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Full Freeview on the Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps50.511,-4.437 or 50°30'38"N 4°26'14"Wsa_postcodePL14 5LT

 

The symbol shows the location of the Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) transmitter which serves 180,000 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 Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) mast?

Caradon Hill transmitter - Caradon Hill 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 Caradon 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.

MuxH/VFrequencyHeightModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 H max
C28+ (530.2MHz)602mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others

PSB2
D3+4
 H max
C25+ (506.2MHz)602mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (West Country), 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 (West Country),

PSB3
BBCB
 H max
C22+ (482.2MHz)602mDTG-100,000W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South West, 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 -3dB
C21+ (474.2MHz)579mDTG-850,000W
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 -3dB
C24- (497.8MHz)579mDTG-850,000W
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 -3dB
C27- (521.8MHz)579mDTG-850,000W
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)

Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Caradon Hill transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Spotlight 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL3 5BD, 26km east-southeast (123°)
to BBC South West region - 107 masts.
regional news image
ITV West Country News (West) 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL7 5BQ, 32km east-southeast (116°)
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?

BarleycombeActive deflector25 km E Plymouth3 homes
ParracombeTransposer17 km NE Barnstaple80 homes

How will the Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1961-80s1984-971997-981998-20092009-1327 Mar 2019
VHFA K TA K TA K TA K TA K T
C12ITVwaves
C21+SDNSDN
C22BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCBBBCB
C24-ArqAArqA
C25ITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves+D3+4D3+4
C27-ArqBArqB
C28BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves+BBCABBCA
C30_local_local
C31com7
C32C4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C37com8

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 12 Aug 09 and 9 Sep 09.

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

Analogue 1-4 500kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 50kW
com7(-16.3dB) 11.6kW
Mux 1*(-20dB) 5kW
Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-21dB) 4kW
com8(-24.2dB) 1.9kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Caradon Hill transmitter area

Apr 1961-Dec 1981Westward Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South West (TSW)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Westcountry 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.

Comments
Monday, 30 December 2019
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

2:04 PM

Roger Palmer:

There are unusually high levels of "Tropospheric propagation" at present, often associated with High Pressure weather systems.
These levels of propagation are unusual at this time of year - they cause signals from more distant transmitters to travel a lot further than normal. It is currently affecting different parts of the country by varying degrees and signals can change by the second or remain stable for much longer periods.
In the old "analogue" days there was a lot of talk about "continental" interference often in the summer months, but the interference can come from transmitters anywhere in the UK or Europe and even further afield. At the moment some people are getting DAB radio from the Netherlands and FM Radio from France as well as the interference to DTV.

It is predicted to continue for a couple more days, and you are advise NOT to retune as you will likely lose the correct tuning that you had. The "propagation" can be very frequency dependent, and it can only affected one frequency or several, but it can/will be different for others.

People will however have noticed the unusually mild weather which the Met office is referring to as a "Foehn effect" but it's not helpful that it seems none of the major broadcasters are making any reference to the interference being caused to TV and Radio reception! So it's no surprise that people wonder what is going on and think there is a transmitter problem.

For those that have retuned and lost correct tuning, you will have to try again and it could be hit and miss whilst the unusual propagation continues. If you are able to do a manual tune for the correct UHF channels, you may still receive interference or the wrong programmes.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

7:31 PM

In addition to it affecting TV reception, it is also affecting DAN signals as well, causing either loss of some signals or fading of those. In either case DO NOT RETUNE, as Chris.WE says.

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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 31 December 2019
C
Chris Morse
10:01 AM
Yelverton

Transmitter engineering:

PL20 6QU and neighbours have had intermittent blackouts since 29th December. I see that there is no work being carried out at Caradon but a lot in our village are being affected??

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Chris Morse's 1 post GB flag
Chris's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:15 PM

Chris Morse:

Did you not read the two posts immediately before yours??

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Thursday, 13 February 2020
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:29 PM

CARADON HILL transmitter - DAB: Off the air due to a fault from 13 Feb 01:25 until 13 Feb 01:28. . [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
Saturday, 15 February 2020
S
Steve james
6:06 PM

For the last few days at around 6pm I'm getting nothing on all channels (mix) except 21 and 27 where I seem to be able to get all programs. What's going on?

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Steve james's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

9:07 PM

Steve james:

I assume you mean all the programmes on the SDN/COM4 and ArqB/COM6 multiplexes (see Channel listings | Freeview )
How long does this last for?

I can't see any reports from the BBC about problems with their transmissions on Caradon Hill or anything from Freeview either.
Have you changed anything lately, or had any new equipment (including electric equipment) which might operate at this time?

It would be a good idea to check all your coax plugs, connections, flyleads etc, unplug connectors check for corrosion or other problems and reconnect them. Flyleads are a common problem, try swapping/changing them. See what signal strengths and quality you are getting for those multiplexes shown in your TV's tuning section. Also check that your downlead looks undamaged (especially if it is old) and that your aerial seems intact and pointing in the correct direction.
Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.
Also check you don't have any HDMI cables near aerial leads and that they are all seated correctly.

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
Sunday, 26 July 2020
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

4:35 PM

CARADON HILL transmitter - DAB: Off the air due to a fault from 25 Jul 15:14 until 25 Jul 15:23. . [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts xx flag
M
michael
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:02 PM

As a corollary to Chris' comprehensive suggestions, it is worth noting that high pressure weather systems can affect propagation, and also cause interference from other transmitters - even from France. This has been observed,for example, on transmissions from Huntshaw Cross and Caradon.

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michael's 869 posts GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:35 PM

michael:

To be a bit more technical, it's not just high pressure by itself, it's what sometimes can go with it - tropospheric ducting - https://www.bbc.co.uk/rec….jpg
I don't recall what the weather was doing mid-February ;)

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Chris.SE's 4,101 posts GB flag
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