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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
Tuesday, 16 October 2012
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

9:30 PM
Aldeburgh

Whatever anyone says, I believe the Sudbury transmitter has problems with the channels outside the old analogue channels, whatever the aerial and particularly if you are not on the doorstep of the transmitter. The mux using channel 60 is dreadful. Whilst the one on channel 58 can give near 100% sig strength and quality, I look at what happens on ch 60. The quality flashes within milliseconds between 90% and zero. They need to look at it.

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:14 AM

Nick: The most likely reason for the quality flash you refer to is that some moving object has reflected the signal, and with this most likely being a high (or in certain cases not so!) flying aircraft.

As a matter of fact this effect can be seen on most TV's / boxes that offer a quality as well as strength indication, because if a mux channel number of a known distant station is entered into the search box on a sets manual tune facility (only entering and "not" scanning) and with the strength / quality bars being viewed over a few minutes, the effect that you observed can frequently be seen to occur and for the reason explained.

You may (or may not) already know this, but entering a mux channel number into a manual tune facility box but NOT scanning causes the tuner to act like a form of signal meter and is likewise free of threshold level restrictions whereby it will show signal levels far too low to produce a picture, this being why should a subsequent scan be carried out some people might be a bit mystified as to why nothing was picked up even although they had observed signal levels being shown, the reason for being that as soon as "search" or "scan" is activated the threshold level restrictions part of the circuitry jump in.

As far as Ch60 is concerned, I have a element of sympathy with you concerning this type of problem, albeit that you are outside of the coverage area, as ever since Sandy Heath switched over I, and many others have had the same type of problem on ArqA Ch52 (and only that channel) whereby its constantly under the reception threshold level on all of my equipment, and with me having a strong suspicion that there might possibly be a slight angular misalignment on the the panel aerial thats used to serve the NW sector of the mast such as I am located in, as mobile tests I have carried out have proven that the problem seems to affect a span area of about 65 degrees or so in roughly the W / NW area from the mast.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:39 PM
Aldeburgh

Thank you, JB, I have missed you.
I maintain that there is a problem with Sudburys ch 60, and have been trying to find out who to report it to. The BBC, not that it is one of theirs, did not even bother to reply.
I know that I repeat myself, but Aldeburgh, in a high location, could even sometimes get the former low power 3kw transmissions on ch 63, and currently all other muxes are high in quality and strength, yes, they change a little as you watch the readings, but do not flash from zero to 90. I wish I could locate the right department to correct this fault.

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Thursday, 18 October 2012
K
Kevin Hodges
sentiment_satisfiedBronze

8:53 AM

Nick, that's a strange one. Here in Chelmsford I pick up all the mux's (including ch60) without problem. Purely a guess but could it be something to do with the radiation pattern of Sudbury?

link to this comment
Kevin Hodges's 27 posts GB flag
N
Nick
sentiment_satisfiedGold

6:54 PM
Aldeburgh

Could be Kevin, but the radiation pattern should be the same for all muxes. You are closer to the xmitter. I still think there is a problem, just with this mux, as I can get all manner of transmitters with the aerial turned, including Dover, but that is no good for local news.

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Nick's 425 posts GB flag
Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Steve
9:06 PM
Colchester

Now that we have completed DSO and all transmitters are at their full running power, if I swing my aerial around Wide Band High Gain would I get Bluebell or Dover as well as I get Sudbury? My PC is CO77GD
Thnx

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Steve's 13 posts EU flag
Steve's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
P
Pete Dilloway
9:47 PM

My father in law who lives in postcode CM3 has recently lost BBC1 & 2 (poss others) but is certainly getting ITV's etc on his two TV's & Humax PVR.
Two or three retunes have not resolved the problem.
Any clues anyone.

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Pete Dilloway's 12 posts GB flag
P
Pete Dilloway
9:48 PM

I forgot to add that he is tuned to Sudbury

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Pete Dilloway's 12 posts GB flag
J
jb38
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:55 PM

Steve: Very unlikely! as both stations mentioned give predictions for your location with a mixture of "poor / variable" or not at all, and with the only channels that doesn't being Dover and Crystal Palaces HD service, albeit that you didnt actually mention the latter.

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jb38's 7,179 posts GB flag
Friday, 19 October 2012
P
pete
7:47 PM

Further to my earlier two posts, the whole BBCA Mux is missing.

Could it be a problem requiring an initial set up re-tune to get rid of a legacy background signal from London which is pretty strong in this area?

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pete's 12 posts GB flag
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