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 25/11/2024 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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Thursday, 26 July 2012
J
jb389:34 PM
Nick: Thanks for that update on equipment used, and on the basis of the models mentioned I suggest that you use the Icecrypt T5000 for your tests, as the Digilogic DSTB1000 is based on the Goodman's GDB3 (a switch over problem box) and the Tesco device uses an unknown model of early Vestel chassis.
The TVonics is a box made (allegedly!) in the UK but with it being a bit suss as far as exactly where the PCB originates from, as I "suspect" (maybe incorrectly) that it might be from Turkey where Vestel is based, as there is very little technical (service) info published about the box.
However I really do think that you would make things a little easier for yourself if you managed to pick up a Humax box, as all Humax devices are fitted with top class stable & sensitive versatile tuners which are absolutely ideal for carrying out experiments involving reception under difficult conditions such as applicable to your own situation, because if a person does not pick up a signal using a Humax box it can safely be assumed that its because that there isn't one there in the first place, something that cannot be said about every device.
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Friday, 27 July 2012
N
Nick9:06 AM
Woodbridge
Thanks JB,
By chance it is the Icecrypt I usually test with.
Can you explain, please, why in the past I have managed occasionally to pick up weak stations on c63? I ask because all the boxes seem to struggle with receiving a high power mux on c60. Are you saying that some boxes, whilst receiving the majority of mux channels, cannot cope with all?
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Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
N
Nick12:45 PM
Woodbridge
This morning the Icecrypt received c60, sig qual 80%, strength 90.
By lunchtime, lost it, sig qual around 30%.
Hey ho.
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Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Nick: I wonder if the problem is Dover's C59 which is drowning out Sudbury's C60-. I wonder if there is any experimentation you could do, e.g. by measuring Dover's C59 from your shed aerial at different times and I wonder if when Sudbury reception is worse, Dover's may appear better.
Perhaps a phased array will help:
http://www.wrightsaerials….pdf
Wright's Aerials
A higher gain aerial has a narrower acceptance angle; i.e. one is traded for the other.
Obviously you will need two identical model aerials, but I don't know what sort of gain you will need on each. An array of two aerials will give a narrower acceptance angle than a single aerial (of the same model).
jb38, can you suggest? Perhaps the fact that the 14kW signals came in quite well might be a clue. Two Log 40s maybe?
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Nick: Further to the above suggestion, I have calculated that you need to set the two aerials 744mm apart from their centres. This gives a spacing of half a wavelength at 345 degrees (clockwise) at 778.0MHz which is C59.
That is, the distance from the point on one aerial to the same point on the other aerial, measured perpendicular to the the direction they face, should be 744mm. It is NOT the distance between the two aerials (which will obviously be less than this).
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J
jb385:51 PM
Dave Lindsay: The answer re: Log 40's is yes, or even DM Logs, although I still have to say that irrespective of what would be nulled out by constructing this type of system, that if the signal that "is" required is being received at totally erratic levels in the first place then I cant see this arrangement making much of a difference, as this type of set up is really intended to be used in an area where signals on the same frequency but received from two sources at reasonably constant levels are clashing with each other, and although there is nothing really wrong with what you suggest I really feel that after a lot of effort it would end up a disappointment for the reasons given.
Of course the other point is that this system requires "absolute" precision as far as alignment is concerned, and this is another thing that cannot be guaranteed where signals are erratic, as they are bound to be suffering from fluctuations in the angle received which would take the precision element away.
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J
jb385:54 PM
Nick: Re: your 09.06am query. Yes, that's exactly it, as in some areas where stations have one or more multiplexes operating with negative offsets on their frequencies there is always a number of older boxes that will perform adversely to this type of situation when coupled to receiving an 8k signal even although they may well have performed OK when used on pre-switchover 2k signals, and even although many of these boxes have been software updated to supposedly overcome this problem its a total hit and miss situation as they can still struggle dependant on the level of the signal being received, this showing up much worse when they are on the weaker side and likewise more difficult to capture in the first place.
That said, the Icecrypt is your only device that is removed from the ranges associated with suffering from these type of problems (as well as others) and with that being why I advised using it for reception tests, which of course you have confirmed that you do!
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J
jb385:57 PM
Nick: By the way, the reply I have just posted was pre-typed during a lunch break earlier on but for various reasons could not send it.
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N
Nick6:16 PM
Woodbridge
Gentlemen, thank you.
I do not actually want Dover, so I only need one aerial, on Sudbury, provided it works.
Now I will tell you something that will make you think I am barking.
Using the Icecrypt box, with two homemade aerials, this morning, each in turn on the same high pole in the garden the following happened.
Aerial 1 received all muxes pointed at Sudbury.
Aerial 2, which I consider much higher gain, received all but channel 60. I then turned it 90 degrees approx to see if I could get Tac, but left it on the Sudbury muxes, before a retune. I found that I then got ALL Sudbury muxes!
I then put aerial 1 back, pointed the same way, and got nothing, as should have been the case with aerial 2.
For your info, aerial 2 is a tribeam, with the outer two sets of directors designed for group cd and the centre set for group b. The dipole was a compromise between the two, more or less square and based on the old J beam slot aerial Thus each line of directors hits it.
Finally, are you saying that a strong signal, which should not be so coming from Dover on c59 can knock out a Sudbury signal on 60 minus with the aerial pointed at Sudbury?
| link to this comment |
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
N
Nick6:34 PM
Woodbridge
My tribeam has a balun. The design is based on my very successful Dover aerial, except that the Dover one has three identical sets of directors as all channels used are in/near group cd. The dipole on the Sudbury one is only marginally bigger, in other words, it is still skewed for the higher channels at the expense of 41 and 44.
| link to this comment |
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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