Crystal Palace(Greater London)TV Transmitter - Frequencies/ Power/ Polarisation & More

The Crystal Place transmitter provides more homes with Freeview TV signals that any other transmitter, obviously owing to the fact that it serves pretty much all inside the London and the M25 with this being a particularly populated region. Being based on the South East coast of the UK I only ever occasionally align TV aerials this way, but I once installed a TV aerial aligned to this transmitter as far away as Tenterden in Kent. I this article I discuss all the important information that you need to success fully install your TV antenna utilising this transmitter. Let’s begin.

Crystal Palace Transmitter Broadcasting Frequencies & Channel Allocations

Please see below for information on specific broadcasting frequencies used by the Crystal Palace transmitter broadcasts on, channel allocations, polarisations and power please see below. Unlike analogue signals which broadcast a single channel on a frequency, digital TV multiplexes provide multiple TV channels and services on a single UHF digital multiplex/ frequency.

Multiplex             UHF Channel      Frequency          Polarisation (H/V)            Power (Watts)   Standard

PSB1 – BBCA      23                           490Mhz                H                                  200,000W            MPEG-2

PSB2 – DC+4      26                           514Mhz                H                                   200,000W            MPEG-2

PSB3 – BBCB      48                           689Mhz                H                                   200,000W            MPEG-4

COM4 – SDN      25                           506Mhz                H                                   200,000W            MPEG-2

COM5 – ArqA      22                           482Mhz                H                                   200,000W            MPEG-2

COM6 – ArqB     28                           530Mhz                H                                    200,000W            MPEG-2

LW                       29                           538Mhz                H                                    20,000W               MPEG-2

COM7                  55                           746Mhz                H                                    43,100W               MPEG-4

COM8                  56                           754Mhz                H                                    39,800W               MPEG-4

What Polarisation Is Crystal Palace(Greater London) TV Transmitter?

It’s important when installing TV aerials to mount the receiving antenna for the correct polarisation that the TV transmitter uses. Not everyone knows that some TV transmitters broadcast in a vertical polarisation and some in a horizontal polarisation, very few use both. In the case of the Crystal Palace transmitter it’s broadcasts in the horizontal polarisation, like most other main TV transmitters. It’s important to mount your aerials with the elements pointing horizontally(parallel to the floor)for maximum signal reception.

What UHF Aerial Group Is The Crystal Palace Freeview Transmitter?

The Crystal Palace transmitter has been a group A transmitter for many years which is UHF Channels 21-37(474-606Mhz), however recently there have been movements with some of the broadcasting frequencies and it is now a WB/ Group T transmitter. If you’re using a group A aerial still there is a chance that you will not be able to receive certain TV stations/multiplexes and/ or the signals received will be significantly weaker, which can cause loss of TV signal a pixelation. This also means that if you have a Group A band-pass filter in your set up to remove interference that this will be filtering out services which you will want to keep. This should be removed and replaced with a different type.

TV Aerial/ Antenna Recommendations For The Crystal Palace Transmitter 

For more information on the best specific aerials I recommend reading my older blog. It’s important to stress that the installation dictates the antenna needed and not the other way around. This means it’s not always a good idea to go and buy a the most-expensive high-gain TV aerial money can buy as you could overload your TV tuner/ distribution equipment with too much signal, this is particularly true if you’re near the Crystal Palace transmitter as it broadcasts at very high power.

For best reception from the Crystal palace transmitter I advise using a wide-band aerial or group T aerial. Going forward after the 700Mhz clearance a Group K aerial will also be suitable, but not at the time of writing this.

Specific Manufacturers Aerials & Antennas 

I generally recommend the following manufacturers as good choices for TV aerial parts and components, Vision, Antiference, Wolsey & Televes. I use mainly Vision and Wolsey products. Below are some recommendations specific to reception from the Crystal Palace transmitter.

Strong signal areas – Optima Group T/ WB Band Log Periodic or similar

Medium signal areas – Vision 32 Group T/WB or Wolsey HG5

Weak Signal Areas – Antiference XG10 WB or Wolsey HG10

Poor Signal From The Crystal Palace Transmitter

There are loads of reasons why TV reception may be poor, but I will mention a couple of things which are particularly relevant to reception from Crystal Palace transmitting station. As the Crystal Palace transmitter is very powerful, if you are in the near locality to this there is a very good chance that you will have too much signal. This means that you may need to install an attenuator to drop the signal down a bit to a more acceptable level and/ or remove amplifiers which may be in your system and replace active distribution equipment with passive spltters.

Another common problem as I have touched upon already where TV set ups contain either a Group A aerial or a group A band-pass filter which could be removing some services and channels which you will want to receive.

On occasion transmitter works will cause a problem with TV reception, this isn't actually as common as people think and viewers are usually notified of some planned works with on-screen prompts a few weeks in advance.

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Crystal Palace Transmitter(Greater London) Transmitter Questions –In Blog Comments Section Only Please 

I hoped you liked this article. If you have any questions/comments do POST THEM IN THE BLOG COMMENTS SECTION BELOW and I will get back to you ASAP.

Please bare in mind we are a small business operating in Sussex/Southern Kent only and can not help you if you’re beyond this region or having TV signal issues from places that predominantly use the Crystal Palace transmitter like Greater London.

PLEASE DO NOT CALL US WITH GENERAL QUESTIONS OR ADVICE – Our phone-lines are plagued with people looking for advice of some sort and it’s making our day to day running of our business very difficult. Our blog now has a huge following and I guess, that’s one of the downsides. The only way you will get a response to general support questions is by posting them in the Blog Comments section below.

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You will not receive a response if you choose to send your questions this way, these are intended for customers only and from my end these sometimes look like installation/ quote requests so I completely remove general support questions as they can really clog up my e-mail inbox. By posting your questions in the Blog Comments section below, you will:

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All that being said, I will help where I can. Until next time,

Tom