Full Freeview on the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter
 | Google Streetview |  | Google map |  | Bing map |  | Google Earth |  | 52.130,-0.242 or 52°7'47"N 0°14'33"W |  | SG19 2NH |
The symbol shows the location of the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmitter which serves 920,000 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 Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, 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)
Which Freeview channels does the Sandy Heath 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)
Which BBC and ITV regional news can I watch from the Sandy Heath transmitter?
BBC Look East (West) 1.0m homes 3.7%
from Cambridge CB4 0WZ, 29km east-northeast (65°)
to BBC Cambridge region - 4 masts.
70% of BBC East (East) and BBC East (West) is shared output
ITV Anglia News 1.0m homes 3.7%
from Norwich NR1 3JG, 119km east-northeast (60°)
to ITV Anglia (West) region - 5 masts.
All of lunch, weekend and 80% evening news is shared with Anglia (East)
How will the Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) transmission frequencies change over time?
| 1965-80s | 1984-97 | 1997-98 | 1998-2011 | 2011-13 | 12 Feb 2020 | ||||
| VHF | A K T | K T | K T | W T | W T | ||||
| C6 | ITVwaves | ||||||||
| C21 | C4waves | C4waves | C4waves | +BBCB | BBCB | ||||
| C24 | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | ITVwaves | D3+4 | D3+4 | ||||
| C27 | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBC2waves | BBCA | BBCA | ||||
| C31 | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | BBC1waves | ||||||
| C32 | com7 | ||||||||
| C33 | SDN | ||||||||
| C34 | com8 | ||||||||
| C35 | _local | ||||||||
| C36 | ArqA | ||||||||
| C39 | C5waves | C5waves | |||||||
| C43 | _local | ||||||||
| C48 | ArqB | ArqB | |||||||
| C51tv_off | SDN | ||||||||
| C52tv_off | ArqA | ||||||||
| C55tv_off | com7tv_off | ||||||||
| C56tv_off | COM8tv_off |
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 30 Mar 11 and 13 Apr 11.
How do the old analogue and currrent digital signal levels compare?
| Analogue 1-4 | 1000kW | |
| BBCA, D3+4, BBCB | (-7.4dB) 180kW | |
| SDN, ARQA, ARQB | (-7.7dB) 170kW | |
| com7 | (-13dB) 49.6kW | |
| com8 | (-13.1dB) 49.1kW | |
| Mux 1*, Mux 2*, Mux A*, Mux B*, Mux C*, Mux D* | (-17dB) 20kW | |
| Analogue 5 | (-20dB) 10kW |
Which companies have run the Channel 3 services in the Sandy Heath transmitter area
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Saturday, 14 November 2020
C
Callum west3:24 PM
Hello I'm using Freesat built in.
I'm having issues with pixelation especially during rain.
The SD channels mainly have 100% signal strength and 100 quality with only pixelation during rain.
The HD channels BBC one and itv etc have pixelation during normal weather but gets worse when rains.
I have a sky zone 1 mini dish.
The signal on the EU band. CNN HD. Etc has a signal level of 66% quality and 100 % strength. But during rain this drops to 30% quality even to 0% in heavy rain.
I have ordered a satellite inline amplifier but I'm wondering if this will solve the issue or if I need a complete new satellite dish installation
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C
Chris.SE8:12 PM
Callum west:
I would be getting LNB Skew and Dish alignment checked in case things have moved in some of the high winds or even wasn't 100% originally.
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Monday, 23 November 2020
C
Chris.SE10:46 PM
John:
I refer you to my response to your previous query on COMs7&8
Sandy Heath (Central Bedfordshire, England) Full Freeview transmitter | free and easy
So the updated situation is that the Clearance programme was eventually completed in August. OFCOM have scheduled the auction for sometime in January 2021. The rest of the situation is as previously suggested, until the auction is completed, we won't know if any MNO will have bought the Centre Frequencies (allocated for SDL use), nor will we know what timescale will be involved for such a purchaser to commission such equipment to use the frequencies and so give any 3 month notice as stated in the current multiplex licence.
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Monday, 21 December 2020
I
Ian9:34 AM
Hello,
How up to date is the data here? Compared with what my TV is tuning I see a difference of one through the 30s and 40s, e.g. ITV3+1 is listed here as channel 33 but is 34 in reality (and on https://www.freeview.co.u…gs). I think that particular retune was quite a while ago?
The more recent shuffle of CCXTV and Dave Ja Vu etc (https://www.freeview.co.uk/help/channel-changes-7-Dec-2020) also hasn't been picked up here, but maybe that's just normal lag.
Thanks, Ian.
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C
Chris.SE7:26 PM
Ian:
It's not up-to-date. The site owner doesn't seem to have had time to do all the updates resulting from the 700MHz Clearance program, nor any of the recent channels shuffles that Freeview insist on doing!
See Channel listings for Industry Professionals | Freeview for which channels (&LCNs) are on which multiplex.
Sandy Heath's channels are C27, C24, C21, C33, C36, C48, C55 in the order PSBs1-3, COMs4-7. Also note C35 is a Local multiplex for Cambridge from the nearby Madingley transmitter, which you may or may not receive depending on your location.
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Friday, 5 March 2021
G
GeordieLad9:33 AM
I haven't been getting your updates for some time (and don't recall having unsubscribed!). Whatever, I hope this post will restore service as before.
Keep up the good work.
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Saturday, 6 March 2021
C
Chris.SE3:26 AM
GeordieLad: -
Hi there. I don't think anyone has been getting them for some time, and even having tried to alert the site owner to the problem, it's not made any difference.
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Thursday, 29 April 2021
6:08 PM
For some time I have been experiencing intermittent poor quality (with adequate signal strength) on the two DTG-3 muxes PSB1 and 2. Interestingly I have previously eliminated a source of domestic interference which was affecting PSB2 only. All the other muxes are perfect. This is more of a minor irritation than a serious problem but obviously affects the radio channels, and SD cricket on channel 4!
I am wondering whether these muxes are inherently more prone to interference for some reason, and if so what the cause could be.
Thanks in anticipation.
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Friday, 30 April 2021
C
Chris.SE5:16 AM
Philip Brown:
There's no particular reason why PSB1 or PSB2 should be more prone to interference. Make sure that you don't have any HDMI leads running close to aerial or flyleads cables, especially when the aerial or flylead cable isn't high quality double screened cable, as HDMI is known to sometimes cause interference.
The transmitter isn't currently listed for Planned Engineering, and hasn't been in recent weeks and I can't find any listed faults. There has been some (by its nature) very variable "Tropospheric Ducting" in some more recent weeks (none at present), it can last seconds, minutes, hours and can affect only one or several frequencies/multiplexes. See Effect of tropospheric ducting on Freeview | RTIS for a simplistic explanation. It can occur more commonly with high pressure (but not all the time). Don't retune in such circumstances as this often just clears correct tuning.
It might be worth just checking that you are correctly tuned Sandy Heath's channels are C27, C24, C21, C33, C36, C48, C55 in the order PSBs1-3, COMs4-7. Also note C35 is a Local multiplex for Cambridge from the nearby Madingley transmitter, which you may or may not receive depending on your location.
If you live nearer the coast (you haven't given a full postcode) you might be more vulnerable to interference from the continent in tropo conditions.
Also I would check that your aerial seems intact and pointing in the correct direction and that your downlead looks undamaged (especially if it is old). Also check all your coax plugs, connections, flyleads etc, unplug connectors check for corrosion or other problems and reconnect them. Flyleads are a common problem, try swapping/changing them. Problematic connections, water ingress etc. can seem to affect reception of just an individual or several multiplexes.
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