Freeview: Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) full-Freeview transmitter
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Freeview on the Caradon Hill (Cornwall, England) transmitter

Google StreetviewGoogle mapBing mapGoogle Earth50.511,-4.437 or 50°30'38"N 4°26'13"WPL14 5LT

4G at 800MHz (at800) Freeview reception issues

When 800MHz 4G mobile broadband services start there will be 2 multiplexes in the higher risk range (C21-23, C30, C59-60): C21: SDN, C22: BBCB
See How do I know if the 4G broadband will overload my Freeview? and Full UK map of 4G issue areas for details.

Transmitter fauls and engineering works



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The symbol shows the location of the Caradon Hill transmitter which serves 180,000 homes.

Other maps:Caradon Hill DABCaradon Hill AM/FMCaradon Hill regionBBC South WestWest Country

Radiation patterns

Radiation patterns withheld

Map key

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.

Caradon Hill transmitter Freeview broadcasts

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. The rating shown takes in account the output power level and the various Freeview transmission modes and do not indicate an ongoing fault.

MuxEffective power level, aerial positionRatingModeWatts
PSB1
BBCA
 horizontal
Maximum64QAM 8K 2/3
24.1Mb/s
DVB-T MPEG2		100,000
Channel icons
1 BBC One South West, 2 BBC Two England, 7 BBC Three, 9 BBC Four, 70 CBBC Channel, 71 CBeebies, 80 BBC News, 81 BBC Parliament, 301 301, plus 12 others
• as a digital multiplex transmitted on frequency C28+ (530.2MHz) from 602m datum.
PSB2
D3+4
 horizontal
Maximum64QAM 8K 2/3
24.1Mb/s
DVB-T MPEG2		100,000
Channel icons
3 ITV (West Country), 4 Channel 4 South ads, 5 Channel 5 Part Network ads, 6 ITV 2, 13 Channel 4+1 South ads, 14 More 4, 28 E4, 33 ITV +1 (West Country),
• as a digital multiplex transmitted on frequency C25+ (506.2MHz) from 602m datum.
PSB3
BBCB
 horizontal
Maximum256QAM 32KE 2/3
40.2Mb/s
DVB-T2 MPEG4		100,000
Channel icons
101 BBC One HD (England no regional news), 102 BBC Two HD (England), 103 ITV HD (ITV Meridian Southampton), 104 Channel 4 HD South ads, plus 1 others
• as a digital multiplex transmitted on frequency C22+ (482.2MHz) from 602m datum.
COM4
SDN
 horizontal
Above average64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s
DVB-T MPEG2		50,000
Channel icons
10 ITV 3, 20 G.O.L.D. (not free), 25 Dave ja vu, 26 Home (not free), 27 ITV 2 +1, 30 5*, 31 5USA, 34 ESPN UK (not free), 38 Quest, 39 The Zone, 44 Channel 5 +1, 72 CITV, plus 22 others
• as a digital multiplex transmitted on frequency C21+ (474.2MHz) from 579m datum.
COM5
ArqA
 horizontal
Above average64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s
DVB-T MPEG2		50,000
Channel icons
 TV News,  TV Stars, 11 PICK TV, 12 Dave, 17 Really, 29 E4+1, 32 Movie Mix, 46 Challenge, 48 Food Network, 82 Sky News, 87 Community Channel, plus 9 others
• as a digital multiplex transmitted on frequency C24- (497.8MHz) from 579m datum.
COM6
ArqB
 horizontal
Above average64QAM 8K 3/4
27.1Mb/s
DVB-T MPEG2		50,000
Channel icons
15 Film 4, 18 4Music, 19 Yesterday, 21 VIVA, 24 ITV 4, 41 Sky Sports 1 (not free), 42 Sky Sports 2 (not free), 47 4seven, 83 Al Jazeera English, 85 RT English , plus 21 others
• as a digital multiplex transmitted on frequency C27- (521.8MHz) from 579m datum.


Regional news from the Caradon Hill transmitter


BBC Spotlight 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL3 5BD, 26km southeast
to BBC South West region - 107 masts.

