Full Freeview on the Tunbridge Wells (Kent, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 51.173,0.297 or 51°10'22"N 0°17'51"E |  | TN11 0NB |
The symbol shows the location of the Tunbridge Wells (Kent, England) transmitter which serves 53,000 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 Tunbridge Wells (Kent, England) mast?
Tunbridge Wells transmitter - Tunbridge Wells transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 29/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
_______
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 Tunbridge Wells (Kent, 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 Tunbridge Wells 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 Tunbridge Wells (Kent, 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 Tunbridge Wells transmitter?
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 5km south-southwest (205°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 21km northeast (53°)
to ITV Meridian (East) region - 36 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford
How will the Tunbridge Wells (Kent, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 19 Jul 2018 | |||
| B E T | B E T | B E T | B E T | B E T | B E T | K T | |||
| C29 | SDN | ||||||||
| C31 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C37 | C5waves | C5waves | ArqB | ||||||
| C39 | _local | ||||||||
| C41 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | BBCA | ||
| C42 | SDN | +SDN | +SDN | ||||||
| C44 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | D3+4 | ||
| C47 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | ||
| C49tv_off | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||||
| C51tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | _local | _local | _local | |||
| C52tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | BBCA |
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 30 May 12 and 13 Jun 12.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 10kW | |
| Analogue 5, SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-4dB) 4kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-20dB) 100W |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Tunbridge Wells transmitter area
|
|
Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldFriday, 15 June 2012
John Simmons
8:59 PM
8:59 PM
Since digital change-over day all channels on COM (MUX) 6 are very weak and breaking up from the Tunbridge Wells transmitter. This is despite the promise of increased power levels and the fact that the signal was perfectly satisfactory before. According to my Humax pvr the signal strength in that ITV4 group is 29% only.
| link to this comment |
Saturday, 16 June 2012
R
Richard Hawkins4:55 PM
Tonbridge
Transmitter engineering: TN11 8PE
I have an external roof aerial and I have excellent reception of all muxes apart from intermittent breakup of pictures and sound on channel47 being the HD mux.
Signal strength on my Humax box is a steady 75% on all muxes. My panasonic IDTV shows 100%. However the quality indicator drops down from 100% and the BER, which is normally zero jumps to a high value as the picture and sound breaks up.
I have installed a mains power condtioner and switched off all other electrical equipment in the house. It would appear that there is external intermittent interference causing the problem.
Could the transmitter be the source of the sporadic breakups?
| link to this comment |
Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb386:36 PM
Richard Hawkins: Its not entirely impossible for your problem to be connected with the work that's going on at the transmitter site, although only time will tell.
If your TV's aerial input is being looped through the Humax then you could for a test try connecting the aerial directly into the TV thereby by passing the Humax, although 75% on the Humax is quite OK for a level as Humax boxes indications are more in line with what would be expected from a proper signal meter, Panasonics although having excellent tuners having the tendency to give rather over optimistic indications of strength / quality.
Just out of interest what model of Humax are you using?
| link to this comment |
Sunday, 17 June 2012
R
Richard Hawkins9:42 AM
jb38. Humax HDR Fox T2/1TB. I have tried the HD mux with the Humax fed directly from the aerial and have done the same with he TV.Both show the same intermittent breakups on the HD mux.I have on order a group B passive bandpass filter. This may have no effect on the current problem but will hopefully future proof my set up from any out of band interference.
How can i find out exactly what engineering is being done at the TW transmitter and when it is due to finish? I have an automated reply from BBC Recption which states that intermmittent interference problems will be followed up :) !
| link to this comment |
Richard Hawkins: Perhaps it could be too much signal being fed into your receiver.
Tunbridge Wells and Heathfield are a "Single Frequency Network" (SFN) which means that they transmit on the same channels. This is perfectly OK as the digital system allows it.
Heathfield is horizontally polarised and Tunbridge Wells is vertically polarised, but your aerial could still be picking up Heathfield to a degree. What you get down your aerial lead is the sum of what's been picked up of the two signals.
| link to this comment |
L
Lawrence Heasman5:40 PM
Hi Am I understanding this right the TW transmitter is still on low power, but Heathfield has gone to full power. Some of my TVs are getting picture break up and sound breakup mostly on BBC channels but a few others. Previous to this changeover I had perfect reception on freeview, now it is all over the place. Today it seems ok with picture quality at 90% but signal strength at 40% (on a sony TV) am I getting interference from Heathfield (I am on the south side of TW in Broadwater down) or do I need a new better directional aerial to TW. One othe point I have a loft distributor, but it is now quite old (pre digital) could this be the problem?
| link to this comment |
J
jb388:28 PM
Tunbridge Wells
Lawrence Heasman: If your aerial is chimney mounted then you are unlikely to find a satisfactory solution to this problem as the signal levels received from Heathfield are liable to be a little too strong to eliminate, or at least partially kill so as not to cause serious problems with reception from Tunbridge Wells.
Although transmitters within range of each other and using the same channel numbers is a highly undesirable state of affairs, you would stand a better chance of improving things by using a log aerial in the loft and taking advantage of the fact that up until the 27th Ch42 (SDN) is only being used by Tunbridge Wells, and the fact of it being temporarily on low power of only 100watts can be used to further advantage, as that would enable the vertically mounted log to be carefully positioned so as to obtain maximum quality on Tunbridge Wells Ch42 without interference from Heathfield, as Heathfield's SDN is on Ch48 until the 27th, then on that date the situation with SDN (ITV3 etc) will be exactly the same as the other five muxes presently are, that is both stations using exactly the same channels across all six muxes.
There is always going to be an element of hit and miss in any attempts made to find a satisfactory solution to this problem, and of course what I have suggested is something more suited to a person trying this themselves, as the exercise can be a very time consuming task and not the type of thing that an aerial installer is likely to consider attempting without some exorbitant charge being made, but its very unlikely that any other measures taken would bring any better results.
By the way, not having knowledge of your location I have used a test code of TN2 5RP (Broadwater Lane) as a rough guide for the signal predictor.
| link to this comment |
jb38's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
jb38: If this is the sort of affect expected with two overlapping SFN transmitters with different polarisations, then do you anticipate that if a national SFN was launched (such as that proposed on C36), that there will be lots of people with reception issues?
| link to this comment |
L
Lawrence Heasman10:44 PM
Tunbridge Wells
Thanks for that JB38 in fact I am higher up in TN2 5NQ Broad Grove. And yes I do have a chimney Ariel supposedly a band b 12 element and it looks like a yogi so might be broad spectrum not just band B. I have since found that I am also getting channels (poor quality though)from Crystal Palace even though my aerial is at 90 degrees to pointing to crystal palace!
Now considering either a very directional aerial to try and screen out Heathfield, not so concerned about Crystal Palace as they are not a problem on frequencies. Another alternative is get a new aerial for crystal palace, I have noticed a few houses around me point that way anyway. What a pain in the but, it was new aerial just 3 or 4 years ago as the signal then was not good enough!
| link to this comment |
Lawrence's: mapL's Freeview map terrainL's terrain plot wavesL's frequency data L's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 18 June 2012
TUNBRIDGE WELLS transmitter - Over the next week Tunbridge Wells main transmitter: no analogue TV, TV (digital) working normally, Radio (analogue) working normally, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK] Over the next week Tunbridge Wells main transmitter: no analogue TV, TV (digital) working normally, Radio (analogue) working normally, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]
| link to this comment |
Select more comments
Your comment please