Full Freeview on the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 52.005,0.786 or 52°0'17"N 0°47'8"E |  | CO10 5NG |
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 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 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 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.
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?
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
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 West | Transposer | 1000 homes +1000 or more homes due to expansion of affected area? | |
| Witham | Transposer | 14 km NE Chelmsford. | 118 homes |
How will the Sudbury (Suffolk, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 1 Aug 2018 | |||||
| B E T | B E T | B E T | E T | K T | |||||
| C29 | SDN | ||||||||
| C31 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C35 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C37 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C41 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C44 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C47 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C51tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ||||||
| C56tv_off | ArqB | ||||||||
| C58tv_off | SDN | ||||||||
| 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
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Thursday, 28 September 2023
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Chris.SE1:17 AM
nick :
The thing to remember about tropo is the propagation is frequency dependant, it will depend on the precise conditions at the time as to which frequencies will be ducted, and how well, and of course from where/which direction.
Lower UHF frequencies do tend to propagate better in normal circumstances, but the differences tend to be quite small.
Whilst ducting can come and go quite quickly {or be sustained for longer periods} it won't exactly "switch".
If you are seeing a difference in Quality figures of 30% in the day and when it's working nearer 70/80% I'm of the opinion that this is much more likely to be local interference and you are getting 70/80% when the source is turned off.
Rotating your aerial will of course see a drop in strength as the direction of Sandy passes out of the beamwidth of the aerial, but you might be able to see a greater reduction in quality for a fairly steady signal if it's pointing more towards the source of interference, and that effect will be much greater, the closer you are to that source.
I'm afraid it's a bit of a tedious job trying to track interference like this.
What you really need is a man with a spectrum analyser, but that is likely to cost.
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Steve Donaldson4:00 PM
Chris.SE, nick: There aren't any high-power transmitters in The Netherlands on C37. The most likely candidate as an interferer on C37 in the Aldeburgh area is the Boulogne Mont Lambert transmitter in France at 100 miles out. It is 7.9kW HP and there may be line-of-sight. No other channel of Mont Lambert is co-channel with any of Sudbury. Mont Lambert used C60 prior to 700MHz Clearance.
In the GE06 agreement post 700MHz Clearance, there is no requirement for restriction at Mont Lambert on C37; an omnidirectional radiation pattern is allowed, with an ERP maximum of 20kW. (I include reference to Rouncefall as it is SFN with Sudbury, and it is also now a full-service transmitter, and has been since B700 Clearance.) Sudbury must be -10dB between 145deg and 165deg. This is a notch to guard against interference to viewers of Mont Lambert. We don't know what the radiation pattern is in practice: it could "potentially" be more restrictive than this (i.e. the notch could be wider than 20deg or greater than 10dB down), but it cannot be less restrictive (it must be at least -10dB, for at least 20deg, from 145deg to 165deg).
This page shows radiation patterns for Mont Lambert's channels, dated October 2021:
TVNT.net - Le forum de la TNT 62 - Pas de Calais [Lille-Bouvigny, Boulogne] : Les metteurs TNT, leurs caractristiques et leurs zones de couverture
Aldeburgh is about north (0deg) out from the transmitter, so will be getting the full power of 7.9kW.
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Friday, 29 September 2023
C
Chris.SE12:02 AM
Steve Donaldson:
I did mention in a reply back in April, that whenever I read reports from people on the east coast doing DX reception, I'd never seen C37 mentioned. C39 was quite frequently mentioned.
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nick 12:13 AM
Chris SE and Steve Donaldson.
Thanks. This is getting complicated. I am trying to find out on a map where this French transmitter is, but can scarcely believe believe just 8kw from France is going to reach here.
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Steve Donaldson12:20 AM
nick : The co-ordinates for the Mont Lambert transmitter are 5043'05.8"N 139'02.2"E. A direct link for Google Maps is: Google Maps
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Chris.SE1:33 AM
nick :
Under tropo conditions it is quite possible that it could reach you HOWEVER whilst you haven;t been totally clear about how often you are getting 30% Quality, you seem to suggest you usually get 70/80% during evenings. Now, AFAIK the French transmitter is on 24/7, the tropo has NOT been that regular or consistent that it would fit the pattern of events that you suggest.
I still think it's most likely that your problem with C37 is some quite local source of interference that you should be trying to search for.
Are you sure that there aren't any old devices in your household that have an analogue RF output - eg. an old Sky box, a Games console, a recorder of some sort {even VHS) and so on. Maybe one of your nearest neighbours has something?
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Steve Donaldson2:59 AM
nick : Mont Lambert broadcasts on channels 34, 23, 30, 26, 37 and 32. Of those, C23 may well be not receivable due to interference from Aldeburgh (if it had otherwise been receivable).
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Steve Donaldson7:07 PM
nick : Have you tried to receive the full complement of channels from Tacolneston?
Neither Tacolneston nor Sudbury are ideal, as there is much terrain in the signal path, including the Fresnel zone. Tacolneston is a bit closer too.
At DSO Tacolneston got a new, taller mast, and the transmission power was effectively doubled. All six multiplexes are at the same power (there are quite a few main transmitters whose COMs are at half power with respect to the PSBs).
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nick 11:37 PM
Chris and Steve.
Thanks for all this info. Please clarify, you believe Rouncefall now transmits all channels? I have not found that info. Is it not going to cause problems having two adjacent transmitters using the same frequencies?
To get that French transmitter my aerial would have to be about 70 degrees off how it is set on Sudbury and pointing to Dover, which transmitter recently appeared but only briefly.
Tac is no use, zero reception in my situation, but aerials on it nearby, and on houses at tops of hills.
Have none of those appliances, and my aerial is some distance from neighbours.
I do not really know when signal q is 30%. I only experiment during the day in my garage. Evenings I am inside watching tv, or trying to, but 37 is the first to go.
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nick 11:40 PM
what is the purpose of a transmitter at Rouncefall when the area is served by other transmitters?
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