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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 - DAB: Off the air due to a fault from 24 Nov 19:16 until 24 Nov 19:19. Off the air due to a fault from 24 Nov 18:40 until 24 Nov 18:42. . BBC


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), 71 That’s 60s,

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 U&Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 38 Channel 5 +1, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! action, 57 U&Dave ja vu, 58 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 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 Sky +1, plus 29 others

COM5
ArqA
 V max
C31 (554.0MHz)174mDTG-84,000W
Channel icons
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, 74 &UYesterday +1, 76 That's TV 2 MCR, 233 Sky News, plus 13 others

COM6
ArqB
 V max
C37 (602.0MHz)174mDTG-84,000W
Channel icons
12 Quest, 25 U&W, 27 U&Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! christmas, 56 That's TV (UK), 63 GREAT! romance mix, 73 HobbyMaker, 75 That's 90s, 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
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:26 PM

Briantist: There is no SDN shown after switchover.

ArqB is shown as being on C42 after switchover when, according to DUK Tradeview, it is on C41. SDN will be on C42.

Postcode Checker - Trade View

link to this comment
Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Monday, 14 May 2012
J
John Bates
10:38 AM

Thanks Dave. Perhaps an expansion of your response of the "Power up" of levels on the 13th and then the 27th would have been more helpful.

link to this comment
John Bates's 2 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:58 AM

John Bates: The delay of two weeks will affect ITV3 and the other services carried on the "SDN" multiplex. See here under the heading "After switchover configuration" for those carried on SDN:

Freeview multiplexes | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

The reason for the delay is because the Dover transmitter is currently broadcasting on the same channel/frequency that will be used by TW for SDN after it switches over (Ch42). Dover completes its switchover on 27th June and it is then that it relinquishes use of that channel.

Thus, the interim low power from TW is so as to protect against causing interference to some people who are receiving C42 from Dover.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
Friday, 18 May 2012
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:26 PM

Dave Lindsay: Sorry, typo, I had 42 again for COM6, not 41. Should be OK now. Thanks for pointing it out!

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
A
andrew
9:09 AM
Tonbridge

I have an internal mobile aerial and had good coverage of bbc channels and also itv 3 cbbc etc. As from last night when retuned as instructed have lost many channels. Is this a transmitter problem and temporary.

link to this comment
andrew's 1 post GB flag
andrew's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
M
Melanie Machin
9:29 AM
Tunbridge Wells

TN4 9QY
My TV was OK then on 4th June 2012 all the independent channels went 'off line' (after an afternoon of the picture pixelating and becoming unwatchable).
I can only get BBC channels; my next door neighbours seem to have the same problem. I have retuned my set 4 times but with no luck.

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Melanie Machin's 1 post GB flag
Melanie's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 15 June 2012
John Simmons
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.

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John Simmons's 2 posts GB flag
Saturday, 16 June 2012
R
Richard Hawkins
4:55 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?

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Richard Hawkins's 3 posts GB flag
Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

6:36 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?

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Sunday, 17 June 2012
R
Richard Hawkins
9:42 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 :) !

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Richard Hawkins's 3 posts GB flag
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