ITV West Country News (West) 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL7 5BQ, 32km east-southeast
to ITV West Country region - 107 masts.

Self-help relays

BarleycombeActive deflector25 km E Plymouth3 homes
ParracombeTransposer17 km NE Barnstaple80 homes

How the transmission frequencies change over time

years1961~851984-971997-981998-20092009-132013-182013-18
aerial groupVHFA KA KKA KA KA K
C12ITV
C21B+SDN+SDN+SDN
C22BBC1BBC1BBC1+BBCB+BBCB+BBCB
C24-C-ArqA-ArqA-ArqA
C25ITVITVITV+D3+4+D3+4+D3+4
C27D-ArqB-ArqB-ArqB
C28BBC2BBC2BBC2+BBCA+BBCA+BBCA
C30local
600C31-2
C32C4C4C4
C341
C48A

orange background for multiplexes names moregreen background for transmission frequencieslilac background for power levels in watts800MHz band: 4G mobile to start in 2013700MHz band: possible 4G in 2019 more600MHz band: new or moved digital TV services more
Notes: + and - denote 166kHz offset; aerial group are shown as A B C/D E K W
Italics for analogue, digital switchover was Wednesdays 12th August and 9th September 2009.

  • Ofcom have projected that a local television service for Plymouth could use an Interleaved Frequency on the Caradon Hill transmitter using C30

Comparison of old analogue and current digital signal levels

Analogue 1-4 500kW
BBCA, D3+4, BBCB(-7dB) 100kW
SDN, ARQA, ARQB(-10dB) 50kW
Mux 1*(-20dB) 5kW
Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D*(-21dB) 4kW

History of Channel 3 in the Caradon Hill transmitter area

Apr 1961-Dec 1981Westward Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992Television South West (TSW)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004Westcountry Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014ITV plc
• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only.


Your comments: most recent posts are at the bottom

firstFirst comments prevEarlier comments  ◊ 

Your comments are always welcome. Please use the form below to add your thoughts or questions to this page. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

Barbara Harris
Sunday 14 August 2011 8:55AM
Channel 15 regularly drops out but at other times is perfect. The transmitter is Caradon Hill. I am sick of retuning. Why is this happening when there is no engineering work listed?
Briantist
Monday 15 August 2011 8:12AM
Barbara Harris: Please see Freeview intermittent interference | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice for help.
Julie Pearce
Monday 26 September 2011 8:02PM Liskeard
We have had no problems receiving freeview until June this year when the channels in group D have been intermittent. Our neighbours have the same problem. What could have happened that it started in the middle of June? Sometimes we can get freeview on our TV's downstairs but not upstairs and find it frustrating when it was all working well up until June. Please can you help?!
Transmitter engineering
Monday 31 October 2011 3:57PM
CARADON HILL transmitter - Freeview HD Digital TV Off Air from 15:11 today [BBC]
Transmitter engineering
Monday 31 October 2011 4:43PM
CARADON HILL transmitter - Freeview HD Digital TV Off Air from 15:11 today to 15:17 today [BBC]
Transmitter engineering
Tuesday 1 November 2011 5:10AM
CARADON HILL transmitter - Freeview HD Digital TV Off Air from 15:11 yesterday to 15:17 yesterday [BBC]
Transmitter engineering
Wednesday 2 November 2011 4:55AM
CARADON HILL transmitter - Freeview HD Digital TV Off Air from 15:11 on 31 Oct to 15:17 on 31 Oct [BBC]
Justin Smith
Friday 13 January 2012 9:37AM
Hello Brian.
We`ve had a customer buying a Yagi18K for Caradon Hill because you say Caradon is a K group, but since the switchover Caradon is an A group ! As it happens the 18K worked fine anyway (he reported it outperformed his existing Tri Boom) but for other people in poorer signal areas an A group would work that much better.
Briantist
Sunday 15 January 2012 9:01AM
Justin Smith: Actually, it was an Ofcom code... I will change the page to make the transmitter A.
Justin Smith
Wednesday 18 January 2012 3:25PM
Jolly good. These type of errors are easily overlooked.
Briantist
Friday 20 January 2012 7:18AM
Justin Smith: I don't as a rule overlook errors!
Nick Ralph
Tuesday 24 January 2012 2:50AM Bodmin
Normally our reception is fine, but last Saturday morning happened to record 2 programmes starting at 10am - More 4 on a Humax HDR-FOX T2 and BBC1 on a Sony RDR-HXD1095. Both suffered bad pixellation and complete break-up with total loss of signal temporarily. I think it was all before 10.30am.We have an external aerial and diagnostics usually shows signal strength 60-70% with 100% quality on all channels. I was not around at the time to observe anything unusual or check any other channels, but no electrical equipment was running in our house at the time other than that we always use.
Briantist
Thursday 26 January 2012 7:00AM
Nick Ralph: I would have a look at Freeview intermittent interference | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice if the problem happens from time to time.
Transmitter engineering
Monday 5 March 2012 10:31AM
CARADON HILL transmitter - Over the next week Caradon Hill main transmitter: TV (digital) Liable to interruption, Radio (analogue) working normally, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]
Transmitter engineering
Tuesday 10 April 2012 10:29AM
CARADON HILL transmitter - Over the next week Caradon Hill main transmitter: TV (digital) working normally, Radio (analogue) working normally, Radio (digital) working normally. [DUK]
Transmitter engineering
Monday 11 June 2012 6:28PM
CARADON HILL transmitter - Over the next week Caradon Hill main transmitter: TV (digital) working normally, Radio (analogue) Possible weak signal, Radio (digital) Possible weak signal. [DUK]
michael
Tuesday 12 June 2012 12:58AM
Is the nature of "engineering work" a state secret? In the age of freedom of information, brief technical detail of the work to be untertaken would be most welcome - not least so that we know that blocking and drop-outs are only temporary.
Briantist
Tuesday 12 June 2012 7:04AM
michael: It's not *state* secret, but it is a commercial one.

