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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
Saturday, 30 June 2012
G
Graham Peters
9:28 AM

No reported problems at Sudbury, but CH58 (Mux A) had problems last night and now no signal at all this morning.
Looking forward to a day of Morse on ITV3, while ducking in from the garden to avoid the rain.

link to this comment
Graham Peters's 1 post GB flag
D
David
10:38 AM

I have also lost channel 60 here in Clacton to.
I can get it though if I point the aerial in the other direction but then London comes in really strong.

I have given up with Sudbury and now using CP.
Channels 58 and 60 are only 40% signal but all the stuff on CP is over 65%

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David's 5 posts GB flag
M
Mrs Gurney
8:55 PM
Braintree

Have lost so many programmes, in desperation went out and purchased new aerial, still no improvement only getting a total of 19 channels
Aerial on roof .

Please can you advise, it has cost me nearly £90 for aerial and no improvement

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Mrs Gurney's 1 post GB flag
Mrs's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 1 July 2012
B
Ben
3:58 AM
Clacton-on-sea

There are "No current reported problems" with the Sudbury transmitter. Oh yes there are.

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Ben's 6 posts GB flag
Ben's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
D
Dave C
7:43 AM

Hi there , I retuned on the 27th June and got all 122 channels . Switched on 30th June and now cant get Arq A , Arq B and group A .
Just like before the switchover .

I have a brand new aerial and wiring and as it all worked on the 27th It must be a problem at Sudbury I presume

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Dave C's 2 posts GB flag
J
Jack
3:31 PM
Peacehaven

Hi, I curruntly have sky+ in my house but are looking to change to freeview as it doesnt cost (apart from one off payment) I am going to get a HD ready TV with freeview already installed, my post code it BN10 8AB when i go to the freeviw coverage website it says i only recieve some channels, if a get a new areal that is wideband will i recieve all the freeview channels?

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Jack's 1 post GB flag
Jack's: mapJ's Freeview map terrainJ's terrain plot wavesJ's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:23 PM

Jack: A television which is described as HD Ready can display HD pictures, but does not have the means to receive the HD signals over the air. That means that it will require a separate HD receiver, whether this be a terrestrial one (Freeview) or a satellite one (e.g. Sky HD or Freesat HD). Click the words "HD Ready" for an explanation.

Only sets labelled as Freeview HD and/or with DVB-T2 in their specifications will receive HD as that is the standard that is used for it in this country. DVB-T is the standard used for standard definition terrestrial broadcasts, so a set capable of receiving standard and high definitions will have a DVB-T and DVB-T2 tuner in.


As for the question of getting all the Freeview channels, the UK has a two-tier terrestrial transmitter network. The biggest 81 transmitters carry the full service (they are the biggest by viewer population). There are over 1,000 small "filler-in" relays, including Newhaven, that carry only Public Service Broadcaster channels (PSBs).

The 81 full service ones carry both the PSBs and the Commercial multiplexes (COMs). This provides the COMs with coverage of 90% of the population. The cost to the Commercial broadcasters of transmitting from the 1,000 or so sites would roughly double their cost of transmission whilst only adding about 8.5% of the population to their potential viewer-bases. Because they operate on a profit making basis, by selling advertising which they show to as many viewers as possible which aquire at least possible cost, they aren't interested in transmitting from the small sites. The Commercial broadcasters have no "Public Service" obligation.

All transmitters broadcast the four HD services of BBC One HD, BBC HD, ITV1 HD and Channel 4 HD, as these are on a PSB multiplex.

For a list of services by multiplex, see here:

DMOL Post-DSO Multiplex Channel Allocations

That page shows the six multiplexes (each is a separate signal). All six are available from the 81 full service transmitters with the remaining being PSB-only.


Wideband aerials are needed in some cases because frequencies used by particular transmitters are spread out across the band and aren't all within the same portion used for the former analogue services.


Thus, in order to get the COMs, you will need to receive them from Heathfield or possibly Whitehawk Hill (adjacent to Brighton Racecourse) or Rowridge (on the Isle of Wight and is the main transmitter serving a portion of the south coast).

The predictor does not say what you "will" receive; it should be used merely as a guide. What you can receive depends on many factors and an on-site assessment can only really decide either way. Local obstructions such as buildings and trees can be an issue.

Whilst you don't have line of sight to Heathfield, owing to Beddingham Hill, it doesn't look to be too much of an issue.

I had a look on Streetview to see if there were any clues. I couldn't spot any aerials except for one on Glynn Road which is visible from your cul-de-sac. This one is pointing at Heathfield, so may give rise to the hope that you can receive from it.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:29 PM

Jack: On checking your reception possibilities you are quite correct insomuch that as far as "reliable" reception is concerned it will only be possible from the Newhaven PSB transmitter which offers a limited number of channels

However as you presently have a Sky+ set up I would not hesitate in recommending that you go along the Freesat line, as if you purchase a Freesat HD twin tuner recording device (PVR) that would take full advantage of the twin inputs you have from the dish.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:33 PM

Jack: This is a link for the type of device referred to, other cheaper types are available but up to a point you get what you pay for, and the device in the link is one of quality.

Humax FOXSATHDR500 Twin tuner Freesat 500GB PVR - HUMAX UK Direct Sales Website

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:01 PM

Jack: I take back what I said about the aerial I saw being on Heathfield. It is in fact on Rowridge, as is another on Glynn Road.

If you decide to try and receive from Rowridge, then I suggest that you use a Group A aerial and not a wideband yagi as their gain is lower on Group A channels, which is what Rowridge uses.

See here:

Rowridge Transmitter

Also, for best reception from Rowridge, have the aerial vertical rather than horizontal.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
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