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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
Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Les Nicol
sentiment_satisfiedGold

2:57 PM

Nick A: I realise you are seeking further response from Dave, but if you are still "stymied" and aren't a fanatical fan with regard to the "Dave" channel on "Freeview" there is a comparable channel line up on the "Freesat" platform. Perhaps a "no goer" for you if you have invested in "Freeview" equipment beyond a TV set with an onboard "Freeview" tuner.

Just a thought?

link to this comment
Les Nicol's 991 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:14 PM

Nick A: There are two factors with digital signals:

- strength: this is the level of the signal (level of voltage if you like)

- quality: digital pictures are resolved to digits (numberical values)


A poor quality signal means that the digits are not being received correctly and hence the picture breaks up or cannot be resolved at all.

Receivers have upper thresholds of signal strength that they can operate at.

A hifi system has a similar maximum level above which the signal starts to distort and therefore the quality reduces.

I imagine that when the strength of a digital signal gets to a level that is excessive (or bordering on excessive), then the effect is analogous to distortion of a hifi system's sound output.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

3:29 PM

Nick A: Check whether changing the position of the connecting leads relative to the box and TV makes any difference to the signal quality, as sometimes there is interaction between them.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
N
Nick A
3:50 PM
Bures

Thank you all.

Questions:

1. the site Dave sent me to says that any signal above 75% is too high. Yet, that is what it has been registering since the day I installed it a year ago and without any problems. The problem has arisen and been intermittent since the signal boost at Sudbury in June. If I install an attenuator will it fix the problem ?

2. it does seem odd that I am the only person having this problem (or at least reporting it on this website). this leads me to believe it could be a localised issue. Yet, I have done the usual debugging (including the tip from KMJ, thank you). No difference.

And thank you to Les. I did toy with a Freesat, but am now fully invested in Freeview. So for the time being, and provided I can fix this, I will keep the status quo.

Sign me Nick A, frustrated but still working it !



link to this comment
Nick A's 10 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
N
Nick A
3:57 PM
Bures

Me again. Every channel is now completely stable. No reboot since this morning and signal strength at a steady 80%, signal quality at 100%. Hmmmmmmm.....

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Nick A's 10 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:54 PM

Nick A: 1. Signal level meters vary between devices. So the levels indicated by different devices connected to the same aerial may show different levels. If they were more accurate then receivers would be more expensive as they would have to have more accurate components in!

An attenuator will reduce the level of the signals and will rectify the issue if it is caused by too high a signal level.

2. The level of the signal coming out of the aerial cable is relative to the strength of the signal in the air where your aerial is as well as the sensitivity of the aerial.


You have said that the problem seems to have arisen since the power increase of the three Commercial multiplexes from Sudbury last month. Each multiplex is a single signal which carries multiple services. For example, one carries all BBC standard definition services (BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three etc).

It is not necessarily just the signal in question that is tuned to that can overwhelm a receiver. High power signals on nearby frequencies can do so as well. Since June you have more higher power signals on nearby frequencies.


A solution to a technical problem isn't necessarily clear cut. It is a case of making observations of what is happening and making a change which may seem the most likely. In this case, trying reducing the signal level would seem the most likely possible solution based on what we know. It is also the case that its cost is low.

You may be able to crudely attenuate the signal (reduce its level) by removing the aerial plug and holding it close to the socket (either at the wall socket or the back of the receiver).

Or at your location you may be able to use a set-top aerial. These being to test the theory that it may be too high a signal level.


If it is too high a signal level, then the fact that it works without difficulty sometimes could be explained by signal levels varying a little bit at different times. At certain times they become too high.

link to this comment
Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
N
Nick A
4:55 PM
Bures

and now it is back to the intermittent quality issue.......

i am assuming that if the signal 'overstrength' was an issue then the 'quality' would be consistently poor. it is not. it fluctuates from 100% down to 40% and back, and then is perfectly fine at 100% for half an hour or more.

link to this comment
Nick A's 10 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:07 PM

Nick A: It may be worth checking that your receiver is tuned to the signals from Sudbury and that you are, unknowingly, watching the output from a neighbouring transmitter.

Signal strength screens usually give the UHF channel (frequency) that it is tuned to. There are six signals (multiplexes) from Sudbury:

PSB1 | BBC One | C44
PSB2 | ITV1 | C41
PSB3 | BBC One HD | C47 (if applicable)
COM4 | ITV3 | C58
COM5 | Pick TV | C60
COM6 | Yesterday | C56

The "C" numbers are UHF channel numbers.

I have listed one service carried on each multiplex. To identify which multiplex a particular service is carried on, see this page:

http://www.dmol.co.uk/mux….php

Looking at the predictor for your location, Sandy Heath and Crystal Palace are perhaps possibilities. If you find any of the PSBs tuned (incorrectly) to channels in the 20s, then a simple way around this is to run the automatic tuning scan with the aerial unplugged for the first 30% of the scan (or until it gets past C30).

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
N
Nick A
5:36 PM
Bures

Hi Dave

Sorry, our posts went up at the same time. Thanks for your further notes. I will try a few things.

The aerial is in another location. I tried moving it off about 15 degrees and have reduced the signal strength down to 70%, but the quality problem is still there. So i will totter out and get an attenuator tomorrow.

But logic says to me, if i can reduce the signal to within tolerance and the problem remains, then the strength issue may not be the problem.

Yours ever hopeful,

Nick A

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Nick A's 10 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
N
Nick A
5:53 PM
Bures

Dave

Thanks. I checked and the transmitter is verified as Sudbury.

link to this comment
Nick A's 10 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
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Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

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