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Freeview Light on the Newhaven (East Sussex, England) transmitter

first published this on - UK Free TV
sa_gmapsGoogle mapsa_bingBing mapsa_gearthGoogle Earthsa_gps50.787,0.034 or 50°47'14"N 0°2'4"Esa_postcodeBN9 9UD

 

The symbol shows the location of the Newhaven (East Sussex, England) transmitter which serves 11,000 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 Newhaven (East Sussex, England) mast?

Newhaven transmitter - Newhaven 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 Newhaven 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
 V max
C23 (490.0MHz)131mDTG-400W
Channel icons
1 BBC One (SD) South 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
 V max
C26 (514.0MHz)131mDTG-400W
Channel icons
3 ITV 1 (SD) (Meridian (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 (Meridian south coast),

PSB3
BBCB
 V max
C30 (546.0MHz)131mDTG-400W
Channel icons
46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South 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

H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Are you trying to watch these 44 Freeview channels?

the effected channels
the effected channels
the effected channels
the effected channels

The Newhaven (East Sussex, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, Dave, Dave ja vu, DMAX, Drama +1, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, GREAT! action, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, GREAT! romance, HGTV, HobbyMaker, ITV2 +1, ITV3 +1, ITV4 +1, ITVBe +1, Legend, PBS America, Quest +1, Quest Red, Really, Sky Mix, Sky News, Talking Pictures TV, TCC, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, W, Yesterday +1.

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 Newhaven transmitter?

regional news image
BBC South East Today 0.8m homes 3.2%
from Tunbridge Wells TN1 1QQ, 41km north-northeast (21°)
to BBC South East region - 45 masts.
regional news image
ITV Meridian News 0.7m homes 2.7%
from Maidstone ME14 5NZ, 66km north-northeast (31°)
to ITV Meridian (East) region - 36 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with all of Meridian plus Oxford

How will the Newhaven (East Sussex, England) transmission frequencies change over time?

1970-80s1984-971997-981998-20122012-1319 Jul 2018
VHFB E K TB E K TB E K TB E TA K T
C6ITVwaves
C8BBCtvwaves
C23BBCA
C26D3+4
C30BBCB
C39BBC1wavesBBC1wavesBBC1waves
C40BBCB
C41C4wavesC4wavesC4waves
C43ITVwavesITVwavesITVwavesD3+4
C45BBC2wavesBBC2wavesBBC2waves
C50tv_offBBCA

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 30 May 12 and 13 Jun 12.

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

Analogue 1-4 2kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 400W

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Heathfield transmitter area

Aug 1958-Jan 1992Southern Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South (TVS)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Meridian
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.

Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?

Radiation patterns withheld

Comments
Wednesday, 13 June 2012
Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:00 PM

Bill: The answer to the question can only really be found when the retune is attempted.

It might be worth pointing out that before switchover Heathfield was Group C/D and after it is Group B. In marginal areas such as yours, this "may" be an issue. Only when retuning is attempted will you know whether this is a problem; it is just something to be aware of.

Refer here for an explanation of aerial Groups: Aerials, TV Aerial and Digital Aerial

You will see that there is a bit of overlap between B (middle third) and C/D (top third). PSB1 and PSB2 are in the overlap region and PSB3 is on the channel immediately below the overlap (47). The COMs are below that.

So if there is going to be difficulty receiving any, it is likely to be the COMs which are those which Newhaven doesn't carry. There is the added fact that the signal type used by the COMs is less robust than the PSBs and this being so that they can get more services in. This comes at the expense of fringe viewers.

This said, aerials don't receive nothing outside of their Group; they drop off gradually. See here for some examples: Gain (curves), Again

I make this point so if you find this to be the case, then this may be the answer.

See here for a list of services by multiplex (those with bullets in the "E" for England column): DMOL Post-DSO Multiplex Channel Allocations

If this does prove to be a problem, replacement with a Group B aerial (on Heathfield) "may" be the solution.

You "may" be able to receive from Heathfield at your location. Of course, up to now there has been no difference in what could be received from either. Digital TV from Heathfield was out of the question and it didn't carry Channel 5. Where only the four analogue channels would have been receiveable so there was no benefit in struggling with Heathfield when Newhaven carried an identical service with much better signal.

Now that we have the two-tier terrestrial television transmitter network people are going to want to receive from full service transmitters where reception is marginal instead of a "lite" transmitter whose signal is good.

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Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

12:25 PM

Bill: One other thing about Heathfield; COM4 (SDN) which carries ITV3 etc (see the DMOL link I gave you) does not go to full power until 27th of this month so it is likely to be unavailable until then.

This is because its final frequency is in use by Kent transmitters until they complete their switchover on that date.

A full retune will be required then, or you may be able add it by manually tuning to C42. It will depend on the design of the receiver as to what it will allow you to do.

