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Full Freeview on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
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The symbol shows the location of the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter which serves 440,000 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 Sudbury (Suffolk, England) mast?

Sudbury transmitter - Sudbury transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 25/03/2024 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 Sudbury 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
 H max
C44 (658.0MHz)229mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) 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
 H max
C41 (634.0MHz)229mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Anglia (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 (Anglia east),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C47 (682.0MHz)229mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD 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
 H max
C29 (538.0MHz)186mDTG-100,000W
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
 H max
C31- (553.8MHz)228mDTG-8100,000W
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
 H max
C37 (602.0MHz)228mDTG-8100,000W
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 Sudbury (Suffolk, 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 Sudbury transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Look East (East) 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Norwich NR2 1BH, 77km north-northeast (24°)
to BBC East region - 27 masts.
70% of BBC East (East) and BBC East (West) is shared output
regional news image
ITV Anglia News 0.8m homes 3.2%
from NORWICH NR1 3JG, 78km north-northeast (24°)
to ITV Anglia (East) region - 26 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Anglia (West)

Are there any self-help relays?

Felixstowe WestTransposer1000 homes +1000 or more homes due to expansion of affected area?
WithamTransposer14 km NE Chelmsford.118 homes

How will the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20112011-131 Aug 2018
B E TB E TB E TE TK T
C29SDN
C31ArqA
C35C5wavesC5waves
C37ArqB
C41ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4D3+4
C44BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBCABBCA
C47C4wavesC4wavesC4wavesBBCBBBCB
C51tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C56tv_offArqB
C58tv_offSDN
C60tv_off-ArqA

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 6 Jul 11 and 20 Jul 11.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4 250kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-4dB) 100kW
Analogue 5(-7dB) 50kW
Mux 2*(-14.9dB) 8.1kW
Mux B*(-15.2dB) 7.5kW
Mux 1*(-15.5dB) 7kW
Mux A*(-17dB) 5kW
Mux C*(-22.2dB) 1.5kW
Mux D*(-23.6dB) 1.1kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sudbury transmitter area

Oct 1959-Feb 2004Anglia Television
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. Sudbury 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.

Comments
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
K
Kevin Hodges
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:01 AM
Chelmsford

Just out of interest what do the + and - signs mean on some of the channel numbers listed in the Transmission Frequencies above please.

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Kevin Hodges's 27 posts GB flag
Kevin's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:32 PM
Reading

Kevin Hodges: It means that the centre frequency of the transmission is slightly (167 kHz / 0.167 MHz) above or below the normal centre frequency of that channel.

Before switchover, it's used to get out of the way of an adjacent analogue transmission from the same site. If one channel has an offset, usually the next channel has one as well if it's used at the same transmitter. Mux A has a + to avoid C4 analogue, then Mux 1 has a + because of that, and Mux D because of Mux 1. I'm guessing that BBC One analogue has a reduced lower sideband to avoid clashing with Mux D.

After switchover, it's usually only used to ensure that whatever other system is licenced to operate in the adjacent band doesn't cause problems. You usually see C21 with a + offset to avoid problems with TETRA, for example. C60 has a - to avoid the 800MHz mobile phone band that will be auctioned shortly after switchover completes. Channels 31 to 38 are due to be released (the 'Digital Dividend').

The Caldbeck transmitter therefore uses C30- to avoid whatever gets licensed at 550 MHz upwards (C31). This causes a cascade of each lower service also having a - offset. There's a potential problem for any local service here as it's been allocated C21 which would normally have a + offset, but that would collide with the Scottish BBC service on C22-. That's the most extreme case I'm aware of.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
Mike's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 10 April 2011
M
Mr M Donnelly
4:00 PM
Felixstowe

Does high pressure weather conditions affect DTV reception?
Since the improved weather last week and this weekend I have lost nearly all my freeview reception.
I live in Felixstowe and had a new ariel fitted last year and have retuned my tv to try and sort this but to no avail.
Any advice would be most welcome.

Postcode IP11 9BE

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Mr M Donnelly's 1 post GB flag
Mr's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 11 April 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:59 AM

Mr M Donnelly: Actually, the problem is the analogue transmission, rather than the digital ones - please see What is the Inversion Effect and why does it effect my Freeview TV reception?
| ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice
.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
G
Gary Barker
8:13 PM
Colchester

Can you tell me why we keep getting interference; clicking of sound and picture distorting/freeze frame/strips of colour, mostly on ITV usually improves after TV has been on a while but not always. Our aerial is on the chimney stack.

Is there anything we can do to improve this situation? We have no problems on our non freeview TV.

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Gary Barker's 1 post GB flag
Gary's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Friday, 15 April 2011
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:48 AM
Woodbridge

We are on the east coast and regularly get our Sudbury signal, otherwise strong, wiped out by the Dutch under adverse atmospheric conditions, this can apply to all five channels at times. I am wondering if the Dutch will also knock out freeview when it arrives in July, as they doubtless will continue putting out their analogue on the same channels as our digital.

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
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B
brian
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

1:15 PM

Nick,
Dutch analogue has closed. I suppose you may get digital interference from the low countries once Sudbury switches in July but it will be different, the signal will either be there or it will not (you won't get the 'herringbone' type of interference you get with analogue). Hopefully with the power up you will be ok most of the time !

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brian's 32 posts GB flag
Saturday, 16 April 2011
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

9:40 AM
Woodbridge

Dear Brian,
Thank you for your comments. So the inerference we have had occasionally over the last few days on analogue is caused by Dutch digital. That is not a good sign for the hopes after switchover.It is not always herringbone, sometimes the signal gets weaker and weaker then almost disappears!
Looks like freesat is the way forward, which means a new tv and yet another box.
Please also comment on this point. I have looked at a number of flat tvs in shops. In general, I think the picture inferior to my old crt, whether on ordinary or HD. The exception is when they are showing, for example, a football match in HD or are showing something via dvd. HD on Eastenders etc seems pretty much the same as non HD, and worse that on my old tv.
Kind regards.

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
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N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

9:53 AM
Woodbridge

Dear Brian,
A friend in Aldeburgh is currently on Sudbury and with good aerial and booster gets A1 reception even on C5, except when there is Dutch interference. Will the xmitter at Sudbury cover precisely the same area when digital or must we bite the bullet and switch to the Aldeburgh xmitter with its fewer channels? Incidentally, bedroom sets are on Aldeburgh, again on good aerial, but the Dutch even mess this up at times.

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
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