Heath PSB1
28 Belmont PSB3
29 Waltham COM4
30 Belmont COM4
42 Tacolneston COM4
45 Tacolneston COM5
48 Sandy Heath COM6
50 Tacolneston COM6
51 Sandy Heath COM4
52 Sandy Heath COM5
53 Belmont COM5
54 Waltham PSB2
55 Tacolneston PSB1
56 Waltham COM5
57 Waltham COM6
58 Waltham PSB3
59 Tacolneston PSB2
60 Belmont COM6
61 Waltham PSB1
62 Tacolneston PSB3
Hopefully you get the idea. Think of the other high power transmitters that overlap these; Sutton Coldfield, Sudbury, Emley Moor.....
Then there are PSB relays within the coverage of each that requires channels within the Group of former analogue ones.
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Wednesday, 25 July 2012
N
Nick9:38 AM
Woodbridge
Dave, thank you for that.
I am currently trying to work out an aerial that will get me ch 60, far and away the most difficult. If you have any idea what channel will be substituted for it and when, you will save me the bother of installing yet another aerial which may or may not work.
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Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
K
Kevin Hodges11:56 AM
Chelmsford
Nick, for what it's worth I've a wideband 'X' beam aerial in the loft (feeding the TVs via a 4 way amp) and pick up all the Sudbury mux's loud and clear here in sunny Chelmsford. I assume that with the long term proposals to increase the number of mux's all aerials will need to be wideband
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Kevin's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
R
RobertB12:03 PM
Nick I've lived in the Woodbridge area for many years. TV reception has always been a problem in several areas of the town and surrounding area. You will see some aerials pointing towards Sudbury main , some Aldeburgh and others Woodbridge relays. Why not forget Freeview and go for FreeSat? Many more channels good reception. You'd have the expense of a dish and box but should solve reception problems.
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