If you become a member of the DTG - Joining the DTG - you get all the details.

However, I don't have a spare ten thousand pounds...
Dave Atkins
Monday 2 July 2012 6:03PM Holsworthy
I regularly experience poor quality reception which has been ongoing for months. I'm going to upgrade my roof mounted aerial.
Can you tell me if it would be best to go for a gorup A or wideband aerial for Caradon Hill? (Loaction Holsworthy).
Mark Fletcher
Monday 2 July 2012 6:49PM Halifax
Dave Atkins.Holsworthy,EX22 6JB.As Caradon Hill is an all group A transmitter located almost 20 miles from your abode to mast,your best bet is to go for a group A (red tipped) aerial or a group K (grey tipped) semi-wideband aerial but only if you decide not to persue the group A aerial itself.
However a group W wideband aerial (tipped black) on the other hand is by and large rather useless on an all group A mast such as Caradon Hill in a poor/marginal reception area.If you decide to buy a new group A (preferred) or group K aerial (as a last resort),then simultaneously buy new superior copper-copper black coloured (sometimes darkest navy blue it appears) co-ax cable,and importantly new brass co-ax aerial plugs,not alloy or worse plastic plugs as they're useless.
I would strongly look up the ATV Aerials and Television of Sheffield website for proper advice in buying new aerial and accessories and belive me they are the No1 in my honest opinion in the UK today.Forget the rest ATV of Sheffield are the best.
Richard Laurence
Thursday 5 July 2012 3:57PM
Does the whole of Bodmin get its TV from Caradon Hill, or are there any repeaters as well? I have been asked whether it would be feasible to broadcast a local TV service for the town and this would only be commercially viable if a single transmitter site (possibly not at CaradonHill but in line with it) would do the job.
Jim McDonald
Saturday 8 September 2012 7:20PM
7th 8th Sept all Tv reception on Freeview unavailable. website reports Caradon Hill AOK. Please investigate / fix.
Chris Woodcock
Monday 10 September 2012 2:17PM
Black Torrington.
We receive our Freeview from Caradon Hill... or we would normally. For the last 3 days we, and a number of our neighbors have experienced extremely weak signal or no signal what-so-ever. Our living room TV is rigged up to Freesat, so we have been able to watch one TV at least. There was a mention on a Spotlight weather report on Saturday afternoon of strange atmospherics due to the high pressure sat over the country... though there has been little other mention beyond that.
This website has been saying that Caradon Hill is working, though I cannot help but wonder if their diagnostic/monitoring equipment may be on the blink.
On behalf of my neighbors, myself and anyone suffering from similar issues, I request that an engineer perform a detailed manual inspection of the transmitter, or that someone be sent out with the necessary tech to determine if we have some kind of localised interference here in Black Torrington... who knows, perhaps some inconsiderate so-and-so is playing around with field-generators nearby, lol.
michael
Monday 10 September 2012 9:14PM
Under atmospheric high-pressure, distant transmissions (from France or the UK) can break through and interefere with the signal you want - Caradon in this instance. If things are back to normal now we have a low, this would be the most likely explanation. If the problem persisits, you might wish to check whether you can get a signal from Huntshaw Cross on a CD aerial.
michael
Monday 10 September 2012 9:48PM
