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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
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:43 AM

Dee: Based on the fact that you are only 9 miles from the transmitter, the problem may be too much signal. See Freeview signals: too much of a good thing is bad for you | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice

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

10:53 AM

Nick: When a receiver goes through its automatic tuning process, it scans all channels. Having done this it then has to "decide" which of the channels it is to go with, where duplicates are found.

In this case it is going with those from Aldeburgh. This is obviously not the desired result.

The solution is to unplug the aerial for the first 30% of the scan so that it doesn't get the chance to "see" the Aldeburgh channels.

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

11:01 AM

david C: The predictor thinks that Tacolneston may be more reliable at your location.

Due to this, confirm that your receiver is tuned to Sudbury for all channels, and not to Tacolneston for some.

This information (UHF channel/frequency that it is tuned to) is usually given on the signal strength screen.

PSB1 | BBC One | Sudbury=C44 | Tacolneston=C55
PSB2 | ITV1 | Sudbury=C41 | Tacolneston=C59
PSB3 | BBC One HD | Sudbury=C47 | Tacolneston=C62
COM4 | ITV3 | Sudbury=C58 | Tacolneston=C42
COM5 | Pick TV | Sudbury=C60 | Tacolneston=C45
COM6 | Yesterday | Sudbury=C56 | Tacolneston=C50

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
D
Dee
11:50 AM

@ David C.... David, thanks for the heads up re transmitter work, I too hope that this is ironed out, it is not just affecting me, but neighbours also!

@ Dave Lindsay....Dave, thanks for the link, having read it and checked, as far as I can tell from each different device I have that can scan and tune Freeview, the signal coming in appears around 70-75% and is marked as 'Good' as opposed to the other two alternatives...poor or average.

Thanks both of you for taking the time to reply :)

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Dee's 2 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:52 AM

Nick: I sympathise with your predicament.

The Commercial broadcasters were not mandated by law to follow the same coverage as the Public Service Broadcasters. This can only come back to politics rather any deficiencies in the engineering of the network. They follow the laws of capitalism which means that if it isn't worth it then it doesn't get done. They operate to provide them with a return.

After switchover, the Commercial broadcasters use less error correction so as to give them more space to fit in more services. This means that the signals are less robust than the PSB ones.

See the newsletter about the retune last November:

http://www.digitaluk.co.u….pdf

It says that on 27th June 2012 SDN would adopt 8k mode, but it makes no mention of this for ArqA and ArqB, so perhaps they were already in 8k mode (with the less error correction).

Nick, you did say that you could get ITV3 better when it was at 14kW, and it is carried on SDN which was in 2k mode then (and presumably more error correction than now). So the change in error correction could perhaps be the dampner, irrespective of power increase.

When you consider that the signal path to Hollesley runs low to the ground for miles, then perhaps this explains why the less robust COMs aren't available. That is, they are getting "bashed about" too much.

In which case, it would seem logical to suggest that the amplification of only the COMs I suggested above may NOT do the trick because the problem is more likely to be poor quality signal (for which amplification won't solve).

This leads me on to wonder if you would be better off with a lower gain aerial and amplifier. The objective being to get a better quality signal due to the wider acceptance angle. Obviously a lower gain aerial gives less signal strength, which is why an amp is necessary. I have seen this suggested as being an improvement on a high gain aerial in cases such as at the bottom of a hill, perhaps lined with trees. Perhaps the professionals could comment how likely this might help Nick.

It is, of course, always a possibility that reception may be variable owing to rain, leaves on the trees and so on.

Your other possibility is to diplex your aerial on Dover for the COMs with one on Sudbury or Aldeburgh for the PSBs. Obviously Dover may also be subject to variable reception. Its SDN and ArqA are co-channel with two of Tacolneston's PSBs. Your aerial will also be facing the Continent which could increase your chances of suffering under lift conditions. Also, the fact that the signal isn't strong due to your distance probably means that it is more susceptible to being knocked out due to interference from other stations that are co-channel under certain conditions.

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

11:54 AM

Nick: Of course, as you say, the best thing is to wait until the reported engineering work at Sudbury is completed to see what you have then.

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

12:12 PM

Thanks Dave,
It seems to me this is a right muddle, if only freesat had pick, challenge etc.
My aerial at H has no amp, the one at A does.
Jb was kind enough to tell me which channels Sudbury uses, as opposed to what this site tells me it does.
41, 44, 47, 56, 58, 60. Which muxes are using each of these channels? Can I assume that if, for example, Pick was on mux c before the upgrade, so called, it remains on that mux, albeit on a different broadcasting channel, or do the various stations also change muxes periodically? I hate to think of the elderly trying to follow all this messing about and trying to work out where their stations have gone!

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

12:17 PM

Dave,
Why do you say my box has opted for the Aldeburgh stations from channel 23 rather than those from Sudbury on 41? How do we know which it has decided are best? It is a bit tricky plugging the aerial in when I 'guess' it is near 41 as sometimes I am too early and get ch28, which I don't want either!

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:32 PM

Nick: Which platforms TV channels choose to go on is up to them.

Challenge, Dave, Pick TV and Yesterday make themselves available on the Sky subscription service and via the Freeview Commercial multiplexes. These are decisions which they believe are better financially for them. Presumably they consider that the cost to be on Freesat is not as beneficial as being on Sky. Similarly, the outlay they make to be a on Commercial Freeview is better for them than not being on it.

Challenge and Pick TV are owned by BSkyB, so it isn't surprising that they don't make themselves available via satellite services that are in competition with Sky.

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

12:33 PM

Nick: This site is independent. The channel numbers above have not been updated since the changes which took place on 27th June.

Briantist: Can you update the channel numbers and powers following these changes?

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
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