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Full Freeview on the Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) transmitter which serves 330,000 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 Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) mast?

Tacolneston transmitter - Tacolneston 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 Tacolneston 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
C40- (625.8MHz)263mDTG-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
C43- (649.8MHz)263mDTG-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
C46 (674.0MHz)263mDTG-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
C42 (642.0MHz)263mDTG-8100,000W
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
C45 (666.0MHz)246mDTG-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
C39+ (618.2MHz)246mDTG-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

LNR
 H -10dB
C32 (562.0MHz)263mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
7 Mustard,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Tacolneston transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Look East (East) 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Norwich NR2 1BH, 16km northeast (37°)
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, 16km northeast (38°)
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?

Gt YarmouthTransposer1 km S town centre30 homes
Lowestoft (2)TransposerRotterdam Rd125 homes

How will the Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-1717 Jul 2018
VHFC/D EC/D EC/D EEE TW TW T
C3BBCtvwaves
C31com7com7
C32_local
C37com8com8
C39 +ArqB+ArqBArqB
C40BBCA
C42SDNSDNSDNSDN
C43D3+4
C45ArqAArqAArqAArqA
C46BBCB
C50tv_off BBCBBBCB
C52tv_offC5wavesC5waves
C55tv_offBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves-BBCA-BBCA-BBCAcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C57tv_offLNRLNR
C59tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves-D3+4-D3+4-D3+4
C62BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCB
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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 9 Nov 11 and 23 Nov 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
com7(-9.6dB) 27.4kW
com8(-10.2dB) 24kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, LNR(-14dB) 10kW
Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-17dB) 5kW
Analogue 5(-18dB) 4kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Tacolneston 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. Tacolneston 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
Monday, 11 June 2018
R
Richard Russell
3:26 PM

> Seem to have lost some HD channels after recent retune. 113, 107 etc.

Those services are in the COM7 multiplex, which was completely off-air from Tacolneston from around lunchtime Friday until about 10 a.m. this morning. If you retuned in that period, it explains their loss. Try retuning again now the transmission has been restored.

link to this comment
Richard Russell's 11 posts GB flag
D
DJB
5:01 PM

Still no joy for me with COM7 and COM8 through my BT Youview box.

However no probems at all with them with the aerial plugged directly into the TV.

The readings from the TV for BBC1 HD is 95% quality 100% signal.

The readings from the TV for BBC News HD is 62% quality 100% signal.

The readings for BBC1 HD from Youview is 100% quality 96% signal.

Cannot supply figures for BBC News HD through Youview as it won't tune in.

I have another aerial for the kitchen that used to point at Tacolneston but now points to Sudbury. This was in the low power days and Sudbury was very patchy. In comparison Tacolneston was good. The quality and signal levels in those days were much lower than todays and the picture did get interrupted by the fridge motor. The point I'm making is, I could always pick something up despite much lower signal.

The one thing that I notice when I call up BBC News HD is it always has a slight delay before the picture comes on. Thereafter it is fine. I think these Youview boxes don't give their tuner enough time to lock on to the channel. This is something that could be easily resolved with a manual tuning option.

link to this comment
DJB's 7 posts GB flag
S
StevensOnln1
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:38 PM

DJB: If you have 100% signal strength you may be overloading the tuner with too much signal. Try fitting an attenuator to reduce the signal strength.

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StevensOnln1's 3,607 posts GB flag
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

6:14 PM

DJB .I have the same situation with a youview box compared to the tv. I believe that the box is just less sensitive than the tv . Its not surprising really knowing that COM7 and COM8 were around 1/3 power of the other multiplexes . They are now a bit less than 1/5 power. We need a bit more amplification or an aerial having greater sensitivity at the COM7 8 frequencies . Note there is a limit to how powerful an amplifier to use because there is such a thing as too much amplification..

link to this comment
Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 12 June 2018
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:26 PM

Hrdy and DJB:

In both your cases it could be that you have too much signal, as suggested by StevensOnln1. It is often the case that different equipment responds differently when fed too much signal. So I concur with the suggestion to reduce the signal strengths - it need to be between 60% and 85% for best results.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

4:58 PM

I agree that if DJB is seeing 100% on com7 or 8 amplification might be too high . In my case on the youview box the level fluctuates between 44% and zero on com8 . Its zero on com7. Its hard to read strength on the tv but the picture is usually fine with no pixelating.

link to this comment
Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 13 June 2018
D
DJB
4:45 PM

Hardy: I've just been in the loft and placed a 10db attenuator on the distribution side of the amplifier.

On the TV BBC News HD was still available. BBC1 HD and ITV HD had no picture and reported low signal. After a retune they came back and BBC News HD was still there. The TV is being fed from the out line of the Youview box.

I retuned the Youview box and there was no change. BBC News HD still missing. The same 130 channels reported prior to introducing the attenuator.

The final test will be to put the youview box and a TV in the loft and feed it direct from the aerial before the amplifier is involved. I have to do this prior to the soaps starting otherwise I'm dead.

link to this comment
DJB's 7 posts GB flag
D
DJB
7:38 PM

HARDY: This is so frustrating.
In the loft, TV tunes in to everything.

First attempt at the youview box I got Com 8 not Com 7. On the second attempt I got both.
The youview box signal indicator gave a quality reading of about 40 and 20 respectively. The box tuned into 170+ channels. I get 130 downstairs.

Back downstairs and Com 8 and 7 are blank. In addition BBC1 HD etc all reported signal problems. Did a retune and now they are back. Looks like the box locked on to a weaker but viewable mux for BBC1 HD upstairs but that mux is unreachable downstairs.

No problems at all with the channels viewed through the TV.

Youview need to produce a box with a more sensitive tuner.

link to this comment
DJB's 7 posts GB flag
Thursday, 14 June 2018
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

10:13 AM

DJB looking at your post code it looks like you have a difficult situation . ie you are quite close to Sudbury so you should be able to get all its channels reliably with no amplifier . To get com7 and 8 you need to tune to Tacolneston but that will require an amplifier . There is also the possibility of some small signal from crystal palace ,Dover and a local relay!! In such a situation I think a careful choice of aerial (or even aerials !) and type of amplifier would need to be made . It could be that a wideband amplifier like you have cant cope with such a mixture of strong and weak signals . I think the ideal set up would be a non- amplified aerial pointed at Sudbury combined with an amplified aerial pointed at Tacolneston. But the amplifier should be a tuned type only covering UHF 50 to 58. (a relatively expensive set up) The Youview box maybe having trouble with the mixed signals not just a lack of sensitivity . My set up is almost identical to yours but in this location its just weak signal and continental interference that is the problem so I have gone for Freesat .

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Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
D
DJB
6:01 PM

Hardy: I'm going to have to admit defeat on this one. I only went down the amplifier route as I had missed an episode of Homeland a few months ago and I wanted to watch the replay in HD on C4/7. I had hoped the retune last week would have brought those channels in for me. Ho hum.

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DJB's 7 posts GB flag
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