Full Freeview on the Tunbridge Wells (Kent, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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51.173,0.297 or 51°10'22"N 0°17'51"E

TN11 0NB

The symbol shows the location of the Tunbridge Wells (Kent, England) transmitter which serves 53,000 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 Tunbridge Wells (Kent, England) mast?

Tunbridge Wells transmitter - Tunbridge Wells transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 27/05/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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Which Freeview channels does the Tunbridge Wells 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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	V max	C41 (634.0MHz)	174m	DTG-	4,000W
	1 BBC One (SD) South 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	V max	C44 (658.0MHz)	174m	DTG-	4,000W
	3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (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 (Meridian south coast),
PSB3 BBCB	V max	C47 (682.0MHz)	174m	DTG-	4,000W
	46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South 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 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	V max	C29 (538.0MHz)	174m	DTG-8	4,000W
	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 ITV3 +1, 59 ITV4 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 TRUE CRIME, 68 TRUE CRIME XTRA, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 83 Together TV, 91 WildEarth, 93 ITVBe +1, 209 Ketchup TV, 210 Ketchup Too, 211 YAAAS!, 267 Al Jazeera English, plus 30 others
COM5 ArqA	V max	C31 (554.0MHz)	174m	DTG-8	4,000W
	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	C37 (602.0MHz)	174m	DTG-8	4,000W
	12 Quest, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 52 GREAT! romance, 56 That's TV (UK), 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 Tunbridge Wells (Kent, 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 Tunbridge Wells transmitter?

BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 5km south-southwest (205°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.

ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 21km northeast (53°)
to ITV Meridian (East) region - 36 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford

How will the Tunbridge Wells (Kent, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

	1984-97	1997-98	1998-2012	2012-13	2013-18	2013-17	19 Jul 2018
	B E T	B E T	B E T	B E T	B E T	B E T	K T
C29							SDN
C31							ArqA
C37		C5_waves	C5_waves				ArqB
C39							_local
C41	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ArqB	ArqB	ArqB	BBCA
C42				SDN	+SDN	+SDN
C44	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	ArqA	ArqA	ArqA	D3+4
C47	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB
C49_{tv_off}				D3+4	D3+4	D3+4
C51_{tv_off}	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	_local	_local	_local
C52_{tv_off}				BBCA	BBCA	BBCA

_{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 30 May 12 and 13 Jun 12.

How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?

Analogue 1-4	10kW
Analogue 5, SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB	(-4dB) 4kW
Mux 1, Mux 2, Mux A, Mux B, Mux C, Mux D	(-20dB) 100W

Local transmitter maps

Tunbridge Wells Freeview Tunbridge Wells DAB Tunbridge Wells TV region BBC South East Meridian (East micro region)

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Tunbridge Wells transmitter area

Aug 1958-Jan 1992	Southern Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992	Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004	Meridian
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Tunbridge Wells 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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Radiation patterns withheld

M

Melvin Rainbow
11:53 PM
Tunbridge Wells

Mux 1 have been unwatchable for weeks, you start to watch a program and then have to boot-up iPlayer to finish the program. Channels disappear completely with message "".
I can actually see the transmitter from the where my is located, it is in direct line of site.
There cannot be many people left with televisions so why not put the rest of us out of our misery and turn the signal up just a little so that we can watch what we are paying for. Many thanks, Melvin Rainbow

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Melvin Rainbow's 1 post GB flag

Melvin's: M's Freeview map M's terrain plot M's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage

J

jb38

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:56 PM

John McCann: If your problem has only started occurred during the last two weeks or so then do not do anything, as numerous people are suffering from the effects of a wave of high pressure that is affecting across a large part of the country, and which is causing distant transmitters to be received which are clashing with local .

Needless to say its really a case of waiting until the situation reverts to normal, as its something that has always happened at times although only having caused poor when affecting with wavy lines or patterns appearing on the screen, whereas on digital it can block reception or stages between.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag

K

KMJ,Derby

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

1:00 AM

Melvin Rainbow: If I could add to what jb38 said above, it seems likely that Mux BBCA from is coming in that little bit stronger with the result that your local drops out. Did the problem begin on 29th February, by any chance?

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag

J

John McCann
5:02 PM
Tonbridge

Thanks for the comments guys. If it is atmospheric, then I can wait. I'll just switch to for a while. Probably means loadsa grief from "The Management" as I am changing from the norm and she does not like change. Apparently the atmospherics are something I should be able to control!!!

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John McCann's 13 posts GB flag

John's: J's Freeview map J's terrain plot J's frequency data J's Freeview Detailed Coverage

Transmitter engineering