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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
Thursday, 23 August 2018
MikeP
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

10:28 AM

Nick Horrex:

Mast-head amplifiers are all fixed gain and sealed against water ingress to protect the electronics. Variable gain amplifiers are not waterproofed at all as they are designed to sit close to the TV. Sadly that is not the best place for the amplifier as the downlead picks up extraneous signals/noise that you don't want and that gets amplified as well. So the best place for an amplifier is at the mast head immediately under the aerial, but a few inches away.

An old volume control does not work in the way you seem to think, so will be useless for what you describe. Likewise, a variable gain control on a signal amplifier is not something you can just put into the leads - it has associated electronics that are an essential part of a controlled gain amplifier.

Depending on the design of the amplifier, varying the supply voltage will not achieve the variable gain you seek. In many cases reducing the voltage will initially have no effect until you reduce the voltage enough - when it will stop working altogether! So no signal at all. In other cases it will have little effect but may cause the amplifier to become unstable, so pretty useless.



link to this comment
MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag
N
nick horrex
sentiment_satisfiedGold

2:49 PM

thanks Mike
behind tv all in one amps are useless, agreed.
I have seen masthead amps with 4 different sockets, each with a different gain. I assumed this was so you could connect to the most appropriate, rather than run 4 tvs where they would each state the same gain. Please clarify.
Now, assuming I am correct in stating that where there are 4 gain options, am I wasting my time putting the aerial at a convenient 6ft from the ground, [it still works] and connecting to the terminal which provides the best stable signal, and then transfer it to the roof? I am concerned that on the roof it might have preferred a lower gain socket, but I cannot keep taking the thing down to experiment.

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nick horrex's 425 posts GB flag
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:09 PM

There are variable gain masthead amplifiers readily available. The ones I have seen cannot be adjusted remotely. Though it sounds like a great idea. Stacked aerials are two or more above each other. They might reduce pick up of distant transmitters. Whereas side by side aerials will narrow the reception beam to reduce pick up of unwanted transmitters near to the same direction as the wanted transmitter.
You could have the amplifier in the loft preferably connected by low loss coax (satellite type) but next to the aerial is the best position. At 30miles from Tac I have set my amp to about 18db ,but may reduce it when I get a higher gain aerial.

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Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
Saturday, 25 August 2018
N
nick horrex
sentiment_satisfiedGold

9:52 AM

Hardy, please tell me HOW you adjust this amp. I have not seen such, only the ones with 4 inputs, each with different gain specified.
Re stacked aerials, I have not seen these for many years. They were used prior to having high gain aerials, and were generally 18 element, folded dipole, no balun. Their problem was that the impedance was halved by joining two together, the net effect being little improvement over one aerial. So far as I am aware, this is why they designed directors in 'shallow x' form or triple boom types, so that all the directors fed one dipole.

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

3:58 PM

Nick . This is a typical variable gain amp . you set gain with a screwdriver anywhere between 7 and 22 db.
Proception 7-22 dB 1 Way Variable Gain Aerial Masthead Amplifier with F-Type Connection Power Supply: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

The aerial principles such as combining and stacking from analogue days . are still valid . Of course baluns are now always used and correct methods of filtering and impedance matching too. Even connecting two parallel aerials to a standard splitter will give correct matching .Though only around 2db gain over a single aerial the combination has a narrower beam . Useful to reject off beam interference. Like you say some of the modern aerials are as good as a pair of yagis .Combining bigger aerials gets expensive.
heres a website with loads of info and aerial tests that might help. Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial

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

6:01 PM

thanks, Hardy,

Please confirm my suspicion that if I set the correct gain with the aerial conveniently at 8ft from the ground, it would not be appropriate when the aerial is on the roof.

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nick horrex's 425 posts GB flag
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

6:31 PM

Nick . Yes . The setting would be different between 8ft and roof top. Actually as youre over 50 miles away from the main transmitters the maximum gain may well be the best setting!
Incidentally in that website of aerial info I mentioned he doesn't think much of the tri beam aerials . Theyre no better than good x beam aerials and catch the wind . Its quite common to see the reflectors blown off!

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Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
Sunday, 26 August 2018
N
nick horrex
sentiment_satisfiedGold

10:06 AM

Hardy, I am on the wrong side of town for Tacolneston, Sudbury comes in well but as described, easily knocked out.
With regard to boosters. Whilst on a good day, 27db is fine, but I have a feeling that on a bad day, ie when I am having problems, lesser amplification means I get knocked out less often. Is this possible?
Do you remember the J Beam aerials with square dipoles and reflectors? I have made one with three booms and it is wonderful. The reflector is small and hollow, so does not fall off. It used to be described as a slot aerial.
As far as I know, tribeams and shallow x aerials BOTH have large reflectors, unnecessarily so in my opinion.
Lately I have seen aerials with directors which look like hollow bottles, two per director placed neck to neck. Do you know these? Are they better?

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nick horrex's 425 posts GB flag
H
Hardy
sentiment_satisfiedSilver

9:11 PM

nick. yes I remember the j-beam square reflector . The x shaped elements give wider bandwidth . The triax or Wolsey modern aerials use rounded elements . The gain seems no different than x beams. I believe the large reflectors are to reduce pick up in the 180 degree direction . (quite useful for you as probably some of you interference is from Dutch and German transmitters ) They must also act as "corner reflectors" presumably to boost performance over part of the frequency range . Its true that too much amplification can be as bad as too little but can't tell if that's your problem. I thought you were aiming for Tacolneston because Sudbury does not have com7 and 8 . Agreed that the coverage checker indicates you get a slightly weaker signal from Tacolneston.

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Hardy's 137 posts GB flag
Monday, 27 August 2018
N
nick horrex
sentiment_satisfiedGold

12:10 AM

thanks Hardy.

I would like to get Tac, but there are houses in the way. I can get a couple of the muxes now and then, but definitely not the weak ones, and only wanted them to get Al Jazeera which gave up its SD mux.

Many years ago J Beam were good enough to answer a few questions, telling me that I must not replace the square hollow reflector with something larger, as the reflector and dipole work on the 'slot' system, receiving a different aspect of the signal from other aerials....magnetic or something.

Why would the x shape give wider bandwidth? Those elements are very short, best suited to the c/d group in my opinion.

My home made is designed for channels 29-47. In essence it has group A dipole and reflector, both ex J Beam hollow, with three lines of group B directors almost parallel about 4 inches apart. Slight modification to balun.

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nick horrex's 425 posts GB flag
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Please post a question, answer or commentIf you have Freeview reception problems before posting a question your must first do this Freeview reset procedure then see: Freeview reception has changed, Single frequency interference, and Freeview intermittent interference.

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