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 29/04/2024 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 December 2023
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nick horrex7:09 PM
I am still having trouble with the mux on c37. Whichever aerial, the sig quality figure varies widely from 30% up to 80% in seconds. This time of year I can discount tropo.
I have also noticed that the aerial must be very precisely lined up for this channel, a minor movement loses the signal quality, [and thus the reception] whereas the other muxes allow the aerial to be several degrees amiss.
Any ideas, please? Is it transmitting from the same mast? Is its aerial lower?
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Steve Donaldson9:41 PM
nick horrex: I think we need to find or come by the bilateral agreement between the UK and the Netherlands for TV transmitters post 700MHz Clearance. We can then see whether you are on a bearing out from the transmitter where there is a notch in the radiation pattern as a mitigator against co-channel interference in the Netherlands, probably in the area north of Amsterdam.
Ofcom published the following with respect to the 800MHz Clearance:
UK Digital Terrestrial Television: International Coordination Agreements - Ofcom
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nick horrex10:52 PM
Steve,
that was quick, and I do not claim to understand it all, but there is no 'tropo' at present to bring in distant stations.
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Friday, 29 December 2023
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Chris.SE12:21 AM
nick horrex:
Quote "This time of year I can discount tropo."
I'm afraid you can't. Whilst there doesn't appear to be any right now, we had some around the 15th--18th December. There was a bit about at the end of October but some that was more significant during the first full week of September, those being some that I remember.
That said, they were all pretty insignificant compared to Christmas 2019 to New Year (2020) where we had extremely severe tropo for most of that time, people were blaming faulty transmitters etc etc. Never known anything like that previously for the time of year!
Heathfield uses C37, I wonder if CCI from there is what's happening periodically!
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Chris.SE12:54 AM
nick horrex:
Discussion around this issue and about aerials etc. has been going on for some while now that I couldn't remember if we'd checked that interference from a new/upgraded mobile mast now using 700MHz was a possibility.
Had a check back and see that we only gave it passing mention.
Putting your postcode into https://restoretv.uk/post…ure/ comes up with a YES !
So you need to get in touch with Restore TV 0808-1313-800 and request a free filter. These are 700MHz (often commonly called 5G) Filters. Not the 800MHz 4G LTE ones that were given out when 800MHz clearance took place.
If you are using a masthead amp you need to request the external waterproof one as any filtering needs to be before any amp.
If you currently have a 800MHz filter you won't need it if using the 700MHz one as that will also clobber 800MHz.
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Steve Donaldson3:03 AM
Chris.SE: Heathfield doesn't use C37. Heathfield uses 41, 44, 47, 40, 43 and 46.
Prior to 700MHz Clearance on 18/07/18 Heathfield and Tunbridge Wells were SFNs for all six channels. The COMs are now different, Tunbridge Wells on 29, 31 and 37.
The WEDDIP V8.1 maps by UHF channel, dated 29th April 2016, shows Tunbridge Wells as having been allocated 40, 43 and 46, the same as Heathfield, so a decision must have been made to change Tunbridge Wells' COMs to 29, 31 and 37 after that date.
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Chris.SE2:37 PM
Steve Donaldson:
Thanks for the correction, I really don't know where I got that from !!!
Oh well, it was purely a speculative idea anyway :o
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Steve Donaldson9:42 PM
nick horrex: There are bilateral agreements made between neighbouring nations with respect to co-ordination of TV transmitter channels. They specify restrictions placed on transmitters so as to mitigate the chances of co-channel interference in the neighbouring state. Where a transmitter uses a particular UHF channel in one country, it may have to emit a lower signal level in the direction of another transmitter on the same channel in the neighbouring country.
The reason for saying that this may be relevant in your case is to see if Sudbury is putting out less signal in your direction. That is, whether its output is down on the 100kW on your bearing out from the transmitter.
I haven't managed to find the agreement between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. I have the ones between the UK and France for both 800MHz and 700MHz Clearances, and the one for the UK and Ireland for 700MHz Clearance.
With respect to the latter, and by way of example, ComReg, the regulator in Ireland, has published the memorandum of understanding between the United Kingdom and Ireland on co-ordination TV transmitter channels post 700MHz Clearance:
https://www.comreg.ie/publication/mou-co-ordinate-dtt-frequency-plans-ofcom-comreg
You will see that this document contains a table for each channel by country. In the tables are entries for transmitters on the respective channel, along with the agreement detail, which is how many dBs down it is to be between specified numbers of degrees. Further on in the document are radiation patterns for each transmitter channel showing these numbers of dB down that the transmitter must be.
ComReg has also published the DTT channel plan post 700MHz Clearance for Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (the document itself dated 29 April 2016). This consists of maps by each UHF channel with pins for the transmitters on that channel:
https://www.comreg.ie/publication/dtt-frequency-plan-band-470-694-mhz-administrations-belgium-france-germany-ireland-luxemberg-netherlands-united-kingdom
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Steve Donaldson10:18 PM
nick horrex: If you haven't already done so, then as per Chris.SE's advice, get a 700MHz filter from Restore TV. It could prove to be mobile phone interference, and it is best to have a filter installed so it can't cause issues.
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Monday, 1 January 2024
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nick horrex11:02 PM
Steve / Chris.
Thanks for all this. I am not as expert as you two, so please tell me why ch 37 should be more affected than others? You are saying 37 may have less power in my direction? If so, why does the site not say so? As for tropo, There has been some lately now and then, I know because if I swing the aerial round to Dover I pick up two muxes. But I do my tests when I cannot pick up Dover, with the same results.
This filter is designed only for C37? I thought mobiles etc now used the channels which were taken away from freeview, [49 upwards.]
Does any of this explain why 37 is so fussy that the aerial be so pinpointed on the transmitter whilst the other channels allow several degrees either way?
It is the signal quality, not strength, that lets me down....sudden drops from 80 to 30.
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