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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
Monday, 27 August 2018
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:22 AM

The x is a way of simulating a thick element . Its cheaper and lighter than a true thick element . Thick elements have a wide bandwidth and are shorter than thin elements for a given frequency . You can see true thick element aerials at airports . The j aerial was described as a skeleton slot . I think its more like a stacked quad. Your version of the j is interesting . I think if you like building aerials a "grid" (bill board antenna) is less critical to get right . That's four dipoles in front of a flat screen. It is a medium gain slightly better than a log . I would like to build one with directors tuned for com7/8. In recent times a new version of this a "Hoveman Grey " is popular . seemingly having the same performance but easier to build. Look online.
I will probably stop discussing design here as this site is mainly for answering peoples reception problems. If you would like further discussion I am at dottir@hotmail.com

link to this comment
Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
Wednesday, 29 August 2018
N
nick horrex
sentiment_satisfiedGold

12:05 AM

Thanks Hardy.

Those shallow x's come in two versions, one being like two V's, the other is 4 separate short elements. I can understand the former being 'thick' but not the latter.
By 'grid' do you mean kooman array, ie full wavelength dipoles? I am not sure this would have enough gain and that is what I need or would have gone for a log.
I am experimenting with five rows of reflectors on my J Beam.
I will let you answer reception problems. There are so many of them since they forced us to go wideband, though Sudbury's channels are now closer than before. I hope they leave them that way and a shame they did not make it like that when they went digital.

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nick horrex's 425 posts GB flag
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

3:40 PM

yes a Kooman . but nowadays they use large x shapes rather than true fullwave dipoles to get the full UHF bandwidth . I am 30 miles from Tacolneston so am thinking of building one as it covers the full band with a peak near UHF channel 55 56 handy for com 7 and 8.
A large group K is probably the best you can purchase.
Home building in your area I would build or buy a small group A vertical polarised for ALderbrough com 1 2 3 and combine it with a narrower band amplified version of a group B (horizontal) . com 4 5 6
Adding reflectors wont increase the gain . Would it cut down unwanted reverse direction reception any better than a single large grid reflector?

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Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

3:43 PM

Or by multi reflectors do you mean a 5 row grid?

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Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
N
nick horrex
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:56 PM

Hardy,

would give up on trying to get the weaker channels from Tac, if I were you, specially if on high channels Where are you?
The aerial you describe for me is more or less what I am building. 5 rows of 8 group B directors. Group A square J beam dipole, but while keeping its total length as group A, I have 'squashed' it. It is now a rectangle, vertical, which conveniently makes its width group B. This extra height means I can get 5 rows of directors without them being only a couple of inches apart.
One reflector, about a foot square, netting. Despite J Beam saying it had to be a hollow square slot, like the dipole, that is what I am doing.

link to this comment
nick horrex's 425 posts GB flag
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:01 PM

Ok. Good luck.usually there would be four rows each row with a dipole all fed in phase and having a bigger reflector. The single rectangle might need adjustable size to tune it .

link to this comment
Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
Friday, 31 August 2018
N
nick horrex
sentiment_satisfiedGold

9:45 AM

Hi Hardy, it is built and I am pleased.

On a 12 ft pole in the garden I had a single set of 8 group B directors, my squashed group A J Beam square dipole, no reflector. In broad terms, channel 29 right up to channel 44 showed 60% for signal quality and strength.

I have added 4 extra rows of directors and a mesh reflector behind. Signal strength on 29 near 90%, quality 75% On channel 44, less marked improvement, strength 68%, quality 75%

I cannot test channel 47 as it does not show on my set top box.

I am puzzled that the increase is greater on 29 as this is basically a group B aerial

No amplifier in line.

I have no idea how to tune a reflector so will leave the square grid.

Overall this is far superior to my my factory shallow x aerial

link to this comment
nick horrex's 425 posts GB flag
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

12:34 PM

That's good news Nick . I think that the addition of the reflector gave the main boost to the gain and made the dipole a better match. Not convinced that so many sets of directors relatively close together give much improvement but it works well . So cant knock it! We are getting warm weather again so any interference due to high pressure will be a good test.

link to this comment
Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
N
nick horrex
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:49 PM

Hardy, many years ago when we had analogue and no way of knowing with any readings whether the signal was improved or worsened, I held an extra string of directors against a J Beam with only one. The picture improved, so I added two. Without doubt, extra directors above and below are more beneficial than one string of 16. This is the principle of tri booms.

Because my dipole is now 12 inches high, with the top and bottom strings two inches above and below that, the strings are 4 inches apart, and angled so that at the front they are six inches apart.

My reflector is 6 inches away. Maybe it should be closer, but as I do not know how to find the impedance of the dipole, I have settled on that as the directors may well have reduced it below 75 ohms.

I wish I knew how to make a similar one for wi fi, but no idea how to match the dipole.

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nick horrex's 425 posts GB flag
N
nick horrex
sentiment_satisfiedGold

7:57 PM

Hardy

do you remember the J Beams with 'wiggly' directors? They were in the form of 4 arms, the bottom part at 45 degrees, the top horizontal.

Group a had very large 'arms', c/d small. How do you square this with the shallow x's with their short arms which apparently make them wideband? If short arms do this, then all those old J beams would have had the same length short arms!

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nick horrex's 425 posts GB flag
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