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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
_______

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
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
J
jc
1:18 PM
Felixstowe

I don't know why you don't all get freesat!
This changeover is a farce.

link to this comment
jc's 1 post GB flag
jc's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
E
Eddie Stacey
1:55 PM
Ipswich

Is anybody aware of any plans to broadcast all channels in HD in future as this would have further ramifications for people even with digital TVs (without a second tuner),ie yet another box and more expense even though you are getting more than acceptable picture quality and don't neccessarily want it anyway?

link to this comment
Eddie Stacey's 8 posts GB flag
Eddie's: mapE's Freeview map terrainE's terrain plot wavesE's frequency data E's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

7:38 AM

Eddie Stacey: There are no plans at the moment.

link to this comment
Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Friday, 29 July 2011
D
Dr. R. D. Feltham
12:58 AM

Thanks for all the info herein. I had just complained to Digital UK and have written to my MP complaining about the total chaos of this DSO, my loss of channels and the outright lies which have been propagated. I could not understand why many of the digital channels which I had been able to receive from Sudbury prior to DSO were not now receivable! From this site I have learned that the reality is that this is because rather than being increased as Digital UK claimed the transmitted power of many channels has in fact been reduced. No wonder it is more difficult to receive good digital transmission signals where compared to analogue the transmitted power has been reduced by 150%! Digital UK claim that Ofcom state that the Sudbury power has been increased by a factor of 10 for all channels, which I now know from here is a lie!

The government and Digital UK have told a pack of lies rather than the truth, and those people who have been entrusted to organise this DSO clearly would not be able to organise a proverbial piss-up in a brewery! So thank you for your help in enabling me to understand why the problems exist, and exactly what they are.

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Dr. R. D. Feltham's 3 posts GB flag
P
Peter
1:31 AM
Colchester

BBCA and D3+4
Did anyone else lose all signal on these from just before 1am till 1.25am on Sudbury?
SDN and ARQb WAS PUMPING.


link to this comment
Peter's 6 posts GB flag
Peter's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:15 AM

Peter: No faults have been reported.

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Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

8:47 AM

Dr. R. D. Feltham: I am very unsure why Digital UK would have not made it clear that the Sudbury switchover would have the effect that it did. Can you provide a link to a place where such misleading information was given out?

link to this comment
Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
J
James Clifford
11:08 AM

I have a Samsung TV with Freeview built in.
I have my original analogue aerial on the roof.
Since DSO the only channels that i can see on Freeview are Yesterday, Film4 and a couple of shopping channels.
If I install a new aerial will I get more stations? Or should i be doing something else.
My postcode area is CB8.
Any advice would be much appreciated.

link to this comment
James Clifford's 1 post GB flag
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:30 AM

James Clifford: No, you should wait until the end of November for the multiplex to move to the new frequency as this will restore your service. A new aerial would be a waste of your money.

link to this comment
Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
M
Mike Dimmick
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:44 PM

James Clifford: Can you get the BBC and ITV channels at all? Did you have digital TV before switchover?

If you had digital before switchover, and you can't get BBC channels or ITV, *and* you had poor analogue reception before switchover, there's a possibility that you actually had the wrong group aerial for Sudbury. It could have been a group C/D. This particularly might be the case if best analogue signals came from a relay, and the aerial was moved around to point to Sudbury for digital. You need a group E or wideband aerial (which cover groups B and C/D) for all services from Sudbury.

If you had clear analogue reception before switchover, you may now have too much signal, causing the signal to be distorted and undecodable. If you have a booster or amplifier, try removing it or turning it down. If you don't have one, or that doesn't help, try adding an attenuator.

If you do have the channels listed above under PSB1/BBC A and PSB2/D3&4, it's likely that your aerial is a Group B (which was all that was needed for analogue reception). A change to a Group E or wideband is likely to be necessary for reliable reception of the commercial multiplexes, both at their current temporary location and their final homes.

I would have expected you to have most trouble with ArqB, which carries Yesterday and Film4, because it's on the lowest power level. That may well point to it being a problem with too much signal.

We need a full postcode to see what the prediction for your location is. A postcode area covers hundreds of homes and usually a few miles, so isn't precise enough. UHF reception can vary greatly over distances of only a few metres.

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Mike Dimmick's 2,486 posts GB flag
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