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Full Freeview on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.005,0.786 or 52°0'17"N 0°47'8"Esa_postcodeCO10 5NG

 

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
Sunday, 15 December 2013
G
Gareth
11:37 AM
Ipswich

Sorry, I didn't mean Belmont, I meant a north-London transmitter which I used to try to pick up aaaages ago, I can't remember its name now.

link to this comment
Gareth's 4 posts GB flag
Gareth's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Briantist
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

12:57 PM

Gareth: The only "near" transmitter that is going to have COM7/COM8 service is Bluebell hill

Bluebell Hill (Medway, England) Full Freeview transmitter | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice

And it has a very, very low power output.

It's not just a question of "interfere with France and Belgium", but also the matter of their incoming signals rendering reception impossible, at last most of the time.

The digital services are at lower power levels than the old analogue ones, so there is much more efficient use of frequencies, but you can't do these things without international co-ordination.

It is worth remembering that East Anglia is flat, and a large part sea-level reclaimed land. Great signal carrying territory.

link to this comment
Briantist's 38,915 posts GB flag
Monday, 16 December 2013
G
Gareth
2:46 AM
Ipswich

Ah well - one extra HD channel is better than nothing. Thanks again for the response.

link to this comment
Gareth's 4 posts GB flag
Gareth's: mapG's Freeview map terrainG's terrain plot wavesG's frequency data G's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 30 December 2013
K
Keith
11:00 PM

30 December 2013: the site says all is working, but I have no signal on 4 of the 6 multiplexes. Channel 41 and 44 are working, 47 56 58 and 60 are not. They were all OK yesterday.
Is this a strange fault in my aerial, or has nobody realised yet that tose transmitters are off?

link to this comment
Keith's 1 post GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:24 PM

Keith: Its impossible for anyone to make comment on your problem or offer any advice if they are unaware as to your location albeit it would seem to be in the Sudbury area, the location preferably in the form of a post code or at least one from somewhere nearby, e.g: a shop / Post Office.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Monday, 6 January 2014
C
Chris
6:02 PM

Following from Brian's answer of 7 December , we may have lost the Freesat red button HD but I can't find a red button SD. Has Freesat totally lost a red button facility?

Chris, Chelmsford

link to this comment
Chris's 7 posts GB flag
N
nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

6:25 PM

Here at Aldeburgh in a high location, I have a large areial which receives all muxes with signal strength/quality at least 95% from Sudbury. I do not use the Aldeburgh transmitter due to the limited number of channels In summer, one or two muxes often come up'no signal.' I think this is due to the Dutch.
Now, though, one or two muxes are again showing 'no signal' from time to time, and the Dutch are not interfering. Any ideas as to cause? Sometimes the BBC/ITV muxes go, other times other ones.

link to this comment
nick's 425 posts GB flag
N
nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

6:29 PM

Please would someone explain how much signal and how much quality, percent, is required to to display a good picture which does not pixellate?
Also, why on many occasions do I not get any pixellation, then suddenly, 'no signal?' When I check the strength and quality they have moved from their usual 95% to zero.

link to this comment
nick's 425 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:56 PM

Nick : If indeed you are presently located at Aldeburgh then according to the terrain indicator you do not have a line-of-sight with the Sudbury transmitter as seen by opening the undermentioned link, therefore the signal you receive from that station is purely via diffraction, i.e: signal bending around obstructions.

Reception under these conditions is always vulnerable to problems relating to weather conditions and the effect it has on the surface of the terrain as far as its reflective properties are concerned, plus of course the effects of any atmospheric condition changes that may be in evidence at the time, all of generally causing the signal level to gradually drop off to the extent that it starts to encroach on the minimum level required for the digital receivers decoder to operate correctly, any further reduction taking it under this level whereby reception suddenly vanishes giving the impression as though someone has done something, or even that the transmitter has failed! albeit that the signal is still there.

I suggest that the next time whatever you are viewing vanishes you should immediately go into the TV or boxes tuning menu / manual tune and enter the mux channel number of the programme being viewed but with this action NOT being followed by pressing search or scan as not doing will cause the TV or boxes tuner to act like a signal meter, the indications from same being noted for the purpose of cross checking with that obtained when reception was OK.

As far as levels are concerned, its not really possible to give levels with any sense of accuracy as it all depends on the calibration of the equipment being used, hence vast variations in levels can be experienced.

However, on the older Humax SD boxes such as the PVR-9200 / 9300 a signal strength level of around 70% coupled to a 80 / 100% quality could be considered as being good.

link to this comment
jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:14 AM

nick : And of course the link referred to which I unfortunately omitted to paste on.



Terrain between ( m a.g.l.) and (antenna m a.g.l.) - Optimising UK DTT Freeview and Radio aerial location


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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
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