Freeview Light on the Torquay Town (Torbay, England) transmitter
 | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 50.463,-3.530 or 50°27'47"N 3°31'48"W |  | TQ2 5YE |
The symbol shows the location of the Torquay Town (Torbay, England) transmitter which serves 1,800 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 Torquay Town (Torbay, England) transmitter._______
Digital television services are broadcast on a multiplexes (or Mux) where many stations occupy a single broadcast frequency, as shown below.
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)
The Torquay Town (Torbay, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: U&Yesterday, 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, DMAX, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, FRANCE 24 (in English), GREAT! action, GREAT! christmas, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, 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, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, U&Dave, U&Dave ja vu, U&Drama +1, U&W.
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 Torquay Town 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.
| Mux | H/V | Frequency | Height | Mode | Watts |
| PSB1 BBCA | V max | C41+ (634.2MHz) | 106m | DTG- | 40W |
 1 BBC One (SD) South West, 2 BBC Two England, 9 BBC Four, 23 BBC Three, 201 CBBC, 202 CBeebies, 231 BBC News, 232 BBC Parliament, plus 17 others | |||||
| PSB2 D3+4 | V max | C47 (682.0MHz) | 106m | DTG- | 40W |
 3 ITV 1 (SD) (West Country), 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 (West Country), 71 That’s 60s, | |||||
| PSB3 BBCB | V max | C44 (658.0MHz) | 106m | DTG- | 40W |
 46 5SELECT, 101 BBC One HD South West, 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 | |||||
Are you trying to watch these 44 Freeview channels?
The Torquay Town (Torbay, England) mast is a public service broadcasting (PSB) transmitter, it does not provide these commercial (COM) channels: U&Yesterday, 4seven, 5Action, 5STAR, 5USA, Al Jazeera Eng, Al Jazeera English, Blaze, Blaze +1, Challenge, Channel 5 +1, DMAX, E4 Extra, YAAAS!, Film4 +1, Food Network, FRANCE 24 (in English), GREAT! action, GREAT! christmas, GREAT! movies, GREAT! romance mix, 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, That's 90s, That's TV 2, Together TV, TRUE CRIME, TRUE CRIME XTRA, U&Dave, U&Dave ja vu, U&Drama +1, U&W.
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 Torquay Town transmitter?
BBC Spotlight 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL3 5BD, 43km west (261°)
to BBC South West region - 107 masts.
ITV West Country News (West) 0.8m homes 2.9%
from Plymouth PL7 5BQ, 36km west (259°)
to ITV West Country region - 107 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 50% evening news is shared with West Country (East)
How will the Torquay Town (Torbay, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2009 | 2009-13 | 27 Mar 2019 | |||||
| B E T | B E T | B E T | B E K T | B E K T | |||||
| C41 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | +BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C44 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C47 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C51tv_off | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves |
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 8 Apr 09 and 22 Apr 09.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4, BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | 40W |
Local transmitter maps
Torquay Town Freeview Torquay Town AM/FM Beacon Hill TV region BBC South West West CountryWhich companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Beacon Hill transmitter area
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Is the transmitter output the same in all directions?
Radiation patterns withheldFriday, 13 November 2015
J
jb3812:18 AM
Nick Burleigh : If reception is indeed affected by windy weather, then this strongly suggests that the signal path from the transmitter passes near to tree lined areas, as Freeview signals as such are not affected by high winds, that is unless said winds result in the occurrence of some form of obstruction to the signal
However, an assessment of the situation is not really possible without knowledge of the area in question, this preferably provided in the form of a post code or one from nearby, i.e: a shop / Post Office, this info enabling access to details of the transmitter, and also the terrain applicable to the area the transmitter is covering.
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Nick Burleigh4:59 PM
Torquay
Dear jb38, Thank you for your help. The postcode areas where reports to us have come from are:
TQ2 5UX, TQ2 5TA, TQ2 5TD, TQ2 5SZ, TQ2 5NB, TQ2 5TL, TQ2 5SR, TQ2 5NQ, TQ2 5NA.
There is a clear line of sight from some properties to the transmitter sited on top of an apartment block about 0.1 miles away. The issue about trees has been looked in to before. One resident who called in an aerial expert fitted an attenuator in case the problem was down to signal overload where they lived. It didn't solve the problem either.
