Full Freeview on the Plympton (Plymouth, England) transmitter

Brian Butterworth first published this on 1st May 2004 at 08:20 - UK Free TV

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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.

This transmitter has no current reported problems

The BBC and Digital UK report there are no faults or engineering work on the Plympton (Plymouth, England) transmitter.

Choose from three options: ■ List by multiplex ■ List by channel number ■ List by channel name

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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.

Mux	H/V	Frequency	Height	Mode	Watts
PSB1 BBCA	V max	C40 (626.0MHz)	163m	DTG-3	400W
	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, 250 BBC Red Button, plus 16 others
PSB2 D3+4	V max	C42 (642.0MHz)	163m	DTG-3	400W
	3 ITV (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, 30 E4 +1, 35 ITV +1 (West Country),
PSB3 BBCB	V max	C45 (666.0MHz)	163m	DTG-6	400W
	56 5SELECT, 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, 105 Channel 5 HD, 106 BBC Four HD, 109 BBC Three HD, 204 CBBC HD, 205 CBeebies HD, plus 1 others 66 TBN UK,
COM4 SDN	V max	C41 (634.0MHz)	163m	DTG-8	400W
	12 Quest, 20 Drama, 21 5USA, 29 ITV2 +1, 32 5STAR, 33 5Action, 41 Legend, 42 GREAT! movies action, 46 Channel 5 +1, 58 ITVBe +1, 59 ITV3 +1, 64 Blaze, 67 CBS Reality, 74 Dave ja vu, 78 TCC, 81 Blaze +1, 89 ITV4 +1, 203 CITV, 208 Pop Player, 211 Ketchup TV, 212 YAAAS!, plus 15 others
COM5 ArqA	V max	C44 (658.0MHz)	163m	DTG-8	400W
	11 Sky Arts, 17 Really, 19 Dave, 31 E4 Extra, 36 pick, 40 Quest Red, 43 Food Network, 47 Film4 +1, 48 Challenge, 49 4seven, 57 Smithsonian Channel, 60 Drama +1, 70 Quest +1, 75 Yesterday +1, 83 Together TV, 233 Sky News, plus 9 others
COM6 ArqB	V max	C47 (682.0MHz)	163m	DTG-8	400W
	FreeSports, 25 W, 27 Yesterday, 34 GREAT! movies, 39 DMAX, 44 HGTV, 71 Quest Red +1, 73 HobbyMaker, 82 Talking Pictures TV, 84 PBS America, 91 Classic Hits, 235 Aljazeera English, plus 18 others

DTG-3 64QAM 8K 2/3 24.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
DTG-6 256QAM 32KE 2/3 40.2Mb/s DVB-T2 MPEG4
DTG-8 64QAM 8K 3/4 27.1Mb/s DVB-T MPEG2
H/V: aerial position (horizontal or vertical)

Are you trying to watch these 0 Freeview HD channels?

The Plympton (Plymouth, England) mast is not one of the extended Freeview HD (COM7 and COM8) transmitters, it does not provide these high definition (HD) channels: .

If you want to watch these HD channels, either use Freesat HD, or move your TV aerial must point to one of the 30 Full Freeview HD transmitters. For more information see the want to know which transmitters will carry extra Freeview HD? 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 (279°)
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	5 Jun 13	2013-17	10 Apr 2019
	C/D E	W	W	W	W T	W T	K T
C30		C5_waves	C5_waves	_local	_local	_local	_local
C40							BBCA
C41							SDN
C42				SDN	SDN	SDN	D3+4
C44							ArqA
C45				ArqA	ArqA	ArqA	BBCB
C47							ArqB
C49_{tv_off}					D3+4	D3+4
C54_{tv_off}	C4_waves	C4_waves	C4_waves	BBCA	BBCA	BBCA
C56_{tv_off}				ArqB	ArqB	ArqB
C58_{tv_off}	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBC1_waves	BBCB	BBCB	BBCB
C61	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	ITV_waves	D3+4
C64	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves	BBC2_waves

_{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 Country

Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Caradon Hill transmitter area

Apr 1961-Dec 1981	Westward Television
Jan 1982-Dec 1992	Television South West (TSW)
Jan 1993-Feb 2004	Westcountry Television
Feb 2004-Dec 2014	ITV plc

Feb 1983-Dec 1992	TV-am•
Jan 1993-Sep 2010	GMTV•
Sep 2010-Dec 2014	ITV Daybreak•

• Breakfast ◊ Weekends ♦ Friday night and weekends † Weekdays only. Plympton was not an original Channel 3 VHF 405-line mast: the historical information shown is the details of the company responsible for the transmitter when it began transmitting Channel 3.