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Full Freeview on the Tunbridge Wells (Kent, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps51.173,0.297 or 51°10'22"N 0°17'51"Esa_postcodeTN11 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 15/04/2024 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 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 V max
C41 (634.0MHz)174mDTG-4,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South 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
 V max
C44 (658.0MHz)174mDTG-4,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (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 (Meridian south coast),

PSB3
BBCB
 V max
C47 (682.0MHz)174mDTG-4,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South 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
 V max
C29 (538.0MHz)174mDTG-84,000W
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
 V max
C31 (554.0MHz)174mDTG-84,000W
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
 V max
C37 (602.0MHz)174mDTG-84,000W
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 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?

regional news image
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.
regional news image
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?

1984-971997-981998-20122012-132013-182013-1719 Jul 2018
B E TB E TB E TB E TB E TB E TK T
C29SDN
C31ArqA
C37C5wavesC5wavesArqB
C39_local
C41ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesArqBArqBArqBBBCA
C42SDN+SDN+SDN
C44BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesArqAArqAArqAD3+4
C47C4wavesC4wavesC4wavesBBCBBBCBBBCBBBCB
C49tv_offD3+4D3+4D3+4
C51tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves_local_local_local
C52tv_offBBCABBCABBCA

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

Aug 1958-Jan 1992Southern Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Meridian
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. Tunbridge Wells 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?

Radiation patterns withheld

Comments
Tuesday, 10 December 2013
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:09 AM

Stewart: Your only 6km from your transmitter, which is very close, and You View boxes are made by Humax, which are known for sensitive tuners. HD channels tend to break up first when you've too high a signal strength, which is your problem.

The reason why your fine in the summer is that there are probably some trees between you and the transmitter, and in summer, they have leaves on them, which degrades the signal just enough for everything to be fine, but they fall in winter, and the signal strength just rises a little too much.

Google 'too much of a good thing' on this site', and buy an attenuator - I got a 6db (which will take about 10% off the signal stength) from Amazon for £1.86 the other day.

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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:00 PM

Stewart: I too wonder if the issue is too strong a signal. Perhaps the tree foliage reduces the strength just enough so as not to be OTT. There are, after all, a lot of trees that could be in the signal path, and I'm not just talking about those in Rusthall.

See this terrain plot:


Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location


The yellow line is the straight line between you and the transmitter. The pink line indicates the first Fresnel Zone (look it up). Anything within the first Fresnel Zone could, potentially, affect the signal.

In the direction of the transmitter, the ground goes upwards slightly up to the edge of Rusthall. The other thing to note is that at approximately 1.8 to 2.2 miles away the ground rises, although probably not enough to block line-of-sight. However, because the line-of-sight comes closer to the ground objects on the ground may intercept the line-of-sight and will certainly be within the first Fresnel Zone. That patch of higher ground is where Southborough is and on which sits Brokes Wood.

If you have a amplifier (booster) then remove it, or at least turn it right down. You might need to look at fitting some attenuation to bring down the signal level.

Try unplugging the aerial lead and holding it close to the socket and see if that improves matters. Do it whilst viewing the signal strength screen.

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

12:12 PM

Stewart: Having looked closer at the contour lines at Southborough, I think you might be able to see over Brokes Wood and it is on ground which slopes downwards away from you. The properties and trees along Yew Tree Road could certainly be in the way.

Indeed, if you click the link below the plot to view the area between the two points, the link intersects Yew Tree Road at its junction with The Ridgewaye, which is about where the highest contour line indicating 125m crosses.

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

12:13 PM

Stewart: The last sentence should say "the line intersects Yew Tree Road at its junction with The Ridgewaye".

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Friday, 17 January 2014
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

1:23 PM

TUNBRIDGE WELLS transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 11:22 today to 12:17 today. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,632 posts xx flag
Saturday, 18 January 2014
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:24 AM

TUNBRIDGE WELLS transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 11:22 yesterday to 12:17 yesterday. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,632 posts xx flag
Sunday, 19 January 2014
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:24 AM

TUNBRIDGE WELLS transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 11:22 on 17 Jan to 12:17 on 17 Jan. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,632 posts xx flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:22 PM

TUNBRIDGE WELLS transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 14:00 today to 14:02 today, BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 11:22 on 17 Jan to 12:17 on 17 Jan. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,632 posts xx flag
Monday, 20 January 2014
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:24 AM

TUNBRIDGE WELLS transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 14:00 yesterday to 14:02 yesterday, BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 11:22 on 17 Jan to 12:17 on 17 Jan. [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 150,632 posts xx flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:23 PM

TUNBRIDGE WELLS transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 11:22 on 17 Jan to 12:17 on 17 Jan, BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 14:00 yesterday to 14:02 yesterday. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 150,632 posts xx flag
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