Full Freeview on the Whitehawk Hill (Brighton and Hove, England) transmitter
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The symbol shows the location of the Whitehawk Hill (Brighton and Hove, England) transmitter which serves 96,000 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 Whitehawk Hill (Brighton and Hove, England) transmitter._______
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
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Whitehawk Hill (Brighton and Hove, 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 Whitehawk Hill 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
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Whitehawk Hill (Brighton and Hove, 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 Whitehawk Hill transmitter?
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 43km northeast (36°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
ITV Meridian News 0.9m homes 3.6%
from Whiteley PO15 7AD, 80km west (274°)
to ITV Meridian (South Coast) region - 39 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford
How will the Whitehawk Hill (Brighton and Hove, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1950s-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 16 Oct 2019 | ||||
| VHF | C/D E | E | E | C/D E T | W T | ||||
| C2 | BBCtvwaves | ||||||||
| C34 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | D3+4 | ||||||
| C36 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C40 | _local | ||||||||
| C48 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C51tv_off | BBCB | ||||||||
| C53tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | D3+4 | |||||
| C54tv_off | LBN | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | ArqA | ||||||||
| C57tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | SDN | SDN | ||||
| C60tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | -BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C63 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
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 7 Mar 12 and 21 Mar 12.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 10kW | |
| Analogue 5 | (-3dB) 5kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-4dB) 4kW | |
| Mux B* | (-10dB) 1000W | |
| Mux 2*, Mux C*, Mux D*, LBN | (-14dB) 400W | |
| Mux 1*, Mux A* | (-17dB) 200W |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Whitehawk Hill transmitter area
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Monday, 25 March 2013
A
Arnie6:09 PM
I've seen a few new substantial aerial installations on Hove seafront (noticeably Brunswick Terrace) with Horizontally polarised elements, apparently directed to Whitehawk Hill. This cannot be an installation error can it? Are there any dual polarised services from Whitehawk? I'm sure we are out of range of the very low power central Brighton relay, and that wouldn't be in exactly the same direction.
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Arnie: You are correct; Whitehawk is only vertically polarised (no horizontal component).
Why would these properties have required their aerials to be replaced? They appear to be in a great spot for reception.
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A
Arnie8:01 PM
Thanks Dave.
The sea air and strong winds do take their toll here. Aerial installations seem to only last about three years on average! It's a pity I can't upload a photo. Maybe the riggers didn't have the right brackets with them one day and thought that enough signal would still get in with the wrong polarisation.
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Saturday, 30 March 2013
R
Richard Davis5:09 PM
Like you, Arnie, I've seen many properties in Brighton and Hove with new horizontally polarised aerials pointing at Whitehawk! It just goes to show how incompetent/ignorant some TV aerial companies are! Many of these aerials are on council-owned properties, and will have been put up as part of the council's programme of replacing all the communal aerial systems in time for DSO - the council have presumably contracted this out to various firms, some of whom are more competent than others. In the case of DIY-types who've replaced their own aerials, I suspect it may have to do with the fact that Britain is almost unique in using vertical polarisation, most countries on the continent using only horizontal. Because of this, the instruction leaflets supplied with continental-made aerials may not mention any way of mounting other than horizontal, and someone who knows nothing about aerials and is just following the insructions will thus mount the aerial horizontal, as no doubt the diagrams will show!
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Monday, 22 April 2013
M
Me1:33 PM
Brighton
Why is Whitehawk Hill vertically polarised and Heathfiled horizontally polarised - they are both main transmitters?
I know that in theory receivers and transmitters should match in term of polarisation, but, practically, does it make a lot of difference regarding reception?
For people who use a sub-transmitter for geographical reasons, is it possible to increase the gain at the rear to take advantage of some of the programs offered by a main transmitter (other than rotating the aerial). I tried removing the reflectors from a Yagi style aerial, but it made no difference to any receptions.
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Me's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Me: In the UK, the high-power transmitters are all horizontally polarised and smaller relays are generally vertically polarised.
Polarisation is not dictated by whether the transmitter is a "main" one, but more how it fits in with other transmitters that are co-channel.
Transmitters that are of the power output of Whitehawk are generally vertically polarised.
The gain of an aerial is relative to its directivity. The more it is focused into a narrower beam, the greater its directivity and gain. Removing the reflector reduces its forward gain. And its "rear" gain isn't going to be great because there are no elements in front of the dipole, let along a reflector at the "front" of the aerial.
What is it you are trying to do. Are you looking to have available the other regional channels?
The three "main" transmitters are:
- Heathfield with BBC One South East and ITV Meridian East.
- Whitehawk with BBC One South East and ITV Meridian South.
- Rowridge with BBC One South and ITV Meridian South.
So Whitehawk has the same BBC One as Heathfield and the same ITV as Rowridge.
If you can receive from Heathfield and Whitehawk, you won't be able to diplex two aerials because the channels used by each transmitter don't allow it.
Saltdean is a relay of Whitehawk, but that can't be diplexed with a Heathfield aerial either. Newhaven is a relay of Heathfield, but that can't be diplexed with a Whitehawk aerial. The reason being that all these transmitters use C/D channels.
If you can receive from Rowridge then its channels can be diplexed with one of the C/D transmitters. Diplexing it with Heathfield or Newhaven will give you ITV Meridian South, just as with Whitehawk.
One thing it might depend on is how well you can receive the COM channels from Rowridge. If you can't get them, or they are unreliable, but Heathfield's COMs are better then you are likely to prefer Heathfield as to one of your two transmitters. In which case you may use Heathfield and Rowridge.
Be aware that channels 31 to 37 "may" (depending on if the powers that be can make up their mind for long enough that it comes to fruition) come into service from the larger main transmitters, which may include Rowridge but not Heathfield:
Ten more HD channels on two new Freeview HD multiplexes on air from 2014-18 | Freeview news | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice
For that reason, a C38 will probably be best. That will allow you to pick up 31 to 36 (and 37 to a degree) from Rowridge.
For Rowridge you need your aerial vertical. It is Group A, so a Group A yagi is best - don't use a wideband yagi!
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Wednesday, 24 April 2013
M
Me3:25 PM
Brighton
Does the reflector reflect signals from the forward tansmitter to the dipole, or is it designed to reflect relections from the rear away from the dipole?
If a director was placed between the dipole and the reflector would that enahance reception from the rear of the aerial?
Is there a more powerful signal emitted from Whitehawk Hill after 9PM?
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Me's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Me: The rear reflector does both. Think of the effect a reflector on a light has.
Size of the relector, elements, dipole and distance between them all play a part. The reason is to do with the wavelength. For this reason, antennas designed to pick up lower frequencies are bigger (because wavelengths are longer). So all the bits are tuned.
I'm not an aerial installer; I have the knowledge of the basic principles.
It may be worth noting that Heathfield and Saltdean are inline with one another, albeit that the latter is vertically polarised. However, Saltdean is a relay of Whitehawk.
Prior to switchover, Heathfield used all Group C/D channels, except for C47 which is just below C/D. After switchover, channels are within Group B, albeit that there is overlap. The COM channels are the lowest and therefore is there are any difficulty it follows that it is likely to be those channels.
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Me: My point in the last paragraph is that if you aren't getting the COM channels from Heathfield then a replacement aerial might do the trick.
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Me: The power of the transmitter is the same at all times. You don't have line-of-sight owing to the high ground at the back of Westmeston Avenue.
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