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Full Freeview on the Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps52.518,1.139 or 52°31'6"N 1°8'22"Esa_postcodeNR16 1DW

 

The symbol shows the location of the Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) transmitter which serves 330,000 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 Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) mast?

Tacolneston transmitter - Tacolneston 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 Tacolneston 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
C40- (625.8MHz)263mDTG-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
C43- (649.8MHz)263mDTG-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
C46 (674.0MHz)263mDTG-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
C42 (642.0MHz)263mDTG-8100,000W
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
C45 (666.0MHz)246mDTG-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
C39+ (618.2MHz)246mDTG-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

LNR
 H -10dB
C32 (562.0MHz)263mDTG-1210,000W
Channel icons
7 Mustard,

DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-12 QSPK 8K 3/4 8.0Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

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

regional news image
BBC Look East (East) 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Norwich NR2 1BH, 16km northeast (37°)
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, 16km northeast (38°)
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?

Gt YarmouthTransposer1 km S town centre30 homes
Lowestoft (2)TransposerRotterdam Rd125 homes

How will the Tacolneston (Norfolk, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1950s-80s1984-971997-981998-20112011-132013-182013-1717 Jul 2018
VHFC/D EC/D EC/D EEE TW TW T
C3BBCtvwaves
C31com7com7
C32_local
C37com8com8
C39 +ArqB+ArqBArqB
C40BBCA
C42SDNSDNSDNSDN
C43D3+4
C45ArqAArqAArqAArqA
C46BBCB
C50tv_off BBCBBBCB
C52tv_offC5wavesC5waves
C55tv_offBBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves-BBCA-BBCA-BBCAcom7tv_off
C56tv_offCOM8tv_off
C57tv_offLNRLNR
C59tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves-D3+4-D3+4-D3+4
C62BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCB
C65C4wavesC4wavesC4waves

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 9 Nov 11 and 23 Nov 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
com7(-9.6dB) 27.4kW
com8(-10.2dB) 24kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, LNR(-14dB) 10kW
Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-17dB) 5kW
Analogue 5(-18dB) 4kW

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Tacolneston 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. Tacolneston 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
Thursday, 29 December 2016
M
Mardler
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:10 PM

What happened to Tacolneston tonight?

Several channels on different mixes off air but not all.

Becoming all too common.

link to this comment
Mardler's 85 posts GB flag
M
Mardler
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

9:39 PM

Annoying: no threading.

BBC CH Four blocky and dropping out.

Anyone here who really understands transmitter problems?

link to this comment
Mardler's 85 posts GB flag
Friday, 30 December 2016
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:11 PM

Mardler:

For any contributor to this site to be able to offer any meaningful advice it is essential that you give a full post code. Only then can we determine the transmission and reception conditions local to your home.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
H
hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

5:08 PM

High pressure weather affected Tacolneston reception in North Norfolk 29th. I suspect that the pressure enhanced the signal from the oxford transmitter which uses some of the same channels

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hardy's 137 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
R
Richard Cooper
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:45 AM

hardy: Were you picking up BBC Oxford News and such like, then? Richard, Norwich.

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Richard Cooper's 466 posts GB flag
Richard's: mapR's Freeview map terrainR's terrain plot wavesR's frequency data R's Freeview Detailed Coverage
H
hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

11:05 AM

no. The effect was like loss of signal on most channels . Worst on UHF channel 31 . affecting freeview 107 (BBC HDnews) etc . I suspect Oxford because it transmits half its multiplexes on the same UHF channels as Tacolneston at medium power. And is only about 20 degrees off Tacolneston in terms of bearing from central north Norfolk. In a couple of years time the plan is to move Tacolnestons channels away from Oxford

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hardy's 137 posts GB flag
Sunday, 8 January 2017
M
Mardler
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

4:22 PM

MikeP,

No need to give post code as I'm not asking about specific location.

If the transmission is dropping and/or s/s is low on only some channels it's the transmitter, atmospherics, nearby interference or user aerial system- in that order. In this case the problem was excellent s/s but zero quality so transmitter or (unlikely) atmospherics.

You guys always give the same answers: never the transmitter. In all my dealings with TV and radio reception transmitter faults have nearly always been the cause. Indeed, a couple of acquaintances were BBC transmission engineers and they said the same.

So, all I'm hoping to get is confirmation that others are having similar problems.

This site is a mine of information but it is terribly designed. For instance, why not use open source software to run a proper forum with threaded topics? I guarantee you will get better coverage immediately.

link to this comment
Mardler's 85 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

4:36 PM

Mardler:

Transmitter problems are very rare and are normally dealt with quite speedily by Arqiva. Plus any such problem will normally affect all viewers who receive from that transmitter, not just one or two.

My fifty plus years experience show the opposite to yours as transmitter faults are rare. However, there are regular maintenance visits to them and during such it is not uncommon for there to be either reduced power operation or sometimes outages to protect the staff from extreme levels of RF radiation when they are close to the aerials.

In fact, there are more problems due to aerial systems at the reception end as they are generally poorly maintained - if at all.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
M
MikeB
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

5:02 PM

MikeP: Mike, I totally agree - this statement:

'If the transmission is dropping and/or s/s is low on only some channels it's the transmitter, atmospherics, nearby interference or user aerial system- in that order.'

would seem to be the exact opposite of the reality of people asking questions on this site. Just trawl through the posts which ask about reception, and automatically assume that there is a problem with the transmitter, and demand that the BBC/Government/'them' do something about it, often accompanied by the phrase 'I pay my licence fee!'

When you ask the essential questions: 'what is the signal strength, have you checked with neighbours', and have you checked that all the wires are OK and not loose', your surprised at the lack of feedback, which is possibly largely explained by people checking out the rear of the TV and discovering that the aerial lead has fallen out of the back.

Discounting possible high pressure system problems (which do occur occasionally), when you check the actual status of the transmitter, its usually fine. Yes, there are delays in updating the information sometimes, where a rash of questions about reception lose predate a warning, but most of the time, the transmitter is fine. Even if its on lower power for a short period, that power level is still generally higher than pre-digital switchover levels.

Its strange that people automatically assume that a transmitter is at fault, even though it may serve many thousands of households and has generally backup systems, but discount totally that their system, which ultimately is linked together by wiring just 6mm wide, has plenty of joins in it, may have been installed by the biggest bodgers on the planet, and has an aerial which might be in place for decades battered by all the weather can throw at it should be totally fine. Its a TV Occams Razor.






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MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag
Tuesday, 10 January 2017
H
hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

7:05 PM

The point is high pressure reception can DECREASE the apparent amount of signal received. The local and interfering signals do not necessarily add . Sometimes because interference looks like electrical noise the total signal appears smaller . (technically called reduced signal to noise ratio) At other times the same atmospheric condition that lifts distant signals will kill the local signal.
Note I have an academic qualification in telecommunications . Do not work for any tv service so am not part of the transmitter workers "conspiracy"

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hardy's 137 posts GB flag
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