Full Freeview on the Plympton (Plymouth, England) transmitter
 | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 50.381,-4.068 or 50°22'52"N 4°4'3"W |  | PL7 1TT |
The symbol shows the location of the Plympton (Plymouth, England) transmitter which serves 35,000 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 Plympton (Plymouth, England) mast?
Plympton transmitter - Plympton 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 Plympton (Plymouth, 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 Plympton 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 Plympton (Plymouth, 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 Plympton transmitter?
BBC Spotlight 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL3 5BD, 4km west (280°)
to BBC South West region - 107 masts.
ITV West Country News (West) 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL7 5BQ, 3km east-northeast (76°)
to ITV West Country region - 107 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (East)
How will the Plympton (Plymouth, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 10 Apr 2019 | |||
| C/D E | W | W | W | W T | W T | K T | |||
| C30 | C5waves | C5waves | _local | _local | _local | _local | |||
| C40 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C41 | SDN | ||||||||
| C42 | SDN | SDN | SDN | D3+4 | |||||
| C44 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C45 | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | BBCB | |||||
| C47 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C49tv_off | D3+4 | D3+4 | |||||||
| C54tv_off | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | BBCA | BBCA | BBCA | |||
| C56tv_off | ArqB | ArqB | ArqB | ||||||
| C58tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBCB | BBCB | BBCB | |||
| C61 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | |||||
| C64 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves |
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 12 Aug 09 and 9 Sep 09.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-5 | 2kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 400W | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-10dB) 200W |
Local transmitter maps
Plympton Freeview Plympton DAB Caradon Hill TV region BBC South West West CountryWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Caradon Hill transmitter area
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Thursday, 21 March 2013
S
Stuart Williamson8:01 PM
Saltash
Early last week we lost all the BBC channels on C54. I have 4 receivers all with the same problem (all other channels are good).
The diagnostic shows signal strength at 100% but 0 quality. (Plympton transmitter). I have tried retune but no channels found!
I called last week and was told there was maintenance on this transmitter (operating under reduced power)but the website now shows no problems.
In general we have had good reception since switchover to digital.
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Stuart's: mapS's Freeview map terrainS's terrain plot wavesS's frequency data S's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 3 June 2013
Hi,
I see that this transmitter is scheduled for an engineering period on June 5th, where "D3&4 moves from ch61 to ch49", as part of the c60/c61 clearance. I was wondering, would it be just a change of the channel/frequency or would the TSIDs (and other DVB identifiers) of the those channels change as well ? Could you please let me know as this peice of technical information would be quite useful for something i'm working on.
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Arun's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Arun: there is no change to anything other than the frequency as far as I know with these changes. The NCND is used to notify equipment of the changes.
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Hi Brian, appreciate the quick response.
I was studying the effects on an STB when a re-tune is not done after a MAJOR NCD change.
However, I could not find enough technical information, especially about the the possible changes (and the current) DVB Identifiers across the UK, anywhere online.
I was not sure about the TSIDs' behaviour, but thanks a lot for providing me with the information.
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Arun's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Hi Brian. Yes.
The DBook indicates that the TSID of a multiplexer can or need not change, and in any case an invariant tsid can be included in the NCN descriptor.
My concern regarding these recent changes across the UK was that, while in theory, since the services are the same, and it's the same transmitter that is now broadcasting on a new frequency (no regional variants, indicating no change in TSID), a re-tune can be done to acquire the new frequencies.
However, I have no concrete data to indicate the same, i.e., the change is just an RF channel / frequency change.
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Arun's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Arun: The current "clearance" changes involve no changes to the configuration of the service, just a change of frequency.
As I am sure you know, they are just a shuffle of allocations from C61 and C62 to C39 and C40 (see Digital
Dividend - changes to the 800MHz band | 4G-at-800 | ukfree.tv - 10 years of independent, free digital TV advice ).
From memory, all receivers should be able to cope with a frequency change directly because there is no change to anything else in the system. The receiver should reallocate the same service to the same LCN.
Most problems happen (and need a "factory reset") when a service changes the LCN or there is a slight change to the channel identifier (such as "ITV 1" becoming "ITV").
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Tuesday, 4 June 2013
Hi Brian,
Thanks so much for the information.
You have been extremely helpful and very informative.
The last comment clears my doubts regarding the service configuration changes.
Based on the NCND change type and the information above, I assume a re-tune would be pretty much necessary to acquire the new (relocated) frequencies (and basically to be able to play them).
Since the PSI information would be cross-carried in the other (static) mux, I think I can go forward with my study.
Your help is much appreciated.
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Arun's: mapA's Freeview map terrainA's terrain plot wavesA's frequency data A's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
H
harold furzeman10:05 PM
Plymouth
I have a roof freeview aerial which, has to been in line with Plympton and North Hill. It is set to vertical position. My problem is that out two tv receivers when auto tuned lock onto some channels with signal strength 10 and others 3. Result drop out and mainly on BBC1,BBC2.ITV1 and Five. Is there an aerial filter or I could enter manually except I can't find any frequencies?
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harold's: mapH's Freeview map terrainH's terrain plot wavesH's frequency data H's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 15 September 2013
B
B Moreton10:41 AM
I live in a poor reception area receiving from Plympton & recently re tuned my 2 tvs because intermittent reception + frequency changes in June. Before changing I could receive Sky news ok, but now cannot get it at all although all other freeview are excellent. On checking reception on my tv I see that I have signal strength 4 and signal Quality 1 for this particular channel/programme only. Why is this? I have a 91 element, 16db, 26db gain aerial with 12 volt signal amplifier. Recently checked & best reception site available.
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