Full Freeview on the Huntshaw Cross (Devon, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 50.979,-4.100 or 50°58'43"N 4°5'59"W |  | EX31 3ND |
The symbol shows the location of the Huntshaw Cross (Devon, England) transmitter which serves 37,000 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.
This transmitter has no current reported problems
The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Huntshaw Cross (Devon, England) transmitter._______
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 Huntshaw Cross (Devon, 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 Huntshaw Cross 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 Huntshaw Cross (Devon, 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 Huntshaw Cross transmitter?
BBC Spotlight 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL3 5BD, 66km south (184°)
to BBC South West region - 107 masts.
ITV West Country News (West) 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL7 5BQ, 66km south (176°)
to ITV West Country region - 107 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (East)
Are there any self-help relays?
| Nth Molton | Transposer | 18 km E Barnstaple | 30 homes |
How will the Huntshaw Cross (Devon, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1968-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 2013-18 | 2013-17 | 19 Jun 2019 | ||
| VHF | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E | C/D E T | C/D E T | W T | ||
| C11 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C30 | BBCA | ||||||||
| C31 | D3+4 | ||||||||
| C32 | SDN | ||||||||
| C34 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C35 | ArqB | ||||||||
| C37 | BBCB | ||||||||
| C48 | SDN | SDN | SDN | ||||||
| C50tv_off | BBCA | BBCA | |||||||
| C51tv_off | _local | _local | _local | _local | |||||
| C52tv_off | ArqA | ArqA | ArqA | ||||||
| C55tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | -BBCB | -BBCB | -BBCB | |||
| C56tv_off | +ArqB | +ArqB | +ArqB | ||||||
| C59tv_off | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | -D3+4 | -D3+4 | -D3+4 | |||
| C62 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | |||||
| C65 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | ||||||
| C67 | C5waves | C5waves |
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 1 Jul 09 and 29 Jul 09.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 100kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7dB) 20kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-10dB) 10kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-14dB) 4kW | |
| Analogue 5 | (-17dB) 2kW |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Huntshaw Cross transmitter area
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldSunday, 18 January 2015
M
Michael 4:37 PM
Sue, I am also on Huntshaw. If you were previously able to receive Sky News and BBC Spotlight etc, then you were receiving Huntshaw (or just possibly Caradon in Cornwall). This would suggest that your Freeview box or inbuilt Freeview receiver was too clever and retuned itself without asking - not uncommon. If your receiver allows manual tuning (not only automatic scanning), then try retuning channels 48, 50, 52, 56, 59 (and 55 if you had HD).
If you didn't get Sky News, you were probably on the Ilfracombe relay (channels 49, 54, 58). If you received Welsh news and not Spotlight, you were receiving tranmissions from Wales. Hope this helps! If you need further help, please post again.
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S
Sue6:29 PM
Thanks Michael - that makes more sense than a large blockage that must have appeared!! Will give this a try
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J
jb386:54 PM
Sue: In addition to that said, I can confirm that the Ilfracombe transmitter was indeed down between the hours of 1.33pm and 09.15pm on the 14th, this somewhat indicating that you are receiving Freeview from this transmitter.
Another point being, that none of the reception predictors (neither Digital UK or Wolfbane) indicate that reception is possible from Huntshaw Cross, and so I will also be interested in the outcome of your signal tests.
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Friday, 6 February 2015
K
Keith Tomlin10:56 AM
Holsworthy
Hello
I live in EX22 7TQ. until a few days ago my Freeview reception both on the in built TV receiver and via You View box was fine then I lost block of channels including ITV1, ITV2, Ch. 4 Ch. 5 etc. on both. Tried re-tuning with initially no effect but now after further re-tune attempts I have them back but with Pixelation etc. indicating weak signal. As I say all fine before so is there any cause for this change like work on transmitter, change of signal strength etc.?
Also as an on going issue I do not get full strength BBC DAB signal here - commercial stations like Classic FM are always 100% so why can't BBC ones be if they come from same transmitter mast?
Thanks
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Keith's: mapK's Freeview map terrainK's terrain plot wavesK's frequency data K's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Dave Lindsay
1:55 PM
1:55 PM
Keith Tomlin: There is no indication is to any work at Huntshaw Cross. Digital UK publishes engineering works here:
Digital UK - Planned Engineering Works
I will make one observation and that is that PSB2 multiplex is on UHF channel 59 from Huntshaw Cross. PSB2 is the multiplex you are having difficulty with.
4G mobile services in the 800MHz band operate just above that, on C61 upwards. So any such services are pretty close frequency wise, with PSB2 being the closest meaning that chances are if any will be affected it will be that one.
The mobile operators have set-up a company to deal with interference issues and it will know whether there is a 800MHz 4G base station that has come on air in your area. It is called "at800" and you might like to enquire with them as to whether this could be a possibility: Contact us | Advice or general enquiries | at800
They will send out a free filter should this be thought to be the issue.
As for the question relating to DAB reception, what is the issue you allude to?
With digital reception (TV and radio) there is strength and quality. Strength is what it says it is. Quality is the degree to which the digits that make up the sound/picture are intact. Less than 100% quality may result in breakup of the audio/video.
As far as strength goes, the signal needs to be strong enough so that the receiver can decode the digits and so that any natural slight variances in strength aren't likely to leave it under the threshold required.
You might find, for example, that with a strength of ~70% you get 100% quality all the time. That's fine. The idea of using a percentage for strength is somewhat of a misnomer as it implies to the user that the higher the better when this isn't necessarily the case.
