Full Freeview on the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 50.446,-3.611 or 50°26'45"N 3°36'40"W |  | TQ3 1RT |
The symbol shows the location of the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmitter which serves 84,000 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 Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) mast?
Beacon Hill transmitter - Beacon Hill transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 15/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which Freeview channels does the Beacon 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
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Beacon Hill transmitter?
BBC Spotlight 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL3 5BD, 37km west (262°)
to BBC South West region - 107 masts.
ITV West Country News (West) 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL7 5BQ, 30km west (260°)
to ITV West Country region - 107 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (East)
Are there any self-help relays?
| Lannacombe | Active deflector | 25 km SW Torbay | 4 homes |
How will the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 27 Mar 2019 | |||
| C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | E T | E T | W T | K T | |||
| C33 | com7 | com7 | |||||||
| C34 | com8 | com8 | |||||||
| C40 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C41 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C42 | SDN | SDN | SDN | SDN | |||||
| C44 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C45 | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | |||||
| C47 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C51tv_off | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | ||||||
| C53tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | +D3+4 | +D3+4 | +D3+4 | |||
| C57tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | +BBCB | +BBCB | +BBCB | |||
| 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 8 Apr 09 and 22 Apr 09.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 100kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 20kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 10kW | |
| com7 | (-11.4dB) 7.3kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B* | (-17dB) 2kW | |
| Mux C*, Mux D*, com8 | (-20dB) 1000W |
Local transmitter maps
Beacon Hill Freeview Beacon Hill AM/FM Beacon Hill TV region BBC South West West CountryWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Beacon Hill transmitter area
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Monday, 17 February 2014
Nick Burleigh: Looking at Radio & Television Service there are no reports of problems with the transmitter.
However... gale force winds are likely to have damaged a large number of rooftop aerials. It is possible that this might be the cause.
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Nick Burleigh: As this issue is limited to a particular locality then perhaps it is worth discounting the possibility that this could be due to a 4G mobile base station operating in the 800MHz band (which is what used to be the top part of the band for TV frequencies).
There are mobile phone base stations co-located with the Torquay Town transmitter and it is only a few hundred metres away, so any signals are likely to be very strong.
The organisation set-up by the mobile operators to tackle interference with terrestrial TV is at800. It generally notifies by postcard those who may be affected, although as it isn't an exact science this isn't always the case.
If you haven't had notification then I would give them a ring to see if there is a 800MHz 4G base station that has come on air and which coincides with the TV reception issue:
Contact at800 / DMSL | General Enquiries | at800
The solution is usually the installation of a filter, provided free-of-charge by at800. This needs to be fitted between aerial and TV or box, and before any amplifier (booster). Where a set-top aerial with an in-built booster is being used then this may have to be replaced with one that doesn't. It may turn out that using an aerial without a booster resolves the issue as, quite frankly, at such close proximity to the transmitter the signal isn't liable to be too weak and the only possible undesireable outcome of using a booster is that the signal breaks up due to being made too big!
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Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Thanks to Briantist and Dave Lindsay - The three local residents who came to us to get help about their poor television reception being received from the local Torquay town relay transmitter since the weekend are pleased that their service has been restored and is working fine again without the need for any adjustment to either their aerials or television sets.
Not many people use this transmitter these days and this might be why the problem was undetected for several days. This is because the Torquay town transmitter station has a limited number of channels so people are more inclined to opt for a new aerial and a mast head amplifier capable of bringing the full service in from a distant high power main transmitter that was unaffected by any interference or faults.
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Monday, 24 February 2014
Transmitter engineering
10:23 AM
10:23 AM
BEACON HILL transmitter - Over the next week Beacon Hill main transmitter: TV (digital) Liable to interruption, Radio (analogue) working normally, no digital radio. [DUK]
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Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Transmitter engineering
4:24 AM
4:24 AM
BEACON HILL transmitter - Over the next week Beacon Hill main transmitter: TV (digital) Liable to interruption, Radio (analogue) working normally, no digital radio. [DUK]
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Tuesday, 3 June 2014
P
Phil White9:36 PM
Brixham
Hi,
I live in Higher Brixham , with a clear line of sight view to Beacon Hill. My antenna is mounted outdoors on my roof.
However, practically every evening starting anytime between 18:30 to19:30, and lasting for up to two hours I get severe picture breakup with occasional lost of signal on the BBC channels on C60. Non of the other channels are affected, i.e. ITV etc.
I have a 4G filter in place between the antenna and my distribution amplifier. The interference does not coincide with any appliances being used in my home.
Can anyone suggest the cause of this interference or provide me with someone who would be able to locate the source of this interference.
A friend who lives nearby also has this problem.
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Phil's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeB11:02 PM
Phil White: Looking at your position, your just 9km from the transmitter. Admittedly, someone else might suggest why your signal seems to have a problem at the same time each night (remember the source of interference might not be in your home), but if you look at the link I posted to Phil Cliffords question, it might help answer your question.
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Thursday, 17 July 2014
B
Bob D1:32 PM
Paignton
Hi There
I live between Brixham and Paignton TQ4 7BQ, over the past 3 days I intermittently lost all BBC reception. Today I reset all Freeview channels and I no longer have any BBC channels showing at all. I have checked all my wiring and there appears to be no problem. I live in a bungalow with the aerial situated on a 10ft pole attached to my dormer bedroom making it about 25-30 feet high. I have lived here for 12 years and have never experienced any problems at all even after the digital switchover.
There is some building and road widening going on about a mile away but this has been going on for some time and there are no new high rise buildings.
The weather is very sunny but this has never caused a problem before. Any thoughts?
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Bob's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 18 July 2014
B
Bob D12:24 PM
Paignton
Just a brief update, I was able to retune to all BBC channels at midnight last night only to find that at 6.00am this morning I was informed that the signal for Freeview was too low and unable to show any BBC channels again!
I don't understand why all other providers are always OK but the mighty BBC goes down.
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Bob's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
M
MikeB2:59 PM
Bob D: Since your so close to the transmitter, you should be getting an excellent signal. Are you actually tuned to Beacon Hill?
The other thing is your system. Since you should be getting a decent signal with wet string, it sounds like that might need checking.
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