One of the most qualified aerial fitters in Torbay, Jim Fraser of Jim's Aerials, Torbay has attended the television sets of many complainants across the area and taken readings using meters. He reports that in his professional opinion the problem is clearly down to a fault at the transmitter. It was first noticed after a huge storm that even damaged a main railway line in the locality during February 2013.
He has been most helpful and has left messages with a company called Arqiva who own the transmitter, but they never respond to his calls!!
Jim Fraser has the contract to look after the aerial and satellite system in the block of flats where the transmitter is sited and has asked the Managers of this building to tell if Arqiva request access to their transmitter on the roof space, just to see if they are doing anything about his calls.
We have been round the houses for so long now and people have been forced to sign up to the cable service operated by Virgin media just to get reliable tv. This is particularly unfair to older people, those with second homes or holiday flatswho just want basic freeview tv and the Torquay transmitter met their needs perfectly.
In analogue days we had excellent reception, even using an indoor or set top aerial pointing to the Torquay town transmitter that opened in the mid eighties when rediffusion announced the closure of their old cable system. It went digital around 2009/10
Hopefully we can find some way of getting hold of the people responsible for this transmitter so they can get it fixed for the local commmunity I work for.
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Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Sunday, 15 November 2015
J
jb3811:35 AM
Nick Burleigh: Thanks for your reply / update on the situation, the comprehensive nature of having enabled me to carry out a number of checks based on the various post codes given, which has enlightened me as to the nature of the terrain in question, but though one which I feel could well be bit of a nightmare for aerial installers trying to obtain a satisfactory (and consistently stable) signal in a number of the postal code areas mentioned.
As far as signal break up during windy (or possibly other) conditions is concerned, although tests may well have been carried out by the aerial installer at a number of households affected by the problem, however the only way that the actual transmission source can be positively identified as being the reason for same (such as possibly by an iffy feeder to mast connection) is by a non-household based (to avoid possible interference) signal test being carried out using a portable test aerial (e.g: Log periodic in conjunction with a professional signal test meter) at some location where a completely unobstructed "full view" of the TX mast (and slightly under) can be seen.
That said, after having comprehensively studied the location (via Google earth etc) of a number of the properties in question, I'm still inclined to feel that the more likely reason for the problem is connected with that mentioned in my original reply, insomuch, obstruction in the form of trees (or tops of) being blown by the wind,
My reason for thinking along these lines being based on the fact that in many of the postal code areas referred to, the signal is being received at a very low angle in relation to that of the mast due to extremely steep gradient that many of the houses are built on, signals received in a number of properties via skipping across the rooftops of a series of relatively close stacked properties above them, the fact of the mast being so close to the steep gradient making the situation worse.
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Nick Burleigh7:47 PM
Torquay
Dear jb38,
Thank you for your reply.
You have certainly done a lot of work to offer a possible solution and that is much appreciated.
I have a photograph that was taken when the Managers of some flats in the area had an aerial firm round trying to sort out the problem for their tenants in 2014 and the guy asked me how many other people had problems with reception and asked for access to take the pic from. It shows their communal aerial on the building and the transmitter. If you are interested I could send it you to confirm or deny your theory about trees.
But I will need an email address as I can't copy and paste a snip or pic on to this form
regards,
Nick
Melville Hill Community Group
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Nick's: mapN's Freeview map terrainN's terrain plot wavesN's frequency data N's Freeview Detailed Coverage
Friday, 11 March 2016
N
Nick Burleigh 10:00 PM
Thanks for the support from this site following reports about intermittent loss of reception on freeview for residents using the Torquay town centre relay transmitting sration in Devon. After two years of residents loosing their favourite shows in wet and windy the problem has been resolved. This happened because over the new year a local resident who has holiday accommodation managed to get through by telephone call to some on call engineers. The engineers agreed to look at the ailing transmitter. They didn't make excuses like all the other staff that the problem was to do with everybody using faulty aerials or had trees in the way. The engineers agreed there were problems with their transmitting system. A few days later the transmitter went off for a few hours one afternoon. It came back on about 6pm and ever since then no one has complained. It proves that communication between people who rely on small tv stations covering just a few roads or local district has much to be desired since the digital revolution.
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