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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
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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
Friday, 22 July 2011
R
Richard
2:02 PM
Hockley

Just seen Elliot's comment and our problems seem similar. Could it be the proximity of the Rouncefall transmitter? Or are we over amplifying the signal?

link to this comment
Richard's 3 posts GB flag
Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
D
darren
3:53 PM

shame about the low power multiplexes.

bbc and itv ok and on full.

can get the crappy shopping channels but not some of the ones i actually want like Dave.


the crappy channels should be on the real low power, allowing propper channels priority

well thats how is should be

guess its about greed and making money as usual.

Darren


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darren's 2 posts GB flag
S
SouthEssex
4:21 PM
Benfleet

I live in SE Essex and when I had a single high gain aerial installed for digital it was pointed at Bluebell Hill. If a bomb went off in Essex I would not know about it as SE TV is only interested in Kent and Sussex.

When Sudbury switched this week I suddenly found that I was receiving BBC East from the back of the aerial on both my TV and my hard disc recorder. My tv then asked me to retune following which I lost BBC East and got BBC South East back again.

My recorder shows two channels Kent and Sudbury and I can move from BBC Se and BBC E.

Since the BBC reception for my area is between Bluebell Hill, London and Sudbury can it be standardised on Sudbury so that we who live in Essex can actually get local news.

If I get my aerial turned round to Sudbury will it be reliable?

link to this comment
SouthEssex's 5 posts GB flag
SouthEssex's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
J
jim
9:49 PM

Thanks for your reply Brian. I live in Felixstowe receiving signal from Sudbury. Presumably we have to retune again in November to get a full power signal on SDN,Arq A & Arq B. If so, this is not mentioned in your ' Digital Switchover Process' section above. Please clarify.

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jim's 3 posts GB flag
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Heinz
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

3:57 PM

The 3 COM multiplxes (SDN, ArqA & ArqB) at Sudbury, currently on UHF channels 49+, 54 and 50+, will not go to full (100kW) power until they change to their final channel allocations (58, 60- and 56) on 27 June 2012.

However, ArqB will move to a temporary channel (63) on 16 November this year but, if you can't receive them now, it's likely you'll have to wait until 27 June 2012.

Postcode Checker - Trade View (CO62QX)

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Heinz's 25 posts GB flag
Sunday, 24 July 2011
N
Norm De Plume
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:02 AM

For Linux users, if you are scanning for channels try using the following in the configuration file for uk-Sudbury

T 634000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 658000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 738000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 698000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 706000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE

MythTV refused to scan properly for ArqA and ArqB so they refused to lock, but once I seeded the scanning process with the above, everything was fine and I could generate my own channels.conf file.

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Norm De Plume's 36 posts GB flag
N
Norm De Plume
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

12:37 AM
Stowmarket

Apologies for the typo, the Linux config file should be

T 634000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 658000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 738000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE
T 698000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 2k 1/32 NONE
T 706000000 8MHz 2/3 NONE QAM64 8k 1/32 NONE

(Note the 2k value for C49)

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Norm De Plume's 36 posts GB flag
Norm's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
H
Hidey Hi
9:16 AM

Is there a reason why I can receive Arq B channels but not Arq A as it seems to me as if the signal strength for Arq A is higher. On my main aerial I can get all channels fine but it is only on a second aerial at a lower height that I have the problem. What is the "correct" maximum number of chanels that should be available?

link to this comment
Hidey Hi's 5 posts GB flag
K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:16 AM

Hidey Hi: Mux ArqA is transmitted on a higher frequency which can make it slightly harder to receive. Is your second aerial by any chance a group B, installed before Freeview started? Mux ArqA is the only mux outside group B at present, but in due course all 3 COM muxes will be on higher frequencies, a group E aerial (or wideband) being required for reception of all services from Sudbury. You should have about 106 channels, including radio stations but this can vary according to the content of the muxes being transmitted from a particular transmitter. In overlap areas the way your receiver deals with duplicates and variations can make quite a difference to the number of extra channels stored.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:26 AM

Hidey Hi: Knowing your location would have been of assistance, however the difference in power between these two particular Mux's is in most cases more of an academic one for various reasons relating to the signal path.

The other point is, that although there is a general rule of "the higher the better" for aerials, this however does not always apply in difficult reception areas, as in many cases it more the case of aerial positioning that counts rather than height, this why you are receiving the lower powered Mux better than the higher powered one, albeit of course it not being an ideal position or you would get both!




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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
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