Dave Fletcher: Mark's advice is sound. However, you may find that a log-periodic aerial serves you well. I receive Caradon
at 50miles on a log from ATV :-) If Caradon is weak at your location, the group A aerial recommended by Mark would be best, but, being longer, needs a sturdy mount. A log is robust and wideband and normally should give you a good signal at 20miles. It would also allow you to try other transmitters in the Southwest if you were interested in experimenting.
Transmitter engineering
Tuesday 15 January 2013 8:02PM
CARADON HILL transmitter - Freeview - No reported problems -. [BBC]
Transmitter engineering
Tuesday 15 January 2013 8:50PM
CARADON HILL transmitter - Freeview No problems on any service. [BBC]
Transmitter engineering
Friday 18 January 2013 5:13AM
CARADON HILL transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 03:58 today. [BBC]
Transmitter engineering
Friday 18 January 2013 10:31AM
CARADON HILL transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 03:58 today to 04:39 today. [BBC]
Transmitter engineering
Saturday 19 January 2013 4:31AM
CARADON HILL transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 03:58 yesterday to 04:39 yesterday. [BBC]
Transmitter engineering
Sunday 20 January 2013 4:31PM
CARADON HILL transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 03:58 on 18 Jan to 04:39 on 18 Jan. [BBC]
Transmitter engineering
Thursday 28 February 2013 7:31PM
CARADON HILL transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 16:04 today to 17:16 today. [BBC]
Transmitter engineering
Friday 1 March 2013 4:31AM
CARADON HILL transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 16:04 yesterday to 17:16 yesterday. [BBC]
Paul
Friday 1 March 2013 11:31AM Liskeard
My signal comes from Caradon Hill. I have a one year old TV with integrated Freeview. The aerial is in my attic, not exposed to the elements. I have never had a reception problem. But since the past three days approximately, I have had "no signal" on all the ArqA multiplex channels (aerial group C24). I tried doing a Freeview reset, and that resulted in all the ArqA channels disappearing from the EPG. I do not have a digibox, VCR, PVR or games console or any other analogue video equipment. Also, we do have any new electric equipment that we have plugged in in the past few days. I tried to manually tune in C24, but my TV digital setup showed on C24 signal quality of 0 and signal strength ranging between 0 and 7 out of 100, so the TV could or would not tune in C24. Any ideas?
jb38
Friday 1 March 2013 1:07PM
Paul: At 5 miles away from the transmitter and with only a minor obstruction being seen on the signal path (about 0.25 mls from you) is liable to suggest that some problem "might" exist with your aerial system albeit I do acknowledge the fact of you having said that its located in the loft.

As you haven't actually mentioned what the other channels are indicating, what you should do is go into the tuning menu / manual tune and enter Ch21 (ITV3 etc) but do NOT press search or scan, because on practically all devices with a manual tune facility after you have entered the channel number the level of the signal will be seen, make a note of whatever it is then carry out exactly the same procedure again but this time enter Ch27 (Film 4 etc), once again noting the level, then finally repeat as before but use Ch24 then compare this with the levels that's been seen across the other two commercial mux channels, and which by the way all radiate on 50Kw compared to the PSB's on 100Kw.

Its quite common for levels to change over the year through atmospheric reasons, but not with the magnitude such as you are reporting.

It might transpire that you will require to move your aerial about 12" or so either side of where its presently positioned, this done while leaving your TV on the manual tuning procedure as mentioned as its tuner acts like a signal meter when used that way, but further advice is dependant on the results of your test.

By the way, work was going on at Carradon Hill yesterday connected to DAB radio but not according to info the TV services.
Transmitter engineering
Saturday 2 March 2013 4:31AM
CARADON HILL transmitter - DAB: BBC National DAB Radio Off Air from 16:04 on 28 Feb to 17:16 on 28 Feb. [BBC]
Chris Wallis
Tuesday 19 March 2013 4:08PM Bodmin
Any idea where I can go for help - mine is a Radio 4 FM problem - all of a sudden, about 3 weeks ago I get huge intereference on Radio 4, on all four radios in my house (PL31 2DU) although Radio 2 is still acceptable. Reception has never been brilliant - I believe we get the signal via a relay station & we've only ever been able to get Radios 2 & 4 but now 4 is unlistenable to!
Chris Wallis
Tuesday 19 March 2013 4:12PM Bodmin
Any idea where I can go for help - mine is a Radio 4 FM problem - all of a sudden, about 3 weeks ago I get huge intereference on Radio 4, on all four radios in my house (PL31 2DU) although Radio 2 is still acceptable. Reception has never been brilliant - I believe we get the signal via a relay station & we've only ever been able to get Radios 2 & 4 but now 4 is unlistenable to!
Ron Bouttell
Sunday 14 April 2013 11:43AM St. Austell
Hello
I receive my signal from Caradon Hill & am unable to get an HD signal on my HD tv. I have manually tuned to Ch22 & "no signal" is shown. The aerial is in the loft.
I have the ability to receive the Redruth transmitter but get the same result. Can you advise please.
Ron
PL26 6TB
Michael
Sunday 14 April 2013 11:46AM
Ron Bouttell: Have you previously had a signal on the HD channels or are you trying to get them for the first time? If the latter, please post your make and model of the TV.
Ian
Sunday 14 April 2013 11:04PM Launceston
Hi Ron, Michael,
I receive from Caradon Hill and have recently bought a Freeview HD recorder which didn't initially detect the HD channels, but I manually tuned CH22 and it picked them up and I could watch them. A couple of times I've tried watching the HD channels and I've had the 'No signal' error. Manual tuning shows good signal strength (80%) but no signal quality.
Today (Sun 14th) approx 2pm I tried the HD channels and got the blank 'No signal' but approx 5pm I could watch the HD channels and signal quality had returned to 100%!!????
Any ideas??
Ian
Tuesday 16 April 2013 11:24AM Launceston
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the link.
I have just checked my Freeview channels at 11am and I can see a significant drop in signal quality readings across all channels, resulting in no CH22 and some freezing on other channels. But CH22 was fine last night!?
I will look at getting an attenuator, but shouldn't this problem be constant rather than am/pm?
Ian
Tuesday 16 April 2013 11:16PM Launceston
Well bizarrely I think my issue is due to my coaxial cable/connector. Whilst removing the cable I found that bending the cable in a certain direction resulted in me regaining the signal quality for CH22. Which is abit strange as I dont think I've moved/touched the RF cable since fitting my new Freeview box a few weeks ago. :o)

Ron: I believe Michael was asking towards if you have a 'Freeview HD' set-top box or tuner in your tv? Although a tv description will say 'Full HD' or 'HD Ready' this does not mean you can receive the HD channels! Your tv tuner or freeview box needs to be 'Freeview HD'. The Currys website is a good example that shows if the tv tuner is a standard 'Freeview' or a 'Freeview HD'.
Hope this helps :o)
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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.

If you have no satellite signal, see Sky Digibox says 'No Signal' or 'Technical fault'

If you have other problems, please provide a full (not partial) postcode (or preferably enter it in box at the top right) and indicate where if aerial is on the roof, in the loft or elsewhere.

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