Full Freeview on the Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmitter
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The symbol shows the location of the Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmitter which serves 170,000 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 Heathfield (East Sussex, England) mast?
Heathfield transmitter - Heathfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 22/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels 
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Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Heathfield (East Sussex, 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 Freeview channels does the Heathfield 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.
64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Heathfield (East Sussex, 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 Heathfield transmitter?
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 17km north (6°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 41km north-northeast (31°)
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 Heathfield (East Sussex, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2012 | 2012-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 19 Jul 2018 | |||
| C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | W T | W T | W T | K T | |||
| C29 | _local | _local | _local | _local | |||||
| C40 | SDN | ||||||||
| C41 | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | BBCA | |||||
| C42 | SDN | SDN | SDN | ||||||
| C43 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C44 | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | D3+4 | |||||
| C46 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C47 | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | |||||
| C49tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||
| C52tv_off | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | BBCA | |||
| C64 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ||||||
| C67 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves |
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 | 100kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 20kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2* | (-18dB) 1.6kW | |
| Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-20dB) 1000W |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Heathfield transmitter area
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldMonday, 1 April 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:09 AM
5:09 AM
Heathfield transmitter - Heathfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 01/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
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Monday, 8 April 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:10 AM
5:10 AM
Heathfield transmitter - Heathfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 08/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
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Transmitter engineering
5:10 AM
5:10 AM
Heathfield transmitter - Heathfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 08/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
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Monday, 15 April 2024
Transmitter engineering
5:10 AM
5:10 AM
Heathfield transmitter - Heathfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 15/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
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Saturday, 20 April 2024
C
CHRIS JACKSON5:08 PM
Please confirm that there is STILL AN ISSUE with the Heathfield transmitter. I have only been able to receive BBC1 BBC2 and BBC NEWS since 15th April. When will normal service resume ? I am in Rye, postcode TN31 77HP
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S
StevensOnln15:46 PM
CHRIS JACKSON: The post above yours indicates that there has been engineering work at Heathfield this week. Unfortunately Arqiva (the company who operate the transmitter) do not give any further details or timescales for any work as it can often depend on factors such as weather conditions which are beyond their control.
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S
Steve Donaldson6:25 PM
CHRIS JACKSON: As StevensOnln1 says, there is the posting above yours that Heathfield has engineering works. The 'Transmitter engineering' information above is sourced from this page on the Freeview site:
Planned engineering works | Freeview
Another possible cause to consider is interference by a nearby mobile phone base station operating on a frequency previously used for TV. Restore TV is the organisation charged with alleviating such issues and will send out a free filter. A lookup of your postcode on the Restore TV says postcards have been sent there, meaning there could be an issue: https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/
While we cannot say for certain where the base station is, I see there is the water tower with antennas on overlooking you. I suggest you make enquires with Restore TV to receive a filter.
If you have a rooftop amplifier then any filter will need to go before this, meaning it will need to be on the roof. Tell Restore TV you have a rooftop amplifier and they should send an engineer to fit a filter on the roof for you.
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S
Steve Donaldson7:16 PM
CHRIS JACKSON: The Rye relay transmitter broadcasts on UHF channels 40, 43 and 46 which are the same as the three COM channels of Heathfield. Rye is vertical polarity, while Heathfield is horizontal.
Thus, should you experience poor reception on these channels, a possible suspect is interference from Rye. Your aerial is obviously horizontal, but it might still pick up the vertical signal from Rye to some degree.
The COM channels are COM4 (SDN), COM5 (Arq A) and COM6 (Arq B). For a list of programme channels carried on each of these and the other multiplexes, see the Freeview list:
Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview
The three PSB channels of Heathfield, PSB1 (BBC A), PSB2 (D3&4) and PSB3 (BBC B) are not shared with Rye.
The COM channels of Heathfield and the three Rye channels have been the same since 16 October 2019.
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Sunday, 21 April 2024
C
Chris.SE2:20 PM
Rye
CHRIS JACKSON:
If your postcode is TN31 7HP (not the typo of 77 per your original post), then according to the Freeview reception predictor, you are not in the beast of locations for reception from Heathfield. Whilst this is a general prediction for your postcode it may not be precise for you particular location. However, having had a quick look on Streetview over your general postcode (even though it's a 2015 image) I see no reason why the general prediction shouldn't apply.
Unless you normally have good reception from Heathfield with few reception problems, then you may want to consider having your aerial changed and point it at Dover, especially if it's an original aerial for Heathfield and over 20+ years old, as it could now be out of the correct aerial "group" as it could be C/D whereas you ideally need a Group K for either transmitter.
I didn't see many external aerials in your postcode, maybe yours is in a loft, which won't improve the reception from Heathfield either. Where I did see external aerials, one with quite an array (as well as satellite dishes), they were pointing at Dover (also having Planned Engineering) I'm afraid.
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Chris.SE's: mapC's Freeview map terrainC's terrain plot wavesC's frequency data C's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 22 April 2024
Transmitter engineering
6:09 AM
6:09 AM
Heathfield transmitter - Heathfield transmitter: Possible effect on TV reception week commencing 22/04/2024 Pixelation or flickering on some or all channels [DUK]
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