Different frequencies carry differently owing to objects in the space which the signals are carried. Thus, it's not uncommon for different channels to be received at different levels even though they are from the same transmitting station. If you ever used a set-top aerial indoors with analogue TV you would have likely found that out.
In the case of Huntshaw Cross, the power of D1 National DAB is 4kW and that of BBC National DAB is 2.5kW. It's also the case that this isn't the same power in all directions with each multiplex being different in this respect.
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Thursday, 12 February 2015
K
Keith Tomlin5:09 PM
Hi Dave
Thank you for your kind comments, I will follow up the lead on 4G and will let you know
Regarding DAB I suspect the answer is in your last paragraph which indicates BBC are not willing to put out a strong enough signal that would give me comparable results with such as Classic FM (which I assume is on D1 National DAB). Is there anything that could be done to encourage them to?
All I know is that at home I get a great signal all the time, almost anywhere, with Classic but with BBC it is variable and non-existent in parts of the house, even where Classic is good.
I have one DAB radio with a meter function and just now I got the following readings off it: Classic, Bit Rate 128kbps and Signal Level 100% whereas BBC, Bit Rate 80 kbps and signal level 91/96 % (fluctuating).
I am not sufficiently technical but you may understand the meaning of these readings
Keith
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Dave Lindsay
6:55 PM
6:55 PM
Keith Tomlin: Keith Tomlin: To understand this you have to think how a network of transmitters provides coverage. You are simply looking at your location and observing a poorer BBC signal. It's worth pointing out that if your complaint is one of the BBC being "too low" solely because the D1 commercial is higher that if the commercial were to reduce its power that would pacify you.
I think it unlikely that the "BBC are not willing to put out a strong enough signal that would give [you] comparable results with ... D1 National DAB". No service is there just to serve you and therefore measurement of "good" coverage isn't whether it serves you or not.
The BBC is a public service broadcaster and as such is to provide coverage. The likely reason for the power of D1 being greater than the BBC from Huntshaw Cross is that D1 doesn't have a transmitter somewhere the BBC does and that the higher power is effectively so as to serve "some" of the area that the other BBC-only transmitter serves.
The point is that the D1 network is a commercial one and as such transmitters have been sited based on number of likely listeners.
An example to illustrate the point -- this is with FM but the principle is the same. You might think that Classic FM on FM broadcasts from the same transmitters as BBC Radios 1 to 4 on FM, but you'd be wrong. As a commercial service it picks and chooses where it wants to transmit from.
And so to the example: Suffolk is poorly served by Classic FM on FM. The high power transmitter at Tacolneston in Norfolk carries all five FM services, but the one at Manningtree, between Colchester and Ipswich, doesn't carry Classic FM. The point is that there is overlap between the two so in that area Classic FM is available, but only from Tacolneston. Classic FM must have done a cost-benefit analysis as to how many *extra* listeners they would reach with Manningtree (and not a simple question of how many can it reach). The cost-per-listener that would be served by Manningtree but not Tacolneston is likely to be greater for it than other transmitting sites which Classic FM uses.
That's why the networks aren't the same. Things "might" be changing, what with plans to improve DAB coverage, but this nonetheless outlines the differing objectives of commercial broadcasters as against the BBC.
In your situation it may be the case, therefore, that the higher power D1 signal is so as to cover an area that BBC has its own transmitter for (and therefore covers better). The BBC transmits from North Hessary Tor but D1 does not. The reason that I suggest that might be so is because of the above. I would not assume that it is because the coverage of the BBC network is inferior per se.
This may not help you, but that is likely to be the reasoning. Of course, the outcome of higher power D1 relative to BBC is that there will be pockets where the BBC signal won't reach but where the D1 will. But then if D1 broadcast from an adjacent site that is BBC-only then it would probably lower its power. So, the commercial operator isn't doing this out of the goodwill of it's heart to serve those pockets! Such pockets are generally where line-of-sight with the transmitter is obstructed such as in your case (as the high ground at Silworthy is in the way). Because the power of the BBC is just over half of D1 does not mean that it serves just over half of that of D1 -- transmitter powers don't work linearly to number of people served!
The BBC announced a long list of future transmitters over a year ago but I can't see any that might help you:
Where will the 162 new BBC DAB transmitters be?
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Friday, 13 February 2015
M
michael1:56 PM
Keith Tomlin : You are greatly favoured by the powers-that-be in that you receive DAB, be it variable.
I am in the Huntshaw area and cannot receive any DAB signal from Huntshaw. It might work if I erected a DAB aerial on the TV aerial pole. However, I would then be tethered to a socket in the wall. That ain't radio as we know it. I might as well listen to the radio stations available on Freeview. If they later switch off FM, "progress" will take on a new meaning...
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Thursday, 2 April 2015
M
Mr Harrow11:41 AM
Barnstaple
Hi
I have no freeview signal in my house for the last 2 days and I have spoken to neighbours and they are the same apart from neighbours who can afford satellite dishes.
Our postcode is EX31 3RH and I get my signal from Huntshaw Torrington Devon Transmitter.
Is there any issues ?
Thanks
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Mr's: mapM's Freeview map terrainM's terrain plot wavesM's frequency data M's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Monday, 11 May 2015
R
Roy Rees8:53 PM
Any idea why every night at about 1940 there is a 10 second break in transmission on ITV? Signal comes from the Huntershaw Cross aerial. Would be grateful if you could shed any light on this problem.
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