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C
Colin
7:42 PM
Peacehaven

Switchover on The Newhaven relay has been a disaster for us. I must have tried at least ten retunes, reverting to factory settings each time on our Humax PVR, over most of today.
The BBC channels are working fine but ITV is Non existent as far as watching anything. the best we have obtained is part of a frozen picture but most of the time we get a message saying that the channel is scrambled or not available, occasionally saying there is a bad or no signal.

According to our Humax PVR on Channel 50 (BBC)we are getting around 65% strength with Quality varying between 70% and 100%

On Channel 43 the signal strength fluctuates between 17% and 58% but is mostly around the low end The signal quality goes as high as 50% but predominately sits at 0%

Channel 40 is showing 65% signal strength but we don't have a HD box

I have a Group E Yagi Ariel in the loft, which passed the test on Ceefax before switchover.

Any suggestions to what could be causing the problem or how to resolve it would be appreciated

Colin

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Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

8:28 PM

Colin: Do you use a HDMI cable to connect the Humax to the TV? I know you said that it isn't a HD model, but they do have HDMI sockets on.

The signal in the HDMI lead might affect that in the aerial lead, particularly if they're close. The same goes for others such as USB leads and maybe ethernet leads.

Once it's tuned correctly, then leave it be as retuning will achieve nothing. You've done the right thing and checked that it is tuned to the correct channels. Your attention must turn elsewhere.

I'm not sure what likelihood there is of too much signal, but you should be aware that this appears the same as too little a signal. Remove any booster you may have. Try reducing the amount of signal by removing the aerial lead and holding the plug close to the socket but not quite in contact. Give it ten seconds to adjust and see if it goes up as you remove the lead. The objective being here to see if the level going into the tuner is excessive. Holding the plug close should help loose a bit. If this is the problem, as you start to loose signal the level should go up as the overloading of the tuner subsides, then as you loose more the strength bar will go down again the signal level is reduced (that is reduced for real this time).

Or maybe you will have to try moving it within the loft or it may be best mounted externally.

At your location you "may" be able to pick-up from Whitehawk to give you the full service. As your aerial is Group E this makes it suitable (assuming suitable gain). You may have to have it outside for this.

The only thing to be aware about Whitehawk is that it carries BBC South East (as Newhaven), but ITV Meridian from Southampton rather than Meridian Maidstone as you get from Newhaven.

Or Heathfield may be possible. As Newhaven is a relay of Heathfield, the regional programming is the same. It is also a Group B, so your Group E aerial will be suitable (again, assuming suitable gain).

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Dave Lindsay's 5,724 posts GB flag
K
KMJ,Derby
sentiment_satisfiedGold

8:29 PM

Colin: What was your analogue reception like on ITV1? The Ceefax test would only be relevant on the frequency that you were receiving at the time - C39 perhaps? You could try repositioning the aerial in the loft to see if there is a location where there is a better quality signal. You could also try reception from Whitehawk Hill. This could give you more channels if you are able to receive a satisfactory signal. If the loft fails to deliver a good signal you might do better to consider mounting the aerial outside if that is permitted in your locality.

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KMJ,Derby's 1,811 posts GB flag
C
Colin
9:25 PM
Peacehaven

Dave
Thank you for your advice.
Humax has RF and Scart connectors and RS232 sevice port. No HDMI connection.
the TV is a late model CRT set. I removed the RF connecting lead today for all digital. I will try at what you suggest for reducing the signal strength. There is no booster fitted to the Aerial.

The reason the Aerial was installed in the loft was because of a restrictive covenant on the properties in the development, but some properties now have external Aerials and there are even a couple of satellite dishes mounted above roof level so an external aerial looks to be my best bet.

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Colin
9:52 PM
Peacehaven

KJM

Analogue ITV and BBC2 have always been variable quality due to interference from France under certain weather conditions. ITV Deteriorated significantly after the first stage of switchover. I had thought about Realigning to Whitehawk Hill, but we are at the bottom of a dip and the land rises more rapidly to the west so I had reservations about getting a good signal. I will need a more robust aerial for outside use here but it looks that may be what I will have to do.
thank you for your suggestions.
Colin

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Ian Farrow
10:23 PM

Will the Newhaven transmitter ever be upgraded to the COM5 multiplex group (Pick TV, Dave etc etc)

Whilst the quality of the picture is now extremely good, I was so looking forward to certain programmes on PickTv. There was never any indication given to us that we would only receive a Light-Public Service unless we upgraded our aerial to receive the Heathfield transmissions. As a pensioner, there is no way I can afford that.

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Colin
11:11 PM
Peacehaven

Dave

I have just tried what you suggested with the aerial lead to the Humax box. That did not solve the issue, but moving the box to get access the connectors did. It looks as if the box was too near to the Television, But why that should only affect one channel I don't understand. I have now relocated the box at a greater separation from the TV and hope that is a permanent cure.
Thank you for pointing me in the right direction.
Colin

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Dave Lindsay
sentiment_very_satisfiedPlatinum

11:17 PM

Colin: Maybe poor screening on the aerial lead or the aerial lead isn't making good contact with the plug on its end. Sometimes the strands of wire break next to the plug because of stress.

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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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