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Full Freeview on the Plympton (Plymouth, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps50.381,-4.068 or 50°22'52"N 4°4'3"Wsa_postcodePL7 1TT

 

The symbol shows the location of the Plympton (Plymouth, England) transmitter which serves 35,000 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 Plympton (Plymouth, England) mast?

Plympton transmitter - Plympton 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 Plympton 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
 V max
C40 (626.0MHz)163mDTG-400W
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
 V max
C42 (642.0MHz)163mDTG-400W
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
 V max
C45 (666.0MHz)163mDTG-400W
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
 V max
C41 (634.0MHz)163mDTG-8400W
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
 V max
C44 (658.0MHz)163mDTG-8400W
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
 V max
C47 (682.0MHz)163mDTG-8400W
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 Plympton (Plymouth, 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 Plympton transmitter?

regional news image
BBC Spotlight 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL3 5BD, 4km west (280°)
to BBC South West region - 107 masts.
regional news image
ITV West Country News (West) 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL7 5BQ, 3km east-northeast (76°)
to ITV West Country region - 107 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (East)

How will the Plympton (Plymouth, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20092009-132013-182013-1710 Apr 2019
C/D EWWWW TW TK T
C30C5wavesC5waves_local_local_local_local
C40BBCA
C41SDN
C42SDNSDNSDND3+4
C44ArqA
C45ArqAArqAArqABBCB
C47ArqB
C49tv_off D3+4D3+4
C54tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4wavesBBCABBCABBCA
C56tv_offArqBArqBArqB
C58tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBCBBBCBBBCB
C61ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4
C64BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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 1-5 2kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 400W
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-10dB) 200W

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. Plympton 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, 24 August 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

5:20 PM

PLYMPTON transmitter - DAB: Slightly reduced power due to a fault from 24 Aug 14:07 until 24 Aug 16:04. . [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Friday, 10 September 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:23 AM

PLYMPTON transmitter - DAB: Slightly reduced power due to essential engineering from 10 Sep 10:20. . FM: Slightly reduced power due to essential engineering from 10 Sep 10:27. . [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

2:23 PM

PLYMPTON transmitter - DAB: Slightly reduced power due to essential engineering from 10 Sep 10:20 until 10 Sep 11:54. . FM: Slightly reduced power due to essential engineering from 10 Sep 10:27 until 10 Sep 11:50. . [BBC]

link to this comment
Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Sunday, 17 October 2021
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:30 PM

PLYMPTON transmitter - DAB: Slightly reduced power due to a fault from 17 Oct 22:09 until 17 Oct 22:18. . [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,799 posts GB flag
Thursday, 21 October 2021
J
James Thompson
7:34 PM

Is there an ongoing fault with output power. My TV signal continually drops to 38% and strength to 68%.
The problem has been like this for 5 weeks.

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James Thompson's 1 post GB flag
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:05 PM

James Thompson:

You haven't said if all channels are affected, if not, which ones?
You've said the signals drops to 38% then the strength is 68%, it can't be both, is one of those the quality figure?
Is the problem continuous or is it something that only happens at certain times?

Have you checked that your aerial is still pointing in the correct direction, what direction is it pointing?
Check that your downlead looks undamaged (especially if it is old) and is secure and not flapping in the wind.

Is it pointing at the Plympton transmitter with the rods (or squashed Xs) vertical? A full postcode would show which transmitters you might receive.
Have you changed anything in your installation?
There haven't been any recent Freeview faults reported or Planned Engineering for Plympton if that is the transmitter you are receiving, if so check that you are tuned to the correct UHF channels as per the very top of the page.

Also 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.


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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 9 November 2022
B
Brian Hitchcock
8:40 PM
Plymouth

For the last 3 days no BBC channels in the PL7 1JS area, also channel 21

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Brian Hitchcock's 2 posts GB flag
Brian's: mapB's Freeview map terrainB's terrain plot wavesB's frequency data B's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 10 November 2022
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

3:17 AM

Brian Hitchcock :

Can't find any reported faults for the Plympton transmitter, nor its parent transmitter Caradon Hill and neither are listed for Planned Engineering.

Have you changed anything in your installation at all, moved anything - cables etc., got any new electronic or electrical equipment? Have you retuned for any reason? Check you are correctly tuned to Plympton's UHF channels.

Do check all the cables behind the TV or anywhere else that may have been disturbed. Sometimes bad connections can appear to only affect some multiplexes. The BBC multiplex is on UHF channel 40, the SDN multiplex (which carries 5USA) is on UHF channel 41.

Presumably your aerial is still intact and pointing in the correct direction, and the downlead isn't flapping in the wind?

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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
Friday, 9 December 2022
D
Derek Heal
8:46 AM
Saltash

Good morning I have been having outage problems for the passed month my postal code is PL12 6UL,
I have tried reprogramming the channels using the TVs alto programming but that as changed nothing.
Any advise would be welcome as anything changed in the past month.

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Derek Heal's 1 post GB flag
Derek's: mapD's Freeview map terrainD's terrain plot wavesD's frequency data D's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Saturday, 10 December 2022
C
Chris.SE
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

1:27 AM

Derek Heal:

Hmm. Are there particular TV channels or multiplexes that you are having a problem with?

I assume you meant auto programming. Having looked at the predicted reception for your postcode it varies considerably depending on where you are with in it.
None of the transmitters you might receive have any reported faults that I can find, nor are they listed for Planned Engineering.
A lot of addresses will get good reception from Caradon Hill and only a few from Plympton, so auto tuning could produced some "mixed" results.

I did think it might be the very local terrain responsible but that's not obvious from looking on street view as the one thing I noticed was I couldn't see any TV aerials!

So in light of all this, some more detail about your installation is needed to give some sensible suggestions.
Where is your aerial located? Roughly which direction does it point - compass bearing 307 degrees - that's almost NW, or compass bearing 109 degrees - almost ESE?
Are the aerial rods (or squashed Xs) horizontal or vertical?
Don you have an amp/splitter to provide signal to more than one TV? If so, where is it located & do you know the make/model?

Have a look in your TV tuning section and see which UHF channels the set is tuned to for each of the multiplexes you are receiving/

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Chris.SE's 4,102 posts GB flag
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Your comment please
Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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