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

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

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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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Tunbridge Wells (Kent, England) transmitter.

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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	V max	C41 (634.0MHz)	174m	DTG-	4,000W
	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)	174m	DTG-	4,000W
	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)	174m	DTG-	4,000W
	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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	V max	C29 (538.0MHz)	174m	DTG-8	4,000W
	20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 Great! Movies Action, 57 Dave ja vu, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 CBS Reality, 68 RealityXtra, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 89 ITV4 +1, 91 WildEarth, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 35 others
COM5 ArqA	V max	C31 (554.0MHz)	174m	DTG-8	4,000W
	Smithsonian Channel, 11 Sky Arts, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 pick, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 60 Drama +1, 65 That's 60s, 70 Quest +1, 74 Yesterday +1, 75 That's 80s, 233 Sky News, plus 11 others
COM6 ArqB	V max	C37 (602.0MHz)	174m	DTG-8	4,000W
	Quest Red +1, Classic Hits, 12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 Great! Movies Christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 61 GREAT! movies +1, 63 Great! Movies Christmas 1, 71 That’s 60s, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 83 Together TV, 84 PBS America, 235 Al Jazeera Eng, plus 20 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?

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		C5_waves	C5_waves				ArqB
C39							_local
C41	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ArqB	ArqB	ArqB	BBCA
C42				SDN	+SDN	+SDN
C44	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	ArqA	ArqA	ArqA	D3+4
C47	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB
C49_{tv_off}				D3+4	D3+4	D3+4
C51_{tv_off}	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	_local	_local	_local
C52_{tv_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

Local transmitter maps

Tunbridge Wells Freeview Tunbridge Wells DAB Tunbridge Wells TV region BBC South East Meridian (East micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Tunbridge Wells transmitter area

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