Full Freeview on the Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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52.518,1.139 or 52°31'6"N 1°8'22"E

NR16 1DW

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 17/02/2025 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	H max	C40- (625.8MHz)	263m	DTG-	100,000W
	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)	263m	DTG-	100,000W
	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), 71 That's TV 3,
PSB3 BBCB	H max	C46 (674.0MHz)	263m	DTG-	100,000W
	46 5SELECT, 57 U&Eden, 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, 203 CBBC HD, 204 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	H max	C42 (642.0MHz)	263m	DTG-8	100,000W
	20 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 61 GREAT! mystery, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 74 U&DaveJaVu, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 251 Al Jazeera English, 255 FRANCE 24 (in English), 265 ROK, plus 21 others
COM5 ArqA	H max	C45 (666.0MHz)	246m	DTG-8	100,000W
	11 Sky Mix, 17 Really, 19 U&Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 Sky Arts, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 U&Drama 1, 65 That's TV 2, 70 Quest +1, 76 That's Dance, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	H max	C39+ (618.2MHz)	246m	DTG-8	100,000W
	12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! player, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's Melody, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 207 POP UP, plus 10 others
LNR	H -10dB	C32 (562.0MHz)	263m	DTG-12	10,000W
	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?

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

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 Yarmouth	Transposer	1 km S town centre	30 homes
Lowestoft (2)	Transposer	Rotterdam Rd	125 homes

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

	1950s-80s	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2011	2011-13	2013-18	2013-17	17 Jul 2018
	VHF	C/D E	C/D E	C/D E	E	E T	W T	W T
C3	BBCtv_waves
C31							com7	com7
C32								_local
C37							com8	com8
C39						+ArqB	+ArqB	ArqB
C40								BBCA
C42					SDN	SDN	SDN	SDN
C43								D3+4
C45					ArqA	ArqA	ArqA	ArqA
C46								BBCB
C50_{tv_off}						BBCB	BBCB
C52_{tv_off}			C5_waves	C5_waves
C55_{tv_off}		BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	-BBCA	-BBCA	-BBCA	com7_{tv_off}
C56_{tv_off}								COM8_{tv_off}
C57_{tv_off}							LNR	LNR
C59_{tv_off}		ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	-D3+4	-D3+4	-D3+4
C62		BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBCB
C65		C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves

_{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

Local transmitter maps

Tacolneston Freeview Tacolneston DAB Tacolneston TV region BBC East Anglia (East micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Tacolneston transmitter area

Oct 1959-Feb 2004	Anglia Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:08 AM

david faulkner:

, I haven't been able to watch Ch.5 as I'd intended.
I did manage to catch a few moments of the end of Casualty 24/7 just now and the sound might have been out of sync but I didn't see enough of it to be sure. I'm now watch the programme on 5+1 and there's no problem on that.
I'll try and catch some live broadcasts tomorrow.

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J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

1:25 PM

david faulkner:

A sample of the transport stream would enable determination of the cause of your sync problem.

I use a PC USB DVB-T2 device for , which allows recording such a sample.

I recorded a short clip, 2 min 35s, of Jeremy Vine off Channel 5 HD this morning and the sync is perfect.

I copied it to a USB stick and played it on an LG TV to verify good sync on that also.

It occurred to me that if you did likewise on your TV, you could perhaps eliminate your system as the cause.

The clip:

586 02-21 10-33-45.ts (66.66MB)

https://www.sendspace.com/file/3kpcko

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David

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

1:50 PM

Thank you but I dont have anything like that to try.....

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J

js

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

3:11 PM

david faulkner:

I'm not sure you understood what I meant.

1) Download the file
2) Copy the file to a USB flash memory drive
3) Put the drive in your TV's USB port
4) Play the file

You can't do that?

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Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

6:13 PM

David: js:

Well I just watched a fair bit of 5 News at 5, and the sound sync on both Live and recorded bits was far from "perfect". It seemed slightly worse on HD than on SD. This was similar to a selection of stuff I glanced at briefly in the last few days.
I don't have similar problems with the other main BBC1, ITV1 etc.
So I'll be dropping Ch.5 an email. I don't supposed it will even get looked at until Monday.

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David

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

6:38 PM

Ah, my .....I thought you meant for me to create a similar file
Yes, I can of course do that....will try and report back know
Thank you

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david faulkner

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

11:20 PM
Eye

js...
thank you for taking the trouble to do that..... no, the sound is a good 1/4 sec or more delayed
It seems correct if I use the TV speakers
but....IF it is an issue with my TV then why is is pretty much perfect on all the other

Chris.SE
Other than the initial reply I have heard nothing further from ch.5....no replies to subsequent emails either :(

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david's: D's Freeview map D's terrain plot D's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage

C

Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

12:29 AM

js:

Excellent recording, as well as sound, no problem with that.
So what is the DVB-T2 USB device that you're using?

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Chris.SE

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

2:18 AM

david faulkner:

I'm beginning to wonder if the problem isn't consistent and varies throughout the day or just with some programmes!
It wasn't "perfect" earlier on 5 News at 5, but I had to watch very carefully, but now watching the Bridget Jones film, it's clearly out of sync which I wasn't expecting, but I'm not seeing the same problem on 5+1. Going to have to check some more.

Just for clarification, you last said it seems correct via the TV Speakers. I got the impression from your first report that the problem was evident via the TV speakers. Is the problem only obviously evident when you use your "extra" sound system? Does your friend have a similar setup?
How is this sound system connected to the TV?

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david faulkner

_{sentiment_satisfied}Bronze

10:29 AM

TV is Panasonic TX-55FZ802B OLED, AV is Denon AVR-X1700H setup as 5.1 with additional sub....
They are connected via a good (HDMI 2.1 rated) and yes, I have tried different cables
I appreciate there will be a very small delay as the AV decodes the stream and sends it to the speakers but on all except ch 5 the delay isnt really noticeable...even to me
The TV is set to PCM, IF I set it to output Dolby bitstream then all the HD show lipsync delay.
I tried using the optical o/p but that is worse on all channels
HDMI seems the best overall (which it should be) and as I said, with that setup all the other channels are OK except ch 5 which seems to "confuse" the AV as it sends all sound to all speakers and, along with the delay, just sounds wrong......normally it directs speech to the centre, most sounds to the front L & R and the occasional effect to the rears (which, as in most setups are really sides rather than true rears)

Does channel 5 transmit sound differently to the others?.... I cant see any other reason why it should confuse the TV / AV system.

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