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Full Freeview on the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_streetviewGoogle Streetviewsa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps50.446,-3.611 or 50°26'45"N 3°36'40"Wsa_postcodeTQ3 1RT

 

The symbol shows the location of the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmitter which serves 84,000 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 Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) mast?

Beacon Hill transmitter - Beacon Hill 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
_______

Which Freeview channels does the Beacon Hill 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- (657.8MHz)284mDTG-20,000W
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
 H max
C41+ (634.2MHz)284mDTG-20,000W
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
 H max
C47+ (682.2MHz)284mDTG-20,000W
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
 H -3dB
C42 (642.0MHz)285mDTG-810,000W
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 -3dB
C45 (666.0MHz)285mDTG-810,000W
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 -3dB
C40 (626.0MHz)285mDTG-810,000W
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)

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

regional news image
BBC Spotlight 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL3 5BD, 37km west (262°)
to BBC South West region - 107 masts.
regional news image
ITV West Country News (West) 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL7 5BQ, 30km west (260°)
to ITV West Country region - 107 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (East)

Are there any self-help relays?

LannacombeActive deflector25 km SW Torbay4 homes

How will the Beacon Hill (Torbay, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1984-971997-981998-20092009-132013-182013-1727 Mar 2019
C/D EC/D EC/D EE TE TW TK T
C33com7com7
C34com8com8
C40ArqB
C41D3+4
C42SDNSDNSDNSDN
C44BBCA
C45ArqAArqAArqAArqA
C47BBCB
C51tv_offArqBArqBArqB
C53tv_offC4wavesC4wavesC4waves+D3+4+D3+4+D3+4
C57tv_offBBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves+BBCB+BBCB+BBCB
C60tv_offITVwavesITVwavesITVwaves -BBCA-BBCA
C63BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves

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 8 Apr 09 and 22 Apr 09.

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

Analogue 1-4 100kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 20kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 10kW
com7(-11.4dB) 7.3kW
Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*(-17dB) 2kW
Mux C*, Mux D*, com8(-20dB) 1000W

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Beacon 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. Beacon Hill 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
Friday, 10 May 2019
Transmitter engineering
sentiment_very_satisfiedOwner

11:09 AM

BEACON HILL transmitter - Freeview: HD Digital TV Reduced Quality from 22:03 on 30 Apr. [BBC]

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Transmitter engineering's 149,822 posts xx flag
Saturday, 11 May 2019
P
Phil Squires
11:26 PM
Torquay

TQ1 4JY
I have been having problems with my reception from the Beacon Hill transmitter since the change of channels on the 27th March 2019, I have tried everything that Humax and Freeview have told me to try all to no avail. I have seen that there are faults reported but when will it be sorted, I don't think the BBC would wait as long for me to pay my TV licence fee! Has anyone else having a problem with picture break up and loss of signal?

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Phil Squires's 7 posts GB flag
Phil's: mapP's Freeview map terrainP's terrain plot wavesP's frequency data P's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 12 May 2019
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:17 AM

Phil Squires:

You are only 7 km from the transmitter at Beacon Hill and are predicted to have excellent reception of all 6 multiplexes. At that short distance it could be that you have too much sifnal strength, so please check the strengths reported on your television. Ideally they should all be between 60% and 85%. Any less shows there is a fault in your aerial system. Any more shows you need to reduce that by fitting a suitable coaxial attenuator. Search this website for 'Too much of a good thing' and follow the advice there.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
P
Phil Squires
10:11 PM

MikeP

I've tried it all 90% 100% 50% 60% with different attenuators still keep getting the same problem with two different Humax boxes PVR200T and FVP5000T about every 15 mins signal loss or picture break up, I've tried two different aerials different down leads 4G filters, mains conditioner and still this keeps happening HELP.

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Phil Squires's 7 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:17 PM

Phil Squires:

There is no reported problem at the Beacon Hill transmitter at present, so you must have a problem with your aerial systems or are getting local interference. Please thoroughly check you aerial and all the cables. Unplug any coaxial plugs.sockets and then refit them. Then check that you are indeed tuned correctly to the Beacon Hill transmissions, the correct channels can be shown on the Digis=tal UK Cover Checker at Digital UK - Coverage checker



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
Monday, 13 May 2019
T
Terry Bannon
6:13 AM

What nonsense.. There us obviously a problem.. Everyone on Bishopsteignton / Teignmouth have the problem from what I hear..

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Terry Bannon's 11 posts GB flag
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:08 AM

Terry Bannon:

Arqiva. who operate the transmitter, state that there is no known problem at the transmitter. It is more likely that there is a local source of interference as it does not appear to affect thousands of other viewers in other areas.



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MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
R
Rob B
3:01 PM

We are having the same problem in Exmouth and there definitely is a problem and the BBC who according to Offcom are responsible for the Beacon hill transmitter show that there is a fault on HD channels.
Use this link to see -https://www.bbc.co.uk/receptionsearch.
They finally admitted a fault on April 30th although it was associated with the retune on 27th March and there is no commitment to when it will be fixed.

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Rob B's 5 posts GB flag
R
RichardB
8:40 PM

Phil Squires:
Phil I have been complaining about the issue that everybody else is complaining about since the re-tune on March 27th. The BBC accept there is a problem with this transmitter so I do not understand what MikeP is saying. I have it in writing that they accept there is a problem and the BBC are talking with the transmitter people. I contacted the BBC on this telephone number .03709016789, provided to me by Ofcom . They registered my complaint and asked me to encourage anybody else with the same problem to call the BBC on this number to escalate the issue. It is pointless purchasing new equipment as there is no guarantee that it will work satisfactorily with this transmitter. 7 weeks has now passed with no action. HD channels are unwatchable yet we have to pay our licence fee. All the suggestions that the problem lies with the customers equipment are rubbish. Encourage everyone to call this telephone number and lets get this issue sorted.

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RichardB's 4 posts GB flag
P
Phil Squires
11:05 PM

RichardB
Thanks for information about your problems with the HD Channels from the Beacon Hill Transmitter, I will phone the BBC and register my complaint tomorrow, MikeP's answer to the problem is the standard answer you seem to get from everyone, I have at some expense and time wasted, already tried all of the solutions he suggested, I don't think he read my initial post properly.

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Phil Squires's 7 posts GB flag
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