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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
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

2:04 PM
Aldeburgh

Thanks Dave.
It strikes me that those on Dover are very fortunate. I can get it at the moment, though probably not in the winter, [struggled to get analogue in the winter.] They have their transmitter digitalised and all the channels come through straight away. Here, on Sudbury, they are still piddling about a year after switchover. Dover are also fortunate that all the channels used seem to be within the old group c aerial group, whereas we have to use wideband, and by definition not high gain, aerials to cover channels as far apart as 41 and 60.

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
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N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

2:06 PM
Aldeburgh

Dave, do you know which stations are classified as public service? Obviously not ITV 3.

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
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Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:16 PM

Nick: Sudbury has had to wait for Dover to switch-over so as to throw free the three final COMs channels. A few other transmitters have had to go through similar "temporary" stages, although at a year, this is one of the longer ones.

See the DMOL link I provided as it lists services by multiplex which are identified as either "PSB" or "COM".

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:23 PM

Nick: For Sudbury, a Group E aerial is semi-wideband as it spans Group B and Group C/D channels.

The other alternative is to use a Group C/D aerial for the COMs and diplex it with a Group B for the PSBs. Or the wideband may be suitable for the PSBs with it being diplexed with a C/D to pick up the COMs.

For diplexers, see Online TV Splitters, Amps & Diplexers sales

The one that "splits" at C51 should be suitable if the two-aerial approach is to be employed.

As I say, I'm not a professional so I don't know under what circumstances that may be better than a single Group E aerial.

Clearly the diplexer acts as a filter so on the COMs channels only the C/D aerial is used, and on the lower PSB channels only the other aerial is used.

See also:

Sudbury Transmitter

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:55 PM

Nick: For the BBC, it is the list of UK Public Services defined in the BBC's Agreement BBC - BBC Trust - Charter and Agreement , with any changes made by the BBC Trust since that was last revised. Basically, anything with 'BBC' in the name, plus CBeebies. On top of that you have the Qualifying Services: ITV1/STV/UTV, Channel 4/S4C, Channel 5, and the public service teletext provider (position vacant). That's it.

The +1 services are not counted as Qualifying Services, they are licensed as general TV services.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:58 PM

Nick: I used Megalithia to plot the terrain between Hollesley and Dover transmitter and I reckon that you may have line of sight at 66 miles.

I am not so sure that the same is true of the location which is further north and closer to Aldeburgh.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
R
Robert B
4:12 PM

Dave, thank you for explaining that channel 47 is the HD multiplex. I currently haven't got an HD tuner. I'm considering updating my equipment and think it would be better to switch to Freesat as there are more stations available and should I move into a poor reception area or one with just PSB coverage I'd be ok. I also believe that Freeview capacity is limited and that little expansion is possbile and it will limit the number of stations able to transmit HD over Freeview.

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Robert B's 7 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

5:46 PM
Aldeburgh

Thanks, Dave, yes, Dover too far from Aldeburgh. Might try Tac if Sud misbehaves.
Guess you don't know what constitutes a psb channel.
Can you tell me what happens if, say, the ITV on channel 23 and 41 are different regions? If the box tunes to both, can I see both and where would I view the second one, channel-wise?

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
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Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:57 PM

Nick: For which channels are PSB (and which are COM), see the "DMOL" link I provided in my posting at 1:48PM.

Also see this page, particularly starting at the heading "Independent Television Commission: 1, 2, A, B, C and D":

Why do the six Freeview "multiplexes" have twenty different names? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

For more general information on what Public Service Broadcasting is, type into a search engine something like {uk public service broadcasting}.

Basically, as explained in the link above, BBC, Channel 3 (branded "ITV1" by ITV Plc in England), Channel 4 and Channel 5 are Public Service Broadcasters and as such have obligations placed upon them. This includes achieving a particular level of coverage and which means the installations of small relay transmitters in populated areas that aren't otherwise served.

The PSB1 multiplex is for exclusive use of the BBC. PSB2 is licensed to D3&4 which is collectively owned by Channel 3 licencees and Channel 4. This multiplex must carry ITV1 (or STV in parts of Scotland and UTV in Northern Ireland), Channel 4 and Channel 5. The Public Service broadcasters can decide which other of their sister services they wish to carry on their PSB multiplexes.

You're now going to ask, why have they included ITV1+1 on PSB2 instead of ITV3? I imagine that the answer is down to the return they expect from the advertisers. Presumably providing an ITV1 one hour behind is seen as being more lucrative than ITV3. So it is all down to money and only ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5 must be carried on PSB2.

PSB3 is the only HD one, and whilst licensed to the BBC also carries HD services on behalf of ITV1 and Channel 4.

------

I am not sure that Aldeburgh 23 and Sudbury 41 are classed as different "networks" or "regions".

Aldeburgh is a relay of Tacolneston. According to this site, both Tacolneston and Sudbury carry BBC East and ITV Anglia East. I would be interested to know whether, as far as the receiver is concerned that these are the same network/region.

Sandy Heath is the third Anglia transmitter and it carries "ITV Anglia West". So there appear to be two variants of ITV Anglia; "East" broadcasts from Tacolneston and Sudbury and "West" comes from Sandy Heath. Do you know different?


I receive from Emley Moor, but I'm in a location where I can usually pick up Belmont up off the back of the aerial.

Emley Moor and Belmont are part of different BBC and ITV1 sub-regions. When I run the automatic tuning function on my Sony RDR-HXD870 is removes 80-odd duplicates once it completes. This leaves me with all services from Emley Moor plus the BBC One and ITV1 from Belmont. So I end up with two BBC Ones and two ITV1s but not two of everything else.

On another TV, I have all the duplicates, with the highest logical channel number (LCN) being 937! So it would appear that how it works depends on the design of the set.

Freeview TVs usually store duplicates starting at LCN 800.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:24 PM
Aldeburgh

Thanks again, Dave. I only go up to 300 odd, and they are blank. Yes, Sud and Alde are the same region, I was just wondering if I opted for Dover, which seems crazy, if I could get Anglia from Aldeburgh also, as Aldeburgh comes in with a bit of damp string, no need for separate aerial. In any case, diplexing aerials leads to loss of gain on both.
Yes, Sandy is Anglia West, all others mentioned, East.
Thanks also to Mike